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Topic: Another thing to work on: reading charts/playing |
Gerald Menke
From:
Stormville NY, USA
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Posted 24 Jan 2005 9:47 am |
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I am sure this will be old hat to many of you, but some recent gigs have made me VERY aware of a deficiency of mine. I have been doing some recording sessions and live gigs lately that involve music that I, a. won't be likely to play again very soon thus memorizing/learning by ear isn't worth it, and b. has way too many modulations to play by ear. Since I can't look at the steel and the chart at that same time, I have had to resort to reading the chart, and taking my eyes off the neck. The first rehearsal or two I tried this sounded pretty bad, I was bummed to see how much I am dependent on using my eyes versus my ears. But sure enough after a few hours of working with a Mel Bay Jazz book, trying to play unfamiliar charts without looking down, I made some headway. Came in very handy Saturday when I had a recording session, did six songs in three hours.
I am curious how many of you are adept at reading charts while playing steel. As an aside, I find it really tough to come up with inventive playing while doing this, but hopefully with practice I'll be able to read the chart, play, and come up with some worthwhile stuff that's not just playing the changes. During that session on Saturday, I did create what became the big hook in a chorus, believe it or not. But I was looking at the steel at the point...
Thanks for reading my post.
Gerald |
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Jody Cameron
From:
Angleton, TX,, USA
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Posted 24 Jan 2005 10:33 am
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Gerald, I play in situations that require chart-reading every week. One trick I've learned is to read about 4 bars ahead, then I can look down at the steel for those bars.
Another thing is this - say you have the fills in a chorus - look at the chords for your parts before your part comes up and then look at your steel as you play, but "replay" the chart in your mind's eye...it's called "eidetic memory" or "photographic" recall. I think we all have it, but some to a greater extent than others. I went to college with a guy that never studied and aced all his tests. I asked him how he did it, and he said he read the book, then "re-read" parts he needed at test time in his mind. I think some success can be had at this if you practice it. I never got to where my friend was, but I can do it somewhat.
Hope this helps. JC |
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Gerald Menke
From:
Stormville NY, USA
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Posted 24 Jan 2005 11:08 am
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Dear Jody,
That is a great idea, I'll have to try that tonight when I practice. I would wager also, that like anything else, your time spent reading and playing has greatly improved your ability to remember chunks of music in that way, play without looking down, etc. Thanks for posting that suggestion, hopefully I'll make some improvement in this area soon.
You will probably appreciate this, my situation in the studio was complicated by the fact that a few of the charts had both the original changes and and the transposed ones written right next to each other. I consider myself to be only slightly above average in intelligence and talent, but I had to scratch out the original chord markings to deal -- way too confusing otherwise! |
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