1Posted on 08/15/2015 at 10:00:03August 15, 2015 editorial: comments
Does Practice Make Perfect?
Everyone knows that practicing is key to becoming a better musician. If you read about the early years of most great players, much of their time was spent “shedding”— that is practicing multiple hours every day. If you want to develop world class chops, its essential to commit the time and discipline to practice. But is that enough to make you a great player? I don’t think so.
We’ve all heard musicians (guitar players especially, it seems) who can play really fast and flashy, but there’s no “there there,” if you know what I mean. They have the chops, but they don’t have the taste or the soul, and their playing leaves you flat.
The really great players, especially those who are master improvisers on their instrument, have both great skill and great taste, and the combination is what makes them so good. Guitarists like Jeff Beck or Derek Trucks come to mind. Both have technical mastery, but they also know how to put notes together in a way that’s surprising and delightful. Another good example would be immortal jazz pianist Oscar Peterson. He was unbelievably fast, yet every note was perfectly chosen. That’s what made him an artist, and not just a technician.
How do you acquire “taste”? Now that’s a tougher question. Almost any reasonably skilled musician can develop great chops with enough practice, but the taste — or the art of it — is a lot more mysterious. Some of it may be innate, but I suspect that a lot of it comes from your musical environment as you’re developing as a player, and your ability to be open minded to many different types of music. One thing I know that’s essential: listen, listen, and listen some more.
How do you find inspiration and keep your music fresh? Send me your thoughts What do you think it takes to develop into a tasteful player?
Without question, it also helps to have a solid grounding in music theory. To that end, you may want to check out our new series on harmony basics, which debuted this past week. If you’re feeling a little challenged in the theory department, it will help you along without taxing your brain too much.
I think that music that affects me is music that seems to come from a place that's real, be that despair, joy, sadness, happiness, regret or whatever, rather than that which comes from the ego and the conscious mind (i.e. showing off mostly).
Agreed. I think that the really great players can summon up notes from those places.
Open minded?
Yeah that is why every musician I have met so far in real life has never heard of a shakuhachi, except for the salesman in my local music shop.
I wouldn't extrapolate from the lack of knowledge about the shakuhachi that musicians aren't being open minded. Some instruments just get more exposure, and certainly in the U.S (at least), the digeridoo, thanks to its use in some movies, has been more visible. Give us some links to music you like with shakuhachi in it, I'm sure a lot of people would like to check it out.
