PlayJazzGuitar.com Forum

[andy_rothstein]

Hi all -

Many of you know a bit about me and my playing by now so I thought i would post a little experiment of mine to get your opinion.

Over the past 4 weeks or so I have modified my practice routine. I'm wondering if you think this change has had a positive, negative or no effect no my playing?

Last night I slapped down a short informal 1st take of Lazy Bird with me comping --> http://www.andyrothstein.com/trax/LB.mp3

After a few responses come in I will post what the practice change was.

Thanks!

Andy
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[JakeJew]

I'm not familiar enough with your playing to say what any difference was, but it sounds great!

Cool accents, dynamics, great time to my ears. Seemed to be accenting some odd groupings...

Trailed off a little bit at the end, but oh well...

Was the comping hybird or fingerstyle?
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"Inspiration may be a form of superconsciousness, or perhaps of subconciousness - I wouldn't know. But I am sure that it is the antithesis of self-consciousness." - Aaron Copland

[andy_rothstein]

[andy_rothstein]

[Jazzy]

Hi Andy

Sounds great. It seems to me that your playing is a bit more dynamic now, not so hard attack as some of your previous clips. I also hear a lot of Martino influence here, but it`s not that obvious. I think you`ve incorporated it nice into your own style Sounds natural.

One thing though, but this is only my opinion, maybe you could`ve moved a bit away from the chromatic lines sometimes. Just to create a contrast, and to make the chromatics more effective when you actually play them.

Again, great playing Andy

Man, El Hombre has maybe the best jazz guitar sound I`ve heard!!!

later,
M.

[andy_rothstein]

[JakeJew]

Andy I think you and I have had an exchange about this topic in other threads. Basically the way I've worked is to practice really hard for a few years and then have a phase where I think I'm too cool for practicing and then I forget everything and focus on more creative pursuits if I'm even playing at all.

Then I come back to practicing and even though I often wish I had just practiced straight through, I think to an extent the balance pays off because in the time away from practicing I might learn a lot more about creativity, inspiration, and maybe my own vision and preferences - rather than just nailing changes or ear training or something.

I think we all need that balance...room to breathe and get away from looking at ourselves and our playing under a microscope...but if the goals we have for our own playing include a higher level of dexterity and musicianship than we currently have, than we need to practice to try to get closer and closer to that level

As dewey sort of implied in another thread, I think ultimately what makes a player actually good (meaning, actually sound good) is what they can do with what they have. And I think whether you can do something melodic or creative with the tools you have isn't really about practicing, it's about other, more vague or even esoteric things.

So it's not that surprising that you'd feel looser after a break. But it also wouldn't surprise me if you started feeling a bit too loose after too long of a break

That's what happened or happens to me. In the beginning of 08 I hadn't played any jazz in a while and tried to do some chordal improv for one of my students and I thought "geez...I need to get back on the horse with this stuff!"
_________________
"Inspiration may be a form of superconsciousness, or perhaps of subconciousness - I wouldn't know. But I am sure that it is the antithesis of self-consciousness." - Aaron Copland