Sonny Rollins appeared on The 7:30 Report the other night and had some great stuff to say. The transcript and downloadable video are available on the program's website.

Posted by Cameron on Jun 04, 2008

I received a handout years ago that listed attributes of a "complete jazz muso". I'm not sure where it came from, though I wish I knew and could credit its source. Everyone has their own take on this stuff, but it's good food for thought.

The Complete Jazz Muso

• Has a beautiful sound
• Excellent intonation
• An acute sense of rhythm
• Is thoroughly aware of all major styles and innovators in jazz history
• Is thoroughly versed in the blues
• Can play at least one style profoundly well
• Is capable of playing a long solo based entirely on one motif
• Utilises space effectively
• Knows hundreds of tunes by memory
• Composes extremely well
• Has some measure of keyboard facility
• Knows how to arrange effectively
• Has a thorough working knowledge of orchestration
• Has the ability to evaluate their playing with the objectivity of a listener
• Knows how to rehearse a band effectively
• Knows hundreds of great solos from memory
• Can control the rhythm section's responses with their horn (without talking about it)
• Knows how to make every note count
• Can play a ballad that will make you cry
• Can handle any tempo with ease
• Is an absolute virtuoso
• Has a profoundly deep concept
• Has a large repertoire of expressive devices (vibratos, smears, falls, etc.)
• Constantly tries to develop and grow
• Plays great every time
• Always plays from the heart
• Can play an unbelievable solo with fewer notes than you thought possible
• Posses a multitude of ways to build a solo
• Can play with the time, play ahead, behind or right on the beat at will
• Has nothing to prove and therefore can play from a place of relaxed intensity
• SWINGS (grooves) big time!
• Is thoroughly versed in chord scale theory but is well beyond having to think about it

Posted by Cameron on Jun 03, 2008

Like most people, I often struggle with staying on top of everything I want or need to be working on. I read something the other day about setting goals that suggested asking "Are my actions consistent with my goals?" as a means of keeping yourself on track with whatever you want to achieve. It's a simple but useful technique and I decided I'd share some thoughts on applying it to practicing an instrument.

Say you want to be able to improvise on a particular tune within a month's time. When you sit down to practice, ask yourself what you should be doing and how it should be practiced. Then check those answers for consistency with your goal. Ask yourself, if I repeat those actions 30 times (once per day over a month) how much closer will I be to my goal? By doing this you're working to determine ahead of time whether those actions will be worthwhile and how effective they might be.

The interesting thing about this approach is that it highlights the need to evaluate your progress in transit and make adjustments along the way. If at the outset you decided to practice in a particular way which didn't deliver what you were hoping for, repeating it 30 times probably isn't going to achieve much at all. Conversely, if you'd chosen to do something which was easily mastered after just a few days, you're probably receive diminishing returns by continuing to repeat it and should move on to something else.

The tape doesn't lie

I was lucky enough to attend a master class with Don Byron recently. One of the things Don said was "Don't play anything you can't play perfectly." Now I think this statement needs some qualification, but one way to interpret it might be, "Don't just learn something - master it." But how do you know when you've mastered something? How do you know when to adjust your course of action? As my teacher says, the tape doesn't lie.

Regularly recording your progress is of course a great way to step back and do some critical listening to yourself. Listen carefully and ask, "Is this what I imagined I'd hear? How's my tone? My intonation? Does it groove?" Another useful way to look at it is to think, "If I saw my favorite musician playing like this, how would I feel about it?" From a technical standpoint, ask yourself how well you really know it. Can you play it in other keys? What if you upped the tempo, or played it in a different style?

Be careful what you wish for

Personal goals are important, but they can also be a double-edged sword. Sometimes, not being able to reach your goals can result in disappointment that may actually set you back.

I like to keep a list of ideas that I want to explore. Just because something makes it onto my list doesn't automatically make it a goal though. Initially, I might be really excited about a particular idea and think of it as a goal, but later I'll decide it's not so hot and simply let it go back to being an idea.

I think it's important to consider your competing priorities and the resources available to you when taking on a goal. By all means, set the bar high, but be realistic about your current and desired level of ability.

Keep moving

Once you have a goal in mind, try to make some progress every day, no matter how small that may be. It's the old "Journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" proverb. By moving forward in this way the scenery will always be changing, making the journey a lot more enjoyable and providing hard evidence that you are actually getting somewhere.

Posted by Cameron on May 26, 2008

What would you attempt to do if you knew you couldn't fail?

-Dr. Robert Schuller

Posted by Cameron on May 25, 2008

AcousticPath.com is up and running again after a brief outage (moved hosting providers).

PS. Mightily impressed with SliceHost thus far.

Posted by Cameron on Feb 17, 2008