Musicality and Musicianship

[DCurtis]

so, on the heels of my previous, and similarly titled

thread, here's the question:

 

What is it to be musical and to use and engage in musicianship?

How do we do this? What does it sound like? How does it change

depending on the musical context?

 

And not merely our single note improvisations, but as well (and I believe

more importantly) as the rhythm parts we play, and how we support the song

and singer (if there is one). What demands does this make upon how we interact

with the other instruments in the moment?

 

And very important - How do we practice and develop these skills?

 

Post links, relate experience, explain how you practice these things, post videos,

whatever it takes to get it across.

[jonfinn]

I think of it this way:

 

-I'm a human being before I'm a musician.

-I'm a musician before I'm a guitarist.

 

How/what I end up playing is always according to context. Generally my goal is to bring the music to life. I don't care at all if anyone is impressed/not impressed with what I do.

 

In a perfect world, no-one notices the musician. Only the music.

[polishpaul]

I'll answer this part:

 

"What is it to be musical and to use and engage in musicianship?

How do we do this?"

 

We make a decision to become active in music, rather than passive.

 

We have to learn to listen to music in a different way when active.

 

We must study what has gone before.

 

We must always play music, and practice dexterity.

 

We must embrace the concept that a little, in time, is better than a lot, out of time.

 

We must realize and accept that rhythm is "king".

 

We must understand that repetition is an important musical element.

 

We must realize from the outset that the musical journey has no end.

 

We must avoid becoming sniping egoists who mock the abilities of other musicians.

 

We must understand that modes are an optional extra .

[JonR]

IMO, it's about seeing the bigger picture (or I guess that should be "hearing"...)

Whatever one is doing as a musician is always a small part of everything that's going on.

Even if one is playing solo, one is in the middle of a tune: a kind of 2D space marked out in time (duration of the tune) and pitch (range of notes involved). And of course there are other "dimensions" to do with dynamics and timbre. You are negotiating that space, and shaping it to some extent.

And there is the space one is performing in too. In a sense, the room (or whatever) is the ultimate "resonant chamber", inside which your own resonant chambers (voice, acoustic guitar, amp cabinet) are doing their thing. You're not in control of that, of course, but you can adjust what you do to take account of it. (For most guitarists/bands, I guess that means "bigger venue = play louder" - but engineers know how to work it.)

 

In a band, of course, you have the additional dimension of the other musicians, and finding your place in the overall sound. The finer points of musicianship are always ultimately tested in that kind of environment: do you know how to contribute properly? Do you just play your part at a volume where you can hear yourself and trust that everything else works (or trust the guy on the PA to fix it)? How much are you aware of how your sound balances with the rest for anyone listening further away? You may think you're not loud enough (or too loud); how can you tell? Do you adjust your tone so your position in the overall frequency spectrum is clear?

When improvising, how much do you listen to the rest of the band? How prepared are you to be inspired to go somewhere else? Do you pay attention to audience response (as you play)? This is not to say you should always be passive and reactive: you have to stake your claim, be yourself; but equally it's a democracy, a conversation. You listen; you speak; you listen.

 

At root, the way I've always liked to see music is as an art of Time. Whether we're listening or playing, we're paying attention to how the sounds unfold in time: comparing the present moment to the previous moment (and various moments before that), and trying to predict the next moment. As listeners, sometimes the music goes where we think it will, sometimes it surprises us; the balance between those two is the game we enjoy.

As musicians, of course, we are in control of that process, to some extent. Very little, perhaps, if we are playing a rehearsed composition, without improvising. But once we improvise, then we are in control of the amount of surprise we can provide. I even like to surprise myself when improvising (and I often do when I don't mean to:)). My ear is not perfect, and I can never predict exactly how a phrase is going to sound - and I like it that way. Plus, when the phrase is under way, maybe something else will happen, inspiring another thought, another direction.

But it's all about that tension between the immediate past and the immediate future, which suspends us in the present moment like nothing else. Think about the following words:

"entertain" - literally, to "hold between";

"maintenant" - French for "now", literally "hand-holding";

"present" - "now", but also "gift" or "give".

When I play music, I am "presenting the present".

I am also "representing" and "recreating" of course. ("recreation" being "enjoyment" as well as "making again". Remembering that music doesn't "represent" anything but itself.)

 

It comes back to a very simple overview of the "big picture" - what music means and what it does. It's a kind of language (with vocabulary, grammar and syntax), but its meanings are all bound up with time. (Even pitch is frequency - cycles per second.)

[jeremy_green]

I couldn't possible articulate it better than Jonfinn did.

 

When your head is on right it is ALL about the music.

My goal is always to try to make the music something I would want to listen to. Sometimes that means me not playing. As far as an example of this there is a piece on my myspace page called "Brooding"... I wrote it and intended for it to be a guitar piece... as I started building it I felt that guitar would ruin it... so I left it off quite intentionally. I quite like the feel of that little piece to this day.

 

The difficult part is to remove the ego from it. I mean everyone wants to be considered a great player. But in my experience the harder you "try" to play great, the further away from it you end up. You don't try hard... you try EASY (can't recall who i stole that from.. Kenny Werner perhaps)

 

When I don't think I play well. As soon as I am aware of my playing there is a problem.

 

The sum must always be greater than that of all of it's parts.

Give the song just what it needs - never more.

If you had to choose, 'less' is better route usually.

[DCurtis]

Well, ultimately we all know the answers to the questions

I posed. Or we should know some of them. The goal here

is to help all of us (especially myself) to get re-acquainted

with these ideas and concepts, and find out what we *don't*

know.

 

For me, a few important ideas are:

 

Great tone, and appropriate tone.

Playing to the style.

Giving and using space.

Trying to discern what is appropriate for the given song and style.

 

And so I'm basically reiterating what you guys have already said for the most part.

 

Lately I've been giving a great deal of thought to how deeply conditioned the

way we hears things really is. And how that sometimes means that certain

sounds, musical tensions and tonalities are right in one style, and yet, not

in another.

 

And as Jeremy wrote, I'm trying to figure out how to shut off my head on stage.

[jonfinn]

 

The finer points of musicianship are always ultimately tested in that kind of environment: do you know how to contribute properly? Do you just play your part at a volume where you can hear yourself and trust that everything else works (or trust the guy on the PA to fix it)?

 

This is a great point! A great sound engineer's job is to present what's happening on stage to the audience and (hopefully) not interfere.

In live show's it seems to the smoothest when all the musicians are actively engaged in the music mixing process. The simplest principle:

If you can't hear everything that's going on clearly, you're too loud. if you're the soloist and no-one can hear you, you're too soft.

[jeremy_green]

 

And as Jeremy wrote, I'm trying to figure out how to shut off my head on stage.

 

 

This is no easy task... for me I just try to really listen HAAAARD. Close my eyes and sink into the sound. I also try really easy (see- I am a changed man!) to notice when something I did worked and sticking with it. This seems obvious, but I hear myself and a LOT of players missing some really COOL stuff. They (I) leave it to early and not let their idea bloom. Some really great stuff just gets chucked in the trash. I think Hendrix was particularly great at this. You could hear him tripping out on the sounds he was making. He was engaged fully, not just throwing stuff out there. If you are truly listening then this stuff begins to happen.

 

Like everything you MUST incorporate this into your practice. You need to practice in an engaged state. That is why you hear me always going off here about using your ears and not playing "disengaged" like in front of the TV. These are habits we are developing here. For me, i learned that I had a bad HABIT of just letting my fingers wiggle... So I have gone the entire other way to try to fix it.

 

I want my natural preset to be "engaged".

God knows I spent enough time drilling in playing in a non-engaged state.

[DCurtis]

 

Like everything you MUST incorporate this into your practice. You need to practice in an engaged state. That is why you hear me always going off here about using your ears and not playing "disengaged" like in front of the TV. These are habits we are developing here. For me, i learned that I had a bad HABIT of just letting my fingers wiggle... So I have gone the entire other way to try to fix it.

 

 

Now I see the problem of doing anything with the instrument *at all* in front of the TV.

I no longer own a TV, but i do have to be careful in how I coach and advise those who

see me for instruction.

 

Thanks to everyone for all your great input. I'm going to print out what everyone has written

for future reference.

[Krank'N]

Someone once said that mastery takes about 10,000 hours . If someone is playing guitar while watching TV or sitting on the toilet its steps in the right direction! I used to play watching TV and then I got rid of the TV and made huge progress. When I was teaching ,I was OK with students playing in front of the idiot box if that got their fingers moving.Eventually they will realize that interacting is better than being a sponge.

[stomias]

LISTEN!.................................................................................and know your {censored}.

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.fileswap.com/dl/ObIkVcd1Wi/blu.mp3.html

[DCurtis]

 

I don't care at all if anyone is impressed/not impressed with what I do.

 

 

I've only come to that realization in the last few years, sadly. But it's the beginning

point for a freedom from which everything else seems to flow. And, I believe, ties into

what Jeremy was saying about "trying easy."

 

One thing that get's me out of my head, and into The Zone some, is to allow

my right leg to swing. I do it unconsciously, but if I begin doing it *consciously*

it seems to trigger that part of my mind and body, and I begin to disappear.

And when I disappear, music takes my place.