Practice log, more benefits!

Just wanted to share one of the benefits of keeping a practice log. Write what you worked on, what you are struggling with, how you felt about your session and most importantly, what went well.

Tonight for example I was struggling with my upper register. I played a fellows Mk6 tenor the other night and got Selmer lust going. There is just something so likable about the upper register of those horns, this wailing quality, almost an 'E' vowel. My old horn likes a more 'ooh' sound. So I shaped my mouth like I would say 'E' and that's what came out the horn. I can pretty much get whatever I want out  of my instrument and this helps me to stay out of that old equipment distraction. I also pulled out a Rovner ligature I have that I forget about. The response got quicker, altissimo easier, sound got darker and richer all in a matter of seconds. This is the kind of stuff I forget. Without writing this stuff down I'm likely to find a $1000 solution to a $2 problem.

I also keep a brief journal about my writing sessions and let someone know. Keeps me motivated and accountable, like taking lessons. I can fool myself into teaching myself but without another human being that I show up to every other week, I'm not likely to do the work. As a result of that kind of rapport, my playing is growing leaps and bounds.

Being an organized musician! It is possible!!!!

with love, JB

Ornette Coleman

Today is Ornette Colemans 84th birthday I just learned. I was moving my van when I heard this on WKCR (best radio station EVER!) and got inspired to write about him.

I saw Ornette perform about 7 years ago in Portland Oregon at the jazz festival, the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Joe Lovano introduced him and Ornette came out from behind the curtain and said "we'd like to play for you some music that comes from a time before music was written" in that sweet voice of his. And that's exactly what he and his band did. His son Denardo Coleman was on drums and the rest of the band consisted of 3 bass players (one upright, one piccolo and one funked out wah and fuzz Fender Jazz bass!). With Ornette the music doesn't kick off, you don't wait for a solo to end so you can clap politely or anything else a too trained jazz listener expects, you simply need to give in to the music. Many folks with good seats (expensive seats!) walked out looking rather confused. Now, I'm a strong proponent of walking out. It's not about dislike or like, it's about message. I'll get a message and it's just not the message I need so I leave. God bless those who are guided by their feelings! And....this enabled us to move up even closer!

Yes, the music we heard that night was ancient. He was an old man by this point. His chops on trumpet and violin weren't what they used to be but I still dug what he could do. His alto playing was pure Ornette. And that's the word, pure. This music felt so pure, like an undiscovered stream high up in the mountains.

First time I remember hearing Ornette was in college. I was at Berklee and this was 1986. I loved jazz, old jazz, I wasn't down with what was happening around me in music though. What they were teaching didn't resonate, but I loved my teachers at Berklee. One of them, an ear training teacher I had put on some Ornette. I fell in love from the first note! So much humor, so much depth and so, rebellious! Some of it sounded like a detective movie on laughing gas! Then there was Lonely Woman (I had heard Branford Marsalis play a lovely version of this song on a tape) and again, that purity of emotion. That pure tone. I have to be careful of that song being played by it's writer. I will listen to it for months straight and not get much done. Ornette was reason #2 for me declaring I must play the saxophone at some point in this lifetime!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Sq9PE-2JVA

And of course, it wasn't just Ornette. It was the way Charlie Haden and Ed Blackwell or Billy Higgins played together in the rhythm section. And the way Ornette and Don Cherry played together. That chemistry that makes great bands great bands. People that are willing to risk everything in music to make something new. And new never gets old. Somehow this ancient music never gets old.

Thank you Ornette and happy birthday! JB

The backup trap!

I've been playing sax since about 1998 now which is what, 16 years? How is that possible? But anyway, this post is about something I hear all to often in the world of the musician: The backup instrument.

Over these last 16 years I've owned an insane amount of saxophones trying to find that one that will make me a better player, distracting myself from my true dreams and goals with drugs like Ebay and Sax on the Web. I can say that 2 of them were my main instruments, my Conn Chu Berry which I sold to acquire my Buescher Big B tenor. What were the rest? They were the ever confusing 'backup horn'.
Planning for that rainy day when my main axe gets broken or stolen....or just for when I'm bored and hit a wall, or want a different sound or inspiration.

Guitar I kinda get the collection mentality. I've met those guys who are professional studio musicians. You need a Tele, a Gretsch, some kind of Gibson, a Strat, flat top, archtop, Gypsy, classical,  you need a variety of guitars to get those gigs.

Trouble is I carried that obsolete mentality over to the sax world so I spent and enormous amount of energy 're-searching' and acquiring instruments. All that time I could have been seeking gigs or practicing, that is time better spent. Truth be told, no matter what horn I play I sound like a slightly different version of, me. I can not escape me. I can not be anybody but me. May as well accept that.

I meet other horn players doing this as well, obsessing over a 'backup' horn. Well, what do you truly want? A Mk6? Then save your sheckels and buy one. By the time you've had 5 or 10 'sorta' Selmers you could have bought what you truly dream of.

The guy who taught me how to play bought his 10M in 1948 used and played it till he died 5 years ago. He had 2 other tenors over those years, one was a 'backup' that he lent out and never saw again. Maybe the universe was telling him he didn't need that horn after all, and the other guy did!

The other pitfall to look out for: the backup horn may be a small symptom of 'the backup plan'. How much time does one spend thinking of what to fall back on in case the dream doesn't work out? Follow thy bliss. Focus on what you want, leave the rest for someone else!

So 2 antidotes that I think may help. One, if you think you really need a backup horn, buy an inferior instrument. You don't want to play it unless you have to. If your #1 is in a state of dis-repair, allow this to motivate you to get it together. Don't bother looking for that 'other flavor', commit to what you got and roll with it. My teacher could get any sound out of that raggedy ass 10M. That only comes from years of playing it, becoming intimate with it.

Second, when in doubt, sit and write about what you appreciate in the horn or whatever instrument of choice you have. Do this every day for 30 days. Write a sentence about the sound, the feel, how you feel. Write about the qualities you dig in your connection to it, your playing. Trouble is we focus so much on what we don't want that we create our own boredom with what we do have! FOcus on what you love about your instrument and those things WILL grow. You want a deeper tone? Focus on a deeper tone. You want more bite? Focus on bite. You'll find you may not need more equipment, you just need an idea. And if you do reach that point where you need something else, allow it into your life, it will show up! Faith y'alls, faith.

Comments are welcomed and encouraged!

Jef

Practice log! Brilliant idea!

When I was a 20 something going to Berklee I used to practice on the order of 8-12 hours a day, this wasn't unheard of in the 80's when the norm was practice, practice, practice. Trouble is, nobody taught me how to practice. So I felt like I was going absolutely nowhere. I thought maybe I don't have any talent and should bag it at times. Frustrating experience that was! I'd run scales, use a metronome, get them faster, and really, listening back I became as un-musical as many of those guys I hated, you know, the big hair noodly doodly spandex crowd.

I dropped out and joined a band in Baltimore.

It wasn't a great band, but I just needed to know if I could contribute. Playing with people is where you really get to see how good you actually are. Playing with people better than you really reveals how good you are and can help you get better much quicker than playing with people you are simply comfortable with. I was much better than I thought. My stengths were my soul and creativity, not so much my chops in those days.

I don't actually think all that woodshedding did me much good. See, it was forced. That's a terrible way to get better at anything. Any success or failure follows a trajectory of gradually, then suddenly. Let's look at failure. Nobody fails overnight. In practice if you are failing you simply may not have clarity on what you actually need to do. It's easy to "compare and despair", huff and scuff those scales and get really great at, um, playing scales. Then you may notice you aren't good at many other things, you don't get the gig. In business it looks like this: you didn't call people back over a period of time, got distracted and comfortable then suddenly you're outta dough!

We like suddenly. It's dramatic. Suddenly Jimi Hendrix changed the way we all see, hear, play electric guitar. Bullshit. He had years of gradually and a clear vision of what he wanted to do. Raw talent? Of course. Listen to some early recordings. He had something but wasn't all that good, for a long, long time. Then suddenly he got good. He paid a lot of dues. Played a lot of $5 gigs.

The same goes for anything. You have an idea of what you want, practice, be willing to be not good at it for a long time then suddenly you are good at many things if you balance your practice.

How does one do that? We need clarity, that's all. Had I know at 18 the power of clarity I would have saved myself a lot of trouble. A practice log is a great way to obtain that clarity. Right now I'm practicing a lot of saxophone. I want to be able to handle just about any gig on this instrument by next years time. I'm taking lessons again just to get clarity on my air column, technique and musicality. I have a great sound. That took 15 years to develop! But lately I've been in a rut so now I log in what I actually am doing. 1/2 hour of this, 2 hours of that. 1 hour of tunes, etc. By the end of the week I total those hours logged up and put them inot categories. This takes very little time to do and I can see my progress and what I am neglecting. My sessions are shorter and I take breaks. My sessions don't feel forced or obsessive. Mundane scales in 3rds and 4ths I can do while watching Foyle's War on Netflix. Other stuff I go to my rehearsal space to do. What I've accomplised in a week is stronger than what I've accomplished in the last 8 months!

I also log in my writing sessions, what I worked on and my band practice sessions and what we worked on as a group now. It's helpful to write notes on how you felt about your sessions as well, that you are still struggling with and what you are really soaring on!

And best of all, I have a band with some great players. That's where I can really feel the progress. A new idea takes way less time to get under my fingers. I remember when this happened on guitar, when things simply got easier to do. That's a great feeling!

JB

Teaching and taking lessons

It's been an educational week for me. Took a saxophone lesson with Tim Price that rocked. Nothing like sitting down with someone who has been at it for way longer than you and just helping you remember the things you forget. Air column, air column, air column! Every lesson I've ever had I needed to be reminded of that simple thing that isn't so simple. Yet in one little demonstration I was able to produce a sound much stronger than I thought my equipment would actually allow. Now I'm inspired to practice daily, keep a practice log of what I'm doing so I can track my progress and am psyched to meet up again next week. I feel another door being opened up! Feels great to work on some foundational "Mr. Miyagi" material again. The simple little things that add up.

3 days later I got to share the same scale information with a student. My students teach me as much as I teach them. It's a new world from where I started. There is no better way of staying current than teaching people 1/4 or 1/3 or 1/2 my age, seeing the world through the eyes of younger folks.

One of the greatest things I learned this week was working my scales in 3rds and 4ths. It wasn't the scales, it was the speed. SLOW DOWN! Go with your natural heart rhythm. 60BPM, quarter notes for AS LONG AS YOU NEED TO. Metronomes are great but can bring out the perfectionist in us. I don't reccomend you get too mechanical with that little box. I did like to be reminded of how to practice scales at a turtle pace. 2 days of that I could feel my ideas being liberated at band practice just a little bit more effortlessly. In a month, a year? Who knows. That's really the point. It's about building confidence. Wax on, wax off. Thank you Karate Kid!

Berklee College of Music

I had an interesting brief conversation with a young man at my job 2 days ago. He was wearing a Berklee College of Music hoodie. As I was ringing him up for some picks and strings I said "so you went to Berklee? Did you graduate?" His reply was "yeah, now I'm doomed to a life of failure."

I replied, "you don't ever need to say that, you have no idea what is in store for you in this life." He asked "did you go there?" I said "yeah, back in the 80's". "Looks like things really worked out for you!" he says as I ring him up at my job at Southside Guitars. "Kid, you don't know anything about me, you don't know what great stuff I've experienced in music." He said "yeah, cool, you're right, sorry."

It was a great chance to do a little healing, that opportunity to speak. Life has no accidents. I felt calm, like I was talking to myself at 22 years old saying what I wish someone had said to me then.

I don't know why I had the same attitude as he did back in 1988 when I dropped out, I do know that I would be doomed to failure if I believed that jive today. The fact is there is no truth in that idea of being doomed to failure. Music has taken me around the world, I am happy and proud of what I have contributed.

When I left I was surrounded by this attitude. Many of my Berklee friends expressed being "doomed to failure" and had a negative attitude about themselves and the school which they were fortunate enough to attend. I heard this message enough that I believed it. I started to compare myself to people who were making much more compelling music than I in the scene who never went to music school. I felt stifled and weighted down with all that knowledge. I couldn't experience music the way I did before when I was in high school. Maybe that experience did do some damage? I don't know if I buy that anymore. Maybe I was choosing to be a victim so I wouldn't have to put myself out there is more the truth. There were some  kids who were judgemental of us that went to college and said stupid things, but truth be known, most folks only care if you are the right person for the band you are in.

And..... no experience can kill my passion for making music. I'm still here, never stopped and never will stop. What does artistic recovery mean to me today? It means that was awesome that I was interested enough to talk to a fellow Berklee Alumni. I was curious. It means I didn't take his comment the least bit seriously cause fact is I've had a wonderful life and continue to do so. I doubt he will forget our brief dialogue. Maybe that was an opportunity for him to get over himself and just do the work. Maybe 10 years from now he'll have a flash of that encounter and will choose to let go and grow. Or maybe it doesn't matter as it's none of my business and truth be known, I can't be bothered by a bummer kid. But just maybe, he and I will get what we are after in life and that will be awesome.

JB

Why make records?

2 days ago I woke up and had that 10 seconds of bliss before all that craptastic anxiety poured on in and forced it's evil hand. "What the fuck am I going to do today to make my life better? I need a better job! Shit, I'm nervous about this and that and I have to do this and that and I should do this and that!"

Those evil shoulds and have to bits. Jive.

I made a plan. "The only thing that needs to happen is I need to commit 2 pieces of music to my new solo album, one that I needed to write, the other is already done I just need to capture a good take of it. I'll break for lunch at 3 and go to a local art gallery and look at whatever is there." Simple plan, part of my KISS scheme= Keep It Simple Sexy!

The first piece is difficult. It's intense. I was full of anxiety anyway. Impossible to play an intense piece well if I'm tense. Yeah, sounds counter intuitive but that's the truth. Being tense and making intense music just doesn't work. So I lit 3 candles and turned off all the lights in my room, dressed the part and did 4 takes. Got one I'm happy with. After that the song that needed lyrics, the words came to me in about 10 minutes. It's good, I really dig it. But I was still full of anxiety. Got the record done and took my break after contacting a friend about mastering etc.

Then those evil voices came in. They start right away. "It's not good, your fingerpicking sucks compares to John Fahey, you can't really sing." Then the worst of the evil comments: "What's the point. There are so many acoustic records made no one will care!"

I've learned not to listen to this mental jive but it still does hurt. I took my break, got a couple tacos from the Los Morelos Taco truck on North 7th and Bedford, a chocolate bar from Foodtown and I went to my gallery Still full of anxiety......

The work in the gallery was from 2 artist, a painter and a sculpture. Nothing that blew my mind though I liked the sculptures, they were fun. When I left I got about 2 blocks away and realized something. I had left all my troubles and anxiety at the gallery. I felt completely free for a bit. I knew it was temporary but something became so clear. This is the point. This is why we make art. It's simply to be of service. If this work could sooth my soul for a short while, maybe what I have to offer can sooth anothers soul.

I can't actually think of a better reason to follow through and make a record than that. World needs soothing. Glad to do my part.