Playing Fast

pickitjohn

Congratulations on your New Guitar how Cool.
May it be inspirational and cause your playing to Soar.

@RobMacKillop we did Digress a bit,

Think we hit a SPEED BUMP

:peace:

Buco

As long as he's mentioned, Joscho said in this workshop that the most common question he gets is "how come you can play so fast?", his answer was "because I practice very slow and take a long time to master something before I play it publicly".

Mostly systematic work and dedication, not a whole lot of magic.

Oh yeah, and as Gonzalo once admited during the show "I know we sometimes play a lot of notes but it's just so much fun".

Rob MacKillop

Thanks, pickitjohn!

Jazzaferri

Thanks @Michael Horowitz

The debate to my mind isn't about speed, there are times when speed is critical to what is being said. Flight of the Bumblebee for a composed example. A number of Djangos recorded passages have some blazingly fast passages. I never heard him live so I don't know for sure but it seems to me he uses all sorts of different rhythms and tempi not 10 choruses of eights at 280 bpm.

In improvised music, I Have heard Coltrane ramble on for several minutes of a constant flurry of high speed notes, seemingly without taking a breath, even though he did...and he did it with an intensity such as Jimmy Rosenberg. For one or two tunes OK. But Not a whole evening. Trying to reach for something extremely personal inside, I get that......but what about the audience? What about your story, your conversation with the rest of the band?

Like trying to listen to a high speed talker carry on and on and on. To me it gets overwhelming and even boring after a while. There are whole schools of high speed jazz sax players now who will carry out a whole solo of extremely fast notes barely pausing for breath chorus after chorus after chorus aft chorus.

Jazz overall has gone from being THE POP MUSIC in the 30's and 40's to about 5% market share now. Not saying there isn't some great jazz happening today, there is. But the genre has lost most of its connection to its audience. The slide started with bebop, went on hold for a while in the fifties and early 60's then resumed its ride down.

rgrice

Thanks and sorry @MichaelHorowitz! We really went off!

Scoredog

The slide in bebop started quite simply because it was no longer dance music.

rgrice

Well said @Jazzaferri and @Scoredog! Much of that speed and wizardry is self indulgence for the musician and not for audience. As musicians we obviously appreciate it on a technical level, and if you're like me, an envy level as well.

Speaking of fast music and to illustrate what @Scoredog says, I played a swing dance a couple of months ago and was contracted to not play over 160 for beginning dancers in first set and no faster than 190 all night, as well as no more than 2 or 3 fast songs in a row.

I still wanna play faster!

dennis

i have a bit of a different take on all this. Since we're dealing with some form of improvisation, i tend to think that we all tend to play like we are, and when we practice , we gravitate towards what we want to become.

Gonzalo plays like Gonzalo, Joscho plays like Joscho, etc... if you talk to them and get to know them as people, it really starts to make sense the way they play. And i think that's great.

Whether audiences appreciate it or not, it doesn't matter (musically speaking anyway) so long as the musicians are true to themselves. The world is full of different colors, and we can't all like everything. I love players who are really passionate about what they're doing and are honest about who they are; i can really appreciate all sorts of different players.

Rob MacKillop

Well said, Dennis.

rgrice

That's true, @dennis! Like you, I love the unique differences each player brings; that's why they're great. I should have said it "seems" like self indulgence to many audiences, obviously not to musicians or devotees.
My bush league gypsy-like swing band is the only one in my town of 130,000 people and the only gigs we can typically get are cafes, bars, parties, receptions, etc. Even if I could play "out there" fast solos, I'm not sure it would be enjoyed by all. There are a couple of jazz bands in town and a few aficionados who would appreciate it, but other than that it wouldn't fly. Sadly, like many everyday players, there isn't the market to totally be yourself. We're somewhat bound by what we can sell. It has to be accessible. We do vocal versions of most stuff one typically doesn't hear vocals on, like "Blue Drag" because it is more accessible to an audience, but we enjoy it and it makes it stand out some. Within these parameters we do what we want to do, without being totally mercenary!
I hope this makes sense.

Just noticed you're Denis! Thanks so much for all you do for the GJ community. Yours were the first lessons I went through and really helped me get a feel for what to do. It's an honor.