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String/note buzz during solo runs
Chiefbigeasy
New Orleans, LA✭✭✭ Dupont MDC 50; The Loar LH6, JWC Catania Swing; Ibanez AFC151-SRR Contemporary Archtop
This is odd. Have been studying and practicing for over 8 years and have evolved into a strange and annoying habit.
During fast and even some slow solos, it sometime sounds as if the strings are too low and I'm hitting them too hard, but that's really not the case. The problem is I seem to be pressing the fretboard too far away from the fret, and/or then not pressing enough. So, I get an unclean "buzz" sound on some notes, especially if I have to reach for it, and also if it's in a run of many notes. It can also happen if I pick the note too late or too soon relative to my finger placement.
I'm trying to address it with some technique exercises. For example, I often practice phrases and licks in all the keys, and I try to pay attention to the clarity of each note. I do the same for some arpeggio exercises.
I'm kind of baffled as to how I developed this problem. It happens most often if I’m trying to truly improvise spontaneously, and, that makes sense, because I’m reaching for something unfamiliar. It’s most annoying, though, when it happens during something I know well, like set pieces “Bistro Fada/Indifference,” or learned solos like “I’ll See You in My Dreams.”
Anyone else have this problem? Anybody fixed it?
Thanks all.
Comments
It would help tremendously with a video I would say. Audio and visual especially to see what's going on.
Also, I’m starting to “obsess” about my technique. I guess that could be a good thing. For example, I came home from a busking, annoyed about the mistakes I made, and spent 2 hours working on the stuff I screwed up.
Don't get me wrong: I played a lot of good stuff and supported my band mates well. Audience response was good too.
Maybe I’m expecting too much from “muscle memory,” but when I blow parts of a tune I’ve been studying and playing for years (“Indifference”), it’s annoying.
Oh well, there are worse things I can do with my retirement time.
Yup, this. If you can get a clean video of this, especially if you can recreate it multiple times in different ways it would be very helpful.
Chief, you sound exactly like me after I play a set of tennis! I never remember my good shots, only the ones I missed!
It helps me to remember that even the pros don’t make every shot.
And even Django didn’t nail every solo…
Edgar Degas: "Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things.... To draw, you must close your eyes and sing."
Georges Braque: "In art there is only one thing that counts: the bit that can’t be explained."
I take it you've ruled out the guitar - 9.99 times out of 10 buzzing is caused by the setup on the guitar.
I've not come across this problem before and have tried but can't replicate it. It might be worth checking that you're not overplaying with the picking hand, or using too fat a pick. I know a lot of players go hard core into gypsy picking with big fat picks and aggressive strokes, but the best players I've seen eventually adapt their technique to be less aggressive and move to thinner picks.
It could also be your ear - maybe you're hearing things you didn't before.
Otherwise, you are doing the right thing to improve your technique, it just takes time, a long time, to embed what you learn in practice in your playing. I read a book once that explained that we use different parts of the brain when performing as opposed to practicing, which is why it can feel sometimes that the stuff you can do in practice disappears when you're playing, or seems to have no impact at all.
I think it's a result of being faced with a low stress situation. If I told you it's a matter of being relaxed you might say I don't feel tense, I am relaxed. But these are tricky kind of situations and hard to recognize what they are, it takes just a tiny amount of muscles not being a hundred percent relaxed for this kind of thing to not work out like you expect it to. Because when it comes to instrument playing, you're talking about a millimeter of difference if not less between something that's clean or not. At least I now believe that's what happens in my case because I can recognize myself in what you wrote. What else could it be, you know...you play something at home effortlessly and you go to a public performance and it's not nearly as fluid. That happens to me, I go what the hell, I know I can play this fluidly. Yes, I also over pick with my right hand trying to compensate for a feeling that I need more volume when playing outside vs my room. There's a layer of that too but behind that layer is a low stress situation, that I don't really feel myself as being nervous or stressed out. But I'm pretty sure that what it is, at least in my case.
We can fix that in post.
I totally relate to what people are saying on this thread. I play reasonably well at home and when I'm not thinking about it too much. In a jamming or live situation it's totally different. So much depends on the set up and how others are playing. I used to do a regular bar gig with a very fluid and flexible line up with one or two constant players. It was the other players that would, on occasion, put me right off either by playing some weird and wacky stuff, not listening to other players and just generally being a pain in the arse.
I'm assuming that this is not the problem so that just leaves ourselves to sort out. I know that I - when I cock it up - have a terrible habit of showing it physically in my facial expressions and have even grunted out loud in frustration. But at the end of the day who actually notices ? Unless it's a massively glaring mistake I'm not sure that the audience can tell. After all it is "jazz" so a certain amount of - let's call it "exploration" - is allowed. And who knows when you're "exploring" or not.
I also think that the physical posture we hold ourselves in when we play, the space we have around us - i.e. the physical layout of the gig/jam/session impacts on us. I am trying to sit more upright rather than the hunching over you often see players adopt in an attempt to relax myself physically and therefore, hopefully, mentally as well. I find that if I close my eyes too I produce more melodic stuff. This also means that I don't have to be distracted and annoyed by others I'm playing with and it also forces me to listen more to what other people are playing.
I know some people - well one chap in particular - recommends a book called "Effortless Mastery". I bought it, read it, couldn't finish it . I prefer Hal Galper's videos around teaching music and now that I'm retired I intend to go back and devote some time to listening to his ideas and seeing if I can translate them into my playing.
My apologies if this has been a bit of a long winded and rambling post but that's what happens when you've got too much time to spare.
All very well thought out comments, gentleman, and generous as well.
You are reminding me of the struggles we go through when we are dedicated to an art form. I’m a better player than I was a year ago, but I remain a severe judge of my own technique. It’s funny, though, I can perform full speed versions of some pretty difficult tunes— something I couldn’t do as little as a year ago— and yet, I’m ready to severely criticize myself when I make mistakes. Go figure.
Comments about practice room versus performance are spot on. Add to that, I can hear when the rhythm section is not supporting me very well. In fact, I am trying to isolate my mind when it’s time to solo and not be thinking about the next step, which is jumping back into the tune and making sure everything Is flowing as it should. This is happening a little less with this current group because I don’t have all responsibility that I did in the previous one. Nonetheless, I still think about it.
Also, technique errors happen most often when I’m trying to be truly spontaneous during improvisation. Things I have worked out more directly have less problems; I guess that goes without saying. At the very least, I’ve learned how to not grunt, comment, or in other ways signal but I am having issues. As noted, the audience rarely realizes there is trouble unless a musician makes it apparent.
So, no, it is not the guitar set up. It’s me. It just seems odd that I can develop this kind of problem after so many years of study and practice. I guess that each step up the mountain has it’s own unique set of issues during the journey.
On the other hand, I have been eyeing one of those beautiful short scale Dupont grande bouche guitars advertised as “easy to play.“ I heard that even Django played one for a while.
Hmm . . .
Buco has nailed it for me, at least in my experience: at home, relaxed, sounding great. At a gig, somewhat tense...flubbed chords and notes! Ah well, I do remember enough of what sounded good, and the audience seems to like it, so, on to the next gig!