Pollyanna
Platinum Member
A few threads have gotten me thinking about this, along with starting Kenny Wheeler's book. Namely, The Colonel's studio experience and FunkyJazzer asking if jazz was holding him back.
There's been a lot here about using click tracks and metronomes. In the studio sometimes we have to split everyone up to record their parts alone and have the engineer stitch it up.
Seemingly, but not unrelated, I read that in the studio Miles preferred to keep takes that had the least "clams" in his playing rather than takes that were more inspired overall.
I'm thinking about the magic of music, those moments when the band have their "big ears" on and there's a vibe about the performance, be it jamming or whatever. It seems that the drive to perfection (or something close to accurate) - that state of musical blamelessness - can work at odds with the "magic".
I'm guessing that each musican needs to work out his or her thresholds where we can aim for at least some magic without necessarily shooting for the sky - where going for that extra edge of feel or textures or whatever reaches the point of diminishing returns. Recordings tend to dilute any musical magic that's there - and you have to live with what you played forever - so maybe it makes sense in most genres to play it safer.
When I was young I'd always just go for it but with age I'm more inclined to improve my tidiness. I've been making click tracks for some of the band's songs where we have tempo hassles. I've only used clicks while practising at home and I'm not sure how much magic is possible with "plonk plonk plonk" going on the background. There's a part of me that misses that free and easy approach.
I know this could lead us back to the infamous mega-thread but I hope this one is not "This vs That" - more just thoughts on the mix of musical idealism and pragmatism and our drumming "attitood" (hey, Aussies can speak American if we try hard enough
There's been a lot here about using click tracks and metronomes. In the studio sometimes we have to split everyone up to record their parts alone and have the engineer stitch it up.
Seemingly, but not unrelated, I read that in the studio Miles preferred to keep takes that had the least "clams" in his playing rather than takes that were more inspired overall.
I'm thinking about the magic of music, those moments when the band have their "big ears" on and there's a vibe about the performance, be it jamming or whatever. It seems that the drive to perfection (or something close to accurate) - that state of musical blamelessness - can work at odds with the "magic".
I'm guessing that each musican needs to work out his or her thresholds where we can aim for at least some magic without necessarily shooting for the sky - where going for that extra edge of feel or textures or whatever reaches the point of diminishing returns. Recordings tend to dilute any musical magic that's there - and you have to live with what you played forever - so maybe it makes sense in most genres to play it safer.
When I was young I'd always just go for it but with age I'm more inclined to improve my tidiness. I've been making click tracks for some of the band's songs where we have tempo hassles. I've only used clicks while practising at home and I'm not sure how much magic is possible with "plonk plonk plonk" going on the background. There's a part of me that misses that free and easy approach.
I know this could lead us back to the infamous mega-thread but I hope this one is not "This vs That" - more just thoughts on the mix of musical idealism and pragmatism and our drumming "attitood" (hey, Aussies can speak American if we try hard enough