That’s interesting I’ve gotten poor touch (a sensory processing issue) and poor hearing. I wonder what side of the family dumped their crappy genes on me?Maybe, maybe not. I recall a scientific article where people actually "felt" things differently, due to genetic mutations in piezo1/piezo2 genes, kind of like people see colors differently, or hear things differently (perfect pitch relative pitch etc.).
Touch sensitivity is genetically linked to hearing
Impaired touch among deaf students indicates that some of the genes causing deafness may also dull finger sensitivitywww.newscientist.com
That sounds like a good friend of mine. He sounds great on his own, but I don't jam with him because he can't keep time and I can't follow him. I just encourage him to keep up his solo acoustic guitar playing, and forget about playing with other people. After playing guitar for about 45 years, he finally bought a metronome just recently. I think it's a bit late.A local guitar player is one such dude. A few times a year, I share a stage with him. He's all over the place:
- Impossible to follow.
- Zero communication skills.
- Oblivious to anyone else around him.
PorkPieGuy,Played a festival this past weekend with several bands. As I was sitting around watching them, one band in particular had a fantastic drummer, but the fills and even some of the grooves didn't "fit" that music that great. The band was playing your average "bar band top 100" music.
This led me to thinking about having a "feel" for playing certain music. I know for me, switching from playing rock and roll to country was more of a transition in "feel" than my switching between any other genre. I mean, I could play the notes with no problem when I first started, but it took me a while to begin to make the music feel right. I'm pretty sure I could have gotten away with not changing too much, but I really wanted to make the music I was playing sound the best that it could be, so I worked hard on changing my playing. I've come a long way to changing my feel to country music, but I still have a ways to go! When it comes to "feel" in music, I know I had to teach myself when it came to country, but I had NO problems figuring it out for rock-n-roll.
So my question is this: Can "feel" for certain music be taught or is it more natural?
To me, "feel" is dynamics, which mostly means tiny changes in timing, volume, phrasing, and choice of idiom. If that's what "feel" is, then I think it can be taught, and I think it is taught, all the time. If a person has listened to and played one style of music all their life, it can require a whole lot of work to make all the adjustments required to learn a new "feel". The frustrating part is that most other people won't even hear the difference - at least not on a conscious level.So my question is this: Can "feel" for certain music be taught or is it more natural?
I lived with a grade-school teacher who said "Nobody can teach anybody anything. All you can do is create a learning environment." That makes sense to me. The last step, the actual learning, needs to be done by the student....if the person wants to be taught and wants to immerse and practice that much.
Yes I see 'feel' as the result of meshing many things together like those listed above.To me, "feel" is dynamics, which mostly means tiny changes in timing, volume, phrasing, and choice of idiom.
That’s interesting I’ve gotten poor touch (a sensory processing issue) and poor hearing. I wonder what side of the family dumped their crappy genes on me?
I’ve always gotten comments I play with feel. But I’ve considered I play by feel- since self-taught. Cause I think when I hear music it activates my auditory, memory and motor pathways such my limbs just start moving ( been doing so since when I started at 8). I don’t really think about it, more instinct and response to music, however I do memorize songs and finalize how I want to play them. It’s always felt like a natural thing like some people take to art. My brain really enjoys noodling and grooving to some good music as I age. I feel like it’s great brain exercise now I’m old.
The “fantastic” drummer you mentioned doesn’t sound fantastic at all. He didn’t play appropriately, from what you described. He sounds more like a drummer who lacks the discipline to play what’s right for the job. I’d bet the farm that what’s appropriate would’ve been “boring” to him. That’s usually how it plays out.
I think it has to be learned. We can naturally feel rhythm, but not all of them. I dont think anyone can feel 13 until they spend time playing in 13.
1231231231212 lol.I tell people that I'm just a drummer. I can only count to 4...and maybe 6 if it's slow.
This might be a slight hi-jack diversion but I would love to hear about the specifics of your changes in feel. I'm just recently making the same transition and am curious about your experience and what it might reach me about my own.
I’ll bite
I went from playing more rock and soul to playing country. I had a pretty good swing feel and blues/ Basie shuffle but on the country shuffles I listened to the notes are tighter, not as broad. Merle Haggard vs Art Blakey
Thank you. This is awesome! And, it's in-line with what I'm experiencing which tells me I'm on the right track: Keeping it simple, focus on good note placement with lots of space.How that translates to playing? I think country music tends to "breathe" a little more than rock music does, so I have to leave a little more sonic space for the other instruments to flourish and shine. I try to be more intentional in my playing and less "GRRR!" and bombastic. While overplaying in rock is bad, it's downright catastrophic in country music. I still feel like I support the music, but it's done in a cleaner and consistent way.
Thank you. This is awesome! And, it's in-line with what I'm experiencing which tells me I'm on the right track: Keeping it simple, focus on good note placement with lots of space.