kholmes
A truly inspiring daily thought, thank you. I shall practise my "donkey" off. I shall not try to playnote-for-note the Hotel California lead break, - I shall not try to harmonise a precise copy of Scarborough Fair, and Gary Moore can go and talk to his mother. Me ? - I'm Jammin' Mahn.
AlanRatcliffe
Thanks. ? Actually it was written in a rush off the top of my head, so is more than a little scattered. I probably should have split into the main ideas and expanded each idea to short article length.
You can still learn those things if you want to incorporate them in what you do. Best way to learn (And the Canticle harmonies in Scarborough Fair are beyond awesome).
I had an extreme reaction to playing in a pop cover band in the '80s - for decades I refused to learn/play other people's music note-for-note (aside from isolated things like Wish You Were Here, Discipline and Eugene's Trick Bag. Now I wish I hadn't - while it made me a bit of an unusual player, it slowed down my development terribly and I still have to work hard to figure out how to make what I do fit with what others do.
I think the main point is don't focus on any one musical thing to the exclusion of all else. Too many players get caught up in the technique and forget the music, some get stuck in the music and forget about technique. Others still forget about performance, entertainment or the plain old fun to be had from playing music. The truly great players have a good balance between all these things.
