Collaboration

Bob-Dubery

I have been asked to perform some songs at TJs in March with Hugh Cumming and John van Nierop (and whoever else Hugh decides to rope in).

This is quite an interesting proposition for me as my forays into live performance have all been solo.

One thing, of course, is that I have to tighten everything up. I think my time keeping is pretty good, but I can't do things like throwing in an extra bar whilst I pull a funny face or try to remember the words. I also have to play LESS because there are more instruments and if everybody goes at it like the clappers then it sounds like ... well like everybody's going at it like the clappers.

We had our first rehearsal yesterday. First surprise was some lady by the name of Janie that Hugh had invited. Janie sings pretty well and Hugh's idea of collaboration is a sort of lightly moderated jam session which eventually coalesces into an arrangement. So Janie threw in some backing vocals on a couple of my songs (and asked me to do the same on one of hers). I noticed she'd had some spoons in her musicians kit bag.

John and I were working on a jam/arrangment for "Dragging The River" (which had gone down well at the last open mic night) and Janie having chipped in some good backing vocal lines (and she had good instincts about which lines to sing and which to not sing) started slapping time on her thigh. So I said "why not get those spoons out?" The way that John and I had been going was sort of rag time-ish, so the spoons added an extra taste of cajun percussion.

Another challenge/push is that I have to start talking, thinking and explaining in musical terms. So if I want a particular passage emphasised or dealt with in a certain way I just can't think to myself "that bit at the end of the verse" - which is what I am used to. I had to say things like "it goes flat 7, 5th, flat 3 and then root." That's the language that musicians understand.

I also found it easier to talk in terms of chords by their relation to the root. So instead of saying "A" and "B" we would talk about "the 4 chord" and "the 5 chord".

This is good. It sharpened my own thinking and got me talking about music in terms that other people can understand.

Lots of fun and a constructive experience. John (especially) and Hugh are both way better players than I am, and it was interesting to see how fast they could understand a piece and start coming up with ideas.

FatBoy

Sounds good man, I have lots of trouble when trying to play with others, I think its because I know way too little theory / chords / musical things in general. I do believe that its a great way to improve though!

PeteM

Yeah, playing with other musos is fantastic - it stretches you and is also wonderfully satisfying when you create a 'sound' together that you can't achieve on your own.
You can't put a price to those knowing glances and the smiles at the end of apiece. I wish you all the best in your collaborations Bob.

Riaan-Combrink

Good luck with the upcoming performance. Sounds as if the process is unfolding well. ?

You're right in observing that playing with others is a different dimension. Being the only guitarist in our duo, I miss the interplay with other musicians I used to have in bands. It's great fun coming up with something complementary. Sometimes even the contrast of merely open chords vs barre chords adds a dynamic to the overall guitar sound that you can't achieve alone. I used to enjoy, eg, playing triads in different positions if the other guitarist was going straight. Yep, collaboration is cool - miss it.. :'(

Bob-Dubery

At last night's rehearsal bass player Hans told us about the "five Ps"

Planning
Prevents
Piss
Poor
Performance

Squonk

@ Bob

After all the years of playing on your own. How is your timing when playing with a whole band.
Is suppose your concentration level goes up a bit.
I find my mind drifts quite a bit, and I have to ask myself "Is this the Chorus, actually where am I in the song?"
But on your own you can easily sort it out, different with a band I suppose.

Good stuff Bob, with the gig.

Hope to get there some day

Bob-Dubery

Squonk wrote: @ Bob

After all the years of playing on your own. How is your timing when playing with a whole band.

OK. Playing solo finger-style taught me that timing is very important. If I make a mistake but make it in time then I have a good chance of getting away with it. If I drop the timing and everything else is right then everybody notices - which is another way of saying that if you lose time you lose everything.

Where it gets challenging for me is that I am used to having the luxury of being able to noodle around for a bar or two if I have a "how does this one go again" moment. With the band I don't have that - they need to know the verse is X bars, Z bars in between verses and so on.

Is suppose your concentration level goes up a bit.

I have to concentrate on different things. The playing gets easier because my guitar parts get simpler in most cases so that there's more space for the other instruments.

Last night we decided to push the tempo on one of the songs. Suddenly I had to "recall" each line of the lyrics from the "memory bank" faster than I am used to doing.