Forget what you should be doing....

by Minim Pro @ 2010-05-31
I should learn more tunes
I should be playing everything in all 12 keys when I practice.
I should take every gig I can get my hands on - even if they suck.
I should spend more time transcribing.
I should have my own website.
I should be social networking savvy.
I should be practising right now instead of reading this blog!

"Shoulds" are nasty, pernicious little gremlins that live in the dark recesses of our brains and conspire to make us feel guilty and inadequate.

The weird thing about them is despite their horrible and debilitating effects, they are entirely creatures of our own creation. As part of our musical journey, we randomly pick up bits and bobs of advice, other peoples' opinions and a slew of received wisdom. Our insecurities and feelings of inadequacy, particularly when we're just starting out, make it hard for us to be able to ignore things that we're told we should be doing. However, when we mature as musicians and are proficient and knowledgeable enough to determine our own musical and professional course, some of us still find it difficult to shake off the influence of the "shoulds".

Sometimes this situation is not helped by the fact that the 'experts' and educationalists have a vested interest in keeping us feeling ignorant, anxious and insecure. After all, if we're all confident we know what we're doing and how to progress, why would we need them anymore? Don't get me wrong, there are many wonderful teachers and educators out there, but sometimes I do think that there is way too much mystique surrounding learning jazz and far too much weight given to the advice of 'gurus'.

If you ask any two jazz musicians about the way they learned to play, you'd get two different answers. Learning to play jazz is a very individual experience and everybody's progress and path of musical discovery is different. I always tell my jazz students that this is a journey they take on their own. My job is to try and sketch them a rough map of the terrain and maybe show them some shortcuts or keep them from getting stuck in a swamp on the way.

I came across this video on YouTube the other day where Hal Galper is talking about rhythm in jazz. After a minute or so he informs the class that the rhythmic feel of jazz is based on the New Orleans second line drum beat. "How many of you are familiar with this beat?" he asks. Obviously only a couple of people raise their hands off camera because his response is a reasonably contemptuous sounding "Not Enough!" followed by some sage nodding and the exhortation that the students should be studying this.

If you were in that class and hadn't heard of this drum beat, how would this make you feel? Probably like an ignorant, useless piece of crap. In fact, if you haven't heard of that drum beat then as you read this, you may be starting to feel a bit anxious yourself and are possibly about to abandon this article to google second line drum beats - how could you have missed something you clearly should know?

If that's you and you're still reading, it may or may not make you feel a little better if I freely admit I couldn't tell you what a second line drum beat sounds like. Nevertheless, I do know how to swing a jazz line and have somehow miraculously managed to get my head around jazz syncopation without ever having studied New Orleans drum patterns. I guess I was just lucky.

Even if what Mr Galper says is true, I learned to swing a line by playing along with Oscar Peterson records. Oscar learned to swing by listening to people like Art Tatum and Nat Cole, who learned from people like Fats Waller and so on. I don't need to study second line drumbeats because, if that is where jazz swing does come from, I've learned from players who learned from players who learned from players who invented them. The idea that there's one way to do or learn something is ridiculous and to maintain that the only way to learn jazz is to immerse yourself in the earliest origins of the music is equally asinine.

Think of it this way, have you ever heard a classical music teacher telling pupils that they couldn't study Bach until they'd gone back and immersed themselves fully in plainsong, gregorian chant and medieval choral music to understand the origins of counterpoint? There is so much information on jazz education today and every 'expert' has an opinion on what everyone should be doing that the modern jazz student can find themselves pulled in so many directions at once that the cumulative effect of the 'advice' is ultimately harmful rather than helpful.

The same is true of promoting and selling your music. Everyone has an opinion on what you should be doing and if you're not careful, you'll find yourself pulled in so many different ways that you won't be able to go forward. You are the master of your own destiny and it's up to you to take responsibility for your own musical and professional development. If you come across advice that interests or resonates with you then by all means explore it and see if it works for you.

On the other hand, if it doesn't then you should ignore it. Either way it's crucial you don't let yourself feel guilty or inadequate and that there's always something else that you should be doing - because that will bring your progress to a dead stop. Decide what you're going to do and do it. If that doesn't work, do something else, but don't let the gremlins in your brain stymie you by immobilising you with "shoulds".
http://playjazz.blog.co.uk/2010/05/31/forget-what-you-should-be-doing-8709645/