Resolutions I'd love you to make for 2011
by Minim Pro @ 2011-01-03
Resolutions I'd love to see from different corners of the jazz world in 2011.
Jazz Students & Jazz Beginners
Let me tell you a secret as well: it doesn't really matter what you do. There is nobody out there who is putting in hours of practice and not getting any better. Honestly.
Talent is overrated, studying 'the right things' in 'the right way' is overrated. All that really matters is how much you want it and how much you're willing to work at it. If there is such a thing as talent, it only really kicks in at the very lowest and the very highest level. Everything else is graft.
At the lowest level, people with no aptitude whatsoever for music don't ever even get involved in it and few people take up jazz who can't already play their instrument at least reasonably competently. If that's describes you then you're plenty talented enough - so stop wondering if there's something intrinsic in your nature/personality/genetic makeup that that means you won't ever get there and just get on with it.
At the other end of the spectrum, perhaps talent is what separates the all-time greats from the rest of us - but there have been and always will be plenty of very good musicians who don't get into the history books. And that's just fine. The point is that you have to learn how to play to a pretty good standard before you'll find out whether there's any genius in you.
As a friend of mine often says 'you have to learn all the scales, all the chords, all the technique, all the phrasing - and only THEN do you find out if you can play'.
Teachers can point you in the direction, books and websites can be useful study aids - but honestly, honestly, honestly, the ONLY thing that will dictate how much you improve in 2011 is how much you practise this year.
A resolution I'd love you to make: I'm going to stop buying tuition books, looking for new websites and looking everywhere for something to take me to the next level and just focus on playing my instrument as much as possible.
Frustrated Grassroots Jazz Musicians
Come on guys, you're better than this. You're better than these boring background gigs and the bland, unadventurous nonsense that you're churning out on a regular basis whilst lying to yourself that it's the only way to get paid for playing our music.
This is JAZZ we're supposed to playing here - supposedly 'the sound of surprise'. It's music that can take its inspiration from any other style of music in the world, it can incorporate almost anything your imagination can conceive of, it can be the most joyous, spontaneous, engaging, imaginative, ephemeral musical genres of all time and you're ruining it.
Sitting in wine bars and restaurants and weddings and playing the same old standards in the same way makes a mockery of everything that drew you to jazz in the first place. Remember the first jazz record you ever really loved, the one that made you want to play? Didn't it hit you like a bolt from the blue? Didn't it feel like your ears had been wasted on everything you'd ever heard up tor this point? Didn't it feel for the first time that your eyes were opened? Didn't it sound like an enormous YES?
Then why are you bastardising everything you hold dear in this music for the sake of a really, really, shitty pay day? Is this really your price? Are you really prepared to sell out everything you ever dreamed of in music because you've got stuck in this ridiculous pantomime of mediocrity and bland pastiche and now you're too afraid to get out?
Everybody has to earn a living and playing Stella by Starlight at a wedding is a damn sight better than shovelling shit for a living but come on, don't fool yourself that you're making any art here. By all means do the crap gigs and pay some bills but for your own sake, for the sake of that guy or girl who was blown away by that album, for the sake of that last little spark of belief buried deep inside you that whispers in your ear late at night that you are capable of so much more than this, it's time to stand tall, stick your neck out and make some music you would be proud to have played at your funeral.
A resolution I'd love you to make: Yes, I will do what I need to do to pay the bills, but I won't let that define me as a musician and I won't let it be the only music I am making. 2011 will be the year I get off the treadmill, trust my own musical instincts and start making music that inspires me.
From: http://playjazz.blog.co.uk/2011/01/03/resolutions-i-d-love-you-to-make-for-10299216/
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