A note by Jeff that I found helpful and interesting (like most of his stuff). Enjoy 
"
I want to highlight a point about available gigs that nobody commented about yesterday. I think of this general list as so significant from a pragmatic point of view, as it should be posted everywhere as proof of the need to read, the need to know more than your own particular style of music requires IF you wish to play and earn money, get experience as a player, spread your reputation, and out-and-out help to develop that which so many seem ot covet, which is groove, feel, and a paycheck while developing these things.
Where does groove come from? It comes from knowing your instrument and the style of music that you are playing. That is the entire explanation! Groove is a reward, not a method. It doesn't come from playing with metronomes. It doesn't come from being told to play a groove or to play in time (two things so obvious as to amaze me that people aren't aware of how obvious they are!) It comes from KNOWING! As you improve as a player, the styles of music that you play require a certain feel to make these styles "legitimate!" Groove means to function according to the time and feel required in the music that you are playing. And as I mentioned before, EVERYTHING has its own groove!
3 Examples!
1. Chefs "groove" as they cook their dishes at the right temperatures for the right amounts of time. They cook several different things at a time and combine them all at the right time. This is groove! But they coudn't groove when they first learned how to cook. This means that groove has no place in the academic cooking experience. Out-of-time regard for cooking times was necessary to learn the facts first.
2. Drivers "groove" although they don't use this term. Traffic flows at its own tempos, slowing down, speeding up, changing lanes. Except for accidents, it always flows according to its own tempo, as drivers, functioning in this driving tempo, "groove" or fit into traffic's flow. But drivers couldn't groove when they first learned how to drive. They started hesitantly in a parking lot or a side street "out of time" not in a driving groove, but hesitant and unsure, just as it should be when a new driver starts to learn how to drive.
3. Painting or Art! I include painting as an art that demonstrates the "groove" in a painters creative efforts. Van Gogh is one of the high examples of a painter that produced hundreds of canvanses in a pure "groove" outpour. Painters all "groove" But painters couldn't groove when they first learned how to paint. They made errors, and painted canvases all as practice events, working on undeveloped talent that only later came to flower,painting in their groove, but never before and never, not once in their academic lives, ever emphasised.
Gigs provide the fertile ground to learn how to groove. Here is a list of gigs that non-reading musicians will not get, gigs that not only pay you money as you learn your craft, but help to spread your reputation, hone your skills playing with different musicians, and experiencing different playing environments, musicians, feels, and, in fact, all organic point of need so necessary to find a groove, again, while being paid to do so.
Reading Gigs
1. Studio musician for hire!
2. Broadway shows (regional and nationwide)!
3. Backing up individual acts, singers, comedians, actors
4. Top 40 Big Bands, Small Groups, Dance Bands
5. Circus, Theme Parks
6. Church, Temple
7. TV shows, Letterman/Leno/Kimmel etc. Grammys, Oscars, SAG Awards etc.
8. Cruise Ships
9. Corporate gigs-Political events, industrial parties!
10. Self contained bands individual stylists playing restaurants, clubs, churches, Top 40
11. General Business- Weddings, Bar Mitzvas, Graduation Parties etc.
Readers can do non-reading gigs, but not the other way around!
Here is a list of gigs available to non-reading musicians!
Non-Reading Gigs
1. Self contained bands or individual stylists playing restaurants, clubs, churches!
2. General Business- Weddings, Bar Mitzvas, Graduation Parties etc.
It is hard to argue with the facts. These two lists are general, but in their generality, it shows that if you don't know how to read, you won't go anywhere as a musician outside of the style of music that many are forced to stick with, not as an art choice but as the only option to play. There is nothing wrong with choosing a style and trying to excel in it. Just know that many players are limited by their inablilit to only function in those forms of music simply because their DECISION to not expand their musical ability won't allow them any other option.
I once earned $14,000. for playing two bars of music for a KMart commercial in the 1970's. This is true! Two bars of music and the residual checks for that studio gig alone totalled to 14 grand! At the same time that I was a studio bass player, I was playing with all the New York musicians every night, recording records, jamming, touring, doing gigs with the best New York players in a dozen styles, and regularly playing with the stars of music of that era. I was 23 years old when I was in that world, one of the top players in the city, and it was music academics that opened that door to me, actually to all of us. I was a kid, not all that experienced, but having the right acacemic skills under my belt to function and provide the right musical basslines while I was working on the intangibles (as Joseph Wooten once said). But intangibles never require an academic setting, and in fact, aren't learnable in a classroom. They are learned on the gig. And reading and musical instruction prepared me to get those gigs! On those gigs I learned those intangibles while they paid me a lot of money at the same time. This can be your story as well, except that some players are limited by their own vision of what they can and can't accomplish as players. Stop this, and learn how to play better and reap the reward for doing so!
Groove lessons? What a complete error of thinking this academic approach is.
Thanks for reading! Post this everywhere. "
"
I want to highlight a point about available gigs that nobody commented about yesterday. I think of this general list as so significant from a pragmatic point of view, as it should be posted everywhere as proof of the need to read, the need to know more than your own particular style of music requires IF you wish to play and earn money, get experience as a player, spread your reputation, and out-and-out help to develop that which so many seem ot covet, which is groove, feel, and a paycheck while developing these things.
Where does groove come from? It comes from knowing your instrument and the style of music that you are playing. That is the entire explanation! Groove is a reward, not a method. It doesn't come from playing with metronomes. It doesn't come from being told to play a groove or to play in time (two things so obvious as to amaze me that people aren't aware of how obvious they are!) It comes from KNOWING! As you improve as a player, the styles of music that you play require a certain feel to make these styles "legitimate!" Groove means to function according to the time and feel required in the music that you are playing. And as I mentioned before, EVERYTHING has its own groove!
3 Examples!
1. Chefs "groove" as they cook their dishes at the right temperatures for the right amounts of time. They cook several different things at a time and combine them all at the right time. This is groove! But they coudn't groove when they first learned how to cook. This means that groove has no place in the academic cooking experience. Out-of-time regard for cooking times was necessary to learn the facts first.
2. Drivers "groove" although they don't use this term. Traffic flows at its own tempos, slowing down, speeding up, changing lanes. Except for accidents, it always flows according to its own tempo, as drivers, functioning in this driving tempo, "groove" or fit into traffic's flow. But drivers couldn't groove when they first learned how to drive. They started hesitantly in a parking lot or a side street "out of time" not in a driving groove, but hesitant and unsure, just as it should be when a new driver starts to learn how to drive.
3. Painting or Art! I include painting as an art that demonstrates the "groove" in a painters creative efforts. Van Gogh is one of the high examples of a painter that produced hundreds of canvanses in a pure "groove" outpour. Painters all "groove" But painters couldn't groove when they first learned how to paint. They made errors, and painted canvases all as practice events, working on undeveloped talent that only later came to flower,painting in their groove, but never before and never, not once in their academic lives, ever emphasised.
Gigs provide the fertile ground to learn how to groove. Here is a list of gigs that non-reading musicians will not get, gigs that not only pay you money as you learn your craft, but help to spread your reputation, hone your skills playing with different musicians, and experiencing different playing environments, musicians, feels, and, in fact, all organic point of need so necessary to find a groove, again, while being paid to do so.
Reading Gigs
1. Studio musician for hire!
2. Broadway shows (regional and nationwide)!
3. Backing up individual acts, singers, comedians, actors
4. Top 40 Big Bands, Small Groups, Dance Bands
5. Circus, Theme Parks
6. Church, Temple
7. TV shows, Letterman/Leno/Kimmel etc. Grammys, Oscars, SAG Awards etc.
8. Cruise Ships
9. Corporate gigs-Political events, industrial parties!
10. Self contained bands individual stylists playing restaurants, clubs, churches, Top 40
11. General Business- Weddings, Bar Mitzvas, Graduation Parties etc.
Readers can do non-reading gigs, but not the other way around!
Here is a list of gigs available to non-reading musicians!
Non-Reading Gigs
1. Self contained bands or individual stylists playing restaurants, clubs, churches!
2. General Business- Weddings, Bar Mitzvas, Graduation Parties etc.
It is hard to argue with the facts. These two lists are general, but in their generality, it shows that if you don't know how to read, you won't go anywhere as a musician outside of the style of music that many are forced to stick with, not as an art choice but as the only option to play. There is nothing wrong with choosing a style and trying to excel in it. Just know that many players are limited by their inablilit to only function in those forms of music simply because their DECISION to not expand their musical ability won't allow them any other option.
I once earned $14,000. for playing two bars of music for a KMart commercial in the 1970's. This is true! Two bars of music and the residual checks for that studio gig alone totalled to 14 grand! At the same time that I was a studio bass player, I was playing with all the New York musicians every night, recording records, jamming, touring, doing gigs with the best New York players in a dozen styles, and regularly playing with the stars of music of that era. I was 23 years old when I was in that world, one of the top players in the city, and it was music academics that opened that door to me, actually to all of us. I was a kid, not all that experienced, but having the right acacemic skills under my belt to function and provide the right musical basslines while I was working on the intangibles (as Joseph Wooten once said). But intangibles never require an academic setting, and in fact, aren't learnable in a classroom. They are learned on the gig. And reading and musical instruction prepared me to get those gigs! On those gigs I learned those intangibles while they paid me a lot of money at the same time. This can be your story as well, except that some players are limited by their own vision of what they can and can't accomplish as players. Stop this, and learn how to play better and reap the reward for doing so!
Groove lessons? What a complete error of thinking this academic approach is.
Thanks for reading! Post this everywhere. "
