Double Bass balance

[Marc Piane]

This thread is kinda of in response to both PDiddy's 'time' post and DURRLL's 'lightness of touch' post but I want to start a new thread. It is related to both but my fear is it is just a little bit off topic for either and I don't want to derail either thread.

I'll try my best the articulate this concept. I don't have it in words in my head so we'll see how it translates to the interwebz. It is also a journey that I am only at the very beginning of.

Take this for what it's worth. These are purely my personal experiences. In thinking about it and working on it I found that the physical side of playing and the mental side are one in the same. This is the reason why it related to both time and lightness of touch.

Due to health issues unrelated to playing, my ever busy gig schedule, and my switch to gut I have spent countless hours over the past 1 1/2 years with my metronome just walking focusing solely on my physical approach. I have always been a technique nerd of sorts but I really started focusing not just on how I was producing the notes but also on the rest of my body. I'll start there.

We put lots of thought into how we produce sound (rh) and our tone and intonation (lh). This focuses on some very specific parts of our body. Our fingers, hands, arms, shoulders, etc. Over the past couple years I have been doing yoga regularly. One of the things that I have the things I have learned is to be aware of EVERY part of my body. Every action is a total body motion. So that was the first journey. I walked a blues for hours and tried to transfer focus to different parts of my body. I felt like I've always had a pretty relaxed approach but to my surprise I found that I liked to carry tension in my glutes and jaw.

Then I started to think that relaxation is as much in the mind as the body. Here's the rub. We think of relaxation as 'shutting off', passive. I've started to realize that relaxation in the instance is more about balance. Things working in synergy. Your muscles, your nervous system, your mind. Turned on instead of shut off. Active. I equate it to balance in a yoga pose. It's not really about physical balance but more about achieving the perfect balance of the systems needed to do whatever activity.

This realization alone did two things for my playing. 1 it made my time feel more relaxed and 2 I was less fatigued after gigs.

It is interesting how the way we carry tension in our bodies changes our time feel. Once I started to relax (in my definition) my feel became less like a series of pelvic thrusts and more suddenly smoother.

It also resulted in me being less tired. It is an act of more existing in the moment. I used to think that the goal in a gig was to be so tired after a gig that I couldn't play another note.

Next this made me start to think about the motivation of what I played. I've been reading Zen in the Art of Archery again and this quote kept coming to mind.

"Be like a child holding a finger. It grips it so firmly that one marvels at the strength of the tiny fist. And when it lets go there is not the slightest jerk. Do you know why? Because the child does not think 'I will let go of the finger and grasp another thing'. Completely unselfconsciously, without purpose it turns from one to the other..."

it goes on

"The right art is purposeless and aimless. The more obstinately you try to learn how to shoot the arrow for the sake of hitting the goal the less you will succeed. What stands in the way is you too much willful will. You think that what you do not do yourself will not happen"

To me this is really about existing in the moment.

More later but feel free to reply in the meantime.

 

[Matt Ides]

Anyone who has trained in yoga or martial arts knows that they key to good technique is being relaxed and knowing when to flex (whatever that may be). Having done a few marathons, bike riding, trained in karate, and now some yoga, I realize that I need to transfer this all to my bass playing. Tight jaw and stiff right leg are my current culprits.

 

[Marc Piane]

What I was surprised by was how the physical adjustment in approach changed my mental approach too.


...and, to be clear, I am thinking of balance in the metaphorical sense.

 

[Huy Nguyen]

Yeah, awareness is a central tool in just about everything in your life. Without it, you can't identify imbalance. You have to be aware of imbalance first before you can start to find equilibrium. You can't "focus" on being aware... it's a state you relax into and then everything becomes a gray mess, but you end up being awake to what's going inside and outside your body.

I try to turn practice into a waking meditation practice sometimes. That really transforms the practicing experience - even just playing scales. I think AT operates from this space. For me, once I feel centered/grounded/aware, then the magic happens. I can start responding in a relaxed manner to my bandmates or begin channeling a sound or energy into my playing. It sounds a little esoteric but it feels fairly palpable. Ideally, I would love to perform all the time from that "waking meditative" state.

OTOH, being out of balance isn't neccessarily bad. As they say in the ski world (paraphrasing): Being in balance isn't want makes you a good skier, it's recovering from being out-of-balance that makes you a good skier. Replace "skier" with "musician" and I think it still applies fairly well. How you intrepret "balance" can create all sorts of different meanings. Balance changes depending on the subject. If you consider imbalance being "Mistakes" and "Not Making Mistakes" the opposite, the phrase applies. I think Miles would agree.

EDIT: One more point just to tie it into the other thread on "Time". I guess what I was trying to say is that I want to build a "rhythmic" awareness into my left hand. In my own playing, I feel that there is an imbalance there, beyond just "touch" and "feel" that DURRL is talking about. So there's my question for folks: Do you feel that your playing feels rhythmic coming solely from the left hand? Can you conceive ideas rhythmically from the left hand and not just the right? Are you aware of the rhythmic differences between the two hands?

 

[Marc Piane]

Do you feel that your playing feels rhythmic coming solely from the left hand? Can you conceive ideas rhythmically from the left hand and not just the right? Are you aware of the rhythmic differences between the two hands?

I used to take a more two handed approach. Since I switch to gut on top and jacked my strings up I have changed that quite a bit. Without the sustain afforded by steel much more of the rhythmic stuff has to come from the right hand. That was actually one of the harder things for me to get used to. Sustain is short and things like hammer-ons and pull-offs don't quite work in the same way. Like I said before, play drums and have spent quite a bit of time working on sticking independence and I also play hand drums so I'm not sure that I HAVE to lead with a dominant hand. That said, from a logistical standpoint, you have to with the setup I have.

I guess this is also what gets you to the point I was suggesting above. Getting past the trying part. Getting past the conception of ideas on an intellectual level. I wholeheartedly agree with the idea that this creates time issues. I takes just enough time from your brain to your hand to mess time up. This is the whole 'child holding a finger' metaphor. But it also requires you to be so cold on your stuff that you can just listen and react. Playing almost becomes an out of body thing. Like standing outside yourself watching yourself play. It is absolute magic when you get that feeling. That's the drug that keeps us coming back. It ain't the paycheck.

 

[Sam Sherry]

We put lots of thought into how we produce sound (rh) and our tone and intonation (lh). This focuses on some very specific parts of our body. Our fingers, hands, arms, shoulders, etc. . . . One of the things that I have the things I have learned is to be aware of EVERY part of my body. Every action is a total body motion.

Through sheer luck I grew up ten minutes away from where Gary Karr was teaching. When I started playing DB I was raised on Gary's approach. What follows is my mangling of that philosophy. All errors are mine exclusively; please don't blame Gary or anybody else.

Gary's technical approach is a conscious effort to approach the double bass, physically, from an ergonomic standpoint. It starts with having the bass BALANCE without the player. The job is for the player, where appropriate, to work the instrument without affecting the natural balance inherent in that standing bass. (That can take decades if, like me, you're a dubber.) When you're in that mode effort by the player to "hold the bass up" is wasted energy.

There are other parts of balance-consciousness to Gary's approach. For example, sometimes he will lean the bass forward, tipping slightly with the bridge toward the floor, so he can use the weight of the instrument to help make his music. If that sounds contradictory, the fault is mine.

Another balance-focused aspect of Gary's approach is about using your whole back to bow, rather than focusing on isolated hand or arm muscles.

There's lots more to it, but your topic and posts brought that to mind. I guess the point I driving at is that physical balance works both ways -- the player and the tool. Ya don't want to ignore either.

I have strayed far from Gary's teaching but I don't doubt that it is the reason I, as a very part-time amateur player, can do what I do without injury.

+ + +

It's also worth noting that a central point of Gary's approach is to be open to HAVING FUN and expressing joy when playing. That's a different kind of balance too, but always relevant.

Do you feel that your playing feels rhythmic coming solely from the left hand? Can you conceive ideas rhythmically from the left hand and not just the right? Are you aware of the rhythmic differences between the two hands?

I worked to be able to play with a lot of rhythmic activity -- pops and rakes and such. I've put time aiming toward being able to "pop" either once or for several beats or even bars using either hand or both hands. The goal is to pop from any note, on any finger, with either hand, either on the same string or across strings, theoretically at any tempo (yeah, right!). And of course TO SEE WHAT DOORS THAT OPENS FOR ME MUSICALLY.


Ah well. Sorry all. "Look, here comes Sam's Giant Ego."

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

In thinking about it and working on it I found that the physical side of playing and the mental side are one in the same. This is the reason why it related to both time and lightness of touch.

Lots of good stuff here, but this really stood out. I played a really nice quintet gig in a listening room last night with some of the best players I know. It was a Sunday, the loadin was a PITA, the stage was this ridiculous platform thing that was way too small and too crowded, and everything about getting to the point where we could actually play was a drag. I felt terrible - exhausted, cranky, aching back and knees, hungry, the works. Then we started to play.

Everything was easy. Time was shared among all five players, and as such was both solid and elastic at the same time. The singer was phrasing some things bars behind the band, sort of an Ella thing, and it was beautiful because everybody knew where "it" was and everybody was playing with and against "it" in counterpoint. The space was there: everybody was getting a great sound not only individually, but in relation to each other. It was a beautiful set from start to finish.

When I got down from the stage, it struck me how I need to learn to live everyday life more like that. When the first tune started, I wasn't worrying about what I would play or anything of the sort; instead, I played the first note, then waited an listened for the right time to play the second one. While I was waiting, I enjoyed the sound of the note I was playing. My body relaxed, fell into rhythm with what was happening collectively, and became one with that. There was no tension anywhere. So often in life, I get worried and tense trying to force an imaginary desired outcome (deadline, etc.) into happening in a certain way and by a certain time. The bottom line is that while this is a common template for my work life, it isn't at all natural.

When you talk about not "shutting off" but rather "turning on", I think that's what I call "letting go". I know what you mean: it's not passive per se, but rather accepting of what is actually happening and letting that thing simply happen. And it does relate to both time and touch. And like you, I also don't really have words for it...

 

[Marc Piane]

It was a Sunday, the loadin was a PITA, the stage was this ridiculous platform thing that was way too small and too crowded, and everything about getting to the point where we could actually play was a drag. I felt terrible - exhausted, cranky, aching back and knees, hungry, the works.
...When I got down from the stage, it struck me how I need to learn to live everyday life more like that...
...So often in life, I get worried and tense trying to force an imaginary desired outcome (deadline, etc.) into happening in a certain way and by a certain time. The bottom line is that while this is a common template for my work life, it isn't at all natural...
...I know what you mean: it's not passive per se, but rather accepting of what is actually happening and letting that thing simply happen.

I know one thing I've had to work on over the years is not letting all the extra stuff bother me. It's really hard. I know when I'm practicing at home I pour a fresh cup of coffee, grab a little snack, go into my man cave, and shut the door. I'm fed, caffeinated, and it is silent. This is the polar opposite to most gigs. It's loud, the stage is too small, the bartender is too busy to serve you, some drunk jerk is talking so loud to the drunk girl he is obviously going to have sloppy drunken sex with night that you can't play a ballad or worse yet a bass solo, and some other jackhole thinks he is a comedian by yelling 'Freebird' at the stage.

So then the trick is getting in that same creative 'zone' when this stuff happens. Maybe we can share some of the things we do to shut that stuff off. Partially from just doing lots of gigs in these situations I've gotten good at shutting it off. Also playing with great players helps. I know for myself shutting my eyes, breathing deep, and only focusing on the music helps too. I'll also often go for a walk during set breaks. I find that just taking a little break from all the hustle and bustle helps me rein my mind in a bit.

What stuff do you do?

I agree 100% with the way a work schedule feels unnatural. I think the only way to do that is to suck it up and do what I call "powering your way through it".

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

I know one thing I've had to work on over the years is not letting all the extra stuff bother me. It's really hard. I know when I'm practicing at home I pour a fresh cup of coffee, grab a little snack, go into my man cave, and shut the door. I'm fed, caffeinated, and it is silent.

Exactly the same. The one difference is that as an extremely OCD nutcase, I have to get to the place in my mind where I feel I have earned the right to go into the cave and shut the door (between work, family, financial responsibility, etc.). Once in there, once my butt hits the stool I'm usually fine as long as I'm not too tired from taking care of all the other stuff to get anything done. I'm working on finding this "balance" as well. My wife is wonderful in this regard - she knows that I need a certain amount of "touch time" with the bass to be in balance, sometimes better than I do. I'm trying to get to the point where I've got life parameters set up to "justify" this time more easily in my mind.

So then the trick is getting in that same creative 'zone' when this stuff happens. Maybe we can share some of the things we do to shut that stuff off. Partially from just doing lots of gigs in these situations I've gotten good at shutting it off. Also playing with great players helps.

What stuff do you do?

Lately, I'm kind of in the FOGHORN ZONE with gigs because my gig at the university is really a day gig even though it's music related. The more I learn to see it that way, the better off I am. It also means that I'm playing less gigs, but playing better gigs in that I only play with players I like to play with 95% of the time. This makes it easy once the downbeat hits.

For the most part, I try to view the music to be the place where I "let go, and let god..." (in my own personal agnostic/panthiest kind of way); another way to put that is that when I play, it's the time I just let go of all the worries and multitasking bull**** that daily life pushes on us in this insane world where hundreds of things vie for our attention every minute. It's the one time (with a couple of non-music related exceptions) when I get to do one thing and one thing only. As long as the other players are good and not too caught up in their own personal echo chambers for whatever reason, getting into that space is pretty easy. Trying to drag another player out of their own head and into THE SPACE is a real drag, but sometimes others help me accomplish a musical rectal/cranial extraction by bringing the heat, so I try to do the same whenever possible. The one recurring thing that keeps me from this, my own personal demon, is called TRYING TOO HARD, and I have to fight him/her/it sometimes.

I agree 100% with the way a work schedule feels unnatural. I think the only way to do that is to suck it up and do what I call "powering your way through it".

Agreed, and it's what responsible people do to get stuff done that needs to get done. What I'm wondering, though - and what I tried to allude to above - is whether I can't take a life cue from the good playing vibe that i get into most times these days. Shouldn't all of life have the possibility of that same balance we are discussing? And if so, shouldn't I be more mindful of being open to learning that art? I haven't done yoga, but as Matt mentions above all the training I've had in martial arts (multiple years in 3 different arts at various stages of life) points to *exactly* the same thing; sure, I am a low-midranking neophyte at that stuff, but it's trying to put my head and body into the same place, which is a large part of why I do it. And when I don't, I get injured (walking around with a sprained ACL for the past 2 months because of stupidly resisting something in a BJJ class that I should have let go and flowed with instead), which is an amazing reminder of this lesson.

Just thinking out loud. Nice thread.

 

[jdepriest]

this thread reminded me of this book. It's a great read for musicians. it's helped me focus and relax while playing. I hadnt noticed the tension I was playing with till after i went throught these steps. Now I can play faster, my sound got bigger and I can really dig in more for longer periods of time and my intonation got better.

Amazon.com: Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Master Musician Within (Book + CD set) (9781562240035): Kenny Werner: Books

 

[Huy Nguyen]

Aha! Marc... your mentioning of the Zen of Archery rang a huge bell for me. Not so much the quote but I've done something similar (knife throwing) and my experience with Aikido is really chiming with the concept of awareness post-act. Meaning that there is a mental or awareness connection with an arrow/knife after it has left the bow/hand. It's not about hitting on target, but your state of mind and your connection with that which you just launched all the way to the target. There's no difference between firing off an arrow and banging out quarter notes. DURRL, you would know this as the idea of staying connected with your partner after you've thrown them on the mat. You're no longer physically contacting them but your'e totally aware of them, their space, and their intentions.

I wrestled with this last night and realized that I cut off my notes haphazardly in a time sense - I dont' stay connected with them even after they stopped ringing on the strings. It's hard to describe. I guess I was wrong before - my problem isn't that I'm not rhythmic but rather I'm too stuck in the world of conception in my head and not being in that physical/mental space you guys are talking about. So hard to describe... how about a few terms from the martial arts world: Zanshin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - what' I'm referring to in the above. Mindful state before, during, and after a particular action.

I think what you guys are looking for in the last couple of posts is Mushin.
Mushin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Proof's in the pudding? I just recorded this like 15 min ago. I've struggled for over a year with it, esp my time sense and not losing my place without accompaniment. This is the best I've ever done. My intent was to focus on keeping my pulse and time feel without clobbering the tempo. I usually record myself playing and listen afterwards to check if I drag or rush.

Solo mio: Ornithology by Huy Nguyen 12 on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

There's one gross clam but wth.

 

[Marc Piane]

this thread reminded me of this book. It's a great read for musicians. it's helped me focus and relax while playing. I hadnt noticed the tension I was playing with till after i went throught these steps. Now I can play faster, my sound got bigger and I can really dig in more for longer periods of time and my intonation got better.

Amazon.com: Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Master Musician Within (Book + CD set) (9781562240035): Kenny Werner: Books

Indeed. A must read for any musician. I'd encourage anyone to read Zen in the Art of Archery. I think this is where all the Zen in the Art of ... books originated and where Werner got many of his ideas. It is sorta the grandpapa of these self help type books.

 

[Marc Piane]

There's no difference between firing off an arrow and banging out quarter notes.

Exactly!!!

I'll have to look into more of the Martial Arts stuff. From what I gather from talking to friends that do Tai Chi and all varieties or martial arts and yoga there is really conceptually no difference in the mind body connection. One of my friends is a sharp shooter and many of the concepts transfer. Even elite runners, cyclists, triathelete, etc.

Your clip sounds good. Time seems pretty good. Phasing is nice. Now what I'd encourage is space. I know what I often do is play extra stuff to fill space and help keep time. Resist. It is really hard but your ideas with be more compelling and melodic. Try this. Don't play anything unless you hear it. Maybe that's what you do but at least for myself that made me more deliberate and purposeful. The word that I try to apply in evaluating everything I play is "clarity".

 

[Ed Fuqua]

DURRRL - Foghorn Zone?

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

I think what you guys are looking for in the last couple of posts is Mushin.
Mushin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

That's exactly it. I love it that the definition also includes "They also practice this mental state during everyday activities. " Kind of what I've been thinking out lately and trying to describe in this thread.

DURRRL - Foghorn Zone?

I just meant that you have a day gig to pay the bills, which allows you to pick and choose playing opportunities that will be meaningful to you instead of scuffling as a musician and having to take every crappy gig that comes along just to pay the bills even if said gig is likely to suck life out of your musical soul instead of feeding it. I used to think of my university gig as music related anough that it could be its own labor of love, but really only the teaching time with the students is anything at all like that. The rest is just like any other day gig for a paycheck, and I need to keep that in mind and in perspective.

 

[Huy Nguyen]

Cool. I think this conversation is actually going somewhere.

this thread reminded me of this book. It's a great read for musicians. it's helped me focus and relax while playing. I hadnt noticed the tension I was playing with till after i went throught these steps. Now I can play faster, my sound got bigger and I can really dig in more for longer periods of time and my intonation got better.

Amazon.com: Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Master Musician Within (Book + CD set) (9781562240035): Kenny Werner: Books

My problem with Kenny Werner's stuff (I have pretty much all of it), is that it's a little too lofty and esoteric. He talks alot in a New Agey manner that isn't really that grounded in much. It's like he dabbles a few concepts here and there and tries to cobble them together. This stuff is so vague the definition changes depending on the person. OTOH, the stuff I'm presenting is not new - it's been around for hundreds of years and I'm not trying to reinterpret anything. Martial artists have been learning and relearning the same concepts over and over.

I think if anyone is sort of interested in this thing but have no exposure to it, I would recommend that you don't bother with reading books to try to understand it. Nothing beats experience. Enroll for a couple months in Aikido, Tai Chi, Judo, Yoga, Meditation, something like that as a consistent practice. Learn the concepts, throw out what you don't like and personalize it for yourself. Otherwise it's a bunch of new age gobbledy gook. It never hurts to learn the same or similar concepts from a different perspective. Expose yourself to something new and figure out your own way to interpret things to suit your needs.

From what I gather from talking to friends that do Tai Chi and all varieties or martial arts and yoga there is really conceptually no difference in the mind body connection. One of my friends is a sharp shooter and many of the concepts transfer. Even elite runners, cyclists, triathelete, etc.

If you re-read that Wiki entry on Mushin, replace words like "combat" with performance, martial artist or fighter with "musician", and the application is pretty clear. Some of my siblings are into long distance shooting and the application of Zen in the art of Archery def applies to firing rifles. Still, I have an strong inclination toward the Japanese arts as they tend to try to distill things into concrete concepts that are a little bit easier to understand (like the two terms I provided). Yes you can understand these things from other disciplines but it's a little easier if you approach it from a Zen aspect.

Your clip sounds good. Time seems pretty good. Phasing is nice. Now what I'd encourage is space. I know what I often do is play extra stuff to fill space and help keep time. Resist. It is really hard but your ideas with be more compelling and melodic. Try this. Don't play anything unless you hear it. Maybe that's what you do but at least for myself that made me more deliberate and purposeful. The word that I try to apply in evaluating everything I play is "clarity".

Thanks. Yeah - more spaces. Baby steps. I don't know if you've ever done Kyudo (Japanese Archery), but generally stuff like that they start you off with shooting targets at point blank. As you get better, the distances increase as it's harder to stay "connected" to the arrow the longer it has to travel. Certainly there's more of a gravitas toward long tones and phrases with spaces so long as the intent is there.

I think it's worth splitting hairs with this conception vs. execution thing. I think it's one thing to conceive a musical idea, by "hearing" it or thinking it through, but it's another thing to actually execute it. Just hearing phrases alone isn't enough, you have to be able to have the technical ability to execute it, and more importantly an "intention" or conviction to actually carry it through.

Ferinstance, I come up with all sorts of cool **** in my head, but fear of mistakes or simply making mistakes will get in the way. At my level, I don't neccessarily have my technique **** together to fully execute, but at the same time I don't neccessarily have the complete intention or conviction to stick to those phrases. Simply put: I chicken out. I'll play other garbage drilled into my fingers that I know sounds ok. The end result is that I'm just 95% of the time banging stuff out to see what sticks. Treading water.

So out of my two choruses soloing, there's probably about 4 bars total that have any real chutzpah behind it in terms of phrasing - if that. My next task is to actually stick with playing just inside **** but have an intention for all phrases. Easier said than done.

Thanks for the sounding board guys. It's at least getting me somewhere so I owe you all beers.

 

[Marc Piane]

While I agree that the Werner stuff is a little new agey I think any off this stuff is to some. Let's face facts. I'm an Italian guy from the south side of Chicago. Most people around here would consider Zen or Yoga to be New Age. Books about it would be in the New Age section of the book store. The trick is just finding something that speaks to you.

There isn't a more enlightened way and I don't want to come off as someone who has 'found the way'. Any artist/musician finds inspiration all around. For me sometimes it is a performance, a recording, a hike, a method, a conversation, or other. This time I was going through a particularly dark time physically and that is when I started looking into Yoga. But in the interest of 'balance' I also made some adjustments to my diet, my exercise routine, my practice routine, and more generally how I was spending my time. It's the life 'balance' stuff that I think DURRLL is alluding to.

The thing that was interesting though was that I did not go into it expecting my outlook to change but like any life change it had an influence on how I was looking at playing from a variety of angles. I have been playing for 22 years. I was looking for a rut-buster and found one in an unusual place.

Maybe it's a bunch of hooey and I'll look back on this thread and laugh. I know right now that thinking about the connection and synergy between the physical and mental approach has been a bit of an eye opener for me. It has changed my playing and teaching.

If I weren't about to go teach I'd start drinking.

 

[Marc Piane]

Incidentally one of my more advanced students that I talk about this stuff with thinks I should write a book on the physical and mental approach to playing. I feel like an ******* claiming to know something about this but it is something rolling around in my head (and giving me a headache.)

 

[Marc Piane]

I think it's worth splitting hairs with this conception vs. execution thing. I think it's one thing to conceive a musical idea, by "hearing" it or thinking it through, but it's another thing to actually execute it. Just hearing phrases alone isn't enough, you have to be able to have the technical ability to execute it, and more importantly an "intention" or conviction to actually carry it through.

Ferinstance, I come up with all sorts of cool **** in my head, but fear of mistakes or simply making mistakes will get in the way. At my level, I don't neccessarily have my technique **** together to fully execute, but at the same time I don't neccessarily have the complete intention or conviction to stick to those phrases. Simply put: I chicken out. I'll play other garbage drilled into my fingers that I know sounds ok. The end result is that I'm just 95% of the time banging stuff out to see what sticks. Treading water.

So out of my two choruses soloing, there's probably about 4 bars total that have any real chutzpah behind it in terms of phrasing - if that. My next task is to actually stick with playing just inside **** but have an intention for all phrases. Easier said than done.

I thought about the conception vs. execution thing a bit and offer this. We talk a bunch about 'hearing' lines and I totally know what you are saying. I can hear plenty of lines I can't play. I think there is a knack though to getting your conception and your execution in sync.

I've got a project in the studio right now but if I have a minute I'll try to record a clip of what I mean.

 

[Marc Piane]

So I was swamped in the studio with this spoken word project and had to get out in the sun during my break. I did think more about the conception vs. execution thing. I think all of us have gone though a phase where we wanted to rip Coltrane lines but it sounded like poop on the bass. I know it is kind of a tangent but what techniques have you used to get those more in line?