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Best musical advice you ever got

"Time is not a magazine"- Vernon Porter told me this one night after a gig. I had rushed on a couple tunes, and he pointed it out to me in no uncertain terms.

"You aren't getting paid by the note!"- Vernon Porter

"You can play one note all night long, and if it is the right one, in the right place, you'll slay people with the groove."-Vernon Porter
 
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Charlie Parker said (and I'm paraphrasing because I can't find the exact quote)- "Learn your scales, your arpeggios, and practice all of them. Then get up there, forget all that #%&* and play music!" The point being that you need that intellectual background to get your ears, hands, and brain ready to play. But don't forget that it's only tools to communicate, they're NOT the communication.

And, from Duke Ellington (and this is an exact quote I heard on the radio one day a few years ago- the loclal NPR station was celebrating Duke's birthday). He'd been asked what to call his music and he replied. "There are only two kinds of music. Music that sounds good, and whatever you want to call that other stuff."

And from a most interesting person who hangs ('net wise) at The Bottom Line (TBL Bass Digest). "Without space, music is just noise piling up on itself." That should be the first lesson every musician learns.

jte
 
And, from Duke Ellington (and this is an exact quote I heard on the radio one day a few years ago- the loclal NPR station was celebrating Duke's birthday). He'd been asked what to call his music and he replied. "There are only two kinds of music. Music that sounds good, and whatever you want to call that other stuff."

Heh. That's a variation (I don't know which came first) the classic:

"What kind of music do you like?"

"The good kind, what kind do you like?"
 
A guy once said to me "You got to get mad at it or don't bother at all."

Actually, with his Newfie accent it was more like "Son, ya gotta get mad at it or don't bodder a-tall."


In other words, play with passion.
 
"You're playing great (I wasn't) but you look like you dropped your pick over there (pointed just past my headstock) and you've spent all night looking for it. You don't need to look at your left hand all the time, or even much at all." This from a guitar player in a band I was in long ago. He was right, I weaned myself off it and life got much better. I even look less nerdy on stage, and I need all the help with that I can get.
 
A guy once said to me "You got to get mad at it or don't bother at all."

Actually, with his Newfie accent it was more like "Son, ya gotta get mad at it or don't bodder a-tall."


In other words, play with passion.

I love Newfies :) A Newfie is staying at my gf's house, I get a kick out of just listening to her talk.

As for advice, "I don't think you're going to get anywhere with music" - my mother, shortly after I had started playing guitar. Here I am 14 years later, still playing and busting my hump at playing well (my mom has since retracted her statement since she sees how much effort I've put in to playing).