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"Feel" vs. Sheet Music

G

grifff

Jan 5, 2009
1,211
58
#1
1. When I'm reading a piece of music while playing along with other musicians I don't necessarily count out all the rests, I just sort of "feel" where they go and the sheet music just acts as a visual aid. Does anyone else do the same thing? Is it a problem?
 
#2
grifff said:
1. When I'm reading a piece of music while playing along with other musicians I don't necessarily count out all the rests, I just sort of "feel" where they go and the sheet music just acts as a visual aid. Does anyone else do the same thing? Is it a problem?
Click to expand...

Well, I guess it depends on whether you are "feeling" the rests correctly. It reminds me of the story about Frank Foster:

"Some time ago, the tenor saxophonist Frank Foster was playing a street concert from the Jazzmobile in Harlem. He called for a blues in B-flat. A young tenor player began to play "out" from the first chorus, playing sounds that had no relationship to the harmonic progression or rhythmic setting. Foster stopped him. "What are you doing?" "Just playing what I feel." "Well, feel something in B-flat, *********."
Click to expand...
 
#6
I do count out the basic 1 2 3 4 in 4/4, but when it gets down to the eighth and sixteenth note rests I find that it's much easier to just feel where the rests are than to have to count those out. If I had a problem and I kept coming in too early, you bet I would count it all out. Maybe I'm just lazy?

Take Jaco's "The Chicken" for example. I can't possibly count those rests out, it's easier to just feel where they are supposed to be.
 
#7
If you're asking about something you see as a potential deficiency, then you should work on it. No reason you can't count out rests if you can count out notes. Knowing how might save your ass one day ;)
 
#8
I count the rests. On the other hand, if it's something really simple I will count the rests until the rhythm is internalized, and then have a better handle on how it feels.

Subdividing helps with more complex rhythms.
 
#11
grifff said:
1. When I'm reading a piece of music while playing along with other musicians I don't necessarily count out all the rests, I just sort of "feel" where they go and the sheet music just acts as a visual aid. Does anyone else do the same thing? Is it a problem?
Click to expand...

I guess that depends. If you're playing something that has specific parts for you to play that other people are depending on, then yes, it's a problem. If you're reading a piano chart and "faking" the bass part, probably not.

That said, you really should try and do both. Jazz eighth notes look the same as classical eighth notes on paper, but they're definitely felt and played differently. For example, last summer I was in the pit for RENT. The song "Santa Fe" is pretty much a bass solo with some vocals over top of it. The sheet music was written in 3/4.

Listen to the CD of the original cast recording; the song is FELT in 6/8. The sheet music was correct in the notes, but the feel was all wrong. It took a compromise between the feel and the sheet music to really make the song "sing" and get the singer to do his thing.
 
#12
It does depend. If you play my gigs, where the other guys use sheet music to wipe up oil in the garage (assuming they have a garage, much less care about the oil on the floor), then it doesn't matter. OTOH, if you are recording a new theme for NPR's Morning Edition and you don't care about where the rests are then there will be a new bass player after lunch.
 

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