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6 November 2008
Jeez, I'm bad at this.
One of the better days I've had practicing. I'm trying to get my chops up, because I really want to be able to play with both hands adeptly. The problem isn't my left hand by itself. In fact, I'd say I use my non-primary hand more than most people. I even mouse with it most of the time. As far as playing, it's probably no worse than my right hand. No, the trick is separating your brain so that both hands play the instrument independently.
The first step seems to get the left hand on autopilot, where it's just playing a repeated figure while the right hand plays other stuff. Really, that's not quite enough for me, though. Ideally, both hands can play independent, even improvisational lines at the same time. I don't know if I'll ever get there. First I have to simply get the left hand to not screw up and lose its place while the right hand plays. I'll need to spend a lot of time working on this, and I realized that I needed to go back to some pretty basic pieces to build upon.
I also went back to another piece I've been playing and found my notes on a comping section. This is where you pay the tune, then you play a simplified version to accompany or "comp" behind another performer, then perhaps you play a solo, and then you go back to the "head" or beginning of the tune and play the full version again. Comping and soloing can be repeated as many times as you wish in order to let everyone take solos. At least, that's how it's done in jazz. 😉 Finding how to comp on that tune did two things. First was to show me that I wasn't really paying attention to tempo, and second, it will help me do similar arrangements of other songs.
I've written a few songs lately, but only one is complete enough to bring to the band. For various reasons, we never got to it the last two jams. I hope we can try it for the next one. I still need to finish up the other songs I've been talking about.
Lastly, I've been considering trying to get gigs as a hired gun with other bands around town. I'm not really sure how to approach this. I probably need to get out more, go to some more blues jams, and see what happens. If I sit in with some people and they don't invite me back, there's my answer.
Posted 2008 11 06 at 6:23 AM
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