Author Topic: Practice  (Read 964 times)

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Offline Wendellfiddler

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Re: Practice
« Reply #30 on: January 10, 2025, 05:51:05 PM »
I choose a tune from my difficult key list and play it until I'm tired of it and then choose another.  Some recent ones:  Scuttlebut (artie Shaw) in Eb, Comes Love in Cm, All the Things You Are in Ab, or a tune that's easy on the Saxaphone but not on the chomatic, "Now's the Time" of "Moanin".   I've been trying to become proficient on the most widely played horn tunes in preparation for the next time I get into a jazz jam attendance phase (which I haven't been in for a while now - busy with my usual bands.   

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Offline Age

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Re: Practice
« Reply #31 on: January 10, 2025, 07:46:51 PM »
That's the danger of practice a difficult number. If you do it till you really nail it, you can sometimes get so tired of it that you don't wanna play it anymore. Practice has a way of ruining some numbers for me.

If I really like a difficult number and want to continue liking it, I play it a justa few times, then I go on about my other playing. YMMV but the way it works for me is that when I come back to that number, I find it somewhat easier than the last time, without my actually practicing it, and that turns out to be quite uplifting. (I love me some good uplifting ;D) It shows, in no uncertain terms, that I must have gotten better. (What else could it be??)

I never wanna go "Tiny Bubbles" (Don Ho) on a number that I yoosta like. ;D
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Offline smojoe

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Re: Practice
« Reply #32 on: January 10, 2025, 08:49:27 PM »
I'm with A.J. So...to keep from disliking a tune due to repetition (Like Barb Steisand no longer wanted to sing 'People', I pick a tune thats similar. One I don't like that much BUT has a siumilar structure. That way I can keep playing my favorites without that famous 12 days of Christmas YUCK. Luckily a lot of my favorites aren't exactly the old old 'standards'. Stuff like: Afro Blue, Primitivo, Straight no chaser, El condor passa, etc. lolol

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Offline Grizzly

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Re: Practice
« Reply #33 on: January 10, 2025, 11:11:08 PM »
That's the danger of practice a difficult number. If you do it till you really nail it, you can sometimes get so tired of it that you don't wanna play it anymore. Practice has a way of ruining some numbers for me.

If I really like a difficult number and want to continue liking it, I play it a justa few times, then I go on about my other playing. YMMV but the way it works for me is that when I come back to that number, I find it somewhat easier than the last time, without my actually practicing it, and that turns out to be quite uplifting. (I love me some good uplifting ;D) It shows, in no uncertain terms, that I must have gotten better. (What else could it be??)

I never wanna go "Tiny Bubbles" (Don Ho) on a number that I yoosta like. ;D
Your second paragraph is very true. Letting something percolate is part of the learning process.The subconscious keeps working on while you're doing other things, or even sleeping on it.

Your first paragraph reminds me of something I tell my performing groups. You may work a piece to death and come to hate it, but what keeps it fresh is remembering that your audience only hears your version once to your thousands. And getting the boring basics gives you the opportunity to refine, refine, refine.

Tom
working on my second 10,000!