Re: [Harp-L] re: mind and improvisation

[fjm <bad_hat@xxxxxxxx>]

> If you don't feel comfortable, you don't play comfortably.



True.  I think what practice can get you is a much wider range of 
comfortable.  That and an ability to recover or correct.  We sometimes 
play out with a guitarist. She has an extraordinary ability to play with 
just about anyone.  She plays with a band (not her band) I will not sit 
in with.  The rhythm section is too choppy for me.  She makes it work. 
She has a much wider range of comfortable than I currently have.  A lot 
of what we discuss here is about creating comfortable on a stage. 
Fussing with amplifiers, Seydel vs Hohner, altered tunings, chromatic or 
diatonic, sound pressure levels on stage, what mic, how to practice, how 
much practice, standard notation vs winging it etc.  Oddly something so 
broadly common to playing in any setting, comfort, is also the core of 
much disagreement here because of course what makes any one person 
comfortable on a stage is subjective and personal as well as plastic and 
situational.  Being uncomfortable playing is also uncomfortable. 
Personally it makes me somewhat insecure and defensive.  It's also a 
subject that can be more than a little scary to talk about in a large 
group because you are dealing with insecurities and feelings.  fjm