Chris Michalek wrote:
If you truly want to go where no man has gone before > play the music
that's in your head. Listen to the tone, >flavors, rhythms, colors,
shapes that come to you >naturally....
That sounds great, but at some point you have to think about something.
You need some sort of structure in order to get to that point where you
can play the flavors and rhythms in your head, or get back to that point
when the critical mind steps in and bumps you off course. Don't you
think??
I know that Dennis Gruenling thinks in terms of scale degrees, Jon Gindick
in terms of melody, David Barrett thinks in terms of riffs and and their
placement within the twelve bar format (verse forms), and Larry thinks in
terms of notes. I've spent a lot of time around all four of these guys and
all four approaches are definitely working for them. I've seen them all
regularly get into that zone where it's clear they aren't thinking at all,
similar to what you described above. Different approaches, but in essence,
the same result.
You did mention thinking in colors while playing which I found
interesting.
From what I understand colors come from the right side of the brain, which
would make it impossible to self judge and criticize yourself if you're
seeing the music as colors in your head while playing. Dennis has got me
going on scale degrees again after a few fits and starts and I was
thinking about assigning a color to each scale degree. Anything to get
that critical mind out of the way, which is the toughest thing for me,
especially when playing out in public..
Mark
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