Re: My Blog - Journey to music mastery
pwrightyp wrote:
If you have made it this far (I'm off work sick so I have time to waffle, sorry) I guess I have a question for you.... Do you perceive your journey ending at a particular point of 'Mastery'? In which case what do you envision Mastery to look/sound like? Playing like Greg or Bob? Someone else? Something else? Or do you perceive the journey to never end, as there is always something else to strive for? In which case, as you did mention getting older, are you possibly setting yourself up for frustration rather than enjoying the process and the instrument?
I would love to hear your reflections on this question Pete, (and also Jason's who I know is a very determined practicer keen to strive and achieve the top levels of playing, and because of that is destined to.)
Thanks Paul, Good questions actually and glad to be able to respond to them.
I have NO desire to play like anyone else although Greg and Bob are true masters in their own right for sure! No, my interpretation of "mastery" on 2 handed tapping is to be able to play anything I hear without having to "learn or relearn" particular aspects of a piece.
For example, the song by the Dixie Dreggs "Assembly Line" (if you haven't heard this check it out on youtube or such). I want to be able to play that type of bass line and be able to solo without spending weeks getting the 2 hands to "merge" together.
Someone recently posted that there really isn't such a thing as 2 hand independence, rather interdependence both hands moving together or apart with a certain space of time. I've made huge gains in this area but nowhere near where I want to be. Example is the tune from Frank Gamable "Leave Ozone Alone" on this tune the Bass has a very syncopated and slap bass feel with a very nice melody line on the guitar. I can play this! It took a long time to be able to sync the 2 hands but I had to prove I could do it. Same with Just comping chords and playing intricate bass patterns like in the tune "Teen Town" that I posted on this forum. So this is the direction that I'm heading in.
The purpose of Mastery for my needs stems from the fact that with all the gigs I've performed on Chapman Stick, I never actually "soloed"! Typically the keyboard and horns I had in my band did that when I played Stick. So now that I'm eyeing retirement I want to be more than proficient at soloing over a bass groove. I'm NOT working on repertoire right now only technique and a few songs for my youtube channel just to keep the fire going!
Next up for my video ideas are the tunes "Red Clay" by Freddie Hubbard and "Four on Six" by Wes Montgomery but I'm kind of taking my time before making another video. Soloing on "Four on Six" is pretty challenging for me at this time so most likely "Red Clay" will be next but not for another few months, I really want to finish up Jamey Aebersolds ii/V/I book then get back to the Frank Gambale Techinque book 1. These books have been wonderful and forced me to learn these licks in all twelve keys. My adaptation for 2 handed instruments has been to have a walking bass on every exercise! So that's a lot of moving around and its forcing me to learn where the notes are!
Ok sorry to ramble but I'm out of time, thanks again!