My philosophy exactly. I would add that we are listening to the other musicians in a multiple conversation. The really value of music is that the audience is really listening to the musicians selfless cooperation with each other...
And in a couple of weeks I make a small look through the book. It's genius. Remember to keep watching. There are some super nice stuff in the book. Working out the video now. :)
Good advice, yes it IS good to tap into 'the inner listener' that each of us is and has and to be able to respond to it. But, to have the tools to be able to EXECUTE what that 'inner listener' hears? That's where the proverbial 'ten thousand hours' of practice comes in, to prepare your body to be able to respond to your 'inner listener' and to be able to execute what you are 'hearing'.
Well said! It's all the skills that matter and the combination of the skills. And we need to be able to access all the skills at the same time when making music
I never really understood when people say " play what you hear". Is that supposed to be taken literally? Are they saying that you should have everything in your head before you play it? Who does that? When I play, I have a certain vocabulary and I play from that, mixing things up, trying to swing and trying to play melodically through the changes, I'm not hearing what I play in my head before I play it. I also never understood Sonny Rollins' quote "you can't think and play at the same time", I don't know about you guys, but I'm thinking while I'm playing. Maybe it means don't get so in your head about the theory and try to play in the moment and interact with the other musicians, but even then, you're still thinking. Perhaps these things are meant to be poetic and not taken so literally, but I'm not a genius so maybe there are people that play like that. I always wondered what is happening in Keith Jarrett's mind when he plays 🤔
Keith said pretty recently that he lets his hands just play because if he told himself what to play it wouldn’t be nearly as good. Take that for what it is but I think it essentially means what Parker said, learn your instrument thoroughly and then forget about it. That also implies what Rollin’s is saying about not thinking. But it takes years to become aware of this paradigm because jazz players are taught to keep trying new scales, arpeggios, concepts and of course the way to initially apply those is to think.
Of course it's almost impossible to hear every single little thing you play. The only way to know if you can hear something is if you can sing it - try singing as you finger your instrument. At first you might find that you almost can't do any of the things you usually do. I think that's a sign that you need to work on your hearing. But eventually you will learn that the ear is actually much more powerful than your thoughts if you give it your attention. That's why when we imagine some "killing" music, we can sort of hear it. So if you just make your hearing clearer, you will be great just by nature of that. This is also why so many musicians, including keith jarrett, sing as they play. Of course their voice isn't as trained as their hands, and there are many things you can do on instrumetns that are unthinkable with the voice. But still, the sound of the instrument comes out of an idea of what they want to play, that comes from the place inside their mind/heart that relates to music.
Play what you hear, well try working on it. You hear your vocabulary, because when you play I bet you do not think about the D7 scala from the F# to C and then continue in the scale etc. So you hear your vocab. But the more you listen the better you begin to connect the lines and listen to what actually fits in the musical setting around you. Not just playing you, but playing into the music, having musical conversations with your fellow musicians. I am working on this as a crazy person, trying to really play what pops into my head. It's lots of fun, because you become so aware of what you play, because you listen and react to your own playing, trying to fit the whole thing together. My 5 cents
You also need to continually add new melodies and phrases from your fav players to what’s in your head. Those end up in your solos and make them more enjoyable to the listeners.
