When I started to learn to play with others, something that I’m still learning, there were a few things that helped.
First, and formost, I had to learn to listen more and better. I had to learn to hear 2 or more things at the same time. For example hearing both the fiddle and the whistle playing together. This was a change for me because I tended to listen to just one thing, I would listen to the dominant tone depending on which instrument was playing it.
One of my early music teachers in school taught us to appreciate the music on a deeper level. She taught us to hear what each instrument was doing in the piece individually first. She then lead us to focus on what the instruments were doing together in the orchestra or other ensemble.
One thing that helped was pretending to conduct the group. Leading one instrument with my right hand and another with my left.
You can try this. Try to put on your favorite CD, for example one with a fiddle, flute, and guitar or bodhran. Lead the fiddle with your left hand, the whistle with your right hand, and tap you feet along with the guitar/bodhran.
The other thing that helped was learning how to overcome mistakes. When I make a mistake, I tend to stop. In everything else in life this works so I can quickly go back and fix the mistake. In music it doesn’t work. In music you can’t go back. So instead I had to learn how to join in. I knew no matter what, I would alway tend to stop. That was okay as long as I could join back in. To learn this I had a couple of teachers who used to conduct us to ‘join in’. On the elementary level, it was ‘join in’ for the chorus of a song. Later it was join in starting at the 2nd or 3rd or whatever measure. As you learn to do this, more and more you get to be quicker at it. Eventually you join in at the next note which is what ‘playing through’ is, it is simply joining back in on the next note.
To practice this anyone can play both their instruments. Yes, everyone has at least two instruments. We have the one that plays in our heads when we’re remembering a tune, and the one that we play with fingers and breath. Most of the time what I’m playing with fingers and breath is simply trying to copy the instrument that I an playing in my head.
When I learn a tune it usually starts in my head and my fingers and breath join in; usually at the beginning of the first part after my head has played the tune through once or at least the last couple of bars to establish the rythmn and feel of the tune.
So practice letting your hand instrument ‘join in’ with your head instrument at a variety of points in the tune, instead of just at the beginning. You can even play switches with a measure in the head, a bar in the hands, a measure in the head, and the next measure in both. Since the instrument in our heads doesn’t have to be the same as in the hands, you could play fiddle in your head and flute in your hands as you change off.
Learning to ‘join in’ will also pays off when you sit down in a session where they don’t announce what they are going to play. They just start. It may take a couple of bars to recognize which tune they are playing. If you’ve practiced joining in at various places in the tune, you won’t have to wait until the second time through to start playing.
Another part of playing with others is surrendering control. You have to let go. You have to let the group determine the pace and even maybe the timbre of the tune.
The slow down types of software that plays recording at different speeds, helps with this process. You can slow the tune down to various speeds and practice playing with the recording at the various speeds. Playing very slow, just slow, a little faster, and fingers on fire fast. Starting with several slow speeds say 60, 75, and 80 percent of the original, will give you the chance to get the tune’s notes down while also practicing yielding control of the tempo.
On a few occasions, letting go, sparks the magic. By magic, I mean, that point where I am no longer listening to 2 or 3 instruments playing together, I am listening to the group. In fact I am no longer listening and playing, I am simply in the music. Living each moment as it arrives with all the texture and depth that the tune, the companions, and the venue weave together.
Hands, breath, ears, heart flow with the music. For me this is what it means to play ‘with’ others and not just ‘for’ other.
I warn you this connection to others, the music, and the life in tune is addictive. Once tasted, it is an appetite that can swell and lead to all sorts bizzare behaviors: bursts of laughter, tear of eye, bouncing feet, nodding heads, soaring heart. Yep, addictive in the extreme. You will find yourself willing to do all these thing just so you can …
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Enjoy Your Music,
Lee Marsh
[ This Message was edited by: LeeMarsh on 2002-09-11 11:29 ]
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