July 08, 2005
A great teacher, and other things...
I had my first lesson in about a month the other day with my guitar teacher, Harry Jacobsen. I really feel compelled to say a few things about Harry.
I met him last summer at the National Guitar Workshop I went to in Austin, TX. I heard him play at the faculty concert, and the next day told my blues teacher how blown away I was by Harry. My teacher (Paul Metzger, another great guy) told me that Harry lives in my area and he was pretty sure he gave private lessons! I introduced myself to him later in the week and was pretty jazzed (no pun intended) to find out that he lived very close to me and could fit me into his schedule!
Well, almost a year later I’m still taking lessons with him as often as I can afford to. And I gotta say, I’m a lucky gal. Harry is one of those rare combinations of incredible talent, awesome (and patient) teacher, and wonderful person, all wrapped up into one. Everyone has their own learning style. Some thrive on being told what they can’t do, I’m not one of those. I need positive feedback and support, and Harry is reaaaaally good at that. I won’t go into details about all the nice things Harry says to me, but it really makes me feel good. Every time I have a lesson with him, I go home and practice my little fingers off because he gets me so inspired. I’m extremely fortunate that I met him and have the opportunity to study with him. =)
On another note, I wanted to write down some things I was thinking about with regard to what I’ve learned about being a musician. As with just with about anything worth learning, the more I know the more I know that I don’t know.
It’s funny to think about now, but I really used to think that really good musicians played really well because of “inspiration”. This may still be true in a certain sense, but for the most part, most great musicians are great because they practice. A LOT. Compulsively. Especially in improvisation and jazz, musicians build up a “vocabulary”. I read somewhere that 99% of Charlie Parker’s music is comprised of snippets of the same couple hundred sequences he memorized and perfected over the years. Parker (as well as many other very famous musicians) was a compulsive practicer, he never stopped. In a way, looking at music this way is a relief to me. It should be a relief to any prospective musician, because with determination anyone can practice a lot. Now sure, not everyone in this world has the “ear” for a great melody or progression. Not everyone is capable of creating mindblowing music. But just about anyone can be a competent musician if they put their mind to it.
I’ve also learned that I have wimpy hands and fingers. Not because they’re small, which they are, but because they haven’t been worked out and conditioned properly. As one of my teachers explained to me, just like a linebacker needs to work on his calves to be more explosive, a guitarist needs to work out the appropriate muscles. So that your fingers do what you want them to do perfectly, hundreds if not thousands of times in a night sometimes. So, I’ve started doing different, more useful warmup exercises (which I do for at least an hour every day), and after just a month I can tell the difference. Even Harry could tell the difference the other day. My playing is more controlled, you can’t tell the difference so much when I go from one string to another, or from an upstroke to a downstroke, and my tone is more even.
Sooo, this is where I am right now. I’ve stopped waiting for genius to smack me in the head, and stopped doing a lot of random noodling. (Not that noodling is all bad, you can come up with GREAT ideas just sitting around noodling.) I have started working on building my vocabulary of riffs and sequences. I don’t really feel like I could put together an improv worth listening to until my vocabulary is bigger. I’m also working on strengh and stamina. It feels good to know where I’m going with my guitar studies.
Well there you go. Everything you needed to know about Jean’s progress as a musician lately. =)
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