Great gig friday Okay gig saturday

[Keith Ridenhour]

Friday night was an interesting experience. I played at a new level for me. And what was intreguing for me was that it wasn't so much practicing alot more but more just getting out of my own way. I made a conscious effort to really relax, play simpler phrases leaving space (Bootman has been hammering me on this for years now) and letting go of trying to sound good. It all just fell into place and I actually "improvised" some new lines I hadn't played before rather than recreate something from practice. I picked up my Effortless Mastery book yesterday and read a little and something the book mentioned happened saturday night. In a push to recreate a good gig from friday I fell back into old licks and trying too hard to show off and play well on saturday night and lost the "magic". I have learned a valuable lesson from all this however. When my focus is on really listening to my tone and creating a pretty melody or interesting phrase the result is so much better than worrying about the next chord scale or doing my jump through the hoop showoff tricks in the altissimo register that is a crowd grabber but makes me feel like a circus act. It doesn't happen very often but I actually enjoyed friday night and felt like I'm making musical progress. K

[larry]

That's cool, Keith. I still don't trust my instincts enough to really let go. That's why my preferred drug for gigging is coffee! I think you're right - you need to have enough miles under your fingers so that you can trust them to execute the sounds you hear in your head. I think my teacher would disagree however - he tends to intellectualize everything.

[JL]

....play simpler phrases leaving space.......K

Keith, I think this is a really important element. I've been struggling with this for some time, trying to leave space and play with good phrasing. Sometimes I get there, sometimes not. But listening to other horn players, I notice the best ones are those who can phrase well, with those spaces in there. The ones who play nonstop, with no space, are much more difficult to listen to. This is true of other instrumentalists as well. It also seems to be more important in the blues/R&B field, where simple phrases are far more effective than a deluge of notes.

[Dog Pants]

Keith, If you played on the gig anything like on the "stormy monday" clip you were kind enough to send me, I can only wish I'd been there. Very tasty and it had that element that is mising from too many players and that is a sense of humor and joy rather than a "I'm the hottest/fastest/highest sax player in town and y'all should be damned grateful I'm up here playing my wonder licks for y'all" approach. I thought you phrased and used space really well and your tone and intonation were great :D I fully intend to rip off most of those licks too! :lol: For my upcoming blues jam deflowering, I'll try to remember to keep it as simple as I can. Better to play a simple lick well than to try and play at the top of my current ability and cause the biggest train wreck since Granville.

[Keith Ridenhour]

Hey DP, most of what I play is something I've stumbled across or heard someone else play. and as I get older I just don't "BS" like I used to. I think more about phrasing than throwing fingers around. Good luck on the Jam, try to remember that 95% of the people you'll run across at a "jam" are so self obsessed about their soloing/playing , they won't pay much attention to yours. So don't worry. My motto is either have fun or get paid. If it doesn't fall into those two catagories then Why do it?? You might also want to take ear plugs and maybe a plastic sound bouncer to put around the mik. The last jam I went to (five years ago) was 25 guitars, 17 harps, 15 star search vocalists and one other horn player and me. The other guy gave up and left. I think I just got through it and swore never again. But you never know if you'll find a connect or band that way. Good luck. (I mention the sound bouncer because without it I wouldn't have heard a note I was playing.) K

[gary]

...try to remember that 95% of the people you'll run across at a "jam" are so self obsessed about their soloing/playing , they won't pay much attention to yours.
Oh, Keith, that had me rollin'.

Yep, and they be sittin' there for the next two hours after playing hoping someone will come along and tell them it was OK, and not hearing anything else -unless of course it's a negative comment about their playing, on which cue they'll plunge into a week-long funk.

[Keith Ridenhour]

I think I figured out a little why that friday gig was so good. We played the same club last night ( a Yacht Club in Vallejo Ca) and the accoustics are great. We set up in a corner as opposed to our usual against the wall set up and everybody could hear everybody which is rare. Also this place was live but had a high ceiling so for whatever reason I liked my sound alot in there. Now the same challange tonight as last time. We do a 4 hour at a dive in Penngrove Ca and we'll be too loud on a small stage with alot of loud drinking crowd around us. Last night was so nice. A small group of older people who would dance, listen appreciativly and applaud after the solos. We need to take them with us. ( I think being tired after a 10 hour work day helped also. One last note , I learned the hard way about thinking too much. I had this cool sanborn lick of decending minor thirds I wanted to throw into a funky solo. I was trying so hard to find a place to stick it in I was screwing up changes. Less thinking , more feeling.) K