need help playing

Subject: RE: need help playing
From: Frankham
Date: 28 May 03 - 12:01 PM

Jeff,

THe best thing you could do in my opinion is to only use the sheet music as a reference to learn new material. Find compatible musicians to jam with and keep doing that. Music is never meant to be played solo all the time. It's like playing in a vacuum. Making music with others will help you grow as a musician fastest. You might bridge this gap by starting in playing in a mandolin orchestra if you can find one in your area. (This still keeps you on the printed page however). It would be a transition to jamming and learning to improvise. You can learn to improvise but the only way to really do it is to take a chance and put yourself in that environment. Make plenty of mistakes and learn which means you have to choose your musical environment carefully. Play only in supportive situations.

Frank Hamilton

Subject: RE: need help playing
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 May 03 - 10:55 PM

Great story, gargoyle, seriously. I've seen the same thing with my brother and his classical piano playing. He was exceptional, mechanically, but until he began giving concerts of his own compositions, there was no soul in his playing.

I also agree on the practice until it becomes a part of you, too.

kat

Subject: RE: need help playing
From: khandu
Date: 27 May 03 - 10:44 PM

Find the MAGIC in your playing. Garg is right! Make it ALIVE within you and put your heart into it! Mechanics are good...herat is better!

k

Subject: RE: need help playing
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 27 May 03 - 10:40 PM

MEMORIZE - and then practice and practice until it becomes one with your soul.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: need help playing
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 27 May 03 - 10:38 PM

Easy – make your music LIVE!

True Story – I was 17 y.o.

Friends of my parents, from New York City, were staying with us. They KNEW Broadway Theatre and had invested and lost a fortune in a musical . Their son, was a successful actor, and is now a lucrative and productive Hollywood writer/director with a great set of credits spanning 20 years.

The wife/mother asked me to play the piano. I choose my favorite Broadway pieces from "Unsinkable Molly Brown." I played impecably. Everything was mechanically correct. And then ….she….. "Taught me MUSIC!"

About half way through she stopped me cold….and said "Enough, enough!…..Where is the LIFE? You need ENERGY! Music must be VIBRANT! Play with FEELING and no-one will care about a misplaced note. Music must have a SOUL!!!"

You are mechanically correct….but you must PLAY and have FUN with the music. If YOU are not having FUN….your audience is not playing….and that is why they want music.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: need help playing
From: GUEST,newfiejeff
Date: 27 May 03 - 08:52 PM

I can read sheet music and apply it to the mandolin and I know some chords and can play a few songs. But when I play and hear good people play my sounds like it's missing something. I play according to the sheet music but make it sound so much more.

Jeff