Thursday, January 16, 2014

Foot Tapping to Your Own Playing

Predicting the beat is dangerous to really paying attention.  Once you get used to predicting the beat you are likely to lose the ability to attend to all that goes on between beats -- where the going is really at its most interesting.

People who complain of melodies going around and around inside their heads are often at the mercy of a rhythmic notion that simply does not apply to real music or to real music-making.

The best place to start curing yourself of the habit is in your own playing.  Make it impossible to predict your own beats.  Hold every note you play as long as you can stand to hold it.  Don't move on until you can't stand it any longer.

See what happens.  Send me a message.