Have you gotten better over time?

[Phil W]

 

Sure, I was smoother when I was gigging and playing a lot...which is to be expected

but too often, the playing was about learning and doing "canned" licks in order to get songs ready for the bands set list.

And if I was just sitting around practicingmost times I would only cycle my way through many of those canned licks that I learned.

 

When I walked away from band gigs and turned to doing original recordings...it took awhile to stop thinking about canned licks and instead, start listening to the music, and then...find the right licks/parts that worked with that music.

 

Just wanted to add that what I said above wasn't meant to be a put down for anyone learning/playing canned licks and cover tunes.

I did it for several years and enjoyed it.

 

I was just saying that for me...when I was started to create my own music...and come up with my own licks...

...that's what really lifted up my playing a couple of notches...IMO.

Trying NOT to sound like I was just copying someone made a big difference in how I listened to what I was playing.

 

That's cool Miroslav.

TBH I came from the other direction. I had some weird mental attitude for years against playing anybody else's stuff, I always wanted to be totally original. I never learned a lick of anybody else's stuff for many years and only played originals or jazz standards. That was a dim-witted approach and I've spent a few years now learning from the masterful playing of other musicians and playing coverbands. I think it's better to have both approaches and I guess we have both done this, in a different order.

I don't think that by approach is a common one, your way of developing is far more common, I feel. There may come a time when you study another's playing to add to your own possibilities. I know that right now, as a bassist, I get a lot from listening to and studying guitarists, horn players etc.

[miroslav]

If I really had the time to do it...I wouldn't consider it negative to sit down and really focus on what an SRV or Clapton or Beck is doing on certain phrases.

There are a lot of interesting ways to phrase things...to move your fingers...and it's neat how different players have found so many different paths.

 

But my favorite way of learning new licks is to just listen to the music at hand and then hum out the melody lineseither in my head or out loud.

If I really focus on what it is I want to say with a lead lineand THEN sit down and figure out how to move my fingers in order to say itplaying interesting leads becomes a direct extension of your imagination.

 

But yeahwe all hit that brick wall where our ideas dry upand listening to others is one way of finding some inspiration and thinking differently.