Do you know what notes you play during an improvised jazz solo?

[mr. beaumont]

I think we're confusing what makes organization easier for practice and what helps actual playing.


I don't see how knowing the fretboard could be unimportant...I use that knowledge every time I practice, read through a piece, etc...

[AmundLauritzen]

I often hear of great jazz musicians who did not read music such as Wes Montgomery and Errol Garner.
So I wonder what is going on their mind while they are playing. Do they know what notes and chords they are playing or is it more of a spatial and playing by ear thing where they know ahead of time if they move their fingers to a certain place they know ahead of time what it will sound like?

I have taken a few lessons online with a good jazz guitarist. I asked him if he knew what notes he was playing and he told me he thought more in terms of the note number within a key than the actual note. He also told me that he plays by muscle memory. I understand that if you practice something enough times you begin to memorize it, but there must be more to jazz than putting together memories, it has to be somewhat spontaneous.

So my question is what is your brain thinking when playing a note, a chord and sequences of notes and chords?

There is usually not much thinking involved at all. A lot of people tend to get upset with that statement because they interpret it wrong. The thinking happens in the woodshed. That's when you might use theory, to figure out new things to play. Then you practice those concepts, lines or whatever enough to hardwire them into your muscle memory.
Then when you improvise, your playing will be all reflexes: muscle memory. The more muscle memory, the greater the vocabulary. The really great players like Wes just have so much muscle memory to draw from. And the muscle memory itself is only the sequence of the notes played. The rhythmic aspect is often varied on the spot. That again creates new infinite variations.

As for theory, it is not a must, but it can certainly help and I think that in this day and age: why not?
Players like Wes and Django probably learned a lot of lines from records. When they knew a couple dozen solos, they probably started seeing patterns that repeat themselves in solos. Seeing how one line relates to the other. That'd help them extract the essence of that line as a template for new lines. Most players discover chord shapes within lines and use that as a unifying element of organization. What I like to call a "trigger".

I organize my playing around "triggers" like that all over the fretboard. Just one chord voicing on one spot of the neck may have 20 different lines attached to it. Those lines then overlap and can be dissected and combined in new ways. Now do that all over the neck for all chord qualities and you're improvising!

So in the end, all you need is a system of organization. Conventional music theory is one way to get there, but it's not the only one as players like Wes, Django, Bireli, Errol Garner and many others have proven in their playing.

[bobby d]

I can relate to the comment about playing Sax and knowing the sharps and flats in every scale.
That is exactly how I was taught and I think has caused me some confusion playing guitar.
I now relailize knowing the absolute I am playing is not so important but knowing how it relates to other notes and chords is. This is something I never really experienced or was taught on Sax. Of course I will eventually learn all of the notes on the fretboard but that is not essential to playing jazz. I also think ear training is going to be really helpful. I can listen to Joe Pass or George Benson play a run of notes and I know what it sounds like but I can't yet translate that into a sequence of notes and intervals. I am not saying that I should imitate what somebody is playing but understand what it is.

If you have a good ear by all means try to copy any musician that you like. I'll never be able to play everything Benson or Pass plays, but I sure picked up a few things from each of them that became part of my style.
As for thinking while improvising, brain activity should be mostly in the artistic right hemisphere, not the problem solving left brain. I'm sure that many of us may have a song going through their head during the day, and you start hearing the melody transforming into improv jazz lines. To me, this is what your brain should be doing when improvising. Play what you imagine whenever possible rather than thinking "hmm, I'll go down this scale instead of up during this part".

[Reg]

Different gigs... different improve process. When I don't know the music... a lot of thinking is going on. I make quick analysis and adjust all the time. When I'm transposing a tune I know for a vocalist or sax player etc... usually a little thinking is going on. When I'm reading through arrangements or even playing a harmony line against a melody... I'm usually thinking.

I don't believe you loose the feel or the improve looses it's integrity when one thinks about what he/she is playing. And also just the opposite... no thinking, just play. Personally part of being a jazz player is that skill to be able to cover different situations.

[BrandonB]

Well good. Keep in mind though, in the beginning you do need to pay attention to the details. After awhile you can let other aspects take over. This is my experience anyway. A coarse example could be learning to drive a car. There are certain mechanics you have to learn, pay attention to and struggle with. After awhile you don't have to tell yourself to look in the review mirrors or how much pressure to exert on the gas or brake or where the brake is. You learn how to judge distance and how to center the car in the lane, back up, parallel park. You just do it. It's like walking. A toddler works very hard to control his arms and legs and walk without holding on or falling down. I think the process with jazz and improv is exactly the same. You have to allow yourself the process of learning before you allow yourself to not think about it. An adult doesn't have to think about which leg to start out walking with or how much energy to exert to move the legs and arms. You don't think about it. But you did in the beginning.

The developed player doesn't think about the notes or wonder how to play on a given chord sequence. But he DID at one time. He just plays, and very often, unless he has students, may forget there was ever a time he didn't know how to do this.

This is great advice, Henry. Makes good sense!

[Reg]

Yea... Henry usually always makes a lot of sense... and he can also play.

Hey Henry... in June I think I'm starting a Friday nite jazz gig in Davis ?? somewhere with Delbert Bump, killin B-3 player etc... Close to your area, when gig gets going would be cool to hook up. You could sit in or what ever works. I always dig your posts and perspectives, would be nice to meet.

Reg

[henryrobinett]

Reg - that'd be great. Yeah Delbert can play. Let me know!

[eddy b.]

Hey Jn I try to save the analyzing for the shed...in the moment of performing I focus my mind on listening to everyone with me and how to fit into what I hear...when I am soloing I focus my mind on listening and relaxing... the analyzing in the moment would be about as helpful as sentence diagramming mid conversation...That being said I have spent years in the shed paying attention to detail, analyzing etc. and still do this on a daily basis...I am consistently amazed at the infinite nature of music and the guitar.

[Reg]

Hey eddy..or anyone else who plays in this manor,

When your in the moment... how do you make sense of what everyone else is playing and what to play to fit it. And pretty much the same thing when your soloing... do you react to the other players, and if so, how do you decide how to react. I understand this becomes instinctive... and even more so when the music is simple or you have music memorized. This process of being in the moment... personally is more of a memorized performance practice.

My point... the act of listening and deciding where and how to fit in... when performing live music usually requires decisions... all these aspects of playing are in reference to something. I would think you might be making choices from analysis of context and content. Even with years of training, you still make choices. Or is the playing out of your control, the guitar is playing you.

I'm lazy... I go auto pilot as much as possible, but when the music has some complexity or developing... I try to be aware of what's going on. When I'm in the moment... I'm late.

I appreciate your points and dig music that has feel... and the musicians as well as the audience are feelin it. But I don't believe it's an either or approach.

Reg

[eddy b.]

Yes Indeed Reg...I agree with you there are decisions being made,choices being made in the moment. As far as I can explain or distinguish the context is to make the music sound/feel "right,correct,appropriate" in accordance to what the gig/band/audience is...for example when I'm playing a New Orleans RnB gig in a 5 horn band when I get my one solo of the set I am aiming more to the Steve Cropper thing than the Allan Holdsworth thing. Just dosn't sound "right" to me to play a bunch of Trane style licks over "My Blue Heaven". The reference is whatever the most popular examples are of that tune that I have listened to...unless it is my own original music or arrangements and it is the type of gig where experimentation and risk taking are expected,encouraged and appreciated in which case the reference is whatever I am hearing/feeling in my imagination.I totally agree that my ability to acces the moment is entirely dependant on my comfort/familiarity/memorization of whatever the material being played is( and the people and environment of the gig too). In my experience the truly transcedent moments are when it does seem like the music/guitar is playing me...and that seems to last until I notice that is what is happenin and then just like my favorite dreams it's gone...over... back down to earth.... oh well. That's what I live for.

[henryrobinett]

I just react as much as possible. If I'm listening intently I'm almost not aware of playing. The more self conscious I am, which is too often, the less well I play. I'm trying to get there is all I can say.

The complexity that gets me isn't really in the changes any more. It might be rhythmic complexity. Tunes with a lot of Maj7+5 chords. for example, still make me have to think. I've written a bunch of tunes with those damn it. Yeah OK, complex changes do make me think. I have to decide to slow up, or not be bored with my solo, use more space, comp more, comp less, be less rhythmic, be more rhythmic, phrase differently, or think phrasing period, remind myself to listen, decide whether I'm too loud or soft.

But some of that isn't what I call THINKING. For me THINKING is figuring out. If I have a tune with E/C type chords or CMaj7+5, and I haven't done my homework well enough on those chords, and I come to a series of those type chords in a song, suddeny I have to think. I'm not thinking so much WHAT to use to play them, but I have to get the neck visualized to C Lydian +5, or arpeggiate it. I've been playing those for years and years and years, but they still throw me outside of my comfort zone, which is a good thing.

But if I'm in my HEAD I'm to that degree not outside my head well enough to JUST be listening and reacting.

[3625]

In my experience the truly transcedent moments are when it does seem like the music/guitar is playing me...and that seems to last until I notice that is what is happenin and then just like my favorite dreams it's gone...over... back down to earth.... oh well. That's what I live for.

I just react as much as possible. If I'm listening intently I'm almost not aware of playing.

This thread has given me much food for thought - we're getting into real zen territory here, which is way cool. Eddy I thought you articulated well the transcendent thing that occurs, it's basically the whole deal right there, that's what everyone on this forum lives for I guess.

"listening intently" - yep. Perhaps what we're talking about here isn't so much thinking but awareness. To me there's two types of "not really thinking when you play" - good & bad. And they basically come down to whether you're super aware in the moment like Eddy describes or whether you're daydreaming and playing some sloppy shit.
EDIT: When Henry said "I'm almost not aware of playing" I totally agree - it's just that paradoxically that's when you're super aware. Needed to clarify that! -getting real zen here

[Krah13]

Some background: I grew up playing wind instruments, clarinet and sax. I learned to read music and play different scales so I know a little about music theory but not so much about chords.
On wind instruments I was of course playing one note at a time and I always knew exactly what note I was playing.

I often hear of great jazz musicians who did not read music such as Wes Montgomery and Errol Garner.
So I wonder what is going on their mind while they are playing. Do they know what notes and chords they are playing or is it more of a spatial and playing by ear thing where they know ahead of time if they move their fingers to a certain place they know ahead of time what it will sound like?

I have taken a few lessons online with a good jazz guitarist. I asked him if he knew what notes he was playing and he told me he thought more in terms of the note number within a key than the actual note. He also told me that he plays by muscle memory. I understand that if you practice something enough times you begin to memorize it, but there must be more to jazz than putting together memories, it has to be somewhat spontaneous.

So my question is what is your brain thinking when playing a note, a chord and sequences of notes and chords?

I have watched some instructional videos of good guitarists like Joe Pass and when they try to explain what they are playing they don't just say I just played chord x,y,z and notes a,b,c. They say let's see I started on this chord and I think I went to this chord and then threw in this sequence of notes.

Being a beginner something I struggle with is if I should understand what I am playing in terms of notes, chords, intervals or if I should just play without thinking about it.

I most of the times find my self using the approach of your teacher. More thinking about interval numbers, muscle memory or around chord shapes.
I don't know if other guitarists use other approaches, but the use of shapes is so strong on guitar that I don't believe that there are guys out there that are playing only by thinking the notes.

[Reg]

Just some random thoughts... Music is just music to me. I take it very serious... but am aware that I'm not saving lives, the planet etc... The Zen think is great... but it doesn't work for me. That's not a knock or dish, it's just not my personal approach to music. I have spiritual approaches to other aspects of life.... just not musical. Sometime the music played can become ??? But I play music, I understand and can verbally explain what I play, harmonically, theoretically with a few different references.

Have any of you played different sports where after years of training etc... your able to get in what they use to call the Zone. Your completely focused, dialed in and still aware of what your doing. You make choices and are able to perform at an extremely high level of performance.

Golf... run five or six birdies in a row. Mountain bike downhill... it's fast, but slows down when your in the zone. Skiing or on a board... on a bump run, something extremely steep... These are skills performed at very high levels of performance.

For me personally... it's not spiritual or magic. It's being aware of the choices and consciously making coherent decisions that reflect what you want to play... being aware of what your able to play.

I'm not saying having an out of body experience while taking a solo isn't cool... I've always thought drugs were great for that...

Hey Krah13... shapes are great learning tool to develop your ears. I generally hear target lines or collection of target notes which make up melodic idea and fill, create relationships and develop those relationships during improve... Sure... shapes are very visual... but those shapes also have sounds... which are heard.

Anyway... if you don't know or understand what your playing... your choices are somewhat limited...the metaphysical approach might be more fun.

[henryrobinett]

That's great Reg. For me, personally, music has always been spiritual, of a kind. Non-demoninational. I go for out of body experiences -- no drugs!!!! I haven't done drugs in several decades. LOL. But also not magic. Nothing mystical about knowing what you're doing. It's not like I'm waiting on the hand of God to guide me. I don't believe in that at all. But I think music itself comes from a very -- a place in the the mind, which I think in and of itself is spiritual, for want of a better word. And I think when one is there, -- the zone is all about that. Functioning at an extremely high level of ability with no doubts or reservations. You're just playing and listening or just being.

For me, this is why I play.

[3625]

I'm not saying having an out of body experience while taking a solo isn't cool... I've always thought drugs were great for that...

Anyway... if you don't know or understand what your playing... your choices are somewhat limited...the metaphysical approach might be more fun.

Perhaps my post wasn't communicated properly, but as to the intent of what I wanted to express, I basically agree with you. Using terms like 'Zen', unfortunately can lead people to infer assumptions about what you meant, when in this case Reg, it's probably more the opposite.

As to a 'metaphysical approach' where 'you don't know or understand what your playing', I refer to my previous quote:

To me there's two types of "not really thinking when you play" - good & bad. And they basically come down to whether you're super aware in the moment like Eddy describes or whether you're daydreaming and playing some sloppy shit.

Most 'spiritual' music in the new age sense (which is basically what you're referring to) is just tripping out, fantasy, daydreaming crap lol

You've got to know your stuff inside and out - then sometimes after putting in the work you find yourself in the 'zone' or having a 'satori' experience or whatever else you might want to call it. You're still thinking, calculating, making decisions, but your brain/mind has shifted up a gear or two - That's basically what I meant in a nutshell.

And I think when one is there, -- the zone is all about that. Functioning at an extremely high level of ability with no doubts or reservations. You're just playing and listening or just being.

For me, this is why I play.

Really well put

[3625]

I dig this stuff (selected quotes from the same wikipedia article):

"Flow is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. In essence, flow is characterized by complete absorption in what one does. Proposed by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, the positive psychology concept has been widely referenced across a variety of fields.^[1]

According to Csikszentmihalyi, flow is completely focused motivation. It is a single-minded immersion and represents perhaps the ultimate experience in harnessing the emotions in the service of performing and learning. In flow, the emotions are not just contained and channeled, but positive, energized, and aligned with the task at hand. To be caught in the ennui of depression or the agitation of anxiety is to be barred from flow. The hallmark of flow is a feeling of spontaneous joy, even rapture, while performing a task^[2] although flow is also described (below) as a deep focus on nothing but the activity – not even oneself or one's emotions.

Buzz terms for this or similar mental states include: to be in the moment, present, in the zone, on a roll, wired in, in the groove, on fire, in tune, centered, or singularly focused."


"Musicians, especially improvisational soloists may experience a similar state of mind while playing their instrument."

"The concept of being in the zone during an athletic performance fits within Csíkszentmihályi's description of the flow experience, and theories and applications of being in the zone and its relationship with athletic competitive advantage are topics studied in the field of sport psychology."

"The phrase being at one with things is a metaphor of Csíkszentmihályi's flow concept.^[citation needed] Practitioners of the varied schools of Zen Buddhism apply concepts similar to flow to aid their mastery of art forms, including, in the case of Japanese Zen Buddhism, Aikido, Cheng Hsin, Judo, Honkyoku, Kendo and Ikebana."

[bobby d]

Zen is really about being here now isn't it? It isn't all that mystical, just awareness.

[targuit]

Interesting thread. New guy here, but some fifty years of playing experience. I do believe in the Zen aspect of performance and improvisation. Of course, set and setting matter. It's a different story if I'm asked to sight read a piece for the first time than if I'm playing a jazz standard that I know well. Naturally, I prefer the latter setting.

I discovered long ago that there is no time to 'think' while playing. I agree that analysis and simply learning the music if it's new to you happens during practice. But when I'm playing my best, I surrender the wheel to my subconscious and my intuition. As I focus on listening to the music in my heart and around me, I'm reacting and hopefully in the flow. Response is not random - but my subconscious is more than capable of calling the shots after years of practice and woodshedding. There are thousands of decisions being made in nanoseconds to play a song, but I'm not 'thinking' about it. I'm listening and in the flow of the moment. I might be thinking of target tones in the melody, but it's like having a departure point and an arrival point - I let my subconscious track the path in between. And I do try to feel the emotion of the moment as a purifying energy like the power of poetry.

Now I do have several little theories and technical devices that I use to try and make every note of a musical phrase coherent with that sense of inevitability. But it's all happening by intuition. For me I like to say that I'm dreaming the music, and when I surrender to the music and become the vessel, the music flows.

The hardest part is to surrender control and trust your intuition. But it works like a charm. I know the musical theory of what I'm doing but no one ever got the chills down their spine from an exposition of musical theory. And there is little time to think when you are in the moment.

[Reg]

Hey targui...
I've read a few of your posts and appreciate your input and experiences. Good insights, thanks.
But just as you have your approach to playing jazz... so do I. It appears we're different, no right or wrong, just different.

I have lots of time to "think" while playing. And I can play at very high levels of performance. Majority of gigs have no or very little rehearsal time. We all know the tunes... most harmonic, melodic and rhythmic patterns. We can hear where most arrangements are going, etc... but generally we need to be able to sight read... and consciously make decisions 1st time through. There is no second time. Those little details that make an arrangement different are generally what make the being in the moment happen.

I don't understand your "surrender control and trust your intuition'... is there a conflict going on somewhere. I trust my instincts completely... but I also trust my conscious self completely, for me personally, there the same person.

I'm fairly well known for being a groove player, I can lock in with almost anything. I can make the worst charts sound great... I can direct...or cover my part and follow... whatever.

Sure when the music being played has been rehearsed, and is well known by all... the performance becomes simple, what 's being played is already arranged. You can react and interact because no awareness is needed beyond dynamics, embellishment etc... the goal is the performance, not what's being performed.

Of course these are my personal opinions, but they work well for me. Just as yours work well for you.

Reg

[henryrobinett]

I don't think he was criticizing your approach or anyone else's Reg. I'm more like both of you. I don't see the conflict of approaches. For me I'm just calling the same thing by different names. There is no right or wrong so there's no reason to be on the defense about it.

I don't give myself over to a higher power in order to play, but I try to play intuitively. As a matter of fact that's the way I always have played. I can't memorize a solo to save my life. Yet I'm always analyzing on some level. I also sight read on most of my gigs, although I'm probably not as good a reader as you. But I don't prearrange anything and have never learned licks. For me it's always been about the moment and not being stuck trying to memorize patterns and phrases. I know that's the common way of learning jazz. It's even the correct way, but I've never done it that way because I always believed in the harder (maybe) approach of spontaneous creation. I don't have a big bag of tricks, licks -- the obvious drawback to that is my vocabulary is probably weaker than the average player. I don't know. But what I do have in my trick bag is 100% me and mine. I like that.

Once again no wrong or right. Just differences. No one, as far as what I could see, was saying so. It's all good.

[targuit]

Ciao, Reg and Henry! Thanks for responding to my post. No offense or challenge to anyone's methods or approach was intended. I just have always found the issue of what happens in the moment of playing, especially in the act of improvising, to be fascinating. Although I've done my share of transcriptions, like writing out R. Towner's solo versions of Waltz for Debby and I Fall in Love Too Easily (something I really enjoy btw - thanks to Sibelius). I rarely play the same tune exactly the same twice. Though I come from a classical background initially, I've never been one to memorize licks or to think of a solo in a group situation or a chord melody solo as stitching together licks. Frankly, I'm too lazy, and my memory isn't good enough to do that anymore.

I once attended a guitar clinic (reminds me of a neat comment by Joe Pass in an instructional video where in his charmingly humorous way he guffawed about how saying that seemed ridiculous to him, "like I'm a doctor or something...") where Robben Ford was playing. Besides being a fine blues player, Robben played awhile with Miles Davis, which ironically he denied (!) when I mentioned to him that I had really enjoyed his performance that I had seen in a video. Anyway, I specifically asked Robben what he had in mind as he was playing his solos. Did he mentally scat his lines a few microseconds before he actually played them, or what? And his reply was essentially "No, I just kind of ride the emotional wave."

Now the question might seem irrelevant, but we all know George Benson's skill at vocal scatting his guitar lines. And that's something that I can do, too. But in all honesty, once again I'm too lazy or lack the energy to maintain that kind of active conscious approach to creating a solo in real time, especially with an up-tempo tune. So my approach is much like Robben's in that I might think of where I virtually want to start a solo in terms of the take off in a phrase and where I may want to arrive in that phrase in the sense of 'target tones', but I surrender my conscious control to my subconscious or intuition in that my focus or awareness in the moment of playing becomes more like an intense listener reacting to the emotional wave of the musical phrase and the tune and the actual emotions I want to express in my heart. Hard to put into words, but I simply mean that I can't find the time to think consciously about my musical decisions on the fly. I just trust my intuition to find the way home. And the funny thing is that when I record, I invariably prefer the phrasing and solos that emerge when I surrender that conscious critical control and just go with my intuition. Now that doesn't mean I can't play the melody line of The Shadow of Your Smile for example on guitar. I can play that just as I can sing the lyric. Just as I'm sure you guys can.

I suspect that when you have been playing at sophisticated levels for as long as you guys have, it's not that you can't analyze what you're doing or where you wish to go with your solo so much as that you don't have to, just as you don't have to think about riding a bike. I guess one could say it's like being on "auto-pilot". It's not that your solos are random if you are using your intuition and musical history. It's that your playing is informed by your musical history and being so profoundly that you can tell your story with freedom of expression that is not limited consciously. So besides being verbose, maybe my lingo is too metaphysical, but I think that is the Zen of playing guitar.

Last word before I put everyone to sleep. I remember watching the archery competition during the last Summer Olympics. I used to do some archery when I was a teenager, so I have some experience. I was struck watching the Chinese women's team members how when it was their turn to shoot, they just raised their bows with the arrow at the ready and calmly sighted their target for a second or two and let fly. With amazing accuracy. With all that competition pressure they just seemed to want to stay in the flow. And that's where I want to be when I'm playing.

BTW, I didn't go to Berklee. Unfortunately for me, I went to medical school. Life decisions do have consequences. But I'll save some comments about MRI research by doctor-musicians on improvisation and brain activity. You guys might already be familiar with that stuff. Meanwhile I'll dream on....

Speaking of dreaming, here's a link to one of my favorites from YTubeland. I've been listening lately a lot to the Keith Jarrett Trio with Jack DeJohnette and Gary Peacock (b). This performance is beautiful, but the last two plus minutes are just sublime. Hope you check it out.

[Reg]

Thanks Henry and targui...

My comments were not intended to defend me personally. Sorry for lack of writing skills... We're pros, we already have our acts together. We don't need help understanding how to play.

The real reason for response is for young, new, beginners, non-pros etc... From reading some of your posts I believe one might assume that the most important aspect of playing jazz... is to not think, be in the moment, play intuitively... what is that saying, musicianship is secondary? It will develop it's self.

It's almost like we're implying... playing jazz requires no organization, it happens naturally, and we're only on for the auto-pilot ride. Or at least that's the goal, after you've done the work. All I'm trying to do it make the point, that's not the only goal.

I believe... the performance skills can only reflect your musicianship skills. Without developing those boring technical skills and understandings, your limiting your ability to develop performance skills.

Reg

[targuit]

No argument there, as regards the importance of musicianship, hard work and dedication. I sometimes reflect on the fact that I chose to devote thousands of hours to the pursuit of...what? Why do we work so hard to attain the goal of playing music? Self expression? Something more visceral? Is it all about becoming a performance artist, or what are the driving motivations to perfect your art? In my case it sure isn't exactly remunerative... but then neither is my profession much anymore.

Anyway, Reg, I want to assure you that I have some idea of the work and thought and woodshedding that goes into becoming an accomplished musician. But at least in the end you get to play music instead of dealing with government mandates and abuse. I like to think that the work I put in nightly on learning standards, creating transcriptions, recording, performance on occasion, and composing (humbly) have helped me feel competent to play alongside most musicians. But I know it's not the level of commitment of a professional musician. But hey, life is about choices.

No, my enthusiasm for being in the moment playing music began when I was a kid singing in the school choir from grade school through HS graduation, learning classical guitar from a fine teacher, playing and singing rock, country rock, and jazz for the past four decades. And playing nearly every day of the last four to five decades. Whew! I'm exhausted even thinking about it. So as you noted, proficiency doesn't come on a wing and a prayer. Medicine does get in the way some....

[targuit]

Quick comment - just listening to Henry's soundcloud site. Lovely music, Henry. Listening to How Am I To Know at the moment. Now this is an example of where one has to do the work ahead of time before you can blow over the sophisticated changes which shift subtly. I like this compelling composition a lot. I would say the same thing for Yours Was Another Heart. And I like Gaucho as well. Very nice work!

Jay