Fix your right hand technique

[joe2758]

For woodwinds, one practices scales in all keys up and down because of different fingerings that produce the same pitch. One learns which particular fingerings are best* for the different scales and directions up or down with regard to level, tone, legato/stacatto, etc. The altissimo** register of the sax, for instance, has up to two dozen ways to finger some pitches.

* particular variations in mechanical ease and speed with regard to previous or next note, variations in matching continuity of tone, variations in tuning precision, particular differences in how much breath pressure to produce, etc.

**Altissimo - uppermost register for woodwind instruments. The taper of the bore determines the fingering offset between registers (whether the next up register's same fingerings produce an octave above, like a flute with a constant bore tube, or up an interval for expanding bore).
Clarinets, which overblow on odd harmonics make altissimo notes based on the fifth, seventh, and higher harmonics. For other woodwinds, the altissimo notes are those based on the third, fourth, and higher harmonics.

Maybe I misunderstood your point, I thought you were saying it's not important to practice fingerings and they will just fall into place guided by your ear

[pauln]

I don't disagree if I imagine that the deliberate learning is happening "within my hands". Both my left and right hands have certainly recognized over the years how to converge open possibilities toward the "best" solutions for most musical things that reoccur, lines, and chords especially.

[pauln]

Maybe I misunderstood your point, I thought you were saying it's not important to practice fingerings and they will just fall into place guided by your ear

If practicing fingerings means the hands are learning how to make you hear the sounds you request from them, that practice is supremely important.

If you mean practicing fingering requested as named notes, scale degrees, intervals, chord tones, or other verbal named things, those I don't use or need. What I request from my hands is what I would call making manifest an internal phenomenological aural engram (producing sound that matches the sound in my mind's ear).

It's just my way; I describe it as well as I can with the reservation that my success with it may be unusual or rare. From inside it, I don't see how anyone can play using the verbal named things... I know about them, but they don't inform me musically.

[BreckerFan]

I don't disagree if I imagine that the deliberate learning is happening "within my hands". Both my left and right hands have certainly recognized over the years how to converge open possibilities toward the "best" solutions for most musical things that reoccur, lines, and chords especially.

What you're describing is the opposite of deliberate. Not thinking about how you're playing what you're playing, not thinking about the specifics of what your hands are doing (notes per string, up and down strokes, etc), and just letting your hands figure it out is not deliberate.

And that's not to say it doesn't work or didn't work for you. Ultimately the criterion for success is that you can play what and how you want. A lot of great players have arrived at good technique without being deliberate.

But there are a lot more players who wish their technique was better. And if we're talking about how someone who is dissatisfied with their technique can fix their right hand, saying "just let your hands figure it out" is not very helpful advice.

Jazz is a balance of creativity and precision. Improvisation is more than just playing random notes, it requires structure and purpose. But the structure can't be all consuming or the result is uninspiring. Similarly with technique, deliberate forethought and practice is the best way to build solid and usable technique. But the goal of technique isn't itself; when it is, the music might be impressive but it will also become uninspiring. Develop good technique through deliberate practice such that you don't have to think about it when it's time to make music.

[joe2758]

If practicing fingerings means the hands are learning how to make you hear the sounds you request from them, that practice is supremely important.

mmm I think that's what I meant. But I do have to say I'm confused. I can appreciate that it's hard to explain.