Minds of Jazz Players

**MarkRhodes** · 10-10-2015, 09:25 AM

Originally Posted by citizenk74

I know nothing about these brain/mind issues and have great respect for those willing and able to explore them. What I know from my experience on the bandstand, in the studio, or in the practice room, is this: in the course of playing along, in the groove, on a roll, so far so good, the stray thought "hey, that was pretty nice/cool/good" is inevitably the harbinger of complete trainwreck.

Ha! I've been in more than a few such accidents myself...

**Irez87** · 10-10-2015, 03:16 PM

What's going on in the head of a jazz musician?

"When can I get that gig with Taylor Swift? I need to pay my bills. I need to eat. Money in the bank, mf'ers. Broke is no joke... Shite, did I say that out loud? I mean, I mean, Chris Potter is killing, right guys"

I kid, I kid. I envy those that sacrifice to make music professionally. It ain't easy, especially in today's world

**jordanklemons** · 10-10-2015, 03:56 PM

Originally Posted by futurenets

Over the years I've grown to love jazz but when I watch them play, pianist, bass, drummer etc., what is going on in the heads???

Who knows man? Every player is different. Some say they don't think. Others joke about thinking about mundane things. Some tell you they're actively trying not to think about anything. Which means they really are thinking about things. Otherwise, they wouldn't be trying to stop. Others will tell you they are thinking and that all musicians are thinking about the music on one level or another. I've even talked to one very talented and well known guitar player who said he doesn't like the sound of musicians who play that "aren't thinking"... that to him, music is as much about playing with intellect and humor and mental intention as it is about playing from the heart. He felt like if you're not thinking your way into funny, clever issues and intentionally manipulating things mentally... that's it's not his taste. He wants to hear people being clever and painting their way into corners to see if they and the band can figure out how to get out.

Who knows? It's like asking, "What are humans thinking about when they're having sex?"

Totally depends. Are you into her? Not into her? Are you drunk? Are you a man or a woman? Are you just doing it because you're bored and she smiled at you at the bar? Is it a tinder one night stand or a woman you've been monogamous with for 50 years? There's no, one single answer to this. It's experiential and different for everyone taking part. And even for the individual person, each time they have sex it might be a different experience.

And the only way to understand what goes through your head when you're having sex is to have sex. If a virgin asks someone who's had sex what it's like they may hear things like... "Well you lose your breath, you make funny faces, you yell or moan things, you grab the pillows, and your face turns red." So then the virgin goes and lays in bed and starts making himself hyperventilate, starts grabbing his pillows and making funny noises. But that'll never bring about the same experience by trying to understand and imitate the experience from that level. You just have to do it yourself.

**Irez87** · 10-10-2015, 09:53 PM

Jordan's back! Yey

Alas, I am still here... and still swamped by SPED e-paper work and lesson plans... Booo

Weird you mention music and intercourse. I get the same excitement from both. No worries, I don't yet aroused by music... at least not that way

Thank god my gf isn't a musician, or I would always be excited. When you are always excited, and know no calm, there is no meaning to that excitment because it is not defined by it's antonym. Michel de Certeau ascribed this phenomenon as the blase. Becoming over stimulated to the point where everything becomes banal. That is a horrible existence, my friends

Was it Sartre that said that we derive meaning and definition from the opposite? Roland Barthes goes into this as well with his theory foreground and background in the Camera Lucida. Come to think of it that can apply to music.

Most music does not function without space, punctuation. At least, most jazz. Breath, guys and gals, breath. A line of music does not go on into eternity, it ends. Sound is defined by it's opposite, a lack of silence. I love philosophy, makes for crazy rants on these forums... He he he.

This is why I say Monk and me, we are brothers from another mother. Both weird eccentrics. Both misunderstood. Only difference is that he was a killing bebop piano rhythmic monster. And he wore silly hats and made them look cool as can be. Another BAMF in my book

... wait, what were we discussing? He he he

**jordanklemons** · 10-11-2015, 02:04 AM

Originally Posted by Irez87

Jordan's back! Yey

Ha...

Back...ish

Just checking in and poking around with the little bit of free time that I actually really don't have right now.

I have a few recording studio dates for my nonet project over the next couple months. Once I've finished the composition/arranging process and have rehearsed the band and recorded the tunes... and once my thesis is written and turned in... life will exist again. But until all that happens, and until I wrap up my program and graduate in December...

I'm just back...ish.

**Irez87** · 10-11-2015, 02:23 AM

Take care of business and get 'er done

Tell me when you're performing and it ain't on a school night, I might make it

**Sam Sherry** · 10-11-2015, 12:13 PM

Originally Posted by henryrobinett

But you know, you have to do all the due diligence to GET to that point. There is no short cut. You can't just decide to NOT THINK and the magic happens. You have to have CONSUMED all of that data FIRST. . . You are LISTENING while playing. Not interferring. Not thinking. Reacting. But you have to KNOW what the hell it is you are doing, on some level. And that means you know the fretboard cold. You don't THINK about the fretboard you know it so well. You know chords, devices to where they are no longer devices. You sing and can just play what you sing.

Henry, I hear what you're saying (no pun intended) but there is another approach and it works too. Here goes:

"As soon as you can get a note out, you can begin to play in the moment."

People here jump on me when I say this. (I don't mind because I know well there are tons of really nice people here, and because everybody is entitled to their approach anyway.)

Seriously: Newbies who don't know jack can improvise in the moment, and feel what that's like, and grow down that path. Advanced beginners like me can. Aces can. You can. Our playing change as they experience more and learn from their experience. We become better players and better listeners and the chances we like what we're playing will improve. But it's not REQUIRED that you learn a ton before you start to play in the moment. I've seen people do it.

There is no time like the present to start playing in the moment.