A question about Practice: Results

Todd Pertll · From: Chicago, Illinois, USA

I haven't been playing very long, so I'm hoping that some of you can help me.

With the help of modern technology, I'm becoming increasingly better at figuring out licks off of CD's. But now what do I do? I work the lick up to speed, learn it in all keys, even play it over programmed progressions in "Band in the Box".

Now, when I'm on a gig it is very difficult to recall these licks at the right moment, and I end up playing the same old stuff.

I was wondering if anyone has any advise on how to properly apply this knowledge, or if I should change my approach to practicing.

thanks for your help,

Todd

Eric West · From: Portland, Oregon, USA, R.I.P.

Head to work with ONE or TWO of these licks in mind, and vow to PLAY them at least ONCE in the course of the night.

I myself find that maybe 1 out of 4 ever get to be a part of my "bag" due to them "just not being practical".

"Generic" songs like "truck driving man" are GREAT for trying these.

Jeff Lampert · From: queens, new york city

For me, as well as others I would imagine, this is a perennial issue that nevers get easy. The trouble is that when you practice something, you can work it over until you get it perfect. But when you are on stage, you have only the one shot at it. You don't have numerous attempts at getting warmed up to the lick. Plus to make matters worse, the stage ambience is different than the practice ambience, meaning things sound different, the steel feels different, the amp sounds louder, you're playing with a bunch of other instruments, etc. etc., all which makes it that much harder to nail an otherwise perfected lick with your one shot. Practicing it more is NOT the answer since it is the ambience of the new environment that is the cause. One obvious answer which I use is to just play it and make mistakes. As you get more used to playing the lick within the ambience of a live gig, you'll play it better, and after a few more attempts you will be getting it right. Another solution is to practice it silently while the band is playing onstage. Not strictly professional, but it helps a lot. If you rehearse with a group, play it as often as you can during the rehearsal, even asking the band to replay the tune as often as you feel you need. Rehearsal is not as effective as playing it on stage, but it is defintely more effective than playing it in practice since you get used to at least some of the live playing ambience. Bottom line: You gotta play it out. Simply practicing the lick endlessly is not only diminishing returns, but can be counterproductive since you will lose your enthusiasm for the lick before you ever get to play it out. I guarantee you that if you can put up with the discomfort of playing the lick out and initially blowing it, you will get to the point where you will be able to play it out and do it well.

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[url=http://www.mightyfinemusic.com/jeff's_jazz.htm]Jeff's Jazz[/url]

John McGann · From: Boston, Massachusetts, USA * R.I.P.

Todd, it may help if you focus some practice time on the actual tunes you'll play at the gig, in the keys and tempo you'll be playing, and see if you can apply the IDEAS if not the licks verbatim to the tunes.

You can always change a melodic idea around by a few notes to suit your needs, or possibly develop that idea into another direction. I've found this helpful for applying learned ideas.

Billy Wilson · From: El Cerrito, California, USA

That sounds like a very good practice style to me. You might just keep it going along those lines and don't be too impatient for some of those "off the record" ideas to start seeping into your playing. Some things in music are better to "let it happen" and others gotta be nailed. BW

David Doggett · Posted 19 Jan 2004 4:26 pm

John has the right idea. If your band doesn't have any tracks recorded, look into recording practices or gigs yourself. If you can't do that, try to find CDs that have the same or similar songs on them. Practice playing along with these tracks and adding in the new licks.

Another approach is to forget trying to memorize licks. Instead, play along with your groups tracks or similar tracks and make up your own licks. They'll be easier to play. Even those might be difficult to memorize and repeat, but the practice of creating them while playing along will teach you how to do the same thing on a live gig.

It's always good to dissect the licks of pros to see how and why they did what they did. But memorizing them and incorporating them on the fly is a very high level of skill. Maybe it comes with time. I wouldn't know. If the only thing I could play was memorized licks I've heard others do, I'd have to lay out 99.9% of the time.

Larry Bell · From: Englewood, Florida

As usual, I agree with Jeff
Human nature dictates that many people will freeze up when 'the red light goes on'. The way I've found around it is not to even attempt to play a solo -- either one I've composed or one I've transcribed and 'lifted' -- until you can play it FASTER THAN CONCERT TEMPO -- AT LEAST TWICE IN A ROW. Another test is whether you can play it COLD -- no warmup. If you can't, you're probably better off waiting until you can. It can be very frustrating, but if you do your homework and preparation properly, it will fall into place. As others have mentioned, having a rhythm track is great, but a metronome works wonders too. Take one to your gig or practice to figure out the appropriate tempo. Good luck.

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Larry Bell - email: larry@larrybell.org - gigs - Home Page
2003 Fessenden S/D-12 8x8, 1969 Emmons S-12 6x6, 1971 Dobro, Standel and Peavey Amps

[This message was edited by Larry Bell on 19 January 2004 at 05:57 PM.]

Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

My suggestion is to make it the "Lick of the Week" and have fun with it. It's a game: see how many places you can squeeze it into. First analyze the function of the lick: is it taking you from a I to a IV chord? Or from a V back to a I chord? When you're at home FORCE yourself to think through at least 3 or 4 other songs, or even different places in the same song, where you are playing through that same function (e.g., I to IV, or V to I) and squeeze that lick into ALL of those places. (You might need to adjust the phrasing a bit, or nip and tuck here and there to make it fit.) The purpose of doing this is to "genericize" the lick, so that you can think of it more broadly and not ONLY when you're playing that one spot in that one song where you first learned it. If you don't do this, you'll never think of it on the fly in other songs.

The second thing you'll need to do, IMHO, is to figure out how to get INTO that lick from other places that you might be playing, and how to get OUT of it into something else. Look at the pockets and places where you might be playing over the I chord and now you want to play this cool lick to get you to the IV chord. How are you gonna hook the new piece up to your old stuff? FORCE yourself to invent 3 or 4 different ways to do that. Because if you don't know how to GET there, and you don't know how to EXIT from there, your brain won't let you GO there!

One more thing: recognize that the distance traveled in going from I to IV is the same distance as going from V to I (they're both up a fourth). So that means (Ah-Hah!) that many of your I to IV ideas will also work over V to I areas, and vice versa! Voila! Instant "Lick Extender"! But you still gotta force yourself to work with them so they become part of your musical vocabulary and will come up in your consciousness in the heat of the battle.

It's a lot like learning a new word. You might know what it means but if you never practice putting it into a bunch of sentences, you'll never use it in natural conversation because you're unpracticed at using it in any context. Same thing.

Hope that helps a bit. (I know I feel better!

)

Nate LaPointe · From: Los Angeles, California, USA

For me, I need to feel close to the lick, like I have something invseted in it, then it will come out when I need it to. Transcribing them is great, but also writing my own connects me to them. Listen to the melodies in your head and play them on your axe. Use your practice time to "transcribe" the notes in your "inner ear". Do this enough, and it will naturally come out on the gig.

[This message was edited by Nate LaPointe on 20 January 2004 at 10:55 AM.]

Matt Greene · From: Carrollton, Georgia, USA

My advice is to quit learning licks and learn your scales. All of the licks you are "learning" are made up of scales. Learn them forwards,backwards and upside down and
I promise it will change your pedal steel life. A week with Jeff Newman hammering this home was worth 10 years of licks for me!! Good Luck and keep on trucking.

Bengt Erlandsen · From: Brekstad, NORWAY

If you still want to play licks. Follow Matt's advice about learning scales and transpose the lick throughout the scale starting the lick at the 1st note of the scale. Transpose all notes to start the lick from the 2nd note of the scale, and then the 3rd note, 4th note until you reach the octave.
To begin with you should pay a little bit of attention to how the lick is played differently when starting on the 1st, 4th and 5th note of the scale. If you stay in position and swap the different licks starting on 1st, 4th and 5th note of the scale when the chords change to I IV or V things will sound a lot cooler than the ordinary lick nr243 or lick nr147 from the bag of licks.

Also transposing a short lick up/down through a scale can be really nice when the chord stays the same.

Bengt Erlandsen

[This message was edited by Bengt Erlandsen on 20 January 2004 at 11:28 PM.]

Todd Pertll · From: Chicago, Illinois, USA

Matt,

could you give me an example of how you approach practicing scales?

the problem is that I'm trying get away from just memorizing licks. I do disect them to figure out what scale degrees/harmonies are being implied. But applying the knowledge is giving me problems.

Bengt, that is great advise. I am going to try that tonight.

Matt Greene · From: Carrollton, Georgia, USA

Todd, No doubt nothing is more boring than playing scales but there is a saving grace.. Backing tracks. Band in a Box is an excellent tool to play to. I have songs in just about every key. I include all the chords in a key (including relative minors) and practice my scales over that.

The one technique that helped me the most was playing the scales up the neck but skipping a step then going back to it then skipping etc.. by doing this forward and backward my ears began to "hear" the neck in a different way.

Finally, the other thing that really improved my playing was "substituting minors" if you don't already know this, it works like this.

VI minor = I chord
II minor = IV chord
III minor = V chord

This not an exact science but it works for me 90% of the time. Give it a try with the band.

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