Re: Stick-Perpetual Motion
sagehalo wrote:
One thing to know about classical music pre-recording age is that the composers always play their music faster than other performers. I think if you slowed this down 10-20%, your attack and precision would be much more precise and stylistic. Listen to Josh. He knows what he's talking about. (Not that you weren't).
All good, thanks for checking it out! And thanks for your comments, that's why I posted these tunes. I like talking about music. Feedback is always appreciated, and I always love talking about music.
Of course, Nicolo Paganini's stuff is played VERY fast and this little rundown is not even a shadow of what the Nicster was capable of; his works for solo violin are beyond disgusting when it comes to technical mastery and sheer proficiency on his instrument; apparently he was a scary guitarist and mandolinist too! Still, it was a great little piece to take a stab at for reading purposes. An awesome study that taught me just a little bit more about the Stick in a way that other tunes may not have...
These pieces that I slammed together (Including this one) Are NOT performances, nor are they intended to be anything more than a display of proficiency with one aspect of my musicianship that I have been working on
(nuance, dynamics, phrasing, rhythmic control, etc can come later, I am still working on the basics);
Literacy.
Because I can read, and I've spent a bit of time developing that attribute, I now have access to a much larger repertoire, and said access is much faster. On the fly if I want to, although the less preparation time available equates to a much shakier "read" performance.
There are some tunes where I hammer down with a metronome and study each part until it's flawless; The Bach 2-part inventions are like my "project pieces" and as such, they take time to prepare... BUT... what if I just want to jam? What if I just want to do some solo stuff for an open mic, or sit in with some folks?
Well, since I can read, I can do that. Charts = flexibility. Sure, this version of Moto Perpetuo is lacking. There is a list a mile long in regards to the deficiencies in the piece, hahah The aspects of my playing that need work are on a list that is about a mile long. While I work on those deficiencies, I am NOT going to sit around with my thumb up my ass waiting until I'm "good enough" to play a bunch of tunes... No, in fact it is critical that I get exposure to as many different songs and genres as possible. Some tunes might work out better than others. So, I am gonna read 'em down, hit "record" and have a hard copy to reflect upon later on down the road. Some may get revisited later on, or maybe not.
Kind of like this; in a daily practice I will read down about 10-15 new pieces of music a day. No, they aren't perfect. In fact, some are terrible (Almost all are painfully slow)... But just making it through to the end of a piece of music represents a kind of victory (Instant win!!), and I always learn something new and feel as if I have improved after each and every practice. "Moving forward" so to speak, lol perpetual motion... I go through a huge variety of stuff from fiddle tunes to classical stuff, jazz stuff, even rock and metal. Whatever. If there's notes, I try to read it down. It helps me tremendously, and as such I thought I'd share a bit of my practicing with you guys. I thought I'd address some tunes that other people do as well as some that have never been touched really. I also thought I'd try a few different accompaniment methods that I have been working on also. All in fun, all in the spirit of talking about music (
Even if it means folks are telling me my stuff sucks/needs work/would sound better the way Greg Howard plays it, etc hahaha)
Trust me, if I can slam together 9 tunes in less than 7 days anybody can. (I suck at the Stick) Terrible as they are, I just wanted to show that it is indeed possible to build one's repertoire up in more compressed timeframes.
And of course, any discussion that comes up as a result is cool. And even better, if someone else posts much better versions of the tunes, or other tunes... well, that is just what I was pushing for.
Cool beans, thanks for checking it out and commenting. Music is cool.