Well, it’s been a strange day for me. I haven’t done much playing. Instead I’ve been following this thread. Too much pootin’ as Colin the Bear would say. One important fact has emerged of which I hadn’t taken account: playing by ear, something I’ve been doing in one way or another virtually all my life, can be incredibly (over-used word here meant literally) difficult for someone who hasn’t tried it before. But Jeanette has persevered and I think she has broken the CAN’T barrier in the space of an evening. Keep at it and it will soon be fun rather than hard work.
As I sip my bedtime glass of Scotch I’m listening to Jeanette’s Coltrane post and rather than read, I’ll tell about how I went on last night, sitting-in with the band. I’d done some work on The Old Rugged Cross but, whether because they were afraid I couldn’t keep time or because it seemed like a good idea, I didn’t play that. Instead, the band had me sit-in on a number I hadn’t heard, let alone played, before. I was spared having to do a solo; my job was to play along with the band and try to fit in. Then, having done my not-very-good best and thinking my job was done for the night, they said, play along with the next one as well, another that I’d never even heard before called “I Get the Blues When it Rains”. OK, I thought, I ought to be able to manage a blues and started on the good ol’ 1,4,5 routine – except it wasn’t a blues at all and I was lost. Well, I tootled on, getting in a few notes and phrases that didn’t fit so badly and more that didn’t fit at all, until I was given a nudge to join the proper saxophonist in his solo. What a foul-up on my part! But that’s the nature of the band: they want me to learn and they’re willing to put up with my incompetence while I improve, and I am improving, a priceless opportunity.
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