OCD and playing Jazz

[MandyH]

🙂))

My children will tell you that I have OCD....I don't....I just have a higher level of perfectionism.
(What wrong with my sock drawer being filed in colour order? And my saucepans being stacked just so?)

Anyway, my sax teacher is trying (desperately) to teach me how to play Jazz.
I think my Higher level of perfectionism lends itself perfectly to playing Bari in a sax ensemble - I have to stick to the beat, and I certainly do!

However, this higher level of perfectionism is precisely why my Jazz playing is something else, often hilarious 🙂))

I would like to announce, therefore, that I have managed to "anticipate the beat" and play ahead of the beat. :welldone

It was like some inner torment going on - my head was telling me "now, you can do it now, ahead of the beat, go..."
And my heart was telling me "no, no, the music says on the beat, not before it..."

I had to stop tapping my toe in order to achieve this wonderful moment, but now I've done it, I can do it again and again.
And, what's more, I can choose to do it or not, even in adjacent bars!!

Not that I sound very Jazzy yet, but who would have thought that anticipating the beat would be so traumatic? 🙂))

 

[Pyrografix]

Well done - you see, its all in the Mind! No stopping you now!

 

[Jeanette]

That's where I am going wrong, I rarely mange to play on the beat, must play jazz🙂

Jx

PS, thought you were telling us your suspenders were stacked neatly had to read that twice:shocked:

 

[TomMapfumo]

Nothing wrong with having an Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Adaptation. Shame everything in the UK is called a "Disorder" and has a negative implication. If "Jazz" is generally thought of as about breaking rules, varying speed, rhythm, notes & scales, then it might imply that this personality type may have difficulty in adapting. Alternatively Jamey Aebersold is a very successful Jazz musician and has a strong Obsessive-Compulsive Personality to boot, so it should be no problem for you to get somewhere in similar vein!

 

[MandyH]

Nothing wrong with having an Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Adaptation. Shame everything in the UK is called a "Disorder" and has a negative implication. If "Jazz" is generally thought of as about breaking rules, varying speed, rhythm, notes & scales, then it might imply that this personality type may have difficulty in adapting. Alternatively Jamey Aebersold is a very successful Jazz musician and has a strong Obsessive-Compulsive Personality to boot, so it should be no problem for you to get somewhere in similar vein!

thanks Tom...
...it has created many moments of hilarity in my sax lessons, when my teacher says "just...." and my inner thoughts are going "but..." and what's more, she can see my body fighting with my brain. So to have achieved this little step is really good.

My summer project is to improve my Jazz playing, which includes intonation, articulation and playing off or ahead or behind the beat.

I will record myself this week, then work at it for 6 weeks or so, then re-record myself and see if there is any improvements.

I am also on "Jazz immersion therapy" listening to any and every Jazz saxophonist I can find whenever I can - driving, cooking, in the bath etc!

 

[rhysonsax]

I am also on "Jazz immersion therapy" listening to any and every Jazz saxophonist I can find whenever I can - driving, cooking, in the bath etc!

Are they happy to play in your car/kitchen/bathroom ? Sounds like an interesting gig.

Rhys

 

[MandyH]

Are they happy to play in your car/kitchen/bathroom ? Sounds like an interesting gig.

Rhys

🙂))

they haven't complained yet....

 

[Chris]

Hal Galpers videos have been around for a little while now Mandy. You might find them interesting.

http://youtu.be/a2XnB5G6oSc

Chris..

 

[Colin the Bear]

I think the key to jazz or swing is to remember it's roots are in dance music and the emphasis is on the up beat.


I think of classical as:- 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and

I think dance as :- (rest) AND 2 AND 3 AND 4 AND


If you mentally place a quaver rest at the beginning of each bar and adjust the phrase to fit you'll catch the upbeat.

Reggae I find is the easiest to catch the upbeat. It feels backwards at first. Your OCD will be an advantage once you get the beat because you'll lock in.

Beware though because it's infectious.

These guys have it sussed


http://youtu.be/PV2GZF8rKT4

http://youtu.be/9ogQ0uge06o

 

[jbtsax]

I'm having a hard time following the idea in this thread. Can you explain what "play ahead of the beat" means? Does it refer to playing syncopations, or does it actually mean playing "out of time/sync" with the pulse or beat of the music?

Aside from the Basie band playing slightly behind the beat on slow swing tunes, I have never heard of playing ahead of the beat.

 

[wol916]

I'm not OCD I just have a very finely tuned attention to detail ( I measure the position of the DVD player etc so I know it's square with the table and the gaps are all even :ashamed). Recently I've been trying to syncopate three notes by playing ascending notes of an arpeggio, accenting every other note so it sounds like a descending one at half the speed - that makes your head hurt.

 

[MandyH]

I'm having a hard time following the idea in this thread. Can you explain what "play ahead of the beat" means? Does it refer to playing syncopations, or does it actually mean playing "out of time/sync" with the pulse or beat of the music?

Aside from the Basie band playing slightly behind the beat on slow swing tunes, I have never heard of playing ahead of the beat.

Not on every note....the idea is to play a note before it is written to be played,
So I am trying to play Niehaus's Basic Jazz Conception, exercise 1.... The first and second bars have the same written rhythm - two swung quavers with the second tied to a staccato accented crotchet (with the pointy hat on ^) followed by an accented full length minim (with the > above it)

My teacher was trying to get me to play that minim in the correct place in one bar, but ahead of the beat in the second bar.
So on the "3" in bar one, but on the 2 "and" or even the 2 and "ee" in bar two.

Not sure if that really makes sense without seeing the music....

 

[jbtsax]

Thanks. Now I understand what you are referring to. My question is why your teacher is having you play that minim (half note) ahead of the beat in the second bar. One would never play it ahead of the beat when reading that rhythm in a chart. Is it just a mental exercise perhaps?