At £35 a go these lessons aren’t cheap but they are good value because they tend to last at least two hours rather than the one hour they’re designated. My tutor for these lessons, call him Dom, recommended a book to me which I bought for myself as a Christmas present. The book is called Effortless Mastery by Kenny Werner** and it’s quite puzzling in parts but then I suppose it would be given the subject – effortless jazz improvisation. I do like the title though. At one level it’s about being in the zone where your improvisations come effortlessly, without any effort. I like this idea, suits my rather feckless nature. I am not, by natural predisposition, an ardent practiser. But there is a catch in what the book says, or at least it seems to me there is, and that is that you have to practice really hard (albeit only for a few minutes each day if you don’t fancy anything more, it just takes longer then to acquire the skill) until you know the piece without thinking about it. Kenny says, if the material is hard it’s ‘because it hasn’t been practiced to the proper level of ease’. Then, in bold italics, Kenny goes on to say, ‘music has to become easy, that’s the secret.’ Hmm, that’s too deep for me, maybe I’ve missed the point, I don’t practise my improvisations, in fact I have no idea what note I’m going to play next or, in fact, what notes I am playing at all. On the piano I recognise them, they’re all laid out in front of me in a nice orderly fashion, on the guitar many of them remain mysterious. Which is probably why I haven’t written a book about jazz improvisation or am making money as a professional jazz guitar player.
So Kenny’s book, my progress at the workshops and the thought that maybe I should lash out on another lesson set me thinking about exactly what the focus of the lesson should be. I feel like I know enough about what I don’t know to be able to decide what the lesson should be about – progress in itself. The clue is in the first paragraph about playing more blues than jazz (which is partially OK because the line between jazz and the blues is a fine and sometimes non-existent one), so obviously I need to take some small steps from the former to the latter, maybe, in a’ sensible learning’ context, just one note at a time. Additionally, as I play the piano somewhat better than the guitar it would also make sense to begin on the piano and move to the guitar, again in slow steps, perhaps a song at a time.
To digress slightly, in the broader retirement context, I am in the process of writing a blog about retirement mission statements (now written and posted). A part of that mission statement is about achieving a balance between challenge and achievement. In simple terms, this probably means not setting the bar too high and taking pleasure in small successes. On reflection, I don’t think I have done either. I can’t say that I have approached learning about jazz guitar in a planned or thoughtful way. It’s all been a bit higgledy piggledy – a workshop here, a lesson there, a book here, an instructional video there, no plan, I’ve let my path be guided by others, I’ve been reactive rather than proactive and, as we know, this is a recipe for a little or even a lot, of heartbreak.
So it has been, there has been some heart-ache if not heart – break. But, through all the self-induced messiness, I’ve more or less hung in there and I might just be in a position now to know more about what I need to do next. I sincerely hope this doesn’t sound smug. I have learned that it does not pay to be smug. I would rather think of it as giving myself realistic credit for what I have achieved.
I’ll finish this jazz update (one of my four main retirement strands) by confessing to the purchase of another jazz-related book that I bought for myself for Christmas. The book, called Uncompromising Expression, the history of the Blue Note record label, is a glossy as the Lerner book is plain and as expensive as the latter is cheap or inexpensive as they say in the USA. I’m going to include a couple of images (well one in fact, it’s hard to scan the book) from the book. In my opinion the illustrations are quite beautiful which is why one of them is at the top of this blog. It gives me great pleasure to think that, in my own very, very humble way I am maintaining the legend, walking in the footsteps of giants you might say. As a retirement activity I can think of few better ways to spend my time.
* In fact because I’ve been slow in posting this blog (owing to a lot happening), it is now half term and progress is being maintained.
**I would recommend this book to students of jazz, it’s probably just me that didn’t get as much from it as I could have if I had stuck with it. In retirement I have become less patient for some reason.
Enjoyed the blog and full of admiration for your tenacity. Hang in there!