For example, when I called I Should Care, they asked me to pick something else. And, depending on who is there, they stick with pretty common standards so that the young horn players have a chance of knowing the tune. The guys sitting in never use charts, but the B3 player has IRealPro on his phone sitting on the organ. There's a pretty high level jam I go to occasionally at a local restaurant. Even on standards gigs, there are often arrangements which have to be read. In my small corner of the music world, I'm rarely in a situation where I'm expected to play random tunes from memory. One got it on the second, one (the professor) on the third. The leader would signal with fingers up or fingers down (number of sharps or flats) and count it in.īut, in a story I've recounted here before, I was in a group with two well known guitarists, one a college professor of jazz guitar, when Stella got called in F. The NYC wedding musicians of my youth were never stumped and could play anything in any key. Warren Nunes told me that if he heard a song on a jukebox one time, he'd know it for the rest of his life. At least I can glance at the changes for a few seconds and memorise the changes. You nor I nor anyone here is to blame for that.Īnd I expect I will be using it tonight for a couple of tunes. People have to use it because it is expected. IReal is pernicious because it nudges the needle further in that direction. I might not know all the tunes, but I can lughole them.īut of course it’s also great to learn to read charts too. You just have to listen out and have a go. Some bands I have played with have no time between tunes and expect you to transpose at the drop of a hat. I always prefer to play with great players who know the tunes I call, but that is not reality most of the time.Well there are some traditions, some circles of musicians that operate this way. The real world is where I like to live, not inside my perfect imagination. Whether is swings or not is irrelevant, since no fake book chart swings, that's dependent on the players. iRealpro is a great tool for professional musicians who know how to wield tools. I need to be able to play what the leader or buyer wants, period. I am a full-time, lifelong gigging musician, not a jamming or casual one. Last edited by christianm77 11-21-2019 at 03:51 PM.Ĭhristian, let's not make the perfect the enemy of the good. Singer gigs are always good for that.Īlso when you learn a tune, try teaching it someone else without a chart.Īgain these things are more common in the trad and mainstream worlds where the repertoire is based around a narrow set of harmonic movements. What matters is the speed and fluency of the process. And lessons learned under pressure stick. Imo the reason why we learn a zillion tunes is not because we want to learn a zillion tunes, but because we want to practice learning a tune by ear a zillion times. Look if you are playing a standard, a sentence or two about the form and the bridge can be all you need - ‘it’s AABA F major, starts on ii and goes to Ab in the bridge.’ A chilled background gig with players who are open to a little risk. this learning experience doesn’t need to be Whiplash like. And I hope I am supportive myself in that situation. It helps to have the supportive environment - people who don’t get pissed off with you etc. If you never allow yourself to fail, you can’t grow. Mistakes are important because it means you are learning. I respect honest mistakes a lot more than someone insulating themselves from risk. Maybe the bass or piano will help you out. A background gig is not going to fall apart because you played the wrong chord. It’s worse to play without feel for instance. Fear of fucking up, looking a fool in front of your peers, fear under the spotlight. Should I give up music? I'd rather rely on IRealPro for the tunes I should know, but don't, and continue playing.I think people sometimes use charts out of fear. I work on that, but I'll never get it to the level of the NYC wedding musicians of my youth. My ears aren't good enough to transpose all of them to any key on the fly without making mistakes. If they weren't reading, they'd have to play songs they all knew, which is limiting.Ī more personal point - I know about 100, maybe 125 tunes, which is nowhere near enough. In the shows I go to in the SF Bay Area and in NYC, I often see the musicians reading.
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