FEEL / INTANGIBLES
How do I play more effortlessly and with more soul?
Practice is the key to playing effortlessly. Having technical ability clears
obstacles to playing what you hear.
Soul comes from living your life and having something to say when
you play. This is beyond the scope of music study, having to do with
your own personal development.
I keep thinking ahead and can't stay "in the moment". It makes my
sound stale and my motivation difficult. What do you recommend?
I find that silencing the internal dialogue is the
first step to avoiding this pitfall.
Focusing on all the music that is happening,
your surrounding musicians, the music that
was just played, the music that is playing now,
and the music you are a split second away
from playing keeps you centered in the
moment.
To reinforce these techniques you can seek out instruction in some
form of meditation, or a mind-body discipline like martial arts, dance
or an athletic endeavor that requires physical discipline.
Is it following the chords religiously, or just feeling the sound and
playing by ear, the most important thing to do when improvising?
The goal of American Music is to play what you hear. Much of the training
methodology supports this approach.
The basic idea of study in jazz improvisation is to teach your ears the
different possibilities by playing and practice, and then letting
yourself play spontaneously.