Skills required for ensemble playing
- The ability to analyse musical scores.
- The ability to play many songs without sheet music.
That’s not true.
It’s just sophistry used by ‘those who can’ to show off to ‘those who can’t’. A session isn’t really that big a deal. It simply comes down to whether you want to ‘show off’ or ‘enjoy’ your playing; in this note, we’ll focus on ‘enjoying’ it.
I’ve created a role-play video featuring a guitar and bass player who’ve only just learnt to play ‘CDEFGAB’, and a drummer who’s finally got the hang of a ‘4’ beat. The video is about five minutes long, so if you read along whilst listening, you should finish just as it ends.
Rules
- The notes played are one of ‘CDEFGAB’.
- The performance lasts five minutes.
- Just repeat the notes ‘A’ and ‘D’ at the start, then you’re free to improvise.
- If you get tired of ‘freedom’, take a break by repeating the first ‘A’ and ‘C’.
- I don’t try to play in time with other players.
To ensure they do not play in time with other musicians, the players have recorded their parts whilst hearing only the metronome. (The drums consist of an 8-bar sample loop.)
If you found the sound in the video unpleasant, you have moved on to the next step. We recommend that you move on to another note.
If I stick to the scale of ‘CDEFGAB’, I hardly ever go off-key
Have you noticed that there are several places where you’re in time, even though you’re only listening to the metronome? The only notes that are off when the other players are playing ‘C’ are ‘B’ and ‘D’. Let’s say it with confidence: ‘I did it on purpose’.
Record it and get twice the enjoyment
Even just having a few moments during a five-minute performance where I think, ‘That sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?’ is a joy in itself, but I get even happier when I listen back to the session later and discover moments I didn’t notice whilst playing that make me think, ‘That sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?’ It’s even better when that observation comes from someone else.
However, as many of those who like to show off are reluctant to be recorded, make sure you get their consent before recording. Generally speaking, people who like to show off aren’t well-suited to free sessions, so it might be a good idea to use this as a guideline when recruiting members for future sessions.
Don’t play in time with the other players
To begin with, it’s nothing short of a miracle for musicians to play in unison during an unscripted jam session. Even if you try to synchronise, it’s obvious that the other person’s playing will lag by a bar or so, making the effort itself futile.
What you should bear in mind is that the moments when you do happen to hit the mark are usually when you’ve hit the nail on the head with the thought, ‘This bloke plays this phrase like a broken record.’ If that ‘broken record’ is you, you should reflect on it and switch your efforts to playing phrases that take the other person by surprise.
I really enjoyed it
I’ve been noticing a growing trend on social media of people showing off their practice routines, so I decided to write about how there are ways to enjoy music before resorting to practising desperately amidst self-deprecation and putting others down.