| Wilmer - as always, sound advice and a great post.
Lately in the rock band, I have been trying the "smarter, not harder" approach. Sometimes I get carried away and I find myself playing much more loudly than I need, and I have been trying to cut back on this. I'm miked and amplified for goodness sake! It isn't like blowing harder is going to help that much. I have also started looking at the parts a little more closely and in some cases, I modify them on the fly. In one tune in particular, the Donna Summer tune "Last Dance", a lot of the lines that I have written are violin lines in the original recording. On top of that, there is a lot of built in "brightness" in the backing tracks/sequences so there are places where I just fade out so that I can play the necessary hits. On a lot of the tunes that I play, there weren't any horn parts, but they are there in my part nonetheless.
It was being smart about what and how I was playing that led to my still having chops left over at the end of the second gig.
Great post. Thanks! |