CHEAP BUT GOOD ADVICE FOR PLAYING MUSIC IN A GROUP
Chick corea
- Play only what you hear.
- If you don’t hear anything, don’t play anything.
- Don’t let your fingers and limbs just wander - place them intentionally.
- Don’t improvise on endlessly - play, something with intention, develop it or not, but then, end off, take a break.
- Leave space - create space - intentionally create places where you don’t play.
- Make your sound blend. Listen to your sound and adjust it to the rest of the band and the room.
- If you play more than one instrument at a time - like a drum kit or multiple keyboards - make sure that they are balanced with one another.
- Don’t make any of your music mechanically or just through patterns of habit. Create each sound, phrase, and piece with choice - deliberately.
- Guide your choice of what to play by what you like - not by what someone else will think.
- Use contrast and balance the elements: high/low, fast/slow, loud/soft, tense/relaxed, dense/sparse.
- Play to make the other musicians sound good. Play things that willl make the overall music sound good.
- Play with a relaxed body. Always release whatever tension you create.
- Create space - begin, develop and end phrases with intention.
- Never beat or pound your instrument - play it easily and gracefully.
- Create space - then place something in it.
- Use mimicry sparsely - mostly create phrases that contrast with and develop the phrases of the other players.