Friday, January 22, 2016

On Sound

You're never done working on your sound. It's in a state of constant flux, because the weather is always changing, and you're always changing, getting older, stronger, weaker; and you're equipment is always changing, aging, being slowly altered each day you play it. I've heard every single one of my musical heroes during a down cycle or a bad day. It's sobering and reassuring. Everybody has them. Most of the jazz greats end up blasting too much at times; many classical players get into a timid zone when they struggle. Even when everybody digs what you're doing, if you don't like it, and if you know something is wrong, you have to keep listening, keep searching, keep refining. It's a dance with perfection. You can't reach it--you are not perfection-- but you can dance with it. The key is to not become antagonistic towards perfection: to not turn it into a boxing match instead of a dance. Because when it becomes a boxing match against perfection, you lose.