Analytical Blog
Finished Coltrane Book
After reading about the life of John Coltrane and the life of Stevie Ray Vaughan, I have a lot to think about as far as music is concerned. Both Coltrane and Stevie where very different as far as their personalities and mentalities towards music. However, one thing that they both would have connected through is this mentality of getting what they wanted through hard work and determination. Stevie got his fame through constant gigging and practicing to become the best blues musician that he could be. Coltrane got his fame the same way. Coltrane never stopped attempting to go somewhere new and raise the bar on what is and is not possible with Jazz. It was said that Stevie began the second wave of Blues guitarists since he added this whole new flavor to the genre with effects and intensity through adding a level of rock n roll to his playing. This mindset reminded me a lot of a John Mayer speech about how John had made all of his career happen by himself. The speech is really inspirational because it talks about how you can really do anything as long as you are extremely determined and willing to do everything that it takes to get there.
Another thing that these two musicians did that I do not do is constantly work on new material. Coltrane and Stevie spent very little time working on stuff that they already could do well. They were always trying to do something different, something that they were not good at in the first place. This is something that I am absolutely going to start applying to my playing. A bad habit of mine is to constantly play my favorite things over and over without looking to expand and learn new material. The upside of this is that I get really good at what I am playing over and over. The downside is that I begin to become less versatile.
After he talks about making things happen for himself, the rest of the speech is pretty corny!
Recently I have been trying to write songs so that I can put together an album before the summer begins. One large difficulty that I have found through writing is that I am having a very hard time coming up with ideas that I have not already played before. Every time I think I have a new idea, it is something that I had already heard or played previous to that. Since reading the Coltrane bio, I have begun to change my writing styles. The book itself did not get too specific about how Coltrane wrote his songs, but through the ways that he practiced in order to come up with new ideas, I figured I would try to apply his practice to my song writing. One thing that Coltrane would do is start somewhere he had never started and attempt to just play something incredibly random and outside of anything he would usually do. So I gave this idea a shot, but with chords. Then, I began to play some random chordal progressions. Soon, I found my ears pulling me towards different destinations that I had not thought about playing before!! I have only written three songs so far, but am very excited to see what happens!
After reading about the life of John Coltrane and the life of Stevie Ray Vaughan, I have a lot to think about as far as music is concerned. Both Coltrane and Stevie where very different as far as their personalities and mentalities towards music. However, one thing that they both would have connected through is this mentality of getting what they wanted through hard work and determination. Stevie got his fame through constant gigging and practicing to become the best blues musician that he could be. Coltrane got his fame the same way. Coltrane never stopped attempting to go somewhere new and raise the bar on what is and is not possible with Jazz. It was said that Stevie began the second wave of Blues guitarists since he added this whole new flavor to the genre with effects and intensity through adding a level of rock n roll to his playing. This mindset reminded me a lot of a John Mayer speech about how John had made all of his career happen by himself. The speech is really inspirational because it talks about how you can really do anything as long as you are extremely determined and willing to do everything that it takes to get there.
Another thing that these two musicians did that I do not do is constantly work on new material. Coltrane and Stevie spent very little time working on stuff that they already could do well. They were always trying to do something different, something that they were not good at in the first place. This is something that I am absolutely going to start applying to my playing. A bad habit of mine is to constantly play my favorite things over and over without looking to expand and learn new material. The upside of this is that I get really good at what I am playing over and over. The downside is that I begin to become less versatile.
After he talks about making things happen for himself, the rest of the speech is pretty corny!
Recently I have been trying to write songs so that I can put together an album before the summer begins. One large difficulty that I have found through writing is that I am having a very hard time coming up with ideas that I have not already played before. Every time I think I have a new idea, it is something that I had already heard or played previous to that. Since reading the Coltrane bio, I have begun to change my writing styles. The book itself did not get too specific about how Coltrane wrote his songs, but through the ways that he practiced in order to come up with new ideas, I figured I would try to apply his practice to my song writing. One thing that Coltrane would do is start somewhere he had never started and attempt to just play something incredibly random and outside of anything he would usually do. So I gave this idea a shot, but with chords. Then, I began to play some random chordal progressions. Soon, I found my ears pulling me towards different destinations that I had not thought about playing before!! I have only written three songs so far, but am very excited to see what happens!
That's really great. When you're famous because you are learning about all of these things and applying them, I'll take Violet to one of your concerts. :)
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