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Empathy is a little-taught skill that's critical to, among other things, teaching, storytelling, and music. When you're comping, you want to be sure the listene
by Jeff_Brown 3y ago
Empathy is a little-taught skill that's critical to, among other things, teaching, storytelling, and music. When you're comping, you want to be sure the listener (and the soloist) know where they are in the song, without getting in the way. Doing it right requires listening closely, because you want your dynamics (generally) to mirror the soloist's, you want to anticipate when he'll go slow or take a breath because those are the best times to say something. As an accompanist your rhythm should be simpler than the drummer's or the soloist's, but should also (or rather, it often sounds good if you do) reflect any temporary motifs they introduce. If the bass is playing a pedal tone rather than the root, you might consider including the root more important than it would be otherwise (it's common otherwise to play the third and seventh, since the audience can typically infer the fifth even if it's not in the bassline).
These skills, which are often called "taste", are quite temperament-agnostic. They would apply equally to music with 13 notes per octave.
- tmountain 3y agoTaste is often in short supply. In my experience, most people overplay. My favorite musicians would often be referred to as restrained. A great example would be Ed Bickert’s playing on Live at the Garden Party. It’s just him on guitar with a bass accompanying, and nonetheless, he doesn’t really come into the first song for at least two minutes. Instead he just does high range chordal harmony to complement the bass. It’s beautiful playing that you really don’t hear very often.
- klodolph 3y agoI think part of the reason why restraint is so valuable is because of the band context. If you listen to a solo guitar piece or piano piece that you like, it might be really complicated, with a million things going on. If you listen to a guitar or piano accompaniment track from a song you like, you might hear simple triads or intervals, played sparsely or with a simple rhythm.
- Pannoniae 3y agoI find it funny how minimalism is considered a virtue in a band setting. All those New Orleans bands can manage perfectly with everyone just blasting whatever into the air..... :)
- Jeff_Brown 3y agoThat is a wonderful effect. However, while I've never been in such a band, I suspect "whatever" wouldn't cut it.
- jancsika 3y agoAny player could start trolling the others at any time: clarinetist-- play loud, continuous lyrical lines that noodle around whatever register the trumpet happens to be playing in trumpet-- play continuous arpeggios trombone-- play ska-style double-timing off-beats tuba-- no roots of chords allowed. Bonus for playing continuous dotted quarters :) Any combination of any of the above trolling will sound bad.
- gvurrdon 3y agoThanks for the recommendation - I've ordered a copy. It should be very interesting as I can play both instruments to varying degrees.
- webnrrd2k 3y agoI recently saw a great discussion of musical restraint and intentional playing on youtube, and it's an excellent illustration of your point. I'm sure that a lot of other people will appreciate it: I finally get Radiohead [0] [0] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Fi7SGJGaW8s&pp=ygUXSSBmaW5hbGx5IGdldCByYWRpb2hlYWQ%3D https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Fi7SGJGaW8s&pp=ygUXSSBmaW5hbGx...
- tnecniv 3y agoThat empathy and taste also comes from repeatedly playing with each other. It’s a lot easy to anticipate where the song is going if you know what moves your band mates like to employ.
- Jeff_Brown 3y agoIt's a good point, and cuts at a deep tradeoff in musicianship (or, indeed, the labor market) -- general human capital vs. firm-specific human capital. Something I like about jazz is you can spend a couple decades investing in yourself and basically kick ass from then on. But to really shine, you need to have invested in your band too, which is a much riskier proposition.
- rewgs 3y agoCharlie Hunter calls this kind of thing "covert chops." This is the kind of thing pros eventually end up caring about -- groove, feel, taste, dynamics, etc. Real musicianship.