Al Di Meola & John Mac Laughin about their life and music

[guizz]

Three interviews :

http://www.abstractlogix.com/interview_ ... p?idno=140

http://www.guitarmessenger.com/intervie ... interview/

http://www.elephant-talk.com/wiki/Inter ... n_Musician

I read this interviews yesterday night. They are very insightfull. The first & third talk about J Mc Laughin and his relation with music, improvisation, spirit & life etc...

and the other by Al Di Meola is more about guitar' playing. He talks again about rythm

Enjoy !!

[alcoyot]

Thanks for posting this, I just read the DiMeola interview, it was great. I like when he talks about players who can pick. .
This is also good inspiration to get back into foot tapping which I forgot about.

[N E Y]

Thank you Guillaume!

....and Alex....Yes after you get good at foot taping while playing improvised music on the spot , you will see how much most players can't cut it and how weak they really are! and immediately why they don't excite you very much.

You will feel very much like you have "special genius powers of perception" because they don't know what's wrong and why they are just average and annoying sounding compared to great players and you will know exactly why as if you were a seer endowed with clair voyant talents. The difference between those who have rhythm and those who don't is that dramatic in America and Europe! Rhythm and time sense are a cultural musical Achilles heel for the non- latin and non-Afro and non-middel Eastern and Indian based cultures in Europe and in the Americas.

Most of those born into these Anglo-saxonic cultures, have other strenghts off course, but they have to work very hard to develop sophisticated and often even basic rhythm and time to be capable to play music well. But they can do it only if they become aware that they lack this ability very acutely. And Rock is very sophisticated time wise and rhythm feel-wise when played brilliantly.

Today I was doing a hard rock rhythm and soloing lesson with a very very talented teen student and when I asked him to play this ACDC/zzTOP type hard rocking riff with me .. he was not synching with me very well and it made me feel sick physically on the spot ( that's how it feels to you when someone is even just a tad out of time ! )

I knew right away why and what to do about it: I told him "wait...listen to me and come in when you feel like you got it"...He did that and still was off the groove. So i told him:

Pay attention to the feel! You are playing with your mind!! This is not math!!!" He laughed and it clicked! He was then immediately rocking hard and playing like a real artist..just like that.....Awareness...precise awareness of what the music IS...He became rhytmically enlightened at that moment.
After that lesson he asked me if I minded if he could move up to a one-hour lesson with me instead of 1/2 hour! ..Yes it feels great to BE music! Instead of thinking you know about it


THE MASTER-STUDENT RELATIONSHIP
So you see that one who has reached rhytmic enlightement can impart that into another, as long as that player is receptive and sensitive to the presence of the master who is helping him and supervising him. Reading about it off course does not work, because the experience...the true experience-the one that matters- is still unknown to the student...because it is NOT and intellectual experience that can be grasped through words and text!....But that realization takes being in the presence of a master who embodies that experience! and we all have to go throught that contact with the master in our genre(s) if we desire to be in that league....

.
..There are other factors too like most players ignoring dynamics and playing loud all the time on acoustic guitar,completely disrespecting the quiet delicate moments when they have to be part of a band and turn down the volume to accompany, and not just be self -indulgent egotists vomiting the contents of their deluded minds into the attending public who only asks for some heartfelt music to heal their pain and make them feel better...This is another sign of weakness and undistinguished skills.

I have often seen AL, John, during live telling people they are playing with to quiet down certain passages. So you see that this egotism is also present in very good sidemen sometimes! They forget the music and just want to hear themselves play loud all the time! A clear symptom of this frequent musical delusion and lower talent levels! Imagine then how it is among amateurs and average professionals....

The third factor in this royal trilogy (If one lacks just one of these 3 skills one is not yet in the same league as the real artists in music) is being able to face silence and pauses in your solos and not playing all the time without pauses and silences.


The full list of skills to develop is what "The music lesson "by Victor Wotten, is based upon. I think you have read it, if I recall correctly....



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ney_mello
2011 going on 2012? We know it is time to care about cool music seriously again!...and Your guitar is part of the scene!
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001KMH8FM/?ta ... ppv63sgm_b

[alcoyot]

[i][color=#004080]Thank you Guillaume!

Hey Ney, thanks for your response. It is worth reading and re-reading. It makes me thing that I need to find a real teacher. Do you know of any good ones here in NYC? I had a teacher for a few lessons here years ago, but he told me I didn't need a teacher because I was already on the right track. (I was already using techniques and principles from Jamie)
Now I'm thinking it would be worthwhile to have a teacher, especially one who knows rhythm. This is one of my weak points, and I am definitely one of those who tries to make up for it with redeeming qualities.

[guizz]

Hey Ney, thanks for your response. It is worth reading and re-reading. It makes me thing that I need to find a real teacher. Do you know of any good ones here in NYC? I had a teacher for a few lessons here years ago, but he told me I didn't need a teacher because I was already on the right track. (I was already using techniques and principles from Jamie)
Now I'm thinking it would be worthwhile to have a teacher, especially one who knows rhythm. This is one of my weak points, and I am definitely one of those who tries to make up for it with redeeming qualities.

Salut Alex,

Speaking about rythm, I go to the music school every morning at 7:00 , leave at 8: 00 I do one hour of syncopation exercice on a drum with a metronome, reading rythm exercise, I went to see a friend ( he's a drummer) and ask him to explain to me everything, rythm notation, which hand to use, I photocopy rythm exercices and I borrow his books.

After two weeks, it really works.... I do not say that I am good, I will be a student my whole life, but it sinks, after 30 minutes, I do the basic 2 & 4 with my left foot on the hi-hat and the 1, 2, &3, 4 &1 etc ... with my right hand and I add the rythm writing with my vacant member ( not the head ) and I had improved a lot...

This morning I worked on doing a triolet with my left hand on the beat but I realised it was not accurate due to the swing of my right hand on the quarter note feel ..

Then , I worked on this for half an hour, and I realize it took me a long time to be fluid with both hands...

I understand clearly what Ney say about guitarists, the bad ones and the good ones...

I am reading now the art of bop drumming by john riley and I will add his exercice in the next months right from tomorrow.

I am lucky to be with drummers around me and get all the good stuff for free but I am sure you can reach some one who can explain a lot to you....

Last year I was jogging with a metronome in my headset and I was putting my right hand on beat 2 and 4 after this I run at various tempos around an athletism track, it was fun....

[N E Y]

Hey Ney, thanks for your response. It is worth reading and re-reading. It makes me thing that I need to find a real teacher. Do you know of any good ones here in NYC? I had a teacher for a few lessons here years ago, but he told me I didn't need a teacher because I was already on the right track. (I was already using techniques and principles from Jamie)
Now I'm thinking it would be worthwhile to have a teacher, especially one who knows rhythm. This is one of my weak points, and I am definitely one of those who tries to make up for it with redeeming qualities.


The only one I can recommend and I don't even know if he is teaching privately right now is Mike Stern. I don't know how to contact him .Al does not teach. There must be others but I don't know any that teach rhythm and time to the level of world class mastery besides Mike. Maybe Mike can recommend someone if he can't teach right now...but ask him to teach you anyway.....Try Dave Weckl if he is in NY I think he might be in LA though..... He is a drummer.





Salut Alex,

Speaking about rythm, I go to the music school every morning at 7:00 , leave at 8: 00 I do one hour of syncopation exercice on a drum with a metronome, reading rythm exercise, I went to see a friend ( he's a drummer) and ask him to explain to me everything, rythm notation, which hand to use, I photocopy rythm exercices and I borrow his books.

After two weeks, it really works.... I do not say that I am good, I will be a student my whole life, but it sinks, after 30 minutes, I do the basic 2 & 4 with my left foot on the hi-hat and the 1, 2, &3, 4 &1 etc ... with my right hand and I add the rythm writing with my vacant member ( not the head ) and I had improved a lot...

This morning I worked on doing a triolet with my left hand on the beat but I realised it was not accurate due to the swing of my right hand on the quarter note feel ..

Then , I worked on this for half an hour, and I realize it took me a long time to be fluid with both hands...

I understand clearly what Ney say about guitarists, the bad ones and the good ones...

I am reading now the art of bop drumming by john riley and I will add his exercice in the next months right from tomorrow.

I am lucky to be with drummers around me and get all the good stuff for free but I am sure you can reach some one who can explain a lot to you....

Last year I was jogging with a metronome in my headset and I was putting my right hand on beat 2 and 4 after this I run at various tempos around an athletism track, it was fun....