a higher level of musicianship?

[jah]

hi dennis,

first of all thankyou for this opportunity. I had a shitload of questions but you have already answered quite similair ones before so I will keep it at this one.

One thing I really respect from reading interviews, is how you your productions are 100% you. No session musicians or hired goons. I have been tinkering with making records for about ten years now, since I was about 15 or 16. It is only recently I feel I have anything close to being happy with, I have given out my best work to the dj's i love and respect where I live (those that have in some sense mentored me) and recieved really positive feedback but I feel in order to take it to the next level, I really need to inject a higher level musicality into my productions.

I have been taking piano lessons for the last year or so but I still cant play any jazz standards effectively or anything like that. I have a diehard love for this music but lack the chops of joe sample or herbie, how do I create effective musical passages when I insist on doing everything myself? I remember reading on RA you were saying that you bought like a whole bunch of "teach yourself jazz piano" dvd's or something like that and just went from there, is that true ?

[dennis f]

i'll have to correct you a bit here.

I write roughly 100%....every now and then i'll share a bit of writers credit because someone contributed and deserved it (for something as simple as changing the way a word should be sung) but when it comes to playing instruments one should know their boundaries. If i ever come across a particular piece where the difficulty level needed to write the part is more than i can handle....then believe you me..I'm not gonna sit there for 4 hours trying to get it right when one phone call and 300 bucks later someone can come in and knock it out in 15 minutes!!! I think it's really important to realize what your limitations are and then take advantage of knowing that. You call someone up...you play your idea and then tell them you want it a bit more spicier and pro than you can do it and your done. There's no shame to this and it is done EVERY day in our business...right on down to the jazz guys. Now...normally with keys i don't do this so often. I think i've done it maybe 3 or 4 times in my whole career cuz i can get away with the way i play. Guitars? Bass? String Section? Sax? Trumpet? oh hell no! i'm callin' somebody!! lmfao.

The idea in this one is.....

If it costs you 1200 in musicians to finish your record in 4 days...but your ass gets cheap
and you take 3 months to finish....did you really get out ahead and saved money from being cheap when you count the hours you spent in the studio? oh i dunno lets say @20 bucks an hour trying to get it right? Not to mention the days you lost out of your life doing that monotonous crap or the time spent with significant friends, family or others?
again know your limitations and take advantage of them...it's what separates the professionals from the not.
At the same time...no harm in grabbing as many playing tutorials and vids as you can.

DF

[jah]

cool thanks.
I think you hit on my true limitation which is I am a broke ass student
hehehe :D