Memorizing

A lot has happened since last I wrote. I'll see what I can do about getting caught up on this blog. The latest and greatest happening is that my duo, Godfrey and Guy, landed a regular gig at Noosh Persian Bistro. It's a wonderful gig! We play at this lovely place every Friday from 7-10 (more about Noosh in another article).

One of the nicest things about a steady gig is the luxury of playing through your repertoire on a regular basis. We have been rehearsing weekly for 2.5 years. Without a regular gig, we spent a lot of time reviewing songs we had already learned. Now, we can review our songs at the gig, and we can spend our weekly rehearsal time learning new songs or shoring up our weaker numbers.

For the past couple months, I've been spending a lot of time memorizing Godfrey and Guy songs.  We have more than 100 songs in the book, and we add a handful of new ones each month. That's a lot of music to memorize. My goal is to memorize them all. I estimate that we burn through at least 40 songs each Friday. Someday, I hope to play a gig at Noosh without cracking open our book.

There are two main reasons I am memorizing our music. First, it's easier to gain rapport with an audience if you don't have the music in front of you. Instead of staring at the music stand, you can make eye contact with the audience. Second, when I've memorized a song, I feel a deeper connection with it. If a song is memorized, I play it with more presence and command.

The weekly repetition helps me keep these songs in my head. We can't play through all of our music in one night, but there are few songs we play every week. I also find that challenging my memory is like exercising a muscle. The more time I spend memorizing, the easier it becomes.

Finally, there is so much music to memorize that it could easily become overwhelming. I've found that the best approach is to memorize 1-2 songs each week, cycle through the other songs I've already memorized, and then challenge myself to play those songs from memory on the gig. Like anything else worth doing, it's a gradual process.

What Key? Accompanying a Singer

Tomorrow night, I'm playing a free duo gig at Java Monkey in Downtown Decatur. I had originally booked this as a solo gig for the purpose of keeping up my solo chops, but I've been rehearsing with an excellent singer, Lori Guy. I am already committed to playing with Tea for Two, and I don't want to overextend myself with too many musical projects. Lori and I have mainly been rehearsing just to learn tunes, but I thought this would be a good opportunity to play a little bit in public, so I invited her to the gig. We'll each take turns singing our own solos while people ignore us, nurse their coffee, and take advantage of Java Monkey's free wi-fi.

Whether I'm playing with Lori or with Lynnette Suzanne of Tea for Two, I really enjoy performing in a vocal/guitar duo. It's a big challenge to "be the band." You have to tastefully support the singer while covering harmonies, bass lines, and lead lines, and you also have to play some solos without the benefit of another instrument, which is particularly challenging for a guitarist. The singer has challenges, too. She doesn't have the benefit of a full band backing her up. She has to generate a lot of excitement and interest, but she has to be able to do so nimbly so she doesn't overpower the guitarist.

Another big challenge in accompanying singers is being able to play songs in a variety of keys. If I only had to worry about myself, I would just have to learn a song in the standard key, plus "my key" if I'm going to sing it. When I play for Lynnette, I usually have to transpose a song a 4th or 5th (4 or 5 notes) away from my key. Lori's voice is a little lower than Lynnette's, so if I'm accompanying Lori, I usually have to transpose a 3rd lower than Lynnette's key.

As Lori finds her voice, she has had me transpose songs into several different keys. I give her a hard time about it, but I enjoy the challenge of learning songs in different keys. I often have to completely rework an intro and find different chord voicings. Different chord voicings will often suggest different lead lines. In our rehearsals, when we're finding Lori's key for a song, I may have to transpose the song two or three different times, which is a great skill to develop. My transposition skills are improving. I'm not quite ready to transpose on the fly in a public setting, but I'll get there.

To me, the epitome of a great vocal/guitar jazz duo is Joe Pass and Ella Fitzgerald. They were both world class musicians, and when they performed together, it was magic. I aspire to play like Joe Pass when I accompany a singer. I'm not even close to his level, but I'll be doing my best Joe Pass imitation at Java Monkey tomorrow.