Scott Henderson Discussion

[dizzy]

Hey Scott

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this forum. I have loved your playing for a long time---since I was 17--- and I am much older now!

When you rehearse with your band do you do extended solos like live or do you just focus on getting the arrangements down?

Related to this question---do you find that beyond just learning to improvise on your songs it takes a while to find the right "approach" to taking the solo?
Like where to build and what sounds to use and whether to float over the time or play in the pocket etc.

The reason I ask is I sometimes find that it takes me months to learn to play on a song with my band and there is not time at rehearsals to work on the solo sections for a long time. I can work on it at home but it is not the same thing. I can learn to play on the changes at home and what notes sound good but it is harder to work on the best overall approach in the practice room. So I end up having to develop the approach on the gig which is not always ideal.

Thanks Scott

[Scott Henderson]

Wow dizzy, it's like I wrote your letter - it's the same problem for me. Often my band members don't even live in the same city as me, so our only rehearsal time is the soundcheck. There's barely time to get the arrangements together, much less have time to develop solo sections - that's just a "wing it" on stage. We play solos at soundcheck mainly for the purpose of getting comfortable with the monitor mixes, but there's never time for much else.

I'll have to be honest and say I pretty much sucked ass on this Tribal Tech tour. I practiced the changes like crazy at home, but usually forgot them on stage. A lot of the slower funk tunes were very difficult to play - if I floated over the time it never seemed to work, and when I played time, the tempo was too slow and it sounded stiff. On some tours my solos seem to get to the right place after just a few gigs, but I feel like I didn't play one good solo on this whole tour. I can only hope the audience doesn't hear the difference between my best and worst playing in the same way I do. I'm sure there were people who enjoyed it, and probably others who could hear that I wasn't on.

Either way, this is my job and I have to look forward to trying again. I watch a lot of NFL - loosing one game isn't the end of the world, and fortunately we don't have playoffs.

[barik01]

Do you use a different approach for soloing on tours compared to your albums, trying to pull off solos you like yourself without thinking too much about what to play beforehand?

That's one thing I've noticed about Greg Howes playing lately...I absolutely love the solos he played on his last 2 fusion albums, which seem to be pretty structured and planned out to some degree.

Listening to the same tunes live I get the impression that he consciously tries to play new stuff everytime and sometimes even the greatest players out there are looking for stuff they like and it simply doesn't happen for them. It's still better than 99% of everybody else, but compared to the record version it sounds "all over the place" and somehow like he's "searching", if that makes any sense...
Do you try to avoid stuff you've played before even though you know it "works" over a specific tune?

We as a much less skilled audience are still amazed at a "bad day" from world class players, but are there gigs where you play a solo and after a minute or so you realize that it doesn't work out this time, so you somehow try to save the whole thing?

Also, listening to your blues records and also the VTT/HBC stuff, you seem to use the bar a whole lot less than live. Is this done on purpose or just a coincidence?

[dizzy]

[quote="Scott Henderson"]Wow dizzy, it's like I wrote your letter - it's the same problem for me. Often my band members don't even live in the same city as me, so our only rehearsal time is the soundcheck. There's barely time to get the arrangements together, much less have time to develop solo sections - that's just a "wing it" on stage. We play solos at soundcheck mainly for the purpose of getting comfortable with the monitor mixes, but there's never time for much else.

I'll have to be honest and say I pretty much sucked ass on this Tribal Tech tour. I practiced the changes like crazy at home, but usually forgot them on stage. A lot of the slower funk tunes were very difficult to play - if I floated over the time it never seemed to work, and when I played time, the tempo was too slow and it sounded stiff. On some tours my solos seem to get to the right place after just a few gigs, but I feel like I didn't play one good solo on this whole tour. I can only hope the audience doesn't hear the difference between my best and worst playing in the same way I do. I'm sure there were people who enjoyed it, and probably others who could hear that I wasn't on.

Either way, this is my job and I have to look forward to trying again. I watch a lot of NFL - loosing one game isn't the end of the world, and fortunately we don't have playoffs.[/quote]


Well I am sorry you have the same problem but it is encouraging that even you have this problem too!
Sometimes I wish it was like when I was in high school where we would rehearse 4 nights a week and play 1 gig every 2 months. Even though we sounded bad at least we were all confident about the music.

[barik01]

[sieuminh]

Interesting ... that makes me wonder if the way you feel about your own playing has changed over the years (while at the logical level it is obvious that you keep getting better)?

[Scott Henderson]

If I've been playing a song for awhile, I always discover the best moves to make over the changes - I somehow get those onto the record, and into my live solos too. But those are just a few quality moments here and there - most of the time I'm looking for new stuff to play and I get frustrated when I keep having to pull out the same old vocabulary which I've used a million times.

On a good night, I'm able to play pretty consistently through a solo and come up with some new ideas - also there are motifs in the solo which go somewhere. On a bad night, even if I stick in a few things I know will work, I draw blanks about what to play next, my phrasing is off, or I make stupid mistakes which throw off my concentration. In my opinion if a solo doesn't have at least a few motifs in it which get the band involved, it's not a good solo. It's much harder to make motifs happen if you don't leave enough space - my worse nights are usually caused by overplaying and not leaving enough space between phrases.

Another factor is stage sound. On a few soundchecks, I was sure I put enough bass & drums in my monitor, but on the gig I turned up too loud, sometimes to get better tone, and drowned out the bass & drums and lost where one is. I hate it when that happens, and it ruined a few of my solos.

Also, our general mental health plays a huge role in how we play. If I'm nervous on stage for some reason, forget it - the night is going to suck. That doesn't happen to me very often, but a few times I've made the mistake of drinking coffee before a gig and it always makes me play like shit so I don't do that anymore. Lack of sleep on a hard tour can definitely change the way you play - actually I think I play better when I'm kind of tired, and I never eat after 12 noon on a gig day. For me, food and music are mortal enemies.

Looking back at this Tribal Tech tour, I wish I had spent more time practicing on my solo sections and less on the heads of the tunes. Making mistakes on melodies is just comedy to me, so I have no idea why I was so concerned about it. I also feel like we made mistakes picking the song list - we were playing a lot of arranged and tight tunes. For the summer tour we'll add some of the more floaty type stuff and I think the gig will have a looser vibe and make it easier to be creative within the music. I like it when the tunes are different from night to night.

Anyway, hope you guys learn something from my mistakes. It's OK, setbacks usually lead to finding ways to improve. Joe Zawinul told me that the times when you feel unhappy with your playing are when you're growing - I can't imagine him ever feeling that way, but I can sure relate to it.

To answer the last post, I don't feel like my opinion about my own playing has changed at all over the years. I've always been a very humble person and find it impossible to think of myself as some kind of musical genius in a world filled with real ones. That doesn't mean that I can't be confident enough in the abilities I have to go out on stage and have a great time and be creative. That's what's important. Nobody is 100% on all the time, so bad nights might upset me for a little while, but I get over it quickly and I'm always ready to go for it again. I've talked about Kenny Werner's book Effortless Mastery in some of my posts - I think every musician should read it. Although I disagree with some of the things he says, the basic message is to relax and have fun when you play music. Attitude is everything. If you're playing to impress and take it too seriously, you'll probably play your worst.