i've been working on a piece that's got me up against my personal limits and i've got it, for the most part. i've been practicing it at about 10 bpm slower and on occasion have been bumping it up to full speed and i can hang. i've been focusing on keeping my 16ths tight and in check, watching my rests, and making sure i hold notes for the correct length. on paper it reads like i should have it, but in reality i think it sounds like utter trash. i'm at the point in my playing where i'm able to physically play most things that i want to play, but that doesn't mean it sounds good at all. well, that's both encouraging and completely discouraging at the same time.
i'll sit down to practice it and one run i'll have it and the next will spend more time off the rails than on. i'll have the metronome on or a drum track and i'll be focusing on the subdivision and making sure those syncopations are slotting in right between the 8's, yet it just doesn't sound right.
so what is it? am i being overly critical of my playing or does it really sounds like total garbage? well, yes. clearly, i'm being very critical of myself, that's what we do, but it also doesn't sound right. that's a fact.
so i've been bummed about it and have been thinking it over and pretty much the conclusion i've come to is that learning a piece, the riffs, the fingering, the rhythm, the themes and variations is about 90% of the job. even though some of that can be challenging it's the more easily-achievable portion of the job. the remaining 10% is the high-gloss finish, the flare, the mojo, the hard-to-describe quality that sets something apart as being good. and unfortunately, that 10% is not something that can be hammered out in a weekend, or a week, or a month.
that 10% is the culmination of all the other effort you have invested in this process. it's the nuanced sense of time, it's the articulation, the slurs, your voice and that's something that only comes from years of playing. that's just a thing that i haven't developed yet. i mean, i'm developing it but it's far too green to be heard yet. knowing i can't just hunker down on a particular riff or song and get it sounding good in a few days is pretty discouraging. the encouraging part is that i have a pretty good idea of what i need to work on and sometime down the road i will have put in enough of the right work to be able to sound good, hopefully.
