George Harrison had a mastery of "less is more." He could play four or five notes and say more than most of us say in an entire piece.
Colin James has a knack for answering an unspoken call with three or four notes that - say-it-all.
And for the life of me, I could never figure this out. I tried to slow my thought processes. I tried thinking and not just reacting to the music played.
I have been trying to achieve this for thirty years? No success.
And then a friend turned me onto a guy named Keith Wyatt.
In this lesson, Keith explains how to answer calls during a "call and answer" segment in a song.
He is fun, fact filled and very succinct. The entire video is eleven minutes.
And he makes a lot of sense, musically.
Part of the driving force behind my rediscovery of "less is more" is my renewed interest in the television show Becker. I love the show for the writing as well as the excellent ensemble cast.
There is a guitar belonging to Jason Miller...with it, he plays small, tight ten second phrases to lead in and out of scenes of the show. I very much enjoy his talent and envied his ability to take a few notes and make a complete musical statement.
I am sitting watching the show when it struck me. The act of answering in Keith's lesson is the epitome of the "less is more" philosophy.
In other words, you need not be answering a call made in the piece - it may be implied...it could be in your head. It need not exist at all.
All of a sudden, I can play like Harrison! I was floored. Epiphany...a moment of clarity.
It is a relatively easy thing to hear a lead in and then "answer" it, whether it exists in the song or not.
How strange it is to have something so easy elude you for SO long and then be revealed in eleven minutes.
Perspective is so very integral to learning. Look at a problem one way and it is a Gordian Knot. From another point of view, it becomes easy as pie.
I'll have another piece of pie, please.
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