🎹 It feels so good to search for something and to find it! Here I am playing/improvising on a blues entitled “Isotope” composed by the great Joe Henderson.
I‘m in my studio playing on an acoustic piano (which I never get to do on a regular basis, normally).
A couple of my drum students this past semester were working on this tune in our lessons. During our lessons I would play with them on the cornet (because I have the most control over that instrument) and then play the tunes we were workshopping on piano so they could hear the colors of the chord changes directly. This tune kicked my butt (on piano) because it requires that you have a more than basic chord-playing skills, let alone trying to play the quirky/tricky melody!
One of most gratifying feelings I have come to know (again and again) over the years is the feeling of “understanding” a tune. It’s so much more than playing the “right” notes or playing ideas/licks that “work”-anybody can do that. It’s the feeling of finding YOURSELF through the improvisation-discovering your own perspective of your individual path through a tune (through life?!🤔).
After many hours over several days, I am finally flowing like myself on this challenging tune. I was so impelled to find it, and it was worth allll the struggle. I’m not saying I’ve “arrived” at the best I can do-this is only the tip of the iceberg, lol🧊 . However, the things I learned along the way to being able to consistently weave interesting stories through this tune is encouraging, satisfying, and useful.
And ESPECIALLY the fact that it’s happening so fluidly on an acoustic piano! I only have regular access to a digital keyboard, which doesn’t demand the same kind of strength/coordination/precision from the fingers, so that was a major breakthrough for me.
Anyway, I thought I would share this little sliver of progress for y’all, and for myself so I can get this in a social media memory in a year to remind me of this moment and what I learned from dealing with this tune!