flockterkit 3030 11-11-2004

another quiet night at the 3030. flockterkit had booked this date awhile ago, and i really though that by this time we would have had plenty of time to get together to rehearse, but unfortunately with everyone being busy we didn't. so we played a set without running through any of the written material. the thing is - the pieces aren't all that difficult, and we do alot of improvising, but a lack of rehearsal is always missed. and whenever mistakes happen within the pieces, it automatically triggers in the brain - we should have practiced. i also didn't feel like we had much of a communication going on in our improvisation - which really has more influence over whether the music works or not. if mistakes are made and you improvise well around it, then that pulls the whole night into the good column. (i'm not trying to be dark about it, just honest) nights like these make me want to have less performances and more time to just get together with the musicians. some might say, "well, it's basically a rehearsal", but it's really not - in a rehearsal if a mistake is made you can stop, work on the part & correct it. in front of people, you've got to just plow through the material. something not worked on in rehearsal enough is actually going through an entire piece, and so people will say, at least you got to go through the whole piece, and i somewhat agree...but in an ideal situation the rehearsal would provide for most major mistakes being weeded out and letting everyone think about the music being made at the time of rehearsal, and not be subject to mental mistakes.....an exciting entry here, right? i think i need to start a party blog....

speaking of getting together with other musicians, last night i got together with toby summerfield and jamie levinson for the second time. i think it will be fun to keep playing with them - jamie's good with the drums, i'm concentrating more on computer, using synthesizers and doing effects. this winter is the time to work consistently on groups that are collaborative - but also hopefully getting recordings together of compositions.....