Hi O-10: RE Your post of 5/7 2:08pm about Coltrane not needing to practice. Here we go again.
You have repeatedly had two professional musicians on this thread tell you how incorrect your "theory" is. I seem to remember a couple of other folks who have played an instrument a little contradicting you as well. Now jzzmusician makes another.
Once again - even if one has the greatest talent anyone has ever had, this does NOT mean that one does not have to practice. Your comparison to making chili is absurd. ANYONE can learn to make chili, and could make it again at any time thereafter. It does not require any truly difficult cooking skills (trust me - my wife is related to one of the most famous ever chili cooks in the state that is most famous for it, and I know exactly how to make that award winning but very secret recipe). A much better comparison would be to an athlete such as Kobe Bryant or Michael Jordan, who in addition to being one of the most talented basketball players ever were also some of the very hardest working ever. Or lets stay in the arts, if you prefer, with Pablo Picasso - unquestionably the most talented painter ever born, yet also a workaholic.
The idea that practice could take away improvisational inspiration is by far the most laughable comment you make - it reminds me of how proud you are of your lack of knowledge and how understanding you think that makes you.
A playing level, or an improvisational level that high MUST be maintained/developed on a daily basis. This doesn't mean there can't be some periods of time off occasionally. One of my teachers took an entire month off the horn every summer, and I have done that a couple of times myself. But it takes a couple of weeks to get back to where you were if you do that, so you actually have to have at least six weeks off if you are going to even contemplate it. So, if your friend truly wasn't practicing that entire summer (which no one else reading this seriously believes), and only performing every few days, then his playing level would have gone down considerably and very noticeably (shockingly so to his colleagues) over the course of the summer. But I guess you couldn't tell that, and I bet you won't even mind admitting it. You really don't seem to comprehend what the problem with that is, which is - if you can't even hear something THAT obvious, then you have zero credibility on anything else you have to say about the music or the performance or the performer, and no one who knows anything about it is going to take you seriously on those subjects, or really anything else that requires the sense of hearing. Which is a real shame, as this thread is otherwise a great source of information unlike any other out there that I know of in these or any other audiophile forums, and you are to be commended as the original beginner of it.
You have repeatedly had two professional musicians on this thread tell you how incorrect your "theory" is. I seem to remember a couple of other folks who have played an instrument a little contradicting you as well. Now jzzmusician makes another.
Once again - even if one has the greatest talent anyone has ever had, this does NOT mean that one does not have to practice. Your comparison to making chili is absurd. ANYONE can learn to make chili, and could make it again at any time thereafter. It does not require any truly difficult cooking skills (trust me - my wife is related to one of the most famous ever chili cooks in the state that is most famous for it, and I know exactly how to make that award winning but very secret recipe). A much better comparison would be to an athlete such as Kobe Bryant or Michael Jordan, who in addition to being one of the most talented basketball players ever were also some of the very hardest working ever. Or lets stay in the arts, if you prefer, with Pablo Picasso - unquestionably the most talented painter ever born, yet also a workaholic.
The idea that practice could take away improvisational inspiration is by far the most laughable comment you make - it reminds me of how proud you are of your lack of knowledge and how understanding you think that makes you.
A playing level, or an improvisational level that high MUST be maintained/developed on a daily basis. This doesn't mean there can't be some periods of time off occasionally. One of my teachers took an entire month off the horn every summer, and I have done that a couple of times myself. But it takes a couple of weeks to get back to where you were if you do that, so you actually have to have at least six weeks off if you are going to even contemplate it. So, if your friend truly wasn't practicing that entire summer (which no one else reading this seriously believes), and only performing every few days, then his playing level would have gone down considerably and very noticeably (shockingly so to his colleagues) over the course of the summer. But I guess you couldn't tell that, and I bet you won't even mind admitting it. You really don't seem to comprehend what the problem with that is, which is - if you can't even hear something THAT obvious, then you have zero credibility on anything else you have to say about the music or the performance or the performer, and no one who knows anything about it is going to take you seriously on those subjects, or really anything else that requires the sense of hearing. Which is a real shame, as this thread is otherwise a great source of information unlike any other out there that I know of in these or any other audiophile forums, and you are to be commended as the original beginner of it.