Latch Music's Ezine #22
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* "The Zine" content is contributed by Dave Latchaw and colleagues who use the Internet to promote their musical projects. You can check out previous issues at "The Zine" Archives.
- Article: "Confidence vs Fear" by Dave Latchaw
- Guest Artist: Kit Watkins - Wonderful sonic bliss.
- Featured Web Site: Site Point
- Featured Web Video: Karsh Kale
- CD Pick: Herbie Hancock "Future 2 Future"
Confidence vs Fear
by Dave Latchaw
Having confidence as a musician is one of the main ingredients in the successful creation of music, but fear very often gets in the way of reaching one's potential. In the process of creating and playing music, if you have an inner voice that is saying, "I hope this is heavy enough", or "I hope no one can tell I haven't practiced", or what ever the inner voice may be saying, it's usually fear based. Fear gets in the way of letting go and being able to confidently explore the deeper regions of music.
Of course no one wants to sound bad. This is a standard fear for musicians, especially professional musicians. Preparation is one of the best ways to work through this. It's pretty simple really, if you don't do the groundwork for what ever musical task you have, there is a good chance you will sound bad. If you are prepared, you can be confident. The challenge for some people is to actually take those steps of preparation. If there is music that you need to play at a rehearsal or a gig, you have to do your homework. The rehearsal, gig or lesson is not the time to practice. There is no way one is going to play their best if they have fear of letting down band mates, an audience or a teacher. We need to realize that we are only human, and mistakes will happen from time to time, but that's part of the beauty and spontaneity of live music. Being prepared will not cure everything, but it will keep that fear based inner voice quiet, and allow one to perform with confidence.
The private lesson is where musicians have to deal with the fear of being criticized. When one can let go of this fear, they can get much more out of their lessons. The whole point of lessons is for the teacher to show you and lead you musically to where you haven't gone before. If you did everything perfectly, you wouldn't be taking lessons, would you? If a student is overly sensitive to being criticized, they will tend to get defensive or have a long list of excuses why they don't have something together. We have all had lessons that we weren't prepared for. Sometimes those can be the best lessons (occasionally). New areas can be explored, new things tried, or work can be done on details that there usually isn't time for. Other times, these lessons that aren't prepared for are a cry for help in dealing with procrastination and/or a lack of organization. There's no getting around the need to be disciplined and analyze what needs to be done for musical growth, then making a plan to deal with it, whether it's for lessons, rehearsals, or a performance. Procrastination on the work that needs to be done will never let one quiet the fear of being criticized.
A false sense of confidence is a challenging demon to deal with. The ego has teamed up with fear to completely gang up on the person, making them unable to look honestly at their ability and the areas they need to improve. You can see this at times with improvisers. They'll play a lot of notes, but not give any grounded sense of the harmony of the tune they are soloing on. They have such a fear of not being heavy that they are in denial about not having the fundamentals together that it takes to become heavy. They convince themselves they know it all, and their ego gets stroked by listeners who think that an immense amount of notes is heavy and cool. The need to cover all the basics is beneath them. Throwing around words like polytonal or symmetrical diminished when one obviously can't play changes, is just a sign of the fear of being caught out for not doing all their background work and knowing they aren't all they pretend to be.
If a person can be honest about their abilities and realize that each time they make music it is just one moment in time on the continuing path of musical growth, this will also help to quiet the fear based inner voice. Each time you are making music, you can only work within the parameters of what you are capable of and prepared for. If your inner voice is analyzing while you are playing, it just gets in the way of you being connected to the music. It's a delicate balance to keep that one corner of technical objectivity that you need while performing, and yet immerse yourself in the moment. Learning to let go of the scared and critical inner voice will make the process of making music a much more pleasurable experience.
We all know musicians who seem dissatisfied with the process of making music. A lot of times their angst has nothing to do with music at all. It might be dissatisfaction with career, relationship, money or any one of life's niggling inconveniences. One has to be honest and address the fears that keep them from dealing with non-music issues. Make a plan to tackle those issues the same as you would tackle musical issues. Being detached from non-music issues when making music will allow for a better connection to the creative process.
Be prepared, work hard, become detached, be confident, go forward and make music.
Kit Watkins
#1 Where on the Internet can people find out more about you and your musical activities?
Primary starting place for all pertinent info is http://KitWatkins.com
The MP3.com sites are http://mp3.com/KitWatkins for my solo work, http://mp3.com/ToneGhostEther for my improvisational ensemble. Some of my older music with Happy The Man can be heard at http://mp3.com/HappyTheMan.
#2 What aspects of your early musical training gave you the skills necessary to be in "Happy The Man" and "Camel"?
Initially, ages 5-13, it was the piano technique I learned from classical lessons with my mother Margaret Watkins -- proper use of fingering and how to best move about the keyboard, and daily practice of classical repertoire. From ages 13-19 I was in cover bands and learned to use my ear to figure out how to play songs. I was also exposed to other kinds of music and instruments during that time (rock, blues, jazz -- guitar, bass, drums). The progressive rock that I wrote and played in Happy The Man and Camel culminated from my experience and knowledge at the time.
#3 What was it like for you, while with "Happy The Man", to get a record deal from Clive Davis and work with producer Ken Scott?
Thrilling as hell! I learned so much from working with Ken on the production of those two albums. I also learned a lot from working with Rupert Hine on the Camel album. I had always been interested in recording, engineering, and producing so soaked it all up.
#4 Which artists inspired you to develop your own voice and evolving creative style, and why?
Different artists at different periods of my life have influenced me. I was heavy into Beatles and Led Zeppelin and Cream in my teens, moved on to Yes, ELP, Genesis, Gentle Giant in the early HTM days, then onto Weather Report and Mahavishnu Orchestra in the mid-70s, rediscovered a certain affinity for classical composers such as Ravel and Debussy, then more onto ECM artists like Eberhard Weber, Terje Rypdal. In the 80s, it was Brian Eno's ambient work, including Harold Budd and Jon Hassell, and minimalists like Steve Reich. Here's a list of artists who I now consider long-term or current influences, in no particular order: Brian Eno, Mickey Hart, Mark Isham, Joe Zawinul, Harold Budd, Wayne Shorter, Joni Mitchell, Steve Reich, Jon Hassell, Eberhard Weber, Jeff Greinke, Robert Rich, Steve Roach, David Darling, Wendy Carlos. Most of these musicians are not keyboardists (and, as a matter of note, I no longer consider myself just a keyboardist). I'm interested in composition, sound, texture, mood, feel and these musicians reach me on a number of different levels -- both intellectually and emotionally.
#5 What was it like to work with Sonic Foundry and develop the disc of license-free loops, "Ambient Realms"?
Sonic Foundry licensed "Ambient Realms" from Q Up Arts who was the company that I developed the audio CD and Roland CD-ROM for. I did all the audio development, mastering, documentation, artwork, and even had all the manufacturing done -- the discs were literally delivered to Q Up Arts in final form. Sonic Foundry came along a couple of years later and licensed certain Q Up titles, including mine, for use in their Acid series. It's been a somewhat lucrative project, although was a huge amount of work. I'm pleased that so many people continue to use the sounds. Every now and then, I'll hear one of my sounds on a TV program -- early on, I heard one of my eerie bell samples on The X-Files and that was a kick.
#6 In your new improvisational ensemble "Tone Ghost Ether" with John Tlusty and Brad Allen, what musical and personal qualities do you think allow for such collective improvisational cohesion?
I haven't a clue. We just seem to click and feed off each other very effortlessly. Sometimes when I listen back to the music, I wonder how the hell we did it and where it came from! We certainly have a lot of mutual respect and good will happening, but more than anything, we have a lot of fun and feel very free to explore ideas together.
#7 How has the Internet changed your musical activities?
Well, it came along right about the time my label was falling apart because of distribution problems, so it helped a bit then. Now, it's primarily MP3.com which has enlivened me by giving me a place to make my music available. I don't have the luxury of a label, although One Way did reissue 4 of my older titles. But, MP3.com is my sole outlet for new music. It's really quite revolutionary. I'm a big fan of their system -- especially the CD program which has allowed me to put out new music quickly and effortlessly, and also allowed me to keep my back catalog from going out of print.
#8 What future projects should people look for?
Currently, I'm getting ready to work with the digital video of my concert, "The Gathering" from March 2001 in Philadelphia. My good friend Sally Heldrich made an excellent video recording of it, and I'm going to be doing some final editing with hopes of eventually releasing it on DVD.
Musically, I'm working toward another concert performance which I expect will occur sometime this summer or fall at beautiful Cabell Hall on the UVa campus here in Charlottesville. I'll be writing new material for the concert, and I'm using 4-channel surround sound live now so am excited about presenting this!
Site Point
To get the most out of the Internet, musicians have to educate themselves about web site development. You can hire someone to build you a site, but that can be very expensive. Site Point is a great place to get information to help you develop your own web site. Your web site will always be a work in progress. For instance, usability of a web site is very important, and it takes time to learn about it. Site Point has some great articles about usability and they also have areas to assist you in building your site, promoting your site, profiting from your site, tools for your site, and more. If you've learned to play music, you can learn computer code and what it takes to develop an Internet presence to promote your artistic adventures.
Karsh Kale
**Update - December 2003**
The videos seem to be no longer available on Karsh Kale's site. However, the links below are still active and the audio clips
are still available.
Karsh Kale (pronounced Kursh Kah-lay) was born of Indian parents and grew up in the US. His style of music mixes the past and present into the electric future. His knowledge of jazz, rock, hip-hop, and modern electronic music as well as Indian classical and folk music influences his percussion and production style. On tabla, drum kit, or a set of turntables, Karsh has built an amazing range of sounds he calls "Classical Science Fiction From India". Karsh Kale is one of the leaders of "Asian Massive", and a member of "Tabla Beat Science" with Bill Laswell, Zakir Hussain, and Ustad Sultan Khan. Check out the Karsh Kale promotional video and the Tabla Beat Science promotional video, along with some cool audio tracks.
Herbie Hancock
"Future 2 Future"
Herbie can and has done it all. Future 2 Future is a great example of an enlightened musician exploring new musical areas and still keeping in touch with the past. There are African chants, environmental sounds, and ethnic sounds, combined with jazz, hip-hop rhythms, electronic sounds, and other musical elements, all edited with the latest technological techniques to create an ambient adventure. Future 2 Future reunites Herbie with sound architect Bill Laswell. Together they earned a Grammy for the tune "Rocket", from the platinum selling album "Future Shock". Future 2 Future is an interesting combination of what Herbie was doing in the 70's and 80's and certain aspects of current club music. Is this the future of music?
Musicians for "Future 2 Future"
Herbie Hancock - Keyboards
Bill Laswell - Electric Bass
Charnett Moffett - Acoustic Bass
Jack DeJohnette - Drums
Karsh Kale - Drums and Program Beats
Tony Williams - Drums
Wayne Shorter - Tenor and Soprano Sax
Chaka Khan - Vocals
GiGi - Vocals
Elenni Davis-Knight - Voice
Grandmixer DXT - Turntable
Rob Swift - Turntables and Programming
A Guy Called Gerald - Programming and Beats
Tracks for "Future 2 Future"
- Hegero Part 1
- Wisdom
- The Essence
- This is Rob Swift
- Black Gravity
- Tony Williams
- Be Still
- Ionosphere
- Hegero Part 2
- Alphageta
- Virtual Hornets
Click here to lern more about "Future 2 Future" at Amazon.com
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