Friday, June 7, 2013

Teaching and Doing

The joke is those who can't do, teach, and those who can't teach, teach gym...while I'm not going to comment on gym teachers, I do disagree with the first part.

Being both a bassist and sound tech, I have a fair number of things I do with each that are unique to how I like things to sound, how I hear the sound shaping up, etc.  I noticed almost right away when I started teaching both of these, that to play and notice subtle things is one thing.  To attempt to communicate why "it feels better" to play the exact same note on the E string instead of the A string is an entirely different idea.

I can be handed music and I can usually feel okay with how I'm playing it in a few run-throughs, mainly by changing subtle things to get a sound that is: more crunchy, more boomy, kinda thunky, etc.  This is well and good, but when a 15 year old girl is looking at you all perplexed, trying to figure out what you mean by "a bubbly sound", you realize that to teach and explain something, you've really got to be able to know what it is.

I am really glad for both my sound board student and my bass student, because 1. having to teach them really forces me to really know what I'm talking about, which has made me a better player and tech, and 2. They both are really into what they are doing, and it's really exciting to watch them nail a groove they worked on for weeks or to hear when they dial in the guitar's tone just so to make it "gently weep"

But really, the look they have when they get it, is easily the best part.

Always Groove Responibly

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