'Not Yet' by Michel Camilo - Transcription and Practice
In relation to my previous post about my old wrist injury I was curious to transcribe something that would test my technical limits and test how far I can develop past what I feel my right hand is capable of.
For brief context, 22 years ago my right wrist suffered multiple compound fractures and ever since my right hand has suffered limited range of movement, general aches, and tension. This has affected my playing in numerous ways which I am now only recently beginning to fully understand through the nature of my projects and their focus on building detailed awareness of my playing. This article represents the first time I have ever seriously, and with compassionate intention, examined how my injury limits my technical ability.
On to this recent and particular practice, this piece 'Not Yet' by Michel Camilo recently came my way in a playing opportunity and I decided to get stuck into learning the general part and with a couple of lines that Anthony Jackson performs in the recording. It was through this learning and recognising how my I was struggling to get the notable phrases up to speed that I realised this was a good opportunity to test my right hand and build awareness on what some of the technical issues are that I face when attempting to execute fast lines.
The main technical difficulties for me in this small transcription, and the only parts that are at speed are the string-crossing arpeggio phrase, and the descending C minor scale. This selection of music was perfect for this explorative practice purposefully because the two phrases aren't especially difficult, just fast, and they include two fundamental technical components that I have always struggled to nail 100% of the time at the upper limits of my technical ability: ascending string crossing, and left-hand shifting.
The majority of the groove-based playing in this transcription is highly syncopated but not particularly difficult, it is the notable phrases where the difficulty lies, and more so in the requirement to execute them from 'nothing', i.e. going from a short pause to (at the beginning) beyond my technical top speed.
The actual practice (over the period of a couple of weeks) consisted of looping the particular phrases in question for extended periods of time (some times hours at a time) at slower tempos and looking for and noticing the technical issues that required solving. Typical issues solved included choosing positions, fingering choices, shifting choices etc. As each lower tempo began to feel fluid and accurate, I would increase the tempo. Quite quickly I could play all of the phrases comfortably at around 90% speed.
What I Noticed
The gap between executing with accuracy at 90% and 100% was quite large and apparent. Some technical decisions needed to be re-addressed to see if there was a better solution in terms of shifting or fingering patterns, although I attempted a few others I eventually decided my original approach was the most efficient.
As soon as I hit the 90% speed threshold where I was on almost 100% for accuracy, I would seem to lose all control of my right hand and both hands would go out of sync. I experimented with my playing the phrases with just my left hand (without any plucking on the right hand) and found my left-hand can reasonably comfortably perform the phrases at 100% speed. So the issue is with my right hand syncing-up with the left and keeping consistency in the right hand at the faster tempos.
It may seem obvious at first to say that tension was the main issue in being able to play the phrase fluently and the process of 'letting go' of tension always resulted in better execution. There is however at sometimes a level of fundamental tension that feels different to regular 'stress-tension' or performance tension. In my previous post I called this other kind of tension feeling "injury-tension" for want of a better term. This type of tension is something much more difficult to control and especially to let go of, and it can change from day to day, from hour to hour. It likely warrants seeing a hand specialist to explore more about what I'm experiencing and attempting to differentiate between the two stress-tension and injury-tension physiologically. But through the extended periods of practice I did notice when this kind of tension was present, or beginning to be present. In some cases, whilst in the practice and looping the phrases, I was able to relax it and let it dissipate which allowed better execution of the phrases. However, in other cases this wasn't possible and was usually the point where I called it a day.
I became aware that there was an issue with executing the fast phrase from nothing, and at times practiced this specific moment. The moment when no playing is occurring, to a full-speed attempt of the phrase. There were times in this process where the mild anxiety of knowing the moment is approaching generated tension making fluid execution more problematic. I used this opportunity to focus on mentally relaxing and keeping in mind what Kenny Werner calls "fear-based-practicing" (Effortless Mastery pg 53), letting go of the outcome that is needing to sound good, or get it right. Using this approach I was successful and becoming more accurate and fluid in my execution and able to reduce the amount of tension that is present in the right hand, but not every time. As I mentioned before, sometimes there exists some tension which is persistent and seemingly impossible to get rid of.
It seems apparent that there is an injury-related speed limit placed upon my technique. I tested this briefly in a separate test (just playing a repeated note on a single string) and found that at crotchet=~110bpm was the upper limit to where I can execute static and repeating 16th-notes for an extended period of time without incurring additional right hand tension. Any faster and tension would creep in and upset the right hand's ability to remain consistent. That is not to say I can't perform faster, it is just that it would be in short bursts and with an exponential detriment to accuracy. I endeavour to test this further now more formally and see whether I can increase my 'top speed' or whether the idea I have held for a long time that this injury limits me, in the way I believe it does, is true. Even if so, is it possible to develop an increased capability regardless? What would that be? Or would it exacerbate the symptoms of the injury by attempting to push the boundary of my technical ability?
Other questions I am left with are: How aware I can I become of the levels of tension that exist when attempting to play beyond my means? Can I develop to a new 'base-line'? Can I develop my technique to be able to increase the tempos and not lose right hand consistency? Can I learn to let go of all tension I feel is created by the injury, or at least all of that which comes from fear-based-practicing?
These are questions I have avoided in the past, opting to shy away from anything that is technically challenging (in relation to speed) to avoid confronting the limitations themselves. It is only now and with the spirit of examining my practice with curiosity and compassion that I feel mature enough to ask these questions and push my capabilities safely.
I will detail future attempts on this topic later as I aim to bring this new level of awareness of my right hand into other areas of my practice.
Posted In: Reflections on Practice
Tagged: Bass Guitar, Practice, Awareness
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