Scott Henderson Discussion

Kasym · Joined: 09 Jul 2017 Posts: 16

Hello! My name is Kasym. I am from Kyrgyzstan. Would you please so kind to give an advice? How can I create a Jazz environment in order to grow as fast as possible, while I am living In а сountry where jazz and music in general are not in good situation? is it real to become a professional jazz musician by having only Internet connection and enormous desire to achieve big goals? It would be great to hear any advice from you ,because I am the only guitar player who tries and learns to play jazz in my country, and we had couple of guitarists who is older than me but they gave up music. And almost all local musicians have a lot of limiting beliefs. I just trying to get rid of that beliefs, forget about boundaries and work towards my goal.
I have been in your concert in Almaty.It was Amazing. It suddenly opened my mind, it was totally different than I heard in YouTube and Mp3. I realized that in my current situation even 100 years is not enough to become a musician of the same level.

What would you do, how would you practice, if you were born in a country such as Kyrgyzstan , but if you had, attitude, mentality ,whatever...that you have now, and you wanted to become a musician as you are now?

ErfanAkli · Joined: 18 Apr 2017 Posts: 9 Location: Iran

Oh boy I have the same problem , but I never give up , I'm from Iran , There are great musicians here but they play persian traditional music or rock, not jazz. I think your goal's not impossible. I'm really anxious for Scott's advice , He makes me hopeful.

Scott Henderson · The Man Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 2135

I can give you two different kinds of advice. About playing, you can become a great player by staying at home transcribing and practicing all the time, but playing with other musicians who share your goals would speed up the process. Finding a good private teacher is also important.

About career, if you're REALLY serious about wanting to play jazz for a living and there's no way to do it where you live, then you have to consider eventually moving to another city. I know that's not easy, but many people have left their countries for better opportunities somewhere else. I didn't have to change countries - I had a comfortable life in a small town in Florida. When I was 25, I realized I was going nowhere so I moved to LA and had an extremely tough life for two years just trying to eat and pay rent. Eventually I met some good players and my career started to take off, which would've never happened if I'd stayed in Florida. Many of the famous musicians we listen to are from small towns, but they eventually moved to New York or other places which have bigger jazz communities. Hope that helps!

Kasym · Joined: 09 Jul 2017 Posts: 16

O! Thank You very Much!

dizzy · Joined: 26 Apr 2006 Posts: 406

Maybe you can use some things about the traditional music of your culture to differentiate yourself too. You probably naturally play in a unique way because of the music you heard growing up.

Kasym · Joined: 09 Jul 2017 Posts: 16

Thanasis · Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2017 5:32 am Post subject:

Hi Kasym. I believe that all eastern countries have a rich musical background that can be adopted in western styles. Id say pick up your guitar and transcribe your local music while you study jazz harmony and all the scales etc etc... Then move to a western country and boom there we have a new star maybe? Apart from mr Henderson and a very few others no one bothered to enrich their musical vocabulary and borrow musical ideas from the east.

Kevin Thomas · Joined: 01 Apr 2016 Posts: 154 Location: France

Hi Thanasis,

I'm sorry, but I agree to disagree (guitarwank lingo, in case it sounds weird to you)
You say only a few musicians enrich their music with eastern vocabulary.
I would say that a lot of them do.
What makes Scott and a few other different is the way they do it.
I like when that vocabulary is used in a parsimonious way, and when it fits the tune, rather than the "let's play phrygian for my tune called Nefertiti, and dorian for the Dungeon's song" way".

Kasym · Joined: 09 Jul 2017 Posts: 16

wow! my life will never be the same) Cool

Thanasis · Posted: Sat Jul 15, 2017 8:37 pm Post subject:

Hey Kev youre right, I shouldnt have suggested it this way.
I was thinking only those who do it right and I think that there are not as many. There's more guitarists copying other guitarists who have an enriched vocabulary by having transcribed other instruments and genres. The world of guitar today suffers from lack of originality. Most modern and young players only prefer transcribing guitar related stuff. At least where I live. Anyway, sorry for my bold statements, it's just what I think. And I like to encourage people in general, thats why I oversimplified everything, in the last post. Sorry..