Scott Henderson Discussion

[sylvainjazz]

Hello Mr. Henderson!

(This is my very first try here so I'm a little febrile and excited to contact a great and famous professional musician such as you are.)

I listened with great interest an interview of you (with Rick Beato) realized about a week ago where you said that you practice guitar about 12 hours a day !?! My question is : Is this exactly correct, and if so, why and how do you get there?!? And if so where do you find time to do the daily tasks; cooking, eating, shopping, housekeeping, answering questions like this one (maybe), etc, etc ? I understand that you are soon or currently on tour with your trio somewhere in Europe, so I really wish you the most immense success overthere!

Greetings from Montréal (I really hope you will come and play here one day!)

[Scott Henderson]

I'm a project oriented practicer and always have been - I practice the hardest when there's a gig or tour coming up to practice for. I just wrote 4 new tunes, so during the last month I've been learning them and practicing about 10 hours a day. If I don't have gigs coming up, I try to practice at least 3 or 4 hours a day. Of course there are days when I have to do other stuff and don't get to practice at all, but I try to find time to play for at least an hour on busy days.

[sylvainjazz]

Phew! It reassures me a little, one of the only other known alive musicians I heard who practice around 10 or 12 hours a day is Maurizio Pollini. I read somewhere Liszt sometimes practiced up to 20 hours in a day, but it may be a myth, who knows (?) Thank you very much for having taken the time to answer me so quickly in these particularly very busy days for you, I'm really touched and I really appreciate it. I'm looking forward to hearing these 4 new compositions you're talking about! I love 100% of what you do in music!