Scott Henderson Discussion

[countandduke]

Hey Scott:

Obviously you have your own practice routines, but I've also heard of others with some strange practices. I heard Coltrane would practice one key for MANY hours at a time, say C Major.

I'm curious to know what you saw/heard out on the road about other musicians and how they practiced. For instance, Joe Z. What did you see him practice? DID he practice? Again, curious as to what you saw being around some pretty "heavy" musicians.

Best,
Chris

[Scott Henderson]

Most of the musicians I know are "project oriented" practicers like me. What I'm working on depends on what's coming up next. Right now I have new music so I'm practicing the parts and playing over the changes.

Maybe when I was younger I was transcribing more than I do now, and working on specific vocabulary, but now I feel the most important thing is to be well prepared for my next gig.

I saw Joe practice many times, and it was always about playing his newest music. One time he asked me what I was working on and I told him I was practicing soloing over the changes to a Monk tune we were playing. He said "Practicing soling? That's the dumbest thing I ever heard." So apparently during the time I knew him, he was confident about his improvising and didn't need to practice, but I'm sure at some point he practiced like all of us do.