Speaker A
Yeah. Groove and feel is a completely different thing. People can have groove and feel without having good time.
Michael League explains the difference between groove, feel, and time, emphasizing the importance of playing with others to develop true musical feel.
Key Takeaways
- Groove and feel are different from technical timing and require spiritual connection.
- Playing with experienced musicians is essential to develop true feel.
- Formal education alone is insufficient to cultivate groove.
- Online resources can supplement learning but require active effort.
- Mastering subtleties leads to developing a unique personal sound.
Summary
- Groove and feel are distinct from good time; one can have groove without good time and vice versa.
- Groove and feel are more spiritual, while good time is technical.
- Access to musicians who play with groove and feel is crucial for developing these skills.
- Formal music education alone may not develop feel or groove.
- Playing in real musical scenes, such as churches or with experienced musicians, helps develop feel.
- Michael League shares his experience playing in Dallas with notable musicians and in church gigs.
- The internet and platforms like YouTube now provide opportunities to learn groove and feel by watching others.
- Musicians should focus on subtleties and nuances, not just notes or instruments.
- Learning from multiple musicians helps create a personal sound.
- Developing groove and feel requires individual initiative and practice.
Chapters
- 00:00Difference Between Groove, Feel, and Time
- 00:17Spiritual vs Technical Aspects of Groove
- 00:35Limitations of Formal Music Education
- 00:52Learning Feel by Playing with Experienced Musicians
- 01:50Playing in Churches and Real Music Scenes
- 02:18Using Records and YouTube to Learn Groove
- 02:33Importance of Subtleties and Developing Personal Sound
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Many people have good time and don't have groove or feel. You know, these things are very different. Um, so, why do you think that is?
Speaker A
Because one is spiritual and one is technical. And do you think you can work on groove?
Speaker A
Do you think it's something that you can completely? But, I think that you're very disadvantaged if you don't have access to musicians who play with groove and feel.
Speaker A
Yeah. I went through college four years, did my thing, learned a bunch about theory and harmony and complex warm-up exercises and things like this.
Speaker A
But, you know, I really didn't have any feel. Yeah. It's actually playing with those guys that's given you feel.
Speaker A
It's like totally. And I mean, I really got up in there, like, in a scene. I was fortunate enough to be living near Dallas, where all the Roy Hargrove, RH5 guys, all the Marcus Miller guys, all the Erykah Badu
Speaker A
guys, all the Kirk Franklin, Fred Hammond guys, you know, they were all living there.
Speaker A
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, I found those places. Yeah. Where those things were happening. I was playing in churches, more like 80% of my gigs were in churches for four years in Dallas, you know. And like, you really understand quickly
Speaker A
[laughter] how bad your feel is. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. You know, and so, for me, that was I was fortunate. Not everyone has that opportunity. But, we all have records.
Speaker A
Yeah, absolutely, yeah. And now with the internet, we all have YouTube. We can watch these people play.
Speaker A
Yeah. You know what I mean? And you really have to take the initiative as an individual to try to learn how to play exactly like that.
Speaker A
Yeah. Don't just learn the notes. Don't just buy the bass. You know, but to really get all of the subtleties that your heroes have. And if you learn enough of those things from enough people, it's kind of like a passageway to your
Speaker A
own sound. Yeah.
Topics:groovefeelrhythmjazzbassMichael LeagueSnarky Puppymusic educationmusical timingmusical feel
