# In your zone and stay there or jump?



## Sketchy Jeff (Jan 12, 2019)

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has a zone where stuff comes easier. 

Sometimes that zone isn't the stuff you actually like listening to it's just what flows out when you play. Recently I've been (along with the rest of the guitar playing internet) listening to Tom Bukovac on YouTube. He likes 70's and 80's prog rock and he works as a Nashville session guy for pop country acts. 

When you're in your zone do you get fidgety and look elsewhere or do you zero in on your thing and do the deep dive? For me the zone is '90s acoustic folk-pop. I can play Indigo Girls and Cowboy Junkies sounds all day long. But it doesn't take long to feel stale so I get sick of my acoustic guitars and play archtop and tele and bass instead. That's all great and I love doing it and it's fun and more interesting but when i hear it recorded it sounds like I'm trying hard and falling short. Give me my acoustic back and let me accompany a female singer and it's like I'm speaking my native language again. Timing and note choice and tone and everything sound better and come easier. 

What's your zone? Do you stay in it or step out? Does stepping out improve your playing in your zone or does it just scratch a mental itch? 

j


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## KapnKrunch (Jul 13, 2016)

Sketchy Jeff said:


> I'm sure I'm not the only one who has a zone where stuff comes easier.
> 
> Sometimes that zone isn't the stuff you actually like listening to it's just what flows out when you play. Recently I've been (along with the rest of the guitar playing internet) listening to Tom Bukovac on YouTube. He likes 70's and 80's prog rock and he works as a Nashville session guy for pop country acts.
> 
> ...


Good question. 

I am always trying to avoid a rut by playing outside my comfort zone. With varying results. Either alone or in a group.

Like you, It often "reeks of effort" to my ears, but the only two options are: try something or quit playing. 

I have always felt that I could do better with the support of like-minded musicians, but because I chose to live in under-populated areas, I am stuck with the local heroes whose acme of performance is "nobody made a mistake."


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## nbs2005 (Mar 21, 2018)

Push. I'm part of a small on-line group that shares videos of songs you've done. Last week's challenge was 'Out of your comfort zone'. I decided to do a version of Miles Davis's 'So What'. That's a couple of grades above my skill level. But I worked on it and managed a very rough version that I shared. It's not great; in fact it's pretty damn rough. But there are nuggets of goodness in there and I learned a ton. It's really good to push yourself, and yes, sometimes fall on your face. 

Jeff


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## Sketchy Jeff (Jan 12, 2019)

KapnKrunch said:


> I am stuck with the local heroes whose acme of performance is "nobody made a mistake."


ha ha that's not such a bad achievement all things considered. somebody may even have learned a diminished chord special for the event  

do you play in evangelical churches? kinda the same as playing in a bar band in some ways - the lyrics can be a bit cheeseball or in poor taste, production is patchy, the audience is not always super into it. music tends to be kinda trance-y like U2 and Coldplay and Celine Dion in a blender with a heavy dose of reverb. Not much for angry breakup tunes but they've got the other emotional bases more or less covered - love, sadness, celebration. now during covid a lot of places have set the sanctuary up as recording studio for online streaming. 

i've listened to several podcasts recently players talking about doing session work for evangelical praise and worship music. evidently it's not just a small town prairie thing. i don't gag on it quite as hard as Adam Neely did in his thing titled "The Music We Hate" but it's close. On the other hand playing music is better than not playing music and there are things to learn like setting a particular tone and developing or changing it in specific ways through a set. The audience isn't always that into it but they're super quiet and attentive you got to have yourself together people aren't busy chatting around tables or getting another drink while you tweak your amp or re-tune. Band has to be right together from the first note through the last cuz' there's no other sound in the room right then it's like a recording studio full of people. But in a small rural community they put on more regular live music than anybody else by a long shot. 

j


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## bw66 (Dec 17, 2009)

Both.

If "the Zone" is where the money is (or self-esteem, or whatever), then you need to spend some time there. Paid gigs are always in the Zone. But for the sake of growth, you also need to try new things - eventually some of those new things become part of an ever-expanding Zone.


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## Sketchy Jeff (Jan 12, 2019)

nbs2005 said:


> Miles Davis ... a couple of grades above my skill level


there's a humble-brag for ya  

i need a group like you have to kick my ass on a regular basis i'm not good at doing it myself and now during the public health orders there's no live shows that i need to get my shit together for so things get a bit sloppy 

i'd like to hear from somebody who zeros in on their thing. Seems like the general vibe especially among guitar players these days is to diversify your skill set as much as you can and push boundaries as a way of strengthening the core and/or growing in new directions

j


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## Guncho (Jun 16, 2015)

I play what I feel like playing when I feel like playing it.


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

My zone seems to be songs about cracked windshields, broken motors and busted lives. Although I need to expand a bit maybe do some songs about life in the holler .. lol


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## Doug Gifford (Jun 8, 2019)

I play from charts rather than from memory -- dropped myself on my head as a child -- and have a book of a hundred or so early pop/jazz songs that I've played for a billion years and that sit right under my fingers. I perform those and still practice them sometimes to go exploring. Then I have a couple of books of songs in reserve. I know the song but maybe not that well, or I learned it and it never took, or I've played it too much lately… Songs move back and forth, but I like the reward of nailing a song without too much effort and also stretching my technique and my ideas even if it means making ugly practice noises sometimes.


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## Sketchy Jeff (Jan 12, 2019)

Do you perform from charts too? It's interesting to me to go to a folky coffeehouse type thing and see people play sitting down with their binder in front of them on a music stand. I try to avoid doing that but it lends itself to its own kind of stage presence and can draw the audience in to the music in a way that stand and deliver doesn't always do very well. 

j


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## Doug Gifford (Jun 8, 2019)

Sketchy Jeff said:


> Do you perform from charts too? It's interesting to me to go to a folky coffeehouse type thing and see people play sitting down with their binder in front of them on a music stand. I try to avoid doing that but it lends itself to its own kind of stage presence and can draw the audience in to the music in a way that stand and deliver doesn't always do very well.
> 
> j


It's not really about stage presence. I'd go off-book if I could. But if I insisted on off-book I'd be restricted to the couple-hundred-or-so songs I learned before I was 40 rather than the songs I want to sing now. Some people have great memories. Others have different strengths. 

For all that, I really do *know* these songs in front of me. Have played some of them thousands of times. And I'll have worked out the melodic and harmonic implications of the chart and will have thought through the meaning and emotional narrative of the lyrics. Then practiced enough that I can express those things. Just don't ask me to play the song without the chart.


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## Sketchy Jeff (Jan 12, 2019)

thinking back today to this thread about the comfort zone

this weekend i put on a little outdoor community show. 50-60 people came. weather was beautiful. me and 4 other local players. it went well and we had a really good time. my spidey senses tell me that health restrictions are going to kick back in once school starts in the fall so I wanted to get some sort of public music in before we all stay home 'til next spring 

i hadn't played in front of people since March when covid kicked in. had been trying to keep things down to once a month before that. 

it was amazing how much smaller my zone got in five months without regularly working at it. i was nervous. pacing was off. i'm not a great singer to begin with but having only sung to practice recently my voice was especially poor. i played the guitar parts well enough but it was straight rote not much in the moment. kinda dry playing i think. Two Bros. Landreth tunes Got to Be You and Runnaway Train, Dire Straits Why Worry ... some other stuff in that vein ... so not breaking any musical new ground for me but without doing it regularly I was surprised how off I felt. I've been playing plenty at home by myself and with family but just not keeping up on public playing and I was feeling really out of shape. Then the next day I backed up a friend playing in church. Same thing - I couldn't remember how the song went, flubbed the intro, was a bit off on pacing, kinda nervous - just not up to speed with the most basic things of public performance with a few months gap. 

So I guess I need to add an option. Do you stay in the zone, jump to a new one sometimes, or keep pushing the edges of the one you're in? I hadn't been doing enough to maintain the edges of the usual thing so it grew in on me through neglect

j


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## bw66 (Dec 17, 2009)

Yup. Doesn't take long for the envelope to shrink. 

I've been doing a weekly live stream, which has pushed me in new directions - I've been surprised by how different it feels from live gigs. 

I'm a bit worried about getting back to gigging - I've had an instrumental gig and another this Saturday, but singing is another story. I just signed up for Play Music on the Porch Day (Play Music on the Porch Day 2020 - thanks @Chito!) to try and shake the dust off.


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## Sketchy Jeff (Jan 12, 2019)

bw66 said:


> surprised by how different it feels from live gigs


live streaming to me seems like the downsides of playing live combined with the downsides of recording plus the downsides of being in a video without any of the pluses

maybe i'm wrong. what do you enjoy about it?

i guess playing is better than not playing

i've never been much for the song circle thing - a bunch of performers in a ring taking turns performing for each other - but i did a version of that with some extended family members over the weekend and it was fun. we all play and sing but rarely for each other so we decided that this year's summer family gathering would be music instead of traveling and it world out really well.

j


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## bw66 (Dec 17, 2009)

Sketchy Jeff said:


> live streaming to me seems like the downsides of playing live combined with the downsides of recording plus the downsides of being in a video without any of the pluses
> 
> maybe i'm wrong. what do you enjoy about it?
> 
> i guess playing is better than not playing


Ha! That pretty much captures it! 

I seem to enjoy a certain amount of discomfort when playing (at least after the fact!) and learning the technology has been fun. It has also kept me in "gig shape" to a degree.


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## zztomato (Nov 19, 2010)

By stepping out of your zone, it makes your playing that much better when you step back in.


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## mrmatt1972 (Apr 3, 2008)

I've always preferred to be creative and write my own stuff, but it tends to be roots based music (Alt. Country is dead, right?) I like the genre and follow a number of small and large names in the genre, but I'm getting tired of it. Recently I rekindled my old flame, good old RAWK music. I've been writing progressions and playing solos in ways I never have before. It's been fun, but lyrics are not yet forthcoming in the harder style I'm trying to evolve into. I also have a carpal tunnel issue that makes me have to limit my play time, but I feel like I am improving despite that.


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## Sketchy Jeff (Jan 12, 2019)

last week one day i got out my classical guitar and played it for a while. it's been months since i played it and i bet 2 years since i performed with it. used to be it came out at Christmas time for carols and background music at seasonal events but the last Christmas or two even that hasn't happened

so it had been a while. took my hands a minute to get around the wide flat neck but wow great to get back to that thing after a long time away

so i guess that would be returning to an old zone rather than jumping to a new one


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## mawmow (Nov 14, 2017)

I always used to have some pieces or songs in mind I would practice once and then besides my other pieces until I come to play them quite well. So, the plateau is always getting higher.

After two years of private lessons to overcome technical issues, I am back at pieces I never happened to play as good as I had wished to : they are now becoming easier to play though I still have some work to do...


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## Sketchy Jeff (Jan 12, 2019)

mawmow said:


> So, the plateau is always getting higher.


I haven't taken guitar lessons in more than 20 years and I explore my way through stuff that interests me so I don't notice what my plateau is doing. I think in some ways it's gone up certainly gotten wider and I'm more comfortable playing for an audience than I was as a younger man so I'm a more confident player even if not actually more skilled. 

The last time I took lessons was still at a stage where I assumed that a teacher needed to be older than me. I think it might be time to take lessons from a younger player who can really kick my ass. I don't know if I'm up for weekly lessons but a monthly check-in and technique whupping would probably be good for me. Brandon University isn't that far down the road has a good little music department maybe it's time to go in and check out the socially distant options. I should probably think about an area I want to focus on so I don't end up staring across the room at somebody asking what I want to learn with me asking what they've got to offer stalemate. I can't sight read to save my life any more but I dunno if I want to focus on that bit. 

j


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## Sketchy Jeff (Jan 12, 2019)

haha not 2 hours after i typed that i went home fell off a stack of straw bales and broke my left arm so i guess lessons becomes a 2021 project and i can practice right hand technique all day long until then
j


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## bw66 (Dec 17, 2009)

Sketchy Jeff said:


> haha not 2 hours after i typed that i went home fell off a stack of straw bales and broke my left arm so i guess lessons becomes a 2021 project and i can practice right hand technique all day long until then
> j


Yikes.

What's the expression... "If you want to hear God laugh, make a plan". Something like that...

Hope the recovery is full and swift!


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## Sketchy Jeff (Jan 12, 2019)

bw66 said:


> recovery is full and swift


i don't know how quickly my family will recover from listening to right hand only practice
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGEBGEBGEBGEBGEBGEBG
i never had a good rest stroke but it's coming along if I don't get a frying pan to the forehead before that 
only 5 more weeks!
j


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