Jeff Berlin Clinic, Glasgow

[Mastodon2]

Hey guys,

I just thought I'd stick a quite write up of my thoughts on Jeff Berlin's clinic at Guitar Guitar in Glasgow last night. It was a bit of a drive (300 mile round trip!) from Newcastle, but as soon as Jeff said he was doing some clinics in the UK I knew I'd be travelling to wherever it took to see him. He has been a long time musical hero of mine and in particular a hero for my brother, who is perhaps the most vocal Jeff Berlin superfan out there.

First a comment on the venue, thanks must be given to Guitar Guitar for hosting the event, which was free, but for the 30-40 odd people who turned up, there was no seating, so we stood through the whole thing. I don't think they even had a seat for Jeff as they had to send someone out to get one which I think came from a nearby bar, but once Jeff saw there was no seating he stood for the duration too. Jeff brought a backing CD, but upon finding out they didn't have a CD player he just asked the audience to shout some notes, which he then built into a chord progression and melody and soloed over the top of it. Make no mistake, Jeff is on the absolute top level of improvisational ability, his phrasing and harmonic dexterity is beyond comprehension. Perhaps the most astounding thing about seeing him play his bass, stood about 3 foot away from him, is how effortless he makes it look. If I could ever attain even 10% of what he can do I'd be happy.

There was some quick chat about Cort and Markbass, but Jeff did make clear he's not a salesman and the majority of the night would be spent not pitching products or dazzling with bass tricks, but instead on deconstructing myths about learning. The core message is as Jeff has preached for years; let go of your ego, accept that you might not be the best person to analyse and direct improvement in your playing and get involved in structured, academic musical learning. As he said, if your car is broken and you need it fixed and you pay a mechanic, you don't instruct the mechanic how to do his job, because he is the expert and has trained to diagnose and fix the car. You could fix it yourself (as you would teach yourself bass) and you might make it better, you might not. I suppose you tailor your level of instruction to the level you want to play at - you probably don't need to know jazz harmony if you never aspire to play anything other than rock or blues. In that sense, I suppose Jeff's method, which is really just classic academic musical teaching, something that has been generally missing for electric guitar and bass, isn't for everyone but his methods can make anyone a better player, whatever level you're at and whatever level you aspire to play at. I've been guilty of having this ego in the past, thinking I knew how to direct my own learning and improve and to a degree it has worked for me and while my technical ability is ok, my musical theory knowledge has lagged far behind and I know I have a lot to improve on in that field. I'm guilty of playing, not practice, which is something I must change.

Some of the observations from the night - and this isn't knocking anyone, everyone who played was very brave to stand in front of Jeff and a room full of strangers and play.

1. Rock players tend to overplay thinking this adds "emotion" or "feeling", or that they need to "dig in to be heard". This was leading to people picking notes so hard they were knocking the note out of tune. Playing so hard isn't necessary, especially when practicing. Separating "performance" elements from musical practice is important because practice isn't art or performance. Everyone improved their intonation and timing considerably when relaxed their hands and stopped hitting the notes so hard. I've always tried to practice softly, something I picked up in my electric guitar days from guys like Steve Vai, John Petrucci etc, practicing with tension just makes everything harder, it makes your playing sloppy when deftness and dexterity is what you need, not to mention it increases your risk of stress injury. I think it's a revelation for some that you probably don't need anywhere near as much pressure to fret or pick a note as you might think.

2. Time is inherent and there are very few musicians who don't have good, workable time. This was demonstrated by getting a non-metronome user to play along with a metronome while Jeff turned the BPM up and down, then getting a regular metronome user to do the same and there was no difference between them. Then a non-musician was invited up and she played the intro to "Runnin' with the Devil" by Van Halen while Jeff played the guitar chords over the top. She'd never played an instrument before and yet she was able to play in time with no instruction. There was further elaboration about slowing down music to play it with nuance and help your fingers learn it, but a metronome isn't an integral tool in being successful in this, Further preconceptions such as "locking in with the drummer" were explored in more detail, as time is a shared concept in a band and not exclusive to the bassist and drummer - everyone in the band contributes to "locking in". 

3. Reading music can widen the horizons of any player who doesn't read. I don't and I know I need to start - I have resolved to do this. A non-reader was invited up and and after Jeff showed him a reference note on the clef, he was reading 8 bar etudes in multiple keys within minutes. So there is a lot more to reading than that, but the point was to show that anyone can start, it doesn't have to be an unapproachable and impregnable subject. I think I've been guilty of this and I will learn to read - I know I've passed on opportunities to learn pieces of music because I couldn't read it and frankly for a lot of the stuff I like, tab isn't available. As such, I developed my ear so I can transcribe lines fairly well, but I know I've overlooked an important aspect of my musical development by not learning to read.

4. Modes and scales shouldn't be the key and exclusive focus of anyone looking to develop in music. Scales and modes are useful tools but if you don't understand the musical structures you're playing them over, you're effectively learning verbs but not learning to form a sentence. I have seen this to be true with guitarists who can play the harmonic minor scale in a few keys and sound very impressive with their bag of tricks, but can't improvise in other scales or play in unfamiliar keys. Scales and modes are a useful tool but not the be-all and end-all of musical learning.

There is probably a fair bit more I've missed, but I don''t want this to go on forever. After the event was wrapping up, Jeff was selling some CDs to finance his upcoming "Jeff plays Jack Bruce" project. My brother bought a copy - although he already has a signed copy from Jeff, a signed copy from Steve Vai and Jeff and now a third copy with a personal dedication from Jeff. We waited at the back of the autograph and photo queue so as not to hold everyone up. Jeff and my brother, Chris have corresponded via the net for some time and Chris has been a vocal supporter of Jeff, or as Jeff put it "The most vocal and upstanding supporter" of his. It was like seeing friends meeting again after a time apart and was great to see. Chris got his Cort Rithimic signed and I couldn't resist taking my Ken Smith BT5 along just to get it in the photos. Jeff spent some time talking to use and we got some photos with him, make no mistake that he is one of the warmest and kindest guys I've met, a true gentleman. It's remarkable to see someone who has such an incredible voice on the instrument backed up by virtually unmatched technical ability be so humble. He wants so much for bassists to improve as musicians and get more from their playing. 

All in all it was a fantastic night, especially to see my brother finally meet Jeff. It was worth it for that alone. I also kind of have a hankering for a Cort Rithmic of my own now too!

 

 

 

Edited October 4, 2019 by Mastodon2

[arthurhenry]

Great review - thanks for posting.

 

[jacko]

Wish i'd known about this

[songofthewind]

5 hours ago, jacko said:

Wish i'd known about this

Me too. I was up In Glasgow at the weekend, even went into GuitarGuitar and eyed those Cort basses. 

[lowdown]

Thank you for the write up. A good read.

👍