what’s my goal with ‘STRAIGHT AHEAD’

I started it to find music that I found interesting and explore it deeply and in detail. I believe that listening is the most important part of being a musician. One have to listen to music until it became second nature in order to effectively express themselves. This is because, in order to communicate through music, you need to be able to hear what you would like to ‘say’. In music, that means how are you to going to interpret the melodies or how are you going to approach the improvisation aspect of soloing. How are you going to phrase your next melody, what melody are you going to spontaneously compose to communicate your music to the audience. The only way to do that is to listen to what the masters have to ‘say’ through music. Absorb, copy and interpret. 

The other weakness of many aspiring young musicians such as myself is the tendency to focus too much on one’s playing rather than listening and communicating with band members. This effectively means you are not playing music as a group. In order to work on this weakness, I tend to listen to more of the ‘comping’ aspect of a tune and not to focus entirely on the melody that is being played but how the band communicate. 

I believe having a dedicated playlist of tunes that I like will help me dig and listen deeper into the music and become more self aware of the music itself once I am on the bandstand. Hence, help me to be able to effectively communicate the music to the audience with more intent and freedom of expression.