9/17/24 Different Rules for Different Schools

As many of you know, Different Rules for Different Schools is one of my mantras.

This is because it’s crucial for classical players to understand that the rules are simply different for non-classical styles such as jazz, rock, Latin, bluegrass, hip hop, or whatever.

It’s disappointing to learn that there are additional techniques to learn in addition to the classical techniques they’ve spent so many years developing. It’s frustrating to learn that some of their proudest technical achievements may be unwelcome in a non-classical context.

But it’s simply a different language or at least a different dialect.

A classical vibrato, for instance, doesn’t sound jazzy. It sounds classical. It is the equivalent of an opera singer singing a pop song. The diction is too perfect. The vibrato is too formal. It’s not appropriate, the way a tuxedo is not appropriate at a Burger King.

I love to joke that it took me years to forget everything they taught me at Juilliard, but it’s true.

It took years to retool my technique--my bow arm, my vibrato, etc. Those muscle memory techniques have been trained and conditioned into us over hundreds if not thousands of hours of focused practice.

We worked hard for those good habits.

And it’s not so easy to not use them. But if we don’t figure out how to not use them, how to lose our classical baggage, we will never sound authentic to any style outside of classical music.

And sometimes that baggage is not just a physical technique. For instance, the idea of what is considered perfect in the world of classical music is very different from what is perfect in a pop song or in a jazz performance.

But the first step is at least to be aware of what’s different.