Lead or Follow a Tune

[Kelteglow]

Wondering why it is that I find it easier to Lead a Tune than follow a person playing even a tune I know.Am I no good at listening or what ?

[RAc]

Hi Kelteglow,

 

it's always the same answer to all like questions:

 

Musicianship is a combination of many skills that are frequently independent of each other, sometimes contradicting. Leading a tune (in its simplest form, barring feedback incorporation) is the closest to playing the tune in the familiar comfort zone of your home, although you'll find that once you start listening to what the session group does with (or, less desireable, against) your lead, you'll find it as hard as following.

 

Playing against distractions is the first level of added difficulty on top of simply rendering the tune. It's a different skill and must be practiced separately. And since we're all individuals, everybody enters the ring with individual difficulties. I feel uncomfortable leading a tune (always fearing that nobody else joins in so I'll need to terminate my solo as quick and graceful as possible), but once others have picked up and joined in, it's exactly the same to me as joining into something others have started (except that I'm expected to call changes and out in that set).

 

A lot depends on the dynamics of the session. In smaller and more intimate groups, the person who started tends to be the expected front person, so the leader role is more active but likewise carries more responsibility. In bigger groups, what generally happens is that once the set has taken off, it gets a life of its own, so you're practically not a leader anymore.

 

Does that make sense?

[wunks]

By following do you mean accompanying or mimicking or something in between?  I've always been a strong lead player on fiddle for dances and have found it agonizing to attempt seconding, but to survive being pressed into service with a blue grass band I had to reduce my input to a rhythmic drone/chordal approach to participate.  Surprisingly, from that starting point, improvisations became easy.

[Kelteglow]

 In a session I am ok if I start a tune .If someone else starts the tune even one I know I have difficulty playing along with it sometimes.