Sometimes it’s tempting to memorize “licks”. Some people write their ideas down and memorize them. The only thing I would say is that once you have memorized a few licks...you will obviously want to start using them. Usually what happens is you will use them too often, and not make smart choices as to where to put them in your solo. If you’ve worked out a really sophisticated line that spans 4 or eight bars...you need to be able to maintain that level of sophistication before and after those measures. If the ideas before and after the “lick” aren’t as strong...that lick will sound out of place.
The gig is the ultimate litmus test for any player. If you’ve been shedding your ideas for a while, when you walk out on stage...that is the ultimate test to see where you are at. There have been times where I’ve been working on a certain idea for quite a while...and when I play the gig, I realize afterwards that I didn’t use it once. This is not necessarily a bad thing...it just means the concept wasn’t natural for me yet.
When you are performing, there simply isn’t a whole lot of time to think. In a jazz situation, you have other members on stage who are playing ideas along with you, and you as the soloist must try and react to them....and vice versa. The more you perform, the more you’ll see the holes in your playing....or the stuff you need to work on.
These days, I try and record every one of my gigs so I can listen to it at a later time. Even if the recording isn’t high resolution, I can still hear the information I need. For instance, I can hear that I dropped the time in a few spots in my solo. Maybe I repeated a lick ad nausea without even realizing it! Maybe my ideas didn’t connect with each other very well. Maybe I dropped the form.....ouch.
Listening to yourself is a tough thing sometimes. If the crowd really went nuts at the end of my gig, there is part of me that would rather commit that to memory rather than listening back to the show a week later with fresh ears and hearing what really went down...lol. I know what I’m capable of and I know my ideas. I can certainly tell when I listen back if they were grooving or not.
