I'm stumped

erik · Post by **erik** » 26 May 2002 9:27 am

Ever play something into a recorder and can't figure out how to duplicate what you played. I have a basic lead/rhythm track which sounds pretty cool. It's quite simple but i can't figure out how i played it. I can't use it because it's unfinished so i need to replay it. It's really puzzling.

Jerry Hayes · Post by **Jerry Hayes** » 27 May 2002 1:08 pm

Hey Erik,
I sort of know what you mean. About 20 years ago while I was living in LA I was the staff steel player at a benefit for a musician who'd died. The great west coast lead player Al Bruno was on guitar. One of the guests sang "Working Man Blues". Al did a hot guitar solo and then I did a steel ride which I didn't think anything about until I got a cassette copy of the show. On my steel break I did a fast single note rolling thing, sort of an ascending run I guess. I listened and listened and to this day I can't play it or figure out how I played it. Maybe it was just adrenilin or something from playing with such good musicians. Someday I might take the tape to someone who's really a hot player and see if they can analyze it for me.........

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Livin' in the Past and the Future with a 12 string Mooney tuning.

[This message was edited by Jerry Hayes on 28 May 2002 at 06:35 AM.]

George Kimery · Post by **George Kimery** » 27 May 2002 6:43 pm

This has happened to me on a few occasions. I think when this happens, it is your soul coming out through your music. When this happens, you are usually pushed into just having to play what you feel with no time for thought. This is "orgasmic" steel playing and is a moment to be treasured. I don't think this experience is all that uncommon among the top recording musicians. A lot of them can't tell you how they played a particular lick on a record and have difficulity reconstructing it once the session is over. I wonder if Jimmy Day had this problem. I think he played from the soul and not from just memory and planning. I think it is a wonderful thing when this happens and it means that you have entered another dimension in playng. Lots of luck figuring it out, but don't be surprised if you never quite get the same feeling into the lick again.[This message was edited by George Kimery on 27 May 2002 at 07:45 PM.]

chas smith R.I.P. · Post by **chas smith R.I.P.** » 27 May 2002 9:50 pm

Years ago I was on a preliminary session for the film score to "Men Don't Leave". While the engineer and I were talking, the track for the title cut was playing in the backround and I was absentmindedly noodling while we talking. It got recorded and later at the real session I was asked to duplicate it verbatum, and I couldn't, so they had to "clean up" the backround noise and use the original.