The space between the notes...

I was on baby duty last night, so I had the local PBS channel on for background noise. After catching a really interesting documentary on New Orleans, a blues concert came on. Fox LOVES this kind of music, so we sat right in front of the TV while I rocked him. (No, Michelle...I didn't let him watch much.)

Kenny Wayne Shepherd was playing with a bunch of Blues greats...B.B. King, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, the members of Howlin' Wolf's band and the Muddy Waters band, among others. Just for reference, Kenny Wayne Shepherd is a 30 year old hot blues guitarist, and the rest of these guys are between 54 years old ranging all the way up to the 90 year old Pinetop Perkins. Most of them I saw were at least over 70.

While Shepherd was very respectful and was content to play sideman to these legends, you could tell the difference in their playing by the sheer number of notes. Shepherd is kind of a virtuoso guitarist, and he can fill up space really quickly with a flurry of cool licks. These old guys, though...they only played the important notes.

Maybe it's age or arthritis that keeps these guys so laid back in their playing, but they were saying volumes more than Shepherd while using fewer words.

Christopher and I have had this conversation several times...how the spaces in between the notes is almost more important than the notes themselves. Some call it minimalist, some call it simply "sparse". I call it soul. These old guys projected more soul in their sparse playing than Shepherd did the entire concert. Don't get me wrong, I love those flurries of notes, and wish I could do that. While I'll never play on the technical level of a Kenny Wayne Shepherd, I can only hope to one play with a small amount of the soul of these blues legends.

I know it's a cheesy analogy, but Michelle and I deal with life trying to fill up our spaces every day. It's important to remember those spaces, and only play the important notes.