Over the last few months, I’ve participated in a number of rehearsals and/or projects that have been stifled because of too much talking. Now, I’m not mentioning discussion of unrelated issues, such as personal conversations, etc. Instead I’m referring to discussion of the music itself.

I can’t even count the number of rehearsals that have included as much time spent discussing the arrangement of a tune (all in “non-classical” genres) as spent actually playing. I admit that some discussion is relevant, but too much talk or over-analysis can both make the performers second-guess themselves and also further cloud the issue (as opposed to provide clarity). As opposed to simply playing together and letting the music guide everyone, the players instead focus too much on technical issues and not on the actual music.

The most rewarding musical situations I’ve been involved with have been with groups that let the music guide the players. Two of my longest and closest musical collaborators, Pat Harris and Nate Powell, are such joys to play with in part because we spend almost no time actually talking about the music. With The French Henchmen, the only discussion we ever had was really about tempo – should we play it up or again as a ballad? Beyond that, we would just play, and if we started to take the piece in a direction that none of us had anticipated, we simply went with it and made the best of it, and 99% of the time were met with success.

Collaborations that involve a little less talking and a lot more listening, feeling, and playing, will find the greatest musical return.