Practice This! is an educational project of Earshot Jazz with sponsorship from The Seattle Drum School. Each month in Earshot Jazz a new lesson by a different local jazz artist will appear for students to learn from and for non-musician readers to gain insight into the craft of improvising.

Practice This!
September 2007
Stuart MacDonald on Unlimited Inspiration

Click here to listen to Stuart's Practice This! audio clip.

One of the things I recommend to my students is to get into the practice of being open to a variety of influences and inspirational sources. It’s been my experience in dealing with young players that they are often given a list of players that they are supposed to be listening to. More often than not these lists are very instrument specific; a saxophonist will be given a list of saxophone players to listen to, a trumpet player, a list of trumpet players to check out. I would like to stress the importance of listening to all instruments equally, allowing for the possibility of being influenced and inspired by someone who doesn’t play the same instrument as you.

Often young listeners have a tendency to rush to judgment when hearing something new. We want to know in our own minds, “Is this good?” or “Is this bad?” “Do I like this?” I try to encourage students to be a little more open to what they are listening to and not rush to form an opinion. Often ideas and emotions and influences take time to germinate, and they don’t always make themselves apparent upon first listening. In addition to that, it’s important to realize that people’s perceptions of things change over time. I don’t listen to certain kinds of music in the same way I might have 20 years ago, and I am sure that 20 years from now that will still hold true.

Students also often limit themselves to listening to a certain genre or a certain era of jazz music or a certain type of aesthetic. I think it’s good to try to be open to all the different kinds of music that jazz has to offer. Furthermore, why limit ourselves to just listening to jazz? There’s a whole wide world of music out there and to me it doesn’t make sense to limit yourself to just one type or one sliver of what’s available.

I also want to talk about finding inspiration outside the realm of music: Why limit ourselves to just music as a sole source of inspiration for what it is we do? I know that over the years, movies, books, visual art, and even sports have influenced me. All of these things have prompted me to try to be creative and to try to make good music. I think it’s important for the young student to know that we need not limit ourselves to just music alone. We can find inspiration in all sectors of life, including personal relationships and friendship and love, which has been the stuff of poets since the beginning.

I would really recommend following your own natural curiosity. Gravitate towards what it is you like and investigate that. Be open to new things and to experiencing new forms of expression. I think if you try to live a musical life, good things will come of that.

Seattle-native tenor saxophonist Stuart MacDonald is a graduate of Roosevelt High School and a student of Hadley Caliman. Currently he is the co-leader of a quartet that includes John Silverman, Mizue Murakami and Byron Vannoy, is a member of Chris Stover’s More Zero and the Jim Knapp Orchestra.

In addition to his playing duties, Stuart acts as an assistant to Scott Brown at Roosevelt High School, and directs the number two jazz band.

He has played saxophone with the Brazilian rock band Quasi-Nada, reggae legend Clinton Fearon, Steven Bernstein, Medeski, Martin & Wood, Jay Thomas, Marc Seales, Mark Taylor, the acid jazz group Sharpshooters, and many others. Stuart maintains an active private teaching studio in Seattle.