No argument at all, there.
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I edit myself after the fact in the studio all the time. It's a necessity of modern production.. But, subtly, or not so subtly, there's a difference in the phrasing from something played at speed and corrected, and something played slowly and sped up. Lord knows what it is, but there IS something...
If I could simply play as well as I do at full speed, play slower and never make a mistake and keep the same groove, don't you think I would do it? Don't you think EVERYONE would do it? But that's not the way it is done.
And, bottom line is... live, playing with other people (you know, where the magic happens) you CAN'T slow it down. I know you think I'm just digging at you, but I ain't. Honestly...
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Jamming with other people, playing with other people, making music as an interactive process, is what it is really all about. How few great albums were played by ONE person? Stevie Wonder, maybe! The rest of us? Not so much!
As much as I like arrangers (and I honestly like to use them the same way you do, to knock together quick demos for songwriters. etc., as well as for live use) they are a pale shadow of the interactivity that a true live band has.
You've played in live bands, You can do it now, really (I think). Yeah, the work's sometimes a pain. But when you cook in a live band, there's something that NO arranger can ever hope to compete with... at least, I hope I never see the day that it ever could!
I think you have simply let yourself forget you COULD cook.
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If you could play all the Santana stuff live, what CAN'T you play that you would need to, live? Pop's not exactly rocket science, unless you are trying to pull a Steely Dan....
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I simply think that we are talking at cross purposes. I'm not CRITICIZING you.... I am merely exhorting you, who I think COULD pull off the live thing, to go back to trying it. It's easier than you think...
I have nothing but envy for your voice... but I don't think you would ever go "I have to slow down my singing to make it work, and Auto-tune the crap out of it" and I ALSO think that, with SO little work, you could play live whatever the hell you felt like.
All I would like to see is you rediscover the faith in your own playing, and push yourself to go back to 'real time', which is where all the 'live' players play. Step time, slowed down 'realtime', actual speed... It doesn't make THAT much difference in the studio. But there's a big wide world of wonderful music outside the studio doors, where interactivity, and the magic of melding disparate individuals into a musical 'whole' that dwarfs the sum of it's parts is where great music can often be made....
Give YOURSELF more credit. You deserve it
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