As we are ending the school year our principal asked us to do some self reflection in which we address our strengths and weaknesses and ways in which we can possibly improve upon any short comings. I think this is a very positive activity which forces us to acknowledge our achievements and make a plan of action to address things which we could improve upon.

So I’d like to ask my fellow Synth Zoners, musically speaking, what are areas in which you feel you that you excel at? What areas do you feel improvement is needed? What are some steps which you could take to address the areas that need improvement?

Ok, I’ll go first. I am a rather self-deprecating person, so it’s hard for me to acknowledge my strengths. I guess as far as keyboards go I’m pretty good with chords, scales, music theory, and some of the technical stuff. All that stuff doesn’t matter if you can’t use it musically. Like they say, “it don’t mean a thing if it don’t have that swing” I suppose it will be a life long journey to try to use what I know in a musical way, and to keep expanding my knowledge too.

As far areas for improvement I could write volumes….. But something I really need to address is being able to play with no written music in front of me. I’d like to have a large core repertoire of music I could play from memory. To do this I’m trying to practice more and more along with recording, and no written music. Also I try to analyze the tunes learning and look out for common harmonic sequences like II, VI, ii, V … rather than think in terms of “C, Aminor, Dminor, G dominant”

Also I really need to improve my knowledge of the operation of my keyboard. There so many things
that I want to learn about the operation system. I have very little patience for reading through manuals and that sort of thing. I need to find a very patient person that can basically spoon feed me. Sad but true.

I could go on and on with my weakness but I’ll stop there. I hope to hear from y’all!

From a strength standpoint, I'm pretty seasoned on the bandstand, and know lots of tunes.

On the "minus" side, I'm not much of an entertainer, and, like a lot of other "jazzers", I'm not very flexible in the type of material and kinds of jobs I'll play.

I need to realize that. for most people, jazz is confusing and not particularly pleasant to listen to.

But, practically speaking, there's probably not much I'll do about it!


Russ (set in my ways) Lay

1. Very good music sight reader: both piano score to lead sheets & chords
2. Expressive keyboard playing & singing ability
3. Good understanding of fundamental music theory: scales, chords, interval/chord/chord progression recognition


1. Authentic keyboard emulation of the many different keyboard instrument voices (guitar, sax, etc)
2. Keyboard Soloing Improvisation (over a song's changes)
3. Picking up & playing a new song (totally by ear) and including all the right changes.


1. Keyboard emulation of keyboard instrument voices: Ideally, attend local concerts of musicians playing the selected instrument(s) you want to learn to emulate. Befriend a musician who can competently play a specific instrument and schedule a jam session with them. I've found this mutually rewarding for all parties. Second to to that, listening to recording by respected musicians playing the instrument, especially YouTube clips as some include close up shots of them playing it, so you can both listen and watch in an attempt to emulate the unique characteristics & playing required for a given instrument. I realize it's time for me to pick up the phone and get back to playing with some of my local musician buddies again.
2. Keyboard Soloing Improvisation (over a song's changes). The only solution for me is putting in the time to actually doing this more and recognizing the scales that go with specific chord changes. This is an area that I'm perhaps least proficient at.
3. Picking up a Song Spontaneously Completely By Ear: I suppose the solution is similar to #2 in that the more you do it the easier it becomes.

final thought: I'm realizing as I get older, it's often too easy to become musically complacent, but as musicians, we need to kick ourselves in the butt once in a while, because music is a lifetime path of development and continuous discovery. Paul, thanks for being the one to kick me in the butt this time.

My strengths:

1. I am versatile, I play just about anything
2. I am very good at playing by ear.
3. I think I'm pretty good at improvising
4. I work good in ensembles
5. I'm pretty good at making arrangements
6. Since I don't use notation, lead sheets, lyrics or any papers, I'm free to communicate with the crowd and be a showman.

My weaknesses:

1. Since I play by ear, I don't know anything the way it was done originally - it is always my version of the piece.
2. I don't read music - at least not in a usable fashion.
3. I often make mistakes
4. I am often too spontaneous
5. I'm rarely focused enough to learn anything properly
6. I'm not good at music theory.

DocZ

I have no strengths I am a failure thought and through, my timing is tosh, I only know about 20 chords, I busk when I am reading, but I think it sounds OK, just got a new set of hearing aids maybe it’s the way they have been programmed I sound good to me.
The original question reminds me of someone asking you at an interview “where you think you would be in 10 years time ?”, my answer would be (1) dead and (2) not working here for you.