You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - 4 Chords to Rule Them All

Episode Date: April 4, 2022

On this Method Monday Peter guides us through a new way to practice and shake up your routine. Feeling stuck in a practice rut? Then this episode is for you! Have a question for us? Leave us a SpeakPipeCheckout courses from Adam, Peter and more at Open StudioLet us know what you think by leaving a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, or head over to our YouTube channel.Follow us on Twitter | Instagram

Hey, Peter. Hey, Adam. You know it's Monday. Yes. Do you know what that means? Yes. This is methodical Monday, where we act in a very methodical way with our instruction. Okay, the name is close, but it's not at all what we're doing.

What does it mean? Methodical Monday? No, no, no, no. Method Monday. There you go. I'm going to give you a hint what we're going to learn today. You've piqued my interest. I'm Adamannis.

And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear podcast. Jazz. Overexplain. Oh, I like that. That's a good one. We're going to go deep. Oh, over explained.

Thanks for being here. We're going deep today. Hey, everybody, if you want to go on a deeper dive of everything we're doing today, you can go to OpenStudiojazz.com to learn more. I just thought I would throw that in there. Well, and in particular, folks, go to Open StudioJazz.com slash pro if you want to get in on. Now, this is not always open, so you may need to sign up to be notified to the next opening. But when it's open, it's a nice thing to jump into the Open Studio Pro program, which is headed on. up by none other than our creative director,

Mr. Don Draper. No. Mr. Adamana, sorry. I'll take it in a heartbeat. Yes. I've been called the John Ham of the St. Louis jazz scene.

That's right. John Hamm is the John Ham. He is of the St. Louis Jazzy. Exactly. So, no, today is Method Monday. Yep. And this is exciting because I totally forgot what this was. What you told, why don't you, I'll bettell like I'm learning again,

but this will let everybody know in case we have some new listeners as to what we on method Monday. First of all, we don't always do this on Mondays because we forget. Well, you've been in Europe for quite well, but I think it's hilarious that you also don't remember because this was completely your idea. I don't think that's true. It is true. You are the only one who's ever added features to this podcast. I've added many features that we don't do.

I do know that. I mean, yeah, do you remember a hump day? What was the one, and this was not me adding I think, where we were supposed to be something versus something else? And remember, we couldn't even figure out, we couldn't understand it ourselves. And we tried to present it. It was only like six weeks ago, too.

It wasn't that long ago. What was that called? Oh, man, we'll have to let us know, listeners. No, don't let us know because you probably don't want to know. No, but this is Method Mondays. This is a little bit of nuts and bolts. We're going deep into some nerdy practice techniques, right? That's exactly right.

Yeah, that's it. And so you said you had an idea for this Method Monday, and I'm all ears. That's right. Okay, so what I thought we were due today is I'll kind of present to you this concept that I actually used last week at the jazz piano method, which is kind of our longest running. weekly lesson situation. You can get in on that by checking out the piano access pass jazz piano method over

at Open Studio. That's right. Jazz. But yeah, I just do a new lesson every week. And it's not really progressive in that, well, it's progressive. But it's, you can kind of jump in and out whenever you want.

I try to give some different ideas, always interesting things to practice or to get inspired or to maybe put a different, like, way of looking at a different lens for what your daily practice routine is to try to, not only for you to learn some new things and some new techniques, but sometimes I like to sort of focus new ways to practice because we all get in a rut. Even if we're practicing the right stuff, even if we've got things like planned out and we're making progress,

that's fine. But it should always be fun. Like I don't, I've never been a believer in like practice. Yes, practice is hard or difficult or takes energy. It's challenging. It's challenging. It should be challenging.

Yeah. And it takes dedication. It takes grit and all these things. But it can also be fun. and it shouldn't be just grueling all the time. Yeah, there are those times when you're just kind of grinding through it. But if it's like that all the time, it's not going to be a journey that you're going to stick with, of course.

Agreed. And you should know about this because we should mention that with the jazz piano method, you've been doing this for 10 years? Yeah, over 10 years. Over 10 years now, once a week for over 10 years. Well over 500 lessons. Yeah, well over 500 lessons. Well, over 200 of them are good.

Some of them quite good. A couple of them, bangers, but almost. a couple. No, they're all actually pretty awesome and you've developed a wonderful community too over there. They love it over there. You would know about longevity and how to keep going, keep it interested.

Well, and we talk about lifelong journey and all these things that we really not only believe in but we are active in our discussions, Adam and I and just in the whole open studio community in terms of like well, what does that actually look like? What are the things that we can do where that actually works?

It's one thing to say that. It's like you come up with this great plan like I'm going to become you know a functional tennis player I've always like tennis I know the sport I know the rules but I don't know how to play and like I'm going to take this on as kind of a hobby or avocation or whatever so it's like I come up with a plan I'm going to get a teacher I'm going to get a tennis buddy I'm going to get tennis balls I'm going to get my equipment I'm going to do these things great and then it's like then you start and then you start playing and you're like oh I'm missing the ball and oh wait this is kind of hard and yeah I don't quite look like you know Venus and serena Williams

It was like I thought I was going to by the end of the first week. So then the reality sets in, like, that it's work and stuff. But it's like how do we sort of not disguise the work, but as embrace the challenge? Embrace the challenge, exactly. And after you get into it for many years and many months, that's when it actually becomes even more of a challenge. Yes, you're getting better. You're progressing. But it's almost like you've kind of gone through all the different ways to practice.

So you can cycle back to some, but sometimes just a new way of practicing. And that's what I really wanted to present today. All right. But now I'm tired from describing it. I was going to say that's about all the time we have. It would have been great. So, well, that's great. So what this is is just one little simple progression.

Listen, we're talking about practice. Yes, we are talking about practice. Thank you, Alan Iverson. So thank you, Ethan and Iverson as well. But that's a different person. The painter? No, Ethan Iverson, the pianist. Oh, right.

Who's the painter? Roy D. Caravan. Now, that's the photographer. Sorry. No, then, go ahead. So, okay, what this idea is, and this is something that just sort of came to me. Can I just say, yeah. Just not to derail it anymore.

He's laughing. He's laughing hard. I realized why I was thought of the painter. I'm thinking of Ethan Allen, the paint store. Which is ironic because it's both their first names. Yes, right. There's no. There's no.

And Ethan Allen, is that a painter or a paint, a procurement center? Man, I don't know. No, Ethan Allen's not even a paint store. That's like a furniture store. Ethan Allen? let's keep going but we diverge oh people want us

back in our lanes if there's anything they worse they don't want us talk about more than politics it's painting listen y'all it's late in the day

let's keep going let's keep going you're thinking of like broad dugan or something who am I I don't know yeah Ethan Allen okay I think they do have

Ethan Island Ethan Island that's somewhere off the coast of Portugal oh here we go to Ethan Island oh here we go here we go What is that, Peter?

What is that? Oh, he's navigating pages now. Do do do do do do do do do. Why is it so funny? It's hilarious. I don't know. Caleb put that on my sound. That's like the antipsis of anything hip that I've ever done.

It really is. Every time you play anything slick, I'm just going to. There's no way that could ever be hip. That could never be like remixed or anything. Actually, I might do a remix on that. You should. You should. So, okay.

So the idea is. is we're going to spice up our practice, but we're just going to have something really simple that we can build some improvisational practice. Because I realize, like, sometimes we can practice improvising over a tune. Like, that's the easiest way to do that. And we can look at, like, simple forms, like, maybe the blues or whatever, or, like, or some tune we know really well, like, all the things you are on and say,

I'm going to practice this particular riff or play the different keys. Or, like, say, I'm going to do just three-beat phrases. there's all these kind of cool restrictive ways to do that. But if we break it down anymore, let's just take a simple progression. And this is just four chords. So we've got C major, E flat major, A flat major, and D flat major. Okay. So I mean, let's repeat that a little bit.

C major, yeah, E flat major. D flat major, going up a minor there. A flat major. Yeah. D flat seven. D flat seven, maybe a little sharper leaven by. And see. what you're doing, great minds think alike, is already what's happening.

We're going to improvise out of time. We're not worried about a pre-planned structure outside of the order. This is how to kind of take on some new changes like this. Okay, continue. I'm getting excited. Okay, so the only thing that we're going to focus on is playing a melodic phrase. We're not worried about the rhythm of that phrase. We're worried about the melody of the phrase.

Okay. So, C major. Then we go up to the E-flat. Beautiful. And then A-flat. then D flat seven. It's getting some motifs happening out of time. Yeah, some motifs, some melodies.

And what we want to do is like we're restricting ourselves to not play any rhythm. I mean, of course, we're always playing rhythm, but not in time, groove oriented. And then the further restriction is that we're playing these four chords very simple. So we're not trying to fit into a form. It's a pattern of, you know, four chords and an order of them. But it's not really like a form that's based upon a tune or anything. Yeah. And then we're also restricting ourselves.

to playing a complete melodic thought on each chord, but not connecting them, not playing across the bar lines. Well, there are no bar lines. But in other words, we're not C major. Now, that's something we can do later over this, but we're starting very basic. So there's actually a challenge in...

And then we finish that. Finish your phrase. Right. Yeah, that's great. Because we are, we do still want to play in a musical way. Yeah, that's nice. Exactly. And as you hear what Adam was already starting to do there

and what you want to be thinking about as you get comfortable with this is still connecting from a musical standpoint your different phrases. So we're finishing the idea and you might even want to do a little bit more separation

when you start this to actually like because as pianists our tendency is to hold that note and so we're kind of thinking we're doing a new phrase but we're not so you want to actually kind of end it. Lift up and then that kind of forces you

to connect things somewhat musically because we're still telling a story over these four chords. So it's not just total separate ideas, and we leave everything when we go to the next chord. We're hearing the music, and we're restricting ourselves in enough ways that if you do this, you know, for like five minutes, that doesn't sound like very long.

But if you go through these chords, we're not worried about how long we're staying on it. We're just playing one musical improvisation, improvisational melody, improvised melody over each chord before you move on to the next one, right? I love it. Okay. That's great. You can use other harmonies, but we're not really focusing on the harmony so you can stay very simple.

You're just really focusing on the idea. Oh, the idea, the musical idea, the melodic idea. Yeah. And I really find that not having that rhythmic... There is rhythm to it. There's a flow. There's rhythm, actually. But not having the ability to play in time or with the groove.

Like, you start to hear how you have to rely on different techniques to bring the melody out, you know. This is so much fun, man. Yeah. Yeah. And then, you know, inevitably after you do this, especially for five minutes, ten minutes, however long you can, you know, stay engaged with the process, you'll get to things where you're saying. But you'll start to structure it.

So you'll take that phrase and kind of, you know, transpose it or play into the next key. But then you'll start to use your ear and you'll have that time because we're playing out of time to be able to hear when, okay, I don't want to just keep repeating it. Like, what is sort of the answer? What is the culmination of that from a melodic standpoint? Because I think so much of like improving as an improviser is about being able to hear where you are within the improvisational story that you're telling. But to be able to start to be able to do that in real time so that you can make that next decision. Right.

And when we have the time and we have like harmony and like different scales and these different things, it's very easy to get, you know, get kind of, you know, enamored with the, the cool things that those possibilities. give you that aren't necessarily, they might sound good, and they do sound good, and they can help your story, but they're not as like truly improvisatory as you think they are. Totally. So you've got to kind of break it down, make it more basic, force yourself to become a different kind of improviser. That's so cool, man. I'm going to take this to my playing like tonight.

Yeah. And there's next levels. We went over to a bunch of different levels where you do start going to time and play different grooves. They're going to have to join Open Studio Pro. There you go. Exactly. Those next levels.

Yeah. So hopefully that's helpful for y'all. try it out, see how it works. It's not just for pianists. It's for everybody. That's great stuff. Thank you, Peter. Yeah. Well, you heard it there, folks. Hey, why not leave us a little rating and review? If you're on your phone right now, just go down to the ratings and reviews and leave us a rating and review. We only accept seven star reviews for this podcast, which is impossible, but make it happen. We know what to do. Get creative. You're outcome based here. Just make it happen. And we need seven stars, mostly for our own egos. But thanks,

folks. Until next time. You'll hear it. Hi, guys. And we are, by the way. Thank you. It's a well-oiled machine here.