You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - 7 Creative Ideas While Sheltering in Place

Episode Date: April 9, 2020

In this episode, Peter and Adam discuss some ways you can keep those creative juices flowing while still keeping yourself and your loved ones safe.7 Creative Ideas While Sheltering in PlaceMake music with other musicians virtuallyStart something new and bigLearn technology (master technology!) fastCollaborate with someone you normally wouldn't or couldn'tRead/researchWork through a different medium/platformDevelop some new habitsSocial distancing might mean going to concerts is out of the question, but Open Studio is still keeping the live music going! Peter is performing solo piano every Friday evening at 8:00 PM EDT on YouTube (check out his latest performance right here). And tonight, join master Brazilian guitarist Romero Lubambo for a live concert from his living room at 7:00 PM EDT - just follow this link.In light of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic, we understand that money is tight for a lot of people right now. That's why we've decided that for the duration of this crisis, we'll be running a Choose What You Pay campaign at Open Studio. Choose whichever course you want and then let us know how much you're willing to pay - that's it. For more info, click this link.Interested in more music advice? Go here to browse our catalog of jazz lessons and courses available for purchase. And be sure to check out our All Access Pass - every course from Open Studio on every instrument.Let us know what you think by leaving a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, or head over to our YouTube channel.Follow us on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I'm Adam Mattis. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear at Podcast. Daily Music Advice coming at you. We're coming at you no matter what. Pete, we are locked in. We are staying home like responsible citizens. I'm not trying to get a bunch of old sick people sick.

You know what I'm saying? Did you say you're not going to get a bunch of old sick people sick? No. Get sick from a bunch of old sick people. You got to do the right thing. Even if you're young and healthy and you think, oh, this won't be very serious for me. Yeah, but you're going to carry it and spread it around. So stay inside, listen to the podcast.

practice. That's what we're doing, right? And we're the perfect ones to preach this. We're, we are both neither young nor old, neither healthy nor unhealthy. So we really, we could go either way, you know. I know. We could be spreaders or spread ease. So we got to be careful. We are right on that edge. But we're doing the right thing, staying home. And I'm eating, I'm eating a lot of home baked bread. I don't know if you've ever had any of Heather McCorkles, home baked bread, but it is something amazing. And she's just been baking. up a storm here, dude. It's like, it's dangerous place around here. No, I haven't had any

but I have to, maybe in about a month or so I'll be able to try some. That'll be nice. Can I, can I introduce to you a new feature to the podcast? Please. All right, so I found this sample app, right? So I've been collecting samples from famous jazz musicians like Miles Davis. I don't know what

they're talking about. And Lou Donaldson. I thought that I sound it all right. And Keith Jarrett. Try to concentrate. And then St. Louis's own, Jay Ross TV. How you get to be so good?

If anybody has any funny jazz musician samples, please send them in, and we're going to start using some little funny sound effects on here. You know what I'm saying? We're about to get 450 from Christian McBride if he's listening to this because he's the master of that. I bet he's got a lot of his own, actually, but he's, you know, he's a big collector of those. He's got some good ones.

No, tonight I can, you can literally spend about two hours. just going down a Lou Donaldson rabbit hole of quotes, man. We're going to say, please email those to Adam, no, to Andrew at openstudionetwork.com. Yeah, if you have a little audio samples of funny clips of jazz musicians talking, send them to Andrew at openstudionetwork.com. I'll start using them on the show. Yes. And we are presented by Open Studio and are we still, yeah, we're still doing pay what you can over there, right? We are doing pay what you can if you go to Open Studio jazz.com.

slash Y-H-I, you can see the Choose What You Pay option. It'll take you to the Choose What You Pay page. Or you could actually go to Open StudioJadS.com slash CW, wait, yeah, CWYP, choose what you pay. And we're running this on all our courses. So whatever you can afford to pay, send us an email. And, you know, we're recommending $20 minimum because that just helps us keep the lights on, keeps our employees employed through this. But we don't want anything to be a barrier to you learning, to you playing jazz better

right now. So just send an email with whatever you can afford on a course and we'll make it happen. Yes. And great stuff I think for sheltering at home. I've been delving into some of the Jeff Keiser courses as I shelter at home for my practice routine getting some awesome ideas and even delved into a little Adam Manus guide of practice sessions. Oh yeah.

You know what I have to say about that. Yeah. I thought that I sounded all right. Ah, now I got it. So now, but at the beginning I was asking about the bread, people might think that was just one of our usually witty bantors, which it was. But we are seeing each other by video. We still don't have the video to the quality that we wanted to, but that's coming soon. But we can see each other as we record this.

And I noticed, right, we were about to start to record. You were shoving this giant piece of bread. Oh, did we talk about this already? Yeah, we did. Yeah, I mean, that's what I was eating some of heathers. It looked like mayonnaise, but it turns out it was butter, right? Yeah, it was just a lot of butter. we got so no the last time i went to the grocery store they were out of uh sticks of butter

yeah and so all they had was like the whipped spread but i mean real butter spread but it was whipped and we had we had plenty of butter in our refrigerator we always do but hether is like she needs to have lots of butter on hand just in case there's an emergency so that she can bake and so i just bought a tub of whipped butter so that was what i spread on that piece of toast there man it was good you realize you're kind of describing hether and as a hoarder as one of the hoarders that are being socially distanced in terms of, you know, a little bit.

That's part for the course for her. She always has to have like 10 packages of butter in the house because she's a baker. So we have more butter than usual. People might. I have more butter in my body than most people should. Well, you know what's interesting? I've noticed, and I mean,

having been through some hurricanes and other various emergencies over the years, people when they panic by at grocery stores, I think I've boiled it down. to the foundation of is all the ingredients to French toast. Bread, butter, eggs, milk. For some reason, they go to the, I'm like, are you going to be locked in your house for two weeks only eating French toast?

That doesn't sound delightful nor healthy. It's not going to be delightful and healthy. And you're going to make everybody else around you in a bad mood, if you know what I'm saying. And apparently add to that this time, paper towels, toilet paper, pasta. It's been very difficult to get pasta. Really? Yeah. Yeah. But the good thing is, like, being a vegan plant-based household for us, like, everybody hates, like, plant-based food in general so much that, like, I went to Whole Foods.

They were out of all the spaghetti except, like, the very special, like, gluten-free. All the specialized stuff is in abundance because nobody wants that, you know. So, like, they were all out of ground meat and everything, but all the plant-based meats were available. So that's so great, ma'am. We've been keeping it rolling. That's so great. Yeah. And shout out to Parker's table, too, for keeping all of us rolling in wine and cheese, as well.

we're going about our business here. That's right. Big shout out, big shot. So what we're talking about today? Today we're talking about seven creative ideas while sheltering in place. I thought this would be a fun idea to do right now and makes a lot of sense to do right now, right?

So we're all kind of at home. We're doing a lot of interesting things, but what can we do creatively to keep ourselves occupied musically, to grow, to use this time wisely, which, you know, it sounds from the feedback we're getting from a lot of our open studio members is that a lot of people are interested in doing this right now at this time, which is very heartening, you know. Absolutely.

Human beings, man. And, and yeah, so this is, well, let's get started with number one, because we've been jabbering more than usual this morning, right? Yeah, you know, talkative, lots of coffee. A little pent up. That's right. So number one is to make music with other musicians virtually. Yeah. What you got?

Oh, you got nothing yet. I don't have my keyboard hooked up yet. Yeah, you're a little ahead of me on that. Yeah, so what we're finding with this, there's all different ways. to do this. And we're trying to work out a way to do it where the lag isn't bad and we can actually do it in real time together. In general, what we've been finding, and we've both done a couple collaborations that I think

worked out. We did actually one together that work out delightfully, but what's working for us best is layering them one at a time. So like somebody lays down the first track, hopefully the person with like the best time and sense of tempo or some kind of click track if you want to cheat. but basically you know lay down a track and then you send it to the next person they like lay down their track and then everybody adds their things on and there's various apps or you know you can go in and edit it and it's surprising like i did a we're working on a thing it should be out by the time this is being heard but with reuben rogers and gregg hutchinson my old trio members uh we just did that on a simple like bags groove blues and reuben laid the bass part down then i laid the piano now we're waiting on gregg to lay down the drums but rubin man And he's, it's, like, I miss playing with him so much. And when I was sitting there looking at him and then listening my headphones as I'm playing my part, I was like, wow, this is like playing with him. And he's doing little Rubin stuff. And I'm interacting with him. Even though it's not in real time. Yeah. It's not the same, but it's a lot closer than you would think. So it was actually a really, uh, cool thing for me. I was like, I felt like I was back with them. You know, it's weird that you mentioned that you're waiting on the drummer because, uh, the 442s are currently working on a version of, uh, mood indigo. And we are waiting on Montez to send. And we are waiting on Montez to send. and hitback. So as soon as that happens. Coincidence? I don't know. I don't know about that.

Yeah. All right. Number two is to start something new and big. So I love this idea and, you know, what we're both kind of working on with our video projects. I don't know about you, but it just feels good to not only be working on something musically with my friends, but to start something that we don't, we didn't really do before this. It's new to us. And it's really become a nice attention getter for my band The 442s. And I know the one that you put out with Hamero. with you guys playing Giant Steps, had a lot of traction. You know, not to be selfish during this, but it is nice to like be able to quote unquote perform for your audience that you have online and to grow that audience a little bit.

So there's nothing wrong with taking on a new idea and a new project and really trying to work on it, collaborate with the musicians that you normally collaborate with, but just do it virtually. It's great. Right. And I would say, and though some of the ones we're going to talk about later, all kind of tie in with this idea of starting something big. And yeah, it's both selfish and giving at the same time, which is wonderful.

You know, in that, yeah, it satisfies our need to play with our musical friends and to keep that going. But then put it out in the world, you know, and take some care and try to get it as good quality as you can. I mean, you don't have to worry about it being perfect, but get it out there so that because the listeners and the enjoyers of music, that's what we're doing this for. So, yeah, we can satisfy our itch to play with each other, but also putting something to the world for people to enjoy. There's all the classic records are available, but there's nothing like something that's just been created today that's going into people's ears and for that to be able to see it. It means a lot. It means a lot. I love this number three here, too. Learn technology like Logic, Sybelius, Dorico finale, master technology fast. So I don't know if you notice, but my Zoom and Logic streaming game has up to about 200% since we started this. I don't know if you notice mine has too. And mine was just up to five minutes before we started this with. your advice on that. But yeah, this is a time. I mean, first of all, we have to, everyone's having to use technology more for, for work, for school, for learning about grants, unemployment, finding it. I mean, like, there's no way around it. That's just a part of it. So now is the

time not to be saying like, oh, I don't, I'm not good with technology. I'm not, I mean, everybody is, is somewhere with technology. But you can grow. It's just like any other skill. and so because you have some extra time, I think it's a good time to kind of have some, a little bit of confidence and say, okay, I might not have been great with technology until now, but now I'm going to master at least some part of it.

And so I listed some, yeah, logic, the music stuff, because it's a lot of musicians listening on here. You might have always said, oh, I'd love to learn a notation program, but I never had time. Can I just recommend now that you have, I need to do Dorico, right?

Because from what I've, my experience, Dorico is probably the best one of those three. unless Sillius wants to give us a sponsorship. But it used to be great. Come on. Let's be honest. I know, but they're a little bloated right now and a little confusing.

But Dorico is like, I'm probably going to hit this this weekend, actually, some Dorico work. Because really with like any of these technological things, it's more about understanding where things are so that you can, you know, so that you're not actually working the technology so that it's just coming out seamlessly for the project.

So it's really just a matter of becoming familiar. So now's a great time to familiarize yourself with these notation softwares or logic like you said or anything that's going to be a tool for you as we come out of this. Yeah, and I think an important thing is it's very easy to get overwhelmed. So we're listening a bunch of things.

Don't try to go out and learn all those at once. And, you know, both you and I have been involved with a lot of these and that's part of the reason. We're still having to learn, but to be able to put this podcast together remotely without engineers like we use. usually have. But the idea is like say the notation program thing. You know, if you've never done that or maybe you knew a little bit of finale. And really, I'm kind of agnostic on this

system. They're all good in their own ways. The main thing is to find the one that you like that you know. It's kind of like Google Docs or Word or whatever. Any of them can work. It's more about like you learning them and as you say being able to use them effectively as a tool. And so you might think about this time when we don't have any gigs and we probably have less teaching and less work or whatever is to invest in the future so that when we come out of this and you want to be doing more writing or arranging or notation stuff you'll have that skill because I can tell you this I remember learning Sibelius really learning it about 15 years ago no probably longer than that now but I remember the exact situation I was like going to be in New York and I had

I got there in the morning on like a Friday and I had a gig this Saturday night and I had this big band arrangement. I was still doing stuff by hand and sending it to a copyist at great expense. And I was like, you know what? I got to learn Sebelius. So I like lock myself in the room. Well, hotel rooms lock already. So you don't have to really lock yourself in. But I mean, it's New York. You want to go out and do stuff. But I was like over the next 48 hours until I got to go do this gig, I'm going to learn Sabal. And this is back, remember when they had the big manuals? Yeah. Yeah, the big manual. And I was just like start at the beginning. And I did it a big band arrangement too. It was the slowest one I'd ever done. But I learned Sabaliener.

as I was going. And every time I had to do something, I looked up what was the keyboard shortcut. And then I practiced it and trained it. Within two days, I can't say I mastered the program, but I was able to use it effectively enough that it became quicker than writing by hand. And that's been a great skill that I've had ever since then. Yeah, I think with anything like this, when we're kind of going about our normal careers and lives, it is usually some kind of deadline that we're like, well, all right, I got to learn this. And I have to do this project now in this, technology, but this is a time where you could just take time to train, right? And this training is going to pay off big time in the years to come. That's right. So number four is to collaborate

with someone you normally wouldn't or couldn't. So I was talking to our mutual friend, Bjorn Ranheim, cellist with my band The 442s, and we've been doing all these collaborative videos. We did the one with you and Caleb Kirby. We're doing one now with our friend Riley Mulaker, trumpet player. And, you know, Bjorn was like, who from the classical world can we get involved and I was like hey man nobody's doing anything so shoot like ask yo-yo-ma doesn't matter like like we might as well because people want to be making things right now and so this could be a time to collaborate with someone you maybe know that maybe wouldn't have the time normally to collaborate on something like this or or you wouldn't think would want to play with you or something

but it never hurts to ask and now is the perfect time where people are like yeah I'll do something sure what you want to do you know yeah great stuff great stuff Okay, so that's number four. For number five, this is one that's tried and true. By the way, Yo-Yo Ma said no. What's that? Yo-Yo said no. Oh, you did, okay.

Well, you know what? Shoot for the stars. And when you land in West County, you got further than you thought, you know. Okay, so number five, read. Well, I had read and then you added a great one, which was research. So when you're sheltering in place and you've got some concentrated time, you know, there's no better way to expand, well, the only better way to expand your mind of reading is listening to this podcast, but you're already smart and you're already doing that. But otherwise, read a book. Remember those things? You know what a book is?

I'm doing my Keith here. Try to concentrate. That's right. Think about Keith Jarrett in his beautiful studio in the woods in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, wherever he lives, where it's just like peaceful and there's nobody irritating him. So he's totally alone, of course. He's got that piano without the action break at all on it. It's like a system of, weights and measures. Yeah, everything is perfect. And anybody who is at a lower level than Keith in the world is not there. So the whole world is not there, basically. And no, but I mean, you know, that kind of solitude, but, you know, read a book on anything and just, like, go on a deep dive and just keep reading and don't look at the clock. I've been really enjoying my read time. Yeah, I've been reading a ton of stuff, man. I'm, I have about six nonfiction, like, self-helpish style, like become a better leader, become a better person, books about half-read

that I'm just kind of cycling through. So we'll see how that ends up. And then the book on top is like, how to get rid of my OCD slash attention deficit or disorder. Yeah, how to finish a freaking book. All right. Number six is work through a different medium slash platform, a lot like what we're doing right now. You know, we are not giving up on this podcast just because you and I can't be within 10 feet of each other. We're going to keep refining this and getting better and hopefully our audience doesn't know at all that there's been, you know, any kind of change that the quality reflects that we have a commitment to it being as good as it can be.

And, you know, that's why, you know, we're setting up the keyboards. That's going to be a thing to happen. The video is going to be a thing to happen. But right now is a great time to learn how to do this. I don't know about you, but I might never go back. This is great, man. I'm sitting here in pajama pants. Yeah, absolutely.

It's great to have the option. I think when we do go back, it's going to make it that much more special, but also to be able to have learned these new skills and to be able to do it and to be able to. Look, the main thing is to try to, I mean, the platform, the mediums are just conduits, the ideas. As long as we have ideas, as long as we have listeners and we love you guys so much for sticking with us through this and giving us a little bit of your time. But we feel a big responsibility to get stuff to you in the highest quality way and just have some fun and kind of, congregate here as a community of people that love jazz and creative music and improvising and getting better. Yeah, and you know, you've been doing these Friday night solo piano concerts,

which we're going to air one tonight this day we're filming it. But if when you're listening to this podcast, know that Peter's been doing these series of Friday and you're going to keep these going, right? Every Friday? Yeah, I'm going to keep doing them every Friday. And actually, we'll put a link below to the last one because we're leaving them up on YouTube and we've really gotten, you know, the audio and the video has been improving every week, so I'm excited about that. Yeah, they're really awesome, man. And it's just a nice way that you get to perform and that people who would be watching you perform around the world live can still stay in touch, can still get to see those performances. And I know, you know, a lot of musicians are taking advantage of

different mediums and platforms and live streams to, you know, scratch that performance itch and for their fans to get to see them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I really, wanted to do it as kind of a challenge to myself and one of those markers each week where it's like, I mean, you know, solo piano is not forgiving at all. There's nobody to lean on, but we're by ourselves a little bit now in terms of performance as we should be. But I wanted to do it because I've been wanting to do it more and it's one of those things that gets pushed to the side a lot of times. So I was like, well, you know what? Schedule it and then practice for it and then put your stuff out there. You know, that's what it's about. Exciting, man. All right. Finally, number seven is

to develop some new habits. You have your practice, yoga, food, exercise. I think... Yeah, I mean, that was just some random ones, but yeah. No, but I think all of these things, just any kind of new habit that helps you're playing or helps you become a better creative person is going to be...

Like, I really want to become... I want to come out of this a little bit better writer, not of music, but of words. You know, I want to be able to, like, be able to write better composed emails and essays and blog post for open students. So I'm really trying to work on that end of it. You know, it's a skill that I normally wouldn't put in with my music skill,

but it really is helpful to my career. And it's just a new habit to work on that kind of thing. Yeah. And I think that this is, you know, a very special time that developing new habits, if you really commit to them, it's one of the few things that may be easier during this time. We have a little bit more time, a little bit more solitude. but we also have the potential now that we should have kind of adjusted to this new normal interim period

to have an environment possibly. I mean, it's different for everybody. But, you know, there's obviously increased pressures for many financial and situational and family and health. And but in terms of like developing habits, no matter what situation you're in, the biggest part of it is a routine and repeating every day. And so some of this stuff where like we have a little bit more time and we have some things taken away if we put that in the habit and we get into the cycle of what these days are like, you can really come out of this with with a trick though is they can be good habits or they can be bad habits. You know, you're going to develop. Everybody develops some kind of habits. So what we're talking about, I think are positive habits.

Because otherwise you just kind of fall into repeating things and getting 1% worse every day. That's right. Yeah. Well, thanks, man. This is fun. This is fun, man. This is awesome. Let's keep it going.

And until tomorrow, you'll hear it.