You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - 7 New Year's NOT-Resolutions

Episode Date: January 4, 2023

Join Adam and Peter as they discuss their goals for the New Year while avoiding that classic title of "resolution".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. Yep. You've been to the gym yet this year? I have. It's pretty packed in there. The piano gymnasium. Hey. The piano gymnasium.

The piano gymnius. Gymnasium. I'm Adamannis. And I'm Peter Mark. And you're listening to the You'll Hear Podcast. Two guys. Just sit and talking music. Your whole tone changes when you do this.

The modern tagline is... Dude, it's Hollywood. We're just a couple of buds. It's a showbiz, baby. We're just Diet Coke's and dopes. Showbiz. New year. New you. We made it.

We did make it. We just, yeah. How did we work out the timing of this? This is our 1,000 and 1th. Yeah. Is that a word? It's our 1st and 1st. Thousandth and 1st.

That also is our first episode of the new year. Yeah. Yeah. Technically the thousandth episode came out on January 2nd. Right. Well, this is the first one recorded in the year. That's true. I know this feels like it's live to people coming through the podcast.

Because it's so present. Our presence is omnipresent. It's great timing, man. Well, you know, it worked out perfectly because, you know, at the end of December, that's reflection time. We went out of my ideas. We took some time off. We're tired. We're bloated. A lot of salt, a lot of sugar.

Yeah. No, it is naturally that sort of reflective time where everybody's like, oh, what was your 2022? And then for us to have that sort of doubly with like looking back on a thousand podcasts, this is a really nice way to like, well, we're going to start fresh. Yes. We're going to start this next thousand episodes out. With a clear mind, intent. Clean body. Well, semi-clean body.

But we were doing it in an episode today. Surely we must have done something similar to this at some point. It never gets old. And it's always needed. New Year's resolutions. We're going to do a single. Yeah. New Year's resolution.

Yeah, you know, I'm not a fan of resolutions in general. We've done this before. I know. Last year probably. That's why I'm forcing it down. Yeah. Do you do a, for real, do you do a real resolution every year? I do personal one?

No, I do kind of concepts. And I start them. I mean, I do it a little bit, but I kind of start them in the middle of December, because I don't like the whole, you know, right around January. It's just too much pressure. So it's kind of, it goes from the middle of December. And actually, these ones that I've done really are kind of specific to music stuff I'm thinking about. But it sort of starts in the middle of December.

I recommend folks tried. If you have trouble, like, hitting right on January 1st or if you feel like it's a couple days after now and it's too late to wait until next year, I look at it as like December 15th to January 15th as the New Year's resolution time. The span, you know. You know what? One of the benefits of getting older is maybe, hopefully getting a little wiser, maybe. But one of the things I sort of, I used to be.

Not everyone's following that. I can tell you that. No, one of the things I used to put on myself a lot is like, okay, now I'm going to be the type of person that just does this, that I practice every day. I'm going to start on a new year. And then you go around the sun enough times, you realize like, hey, yeah, that doesn't really work. No. So I'm definitely more now. You know what I look at it as like now is kind of like little projects, right?

So, like, I'm going to have this project for a while. It's a season for stride piano maybe. Or I've been in my yoga life, been working on a headstand. Finally getting that going. We're going to get that going. We're going to put you right there in front of Tina's window there. That's going to be a lot of pressure. Doing a headstand.

Handstand or headstand? I love that this window is now officially Tina's window. Shout out to sunshine draperies. That would be nice, though. No, but you know what I mean? Instead of like new year, new me, and finally I'm going to be the person that I always dreamed of or whatever. It's like, you start to realize, like, hey, I am this, and it's great.

and these little things that I work on, they're just little projects that I can do to entertain myself. And if I come out maybe with some new skills or something, all the better. I think it's great, and I think it's also good because those kinds of projects don't always coincide with the Greco-Roman calendar, as it were. Certainly not. So that's cool, yeah.

Well, actually, maybe I'll start out. These are our seven New Year's-ish resolutions. Okay. Musical. And this first one is kind of one that really, can be started any time, but this is something that I'm thinking about, you know, it's going to, my first one's going to start pretty soon. But that is a practice street. Oh, here we go. I like, well, you know, I've had a little success before, as have you had a little success. Let us know,

what numbers are you on today? Do you even know? No, no, no, this is for music. I know, but you're, so tell people about your running streak. Oh, but that's not what I'm talking about today. I know, but you're, yes, it is. No, it's not. Yes, it is. Okay, yes, I do have a separate. That's not a practice streak. That's a running streak. No, so for those, that's not, that's a running streak. No, so for of you don't know, Peter has, it's a 500 and how many day running street now? I think it might be 600 now. It might be 600 now. It might be, he's I didn't ask you to talk about this. Uh, running. I think it's like 570. It started in June of 2021. Crazy man. Yeah. 570 days where you've run every day. Yeah. And so you're now going to try to put this to the test with practicing. Right. Yeah. Um, I've done this before with just practicing in general, but I'm going to do specific, um, I don't

I want to announce it yet. Are we looking at a 30-day challenge? Yeah, it's definitely going to be a 30-day. That's what I mean. I should say, yeah, 30-day challenge. The practice streak is for personal. The 30-day challenge is to help others if they want to go along. So I did one a couple years ago that so many folks have told me, like, that was so cool.

I was following along. It was so helpful. Sometimes just the impetus to try something new is to follow somebody else. I do that all the time with different ideas. Yeah. But the idea would be 30 days. It's just kind of a convenient one-month situation of doing something. either conceptual or specific or both within your practice.

I like to do something that can be applied in a way that doesn't have to be worked out in advance. Like example. Okay, so the last one that I did was practicing something in all 12 keys every day. That's good. But something different every day. It's so good for you. But it keeps it fresh. It keeps you kind of engaged, but it also gives you the spontaneity of when you think of something.

You're like, oh, wait, wait, could I do that in all 12 keys? So it's a challenge as well. Some days more so than others. It's almost like you're putting a meta challenge on it. Like it's already challenging to practice something in 12 keys, but saying like, can I do that for seven days in a row? Can I do that for 14 days in a row? Can I do that for 21 days?

Can I do that for 30 days? Right, right. Because, I mean, there's certain adaptations that come to your technique, to your general musicianship, certainly to your ear training, depending on what the thing that you're practicing, but when you're going through all the different keys, certain melodic things

and just ways of thinking about that. It's the most important thing we can do. But they don't come right away. So sometimes people will practice them for a couple of days and be like, I'm not getting any better. The 30-day challenge is just like really making it a habit,

repeating it, but taking a concept and putting it in some different places each day. So it has a chance to not only become a habit, but to really have the kind of musical adaptation that's beneficial to you. Awesome. Well, my first New Year's resolution, we'll call them projects,

or this is really a way to get your project, going. So I love to with these little projects, these little, I'll call them resolutions, I suppose. No, we don't have to. But, uh, resolute solutions is I want to set a goal. Yeah. And then I want to plan the way to get it done. That sounds very simple. So plan your work, work your plan. Yeah. Essentially. But I want to like, so I have most, the most success when I set a specific goal that's measurable. And then I come up with a plan to get to follow through on it, right? And it's almost like the 30-day thing. It's like it gives, it just gives you a game. Yeah. So like, so that you're not just like, I'm going to be good at, you know, playing these style voicings or whatever. Like it's not just some vague thing. And then after a couple of days, you get squirled away by something else, right? It is like, okay, I'm going to have a specific goal. It's going to look like this if I get it. And it's going to look like this if I don't get it. Like there's, there's a win and there's a loss. And it doesn't have to be like competitive. But like, there is a, a tangible. result.

Yeah. Then I can say like, okay, when I hit that, then I've reached this goal. And then you plan a way to get that into the details, right?

So, for example, that might be like, you know, I'm going to have a goal to write a duo piece for tenor saxophone and harp,

right? That's my goal, because I want to get to know those instruments a little bit better. So I'm going to plan like, okay, this will look like something if I have a first draft

by January 30th, right? And then I'm going to plan my week so that, okay, I'm going to use two hours on a Saturday to sort of plan the structure of the piece. I'm going to be at the piano on Monday for an hour to figure that out. And then you just sort of like plan it out. And then you can check back in. It's really, really effective for anything you want to do. So the plan, a lot of the plan is actually about the scheduling then of work? Mostly about the schedule. Well, I mean, if you work out, like, what do I need to do to do to

get here? So like if I'm writing a piece for a duo piece for Tenor's Axe Fun and Harp, which actually, now that I think about it sounds pretty badass. Bad or badass? Bad or bad ass? Both. It could be either. But what you need to know is like, okay, well, what is this piece for? What is, what is I, how long does it need to be? You know what I mean? Like, what are the steps I need to do to have it finished and in the hands of the harpist by January 31st, right? So once you kind of met like reverse engineer that, then I would say, okay, well,

I need to have the shitty first draft done by the end of week one. And I'm going to go into revisions because I know that I'm not going to like everything I do at first. And then I want to tweak some things and put some sprinkles on things and make sure that every bar has some delightful thing that's going on, you know, leading to the next bar. Whatever it is you want to put on it, you know that you're going to need time for that. And so you can, I mean, maybe it's two weeks is whatever. However much time you give yourself is really going to determine the quality.

But that's the beauty of setting a tangible goal, something that is like this has to happen by this deadline. That's great. Yeah. Really good. Really good. All right. So for number three, we're doing seven, right? Yeah.

Is that going to work for it? Okay. Number three would be, um, I really have not a resolution, we'll call it a goal, a New Year's goal, spending more time with focused listening. So what does that look like? So that looks like sitting, most likely, and listening without any distractions, without anything but the music.

And it's something, of course, we've talked about a lot here on the pod. It's a great goal. It's a great goal. And I've done it at different times, but for some reason I float away from it. I drift away like a shot. ship at sea, like a divorcee from her divorcee just floating around, I don't know.

But the thing about it is, is whenever I do it, I never float that far from it, but I'll float away from doing it consistently. I'm always kind of like, why am I not doing this more? Because I love doing this. It's not like a chore. It's just more of a scheduling thing, you know? So I'm really looking forward to that. And I think, you know, to your point, a little bit of scheduling for that might even be in order. Because I find more and more, like, if I don't

schedule something, whether We always think about scheduling things that are kind of a chore. Okay, I got to do this. No, you got to do time. You got to schedule the good stuff in there. You got to schedule good stuff. You have to schedule time to sharpen your tools. We've been talking about that, but you need to make time for that.

That's right. It's valuable to do things like deep listening, man. And you need a diverse, like when you look at your calendar, your electronic or your paper or whatever, like you want to see a diversity of events. Some are like focused work. I mean, I look at this is really entertainment. Yeah. But like, but it's so beneficial when it is focused.

It's not like, well, I'm going to listen to that while I'm doing this. No one wants to see that on his schedule. But can you imagine looking on Thursday from 11 to 12 a.m.? Listening, deep listening. I mean, we're about to go do it here at 2 p.m. No, but you know what? So just another advocate for the scheduling thing, another thing that does for you is if you schedule out even the good things in your life,

you don't have to have added anxiety to yourself of like, oh my gosh, am I going to get time in to do that listening that I promised myself I would do? Right, because it's already baked in. It's going to get pushed to the side. Of course it is. think is more mandatory. Right. Exactly.

But that kind of stuff is mandatory. Yeah. Okay. Number four is to try something you've never tried before. Oh. Yeah. So I love, so I mentioned, math.

Mentioned. You never tried that. No, not something like that. Okay. I mean, something more musical. So, like,

I mentioned the shitty first draft, right, which is like a term we learned from our boy, Matt, at, uh, at, I can't say,

anyway. But, uh, it's such a great concept I love. Like, so the, the, The point of a shitty first draft is to exist, right?

And so the idea of setting a goal to try something that you've never tried before is like, okay, I think I want to do, I think I would like to write for harp. I'm going to stick. I'm writing this harp tenor saxophone. Harp tenor saxophone train out to the end of the episode. It sounds shitty already. I think I'd like to write something for harp. Okay. You have to, you've never done it before, right?

So like the act of trying something you've never done is a way to learn how to do it. And it doesn't have to be good. It just has to exist. Right. It's an experiment. And it's such like the acknowledging that it's going to be shitty, some people would be like, well, why don't you make it great? The whole thing is your expectation is that it's not going to be any good.

It's great if it exists. Yeah, exactly. That's what. And so the quality, that takes all the pressure off. And it also keeps you within, keeps some scheduled guard rails to get it out there. Now, if you get lucky and your first draft is amazing, well then that's just a bonus, but that's not why it exists, actually. And that's not why you go through the exercise of committing to it.

Really good. All right, we're moving along here. We're on number five. So this goal of mine is to really check out some new music. So some deep listening for sure, but not just the old chestnuts. There's such a world of music. And whenever I'm exposed to something serendipitously, like at a coffee shop or if I'm at a festival and I hear something, I'm like, oh, my God, I've never heard them before.

What a great band. What a great composition. and what a great genre, whatever it is. I'm always so delighted, but I leave that a little bit too much to chance. I still love that chance encounter with some great art. But you can also seek it out through recommendations, through even like Spotify, like just random stuff it recommends or whatever. So I'm going to be seeking out more.

I've already started this, more new music, both live and recording. I love it. That's a great, great thing to seek out. Number six, do you remember our club, Peter? We formed a club over at retreat one day, over cocktails. Yes. And it was the Adam and Peters say no club. Yeah.

Do you remember that club? Club accountability. Right. It was like accountability buddies. It was like four days before the pandemic. Really started. So that gave us a little bit of a little bit of a hiccup in the continuation of the world. But that whole club was based around the idea that you and I were going to say no to at least one thing a week.

Right. I am now expanding that. I would like to say no to one thing a day. I have the opportunities to do it. Would you like to record another podcast episode today? No. Okay, see, I'm done. Ask me if I'd like to.

Would you like to work on another podcast? Yes. So I got to find something else. Shoot, okay. Well, you might have to find someone else to do that. Yeah. No, but, so this is all about, like, you know, you were talking about...

Ask Caleb, can we continue on for more than five minutes? Caleb's ready to go, man. He's done. So when you talk about, like, scheduling time for deep listening, you have to kind of make time for these kind of things that you think, oh, that's not as important, but we know they actually are to have these things. And for that, you're going to have these things.

And for that, you're going to have to have. to say no to things. That's right. You know, at first you're going to have to say no to things that you think you have to do that maybe you don't really want to do. Yeah. But then when it gets more complicated, like the situation I know that you've been in for several years is like, you got to say no to stuff that you want to do. Exactly. That's hard to do. Oh, we're saying no to stuff you don't want to do is easy. I know. But saying no to, like when you have enough options to have like, oh man, all of this would be cool. But you've got to learn to say no to stuff. And I'm going to be disciplined about this, you know, starting off this year right with

trying to. Do we need to start the club again? We might have to. Club accountability? What'd you say no to today? You didn't say no to recording another episode. You didn't say no to lunch. That's true. What did you say no? Well, what time is?

It's 142. I got time, my friend. Something else. Okay. Well, you know what's good about that too? If you say yes to everything, even good things, you're not actually saying, if you say yes to too much, what you're basically saying is kind of to everything. That's right.

Because you're spreading yourself too thin and you're not really committing. So, yeah. Guard your time. Guard your time. Number seven. I'm going to say no to going beyond number seven today. I like you. We were going to do a bonus, but we're not. I'm saying no. Number seven of our New Year's goals slash

for the law for me is that I want to practice more away from the piano. Oh, you don't like the piano anymore? I love the piano. And I love practicing at the piano, but I used to do, you know, when I was traveling more. And even like with my writing and stuff, I used to do more of it away from the piano. I've kind of drifted back to Old Faithful, as we say, which is great. And I mean, it's funny because I also want to practice more at the piano this year. But I want to at least have some time when I'm practicing away from the piano because I feel like it spurs musical growth and adaptations in us that we wouldn't normally get when we're at our closest instrument. Give us some examples of practicing away from the piano.

Well, that would be like to listen to some music and sort of do some transcribing even when you're not at the piano, like really thinking through what something feels like or looks, not really looks like, but sounds like, imagine yourself playing it. imagine yourself playing along to something. And then if you're not listening to something, composing something or creating something or improvising a way, maybe singing some, maybe even at a different instrument besides the piano, but mostly just kind of walking around and singing some things and if something good comes up,

making little notes of it, and then bringing it back. And you had a great YouTube video about a month ago on Stella by Starlight, where, you know, learning tunes in the key of music. That's a great opportunity to practice away from your instrument to try to acknowledge, okay, let's pick a... We don't even have to have perfect picture.

You could say this is in the key of B flat. See if you can pick out the scale degree of the melody. Okay, it starts on the tonic, then it goes up to the fifth and down the scale to the second, and then it goes up to the sixth, then down the scale to the third, or whatever it is, trying to figure out the scale degrees of the melody. That's great work that you were doing on that video. Everybody should go check that out. It's called The Key of Music, or what was it?

The Key of Music, how to play in any key. That's right, yeah. Yeah, no, exactly. And then you might even go through the next course as you're walking around, and then just go through the chords and see if you can like just call out the chords of the other key that you're in. You know, there's so many things. We always think, oh, once I get to a piano, I'm going to practice this. I mean, there's a lot of things that you have to be at your instrument,

but there's a lot of things that you don't have to be. And I feel like the adaptation, especially for ear training, that it spurs enough. It's so worthwhile. So I'm looking forward to that. Totally. Well, I learned a lot here, and this was super helpful for me, Peter, to hear your things. And you know what also is helpful to me, Peter? Yes, to give a like and subscribe.

Yes. To like and subscribe on the YouTube channel. If you're watching this on YouTube, look at that. Look at those. Tina, you genius. Look at how great those blinds working. Teenish. Give us a like and subscribe on YouTube.

And if you're listening on the podcast, you can give us a rating and review. We only accept seven star ratings. I'm going to read the last one because it's poignant. We got a bunch. It's poignant and accurate. Yeah, yeah. This title best show. This is the best podcast ever.

Even if you don't like jazz, the chemistry between the two hosts is amazing. Maybe you should be into jazz a little because it's all they talk about. But I am into jazz, so we'll give them seven stars. That's Mr. Leonard's from the Netherlands. And we read every single. We do, we do. And shout out to, we just had lunch with our friend, our buddy Nick, who is a listener, long-time listener. Yes.

And he's not super into jazz, but he just listens to the podcast just for fun. So we do have those folks who are as nerdy as we think they are. That's right. And we got some other ones, but we're going to, we're going to, read those at the next episode. That's called a teaser. That's called a cliffhanger. And until then, you'll hear it.