You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - 7 Ways to Get the Audience on Their Feet for Every Solo - #48

Episode Date: March 19, 2018

In this episode, Adam and Peter give you tips on how to get the audience connected to your solo. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I'm Adam Manus and I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear It Podcast. Today we're going to give you seven ways to get the audience on their feet for every one of your solos. Step one, play the trumpet. Some have noticed. Lesson done. Lesson done. Okay, so let's jump right in.

If you don't play trumpet, here's seven ways. Okay? The first is tell a story. Everybody loves a good story. Everybody. And this is all around the world. traveled many places to play jazz music where I was shocked that they even knew what jazz music was, much less interested in paying money to come see us play. They didn't speak the language that we

spoke, but they spoke or understood enough jazz to be interested, and they liked a good story. You know, I couldn't tell them a story in English, and I'm too ignorant to speak their language, so I couldn't tell them a story in their language, but I could tell them a story through music. And I found that that's something that resonates with people the world over. And it's your best way to get people excited about your solo, to get them on their feet, and to get the party started. That's right. It's something that just universally everybody somehow understands that, you know, there's a beginning, a middle, a conflict, and an end. Everybody gets that.

That brings us to how to start this. And that's to be patient when you're developing your solo. Develop things slowly and end on a high note. I can't stress this one enough as far as getting, actually getting people on their feet. If you just machine gun your solo from the start, nobody's going to care by the end. It's just, it's too much. It's usually overwhelming. Be patient.

Be patient throughout your solo. I think I hear a lot of, especially like intermediate players, they start nice and loose and sparse. And then like half a chorus in, they're just right on the machine gun. And it's like that all the way through the end. Could you give us an example for those that, for those. don't understand or know the machine gun. The machine gun is the... Bada-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

Just for three minutes of that. A little desperation in that? A little desperation. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But seriously, even when you're like halfway through your solo, you can still have tons of space at this point. There's no reason to give it all up until the very, very end. And that way you have more at the end to give.

Right. And I mean, the whole thing of being patient, too, is that think about what we're trying to learn here today. That's how to get the audience on their feet at the end of the solo. I mean, if you can get them at the beginning or the middle and they stay on their feet, that's great too. But we're trying to get to somewhere so that when you finish, they're like, yeah, I love that standing ovation. So that brings us to number three, and you kind of jump the gun a little bit, but that's okay. Sorry, sorry, Adam. I should have been more patient. That's right. No, that's okay. But remember number three,

we said we're going to leave a lot of space. So that certainly works in. This is what I said. Exactly. So leaving space certainly goes along with patience but it also, you know, it gives the listener a chance to start to understand your story. Remember we started with number one, tell a story. But like, you know, a great story might become complex, it might have some different

you know, sub-topics woven throughout it. So you've got to leave some space so that the listener, so that the audience has a chance to really absorb things. So along with the patience, you can start to compress things as you go, but leave space. It will be rewarded with a standing O. Our next point is to use the blues. This is also very important as far as getting your audience on their feet after your solo. And that's because jazz comes from the blues, almost all modern Western music or American music at least comes from the blues. It's definitely the one thing almost every audience gets and understands to their core at

at this point in time, we've all heard it. The blues, it's all ingrained in us. And when you bring that out, there's a very personal connection, I find, with an audience, whenever someone can use the blues in the right way. And at the right time, I mean, it's just something that can just destroy a crowd.

Yeah. I mean, it's just such a strong, musical, emotive sentiment through the music that's just universally, I mean, it's truly universal. I mean, I've seen some audiences that you wouldn't think know anything about the blues. They ain't had the blues.

They don't know how to buy the blues. They can't lease the blues. They can't even spell the blues. But when they hear the blues, it just pulls something out of them. So that's a great one. So I think we're up to one, two, three, four, number five. Now this is to play something new. Dare to be yourself.

Just let it all hang out. Be an original. A lot of times people, well, really most times, you know, especially a more kind of experienced, educated jazz crowd, they're coming to see you. We can use all these different techniques, but the more you can be yourself, unless you're just an ugly, bad player,

then maybe you shouldn't try to be yourself. No, I didn't mean you. I'm just saying in general. Be yourself, you know. No, but I mean, think about if you're going to see, you know, a fashion show and the models are coming out, and, you know, maybe one of the guys or gals is just totally beautiful but not comfortable as themselves,

and they're kind of walking in a way with the, You're going to be like, ah, those clothes don't look great. But then some dude who's maybe not, you know, looking like a beautiful model comes out, but really owns it. And it's like walking the walk. I don't know what I'm talking about here. I've never been to a fashion show. I wonder where you go with this analogy, man. No, you know, I'm like, you know, you're strutting around and you're comfortable in your skin.

Got you know, a guy or a gal. Sure. And they're just walking the runway like they own it. But they're being themselves. They're letting their personality out. They're not just a mannequin up. there, then that's going to get the audience on their feet, I think. Cool.

All right. The next one is to highlight the others in the band, to be generous to let other players carry the torch if they're good. Of course. You know what? Sublimate them if they're bad. You know what I always think about with this one? Did you ever see that Thelonious Monk, the...

Straighto Chaser. Well, the written list of things that that pianist wrote down. Yep. That's Steve Kuhn? Yeah, I think it was. He, like, hung outside his door, and he told them all these things. And one of the things was, make the drummer sound good. I think about that on almost every gig.

Yes. Like, make the drummer sound good. No one ever told me that learning the piano. Like, that's such great advice. Yeah. And as soon as I start doing it, the entire vibe of the room can shift. I mean, you're just giving to another musician. Frankly, a musician, if they're good, can make the whole place feel alive and electric.

Right. So if you can make the other members. of your band to serve them to make them sound good, the music is going to be better. That's just the truth. And you're going to get the glory and the credit because it's your solo. So it's like you're making the drummer sound better, and he or she is going to, in turn, make you sound better. Exactly.

And it's that, you know, we've talked about this before, but it's that interaction too. Sometimes just that interaction between the musicians on stage is enough to get the audience on their feet. Yeah, that's great. Okay. So now we're to number seven. I would just say all of these were wonderful ways to get the audience on their feet for every one of your souls. But if for some reason you do all these and none of them work, you got to go to number seven,

which is a little bit desperate, but that is to yell fire or yell gun towards the end of your solo. That will get the audience on their feet. This one is not approved by Open Studio officially, by the way. This is not approved. Have we ran this by our lawyers here? We have not, you know. Hey, we talk about how do you get the audience on their feet? Sometimes, you know, you got a desperate times called for desperate measures.

Yeah, no, it is true, though. If you just yelled, run, everybody would leave. Yeah, so anyway, you'll hear it. Thanks for listening to this episode of the You'll Hear It podcast. You can go to you'll hear it.com to get more information, submit a question, or just say hello. Wait, you can do that. Absolutely. All right, and if you like what you heard, please leave a review and a rating below.

Thanks.