You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - 7 Ways to Make a Piano "Talk"

Episode Date: April 14, 2020

On this episode, Peter and Adam go over ways you can imitate a vocalist with a piano.7 Ways to Make a Piano "Talk"Grace notesGlissBluesy double-stopsClustersTremolosLearn how to phrase like a singerCasino lickIn 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.

Hey Adam. Yo. What you know about this? You hear me talking? How about some of this? Woo, what about this? Just trying to talk. Oh, yeah, man.

I'm Adam Annis. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear at podcast. Daily music coming at you. Remote style. Remote style. This is our first YouTube video remote, buddy. I know.

Hey, hi. It looks good, man. I like the setup behind you. It was just, it looked like an insane asylum wall for a few weeks, which is why we weren't going in. It's still pretty insane asylumish, though. Yeah. And then with me, there's a good chance you could just see, like, kids going to the fridge to get cheese sticks.

I want to see that, man. Come on. Or like, you know, a very old-looking dog, like hobbling along. This is where we are now in the world. You know what I'm saying? That's right. So, but we are sheltering at home, and we are eulheriting remotely, both at the same time, right? Yeah, we've been, you'll hear iting for a few weeks, but this is our first

attempt at going on to YouTube. You know, we've really tried to up our YouTube game this year. And it's just taking a couple weeks to get our home studio setups going. I'm not even fully set up like you with your big lens there that can get all close. I'm still using my computer video, but we're going to even up it more in the weeks to come. So look out for those. Yep, you're at potato quality. I'm at sweet potato quality, but you're going to be here too soon. I am kind of a potato quality. We'll see. We'll see. out of the way. Yeah, man.

Got my fire hazard space. Janky. All right. So today we're talking about seven ways to make the piano talk. I was listening to something and to some recording, as I've been listening to a lot of recordings lately,

and the piano player was just talking. And I was like, what are they doing that makes it sound like they're just emoting without being locked into what we consider just a series of buttons, really is essentially what it is, of hammers hitting a string.

Yes. We don't have those same, we don't have the brink. breath like a vocalist or a trumpet player. We don't have the ability to bend notes, you know, in a traditional sense. I'm trying. I mean, you can try. I got. Yeah, there we go. Yeah, we can do it with our hammer 88s, but on a regular piano. It just takes no effort to do that. You know, nor skill. Yeah. It's not like a, it's not like a horn player where you have to develop years of an ambusher to really be able to promote like that. Um, so,

we thought what are the things that do take some amount of technique that can help us emote and make the piano talk? Yes, absolutely. And, you know, some of the things, it's interesting being kind of thrust into some new environments. We're often at the piano. I mean, we're at the Hammer 88s across from each other, of course, too. But the types of things that we're talking about, I think, are stuff that listeners really take for granted when they're done well by a pianist. You know, it's like one of those things that you make it sound like it's easy. But as you alluded to, this being a, you know, the piano keyboard being a machine in a lot of ways,

something that is hard to emote on or that it's not necessarily hard, but it's not as simple as, it's not as direct. That's what it is maybe as like saxophone or vocals, the most direct kind of cello. Chello. Chello. Chello. Are we there? You know, with the, with the bow going across it.

But it's like any of these things, if you get that sound in your ear, in your head, and, you know, what better to do than emulate the great pianists, especially we talk about classical pianists when they're kind of slowing it down and great jazz piano, any kind of great pianists that can really emote and create a sound. That's what we're looking for. That's right. So the first one that comes to mind for me, number one, is grace notes. I think this is like, if you look back at the history of keyboard instruments,

this seems to be one of the first things that composers would put in to make something, you know, sound mimicking the human voice or a violer. or something that can glist. And that could be as simple literally as just, you know, and it could be something of a double stop, which we'll get into later. But the idea of gracing, you know, even I like to do stuff like,

because it gives you, like, that's to me, like what someone like Prince would sing. You know. That's right, right. And so I can. Well, I was just saying, that's really cool too. I love that one because, you know, the gray stone was separating it far out because then you get into an area where we're not just trying to do like other instruments.

It's almost like that's some stuff that only we can do, especially unless you're Prince. But when we spread it out that much, that's great. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. So number two, these are glises. Now, we do have an advantage here that glissing for us is one of the first things that when you're two years old and you get anywhere near a piano. Yeah. Any two-year-old or three-year-old or four. or the five-year-old or 50-year-old does this.

That's right, right. You know what I mean? Even your typical YouTube cat video back in the early 2000s would feature some glissondos by a little kitty cat as it's scurried across the keyboard, right? That's right. That's right. And so what that is to me is just a big like, whoa, that glist from the top of the bottom is a big, like emotive thing. But there are other ways that you can glist. So, like, I like one, like a little palm up organ style.

Or you could even just do like say I'm in G here. I can just roll my fingers, you know, as like a from the bottom up. Things like that can have that kind of emotion. Can you demo the first one you did? Was that with the palm? Yeah. That's actually one that, yeah. So lick it first.

No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. So, yeah. You see organ, you see B3 players. to me, that's a great one. And that one's a little easier on the organ or a keyboard with the plastic keys than on your traditional acoustic piano, I believe. You could be getting into some injury on a piano, perhaps. You could do the thumb.

I always found that to be a little, whatever. You could do the side of the finger. It's probably easiest, like here, just kind of like creating a bit of a... Yep. Yeah, that could be something. You might be, yeah, because you do that on an old piano with ivory keys, perhaps. You might be having to call Dr. Chuck Goldfarb for some of... some orthopedic work after that.

One of my favorite glissers was actually Nat King Cole when he would, he had a right hand glist where he would be like, you know, like he did that all the time. Like he had a target note, right? Yep. And so it very much mimicked what like a horn

player would do. Yeah, and you know what I think would make that especially effective that Nat Kingold did and a lot of pianists kind of took it from that. It was duja. It was right in time. It wasn't just a random, like, Liberace-ish. Big shot to Liberace, great chaps,

but not know for his Sonsados in time. What's that? Gliss master Liberace. I know. But you know what I'm saying? His was more of a vagus-y kind of open-ended and candelabra type of glistachian. Yeah, again, Nack and Cole was going for more of a vocal thing of like, like when you kind of scoop up, you know, across your range.

That's what he was doing. Right, right, right, right. Good. All right. So that's glissus. Let me jump on number three because I like this one. I might have even, I feel like I coined the name for this, although I probably didn't, but this is the bluesy double stop. I think this is your phrase and now we've made it a thing. And look, I'm going to make you a little jelly here right now. What? So you can kind of see what's happening. Do you see that? I can't see your hands anymore, bud. What's that? Can't see your hands anymore. Oh, sorry. Okay. Let me come back out. So I overplayed my hand there. We're talking about Vegas. Can you see them now? Yeah. Okay.

That's your bluesy double stop. That's like a compound bluesy double stop situation. That speaks for itself. I mean, that's something that piano player's been doing for generations. And we actually have a whole, you'll hear it video on bluesy double stops. Go check that out in the archives. It's called. Bluesy double stops.

Oh, come on, man. We're direct, man. But yeah, one little trick with this. I mean, yeah, check out the video because we kind of go, we go on a deep dive. But I think the trick to making this effective, first of all, is hearing the same thing like with the, hearing it in time. with that glist, but also hearing what you want it to sound like, and obviously this takes some practice so that you start to match it up.

But it can't be, it's all about what double stops, and now when we say double stops, we're talking about two notes or more at once, but it's which ones you're going to leave out. Because that's where the phrase, because really you want a cohesive phrase, and it's usually bluesy,

that's why it's a bluesy double stop, but you want to have that cohesion on the bottom, so you're leaving some of the, it's never about the top note. It's always about, I mean, in terms of the phrase, the top note is just accentuating, coming in and out, rhythmically and articulation-wise, accentuating what the main line is, which is at the bottom. That's true. All right.

Number four are clusters. Now, these, we typically think of clusters as like left-hand voicings, right? Yeah. Cluster voicings or whatever. But you can use these in your right hand as a melodic device. Pete, you look like you want to play something. Well, no, I was that an idea. Like, what if we both played, because we're thinking about what's difficult about doing you'll hear at remote?

but there can be some fun things about it too. Quarantining can be fun. So let's do a cluster both at the same time. We're not going to say what we're going to do. We're going to go one, two, three, cluster, and see if we can make some music together. All right. Yep.

Yep. One, two, three. And we couldn't really hear each other, so we don't know if that was good or not, right? We'll have to wait until the episode comes out. Well, I played this. I don't even know. Is that a cluster or is that too big?

No, that's perfect. I played this. Yeah, it's kind of a... You're kind of like on the inside of mine there. Yeah. These are great because these really can take the piece. I mean, even two note, half steps, three notes, whole steps. All of these can give you, like you don't have to do a whole Jason Moranish.

Although that is fun occasionally. Or a Chick-Corea, you know. Which almost goes into the territory of number seven, but I won't go there yet. Not yet. Yeah, yeah. So, but these can be used as like, this is almost a grace note. This is almost a glist. It's like somewhere between those, right?

Where you can like... Again, we're getting, you know, talking about bending a note. Yeah. Yep. Kind of getting that note in between those two notes when you cluster them together. And then you could go as far as like trying to talk, you know, with clusters. That's fun too. But really, I'm thinking more of just a way to kind of bend notes.

Yeah. Add that, that humanness to it. Yeah, I think this one actually, out of all these in a way from a melodic standpoint, is one of the best ways to really get the piano talking. And it really works hand in hand. It's kind of an extension of the grace note. For sure. For sure.

All right. Number five. This is tremolos. And this is very appropriate because the great Herbie Hancock had a birthday yesterday. Did you know that? I know, man. 80 years old. 80 years young.

Wow. Guy's timeless. Now, a lot of pianists certainly going way back before even Herbie Hancock was doing his thing, have done tremolo's. It's been a part of the vernacular of pianists and many styles, but has anybody popularized and caused more lionization of the

tremolo than Mr. Herbert Hancock? No, especially if you want to talk about something like that tremolo specifically is all Herbie. Also known as Bustin a Herbie. Bustin a Herbie. We've all done it. I mean, at this point, when I'm about to go do it,

it's just like Herbie's like image flashes in my face and I'm like, you, you know. I used to be self-conscious about like a lawsuit coming. Now I'm just like, no, it's all good. Now, what do you know, though, about maybe some Oscar Peterson style? You know, like, trimming chords, whole chords together.

Or even... Yeah. Gene Harris. Comes to mind with that too. That's right. What you can do is you can now extend notes, right? The one thing we can't do that trumpet players, all horn players, all vocalists, anybody who works with their breath, one thing

we can't do is control that vibration once it started, right? We have the attack and that's it. So much like how guitar players are mandolinists have to tremolo to get an extended note, we can do that too. Now that's one you can work on hammer radiates, not response anything. But or Pita Williams it and two-handed. But it works really easier and better to just octa.

Well, and I think too you were actually already doing this. Like the volume level that you're going in and out of really. really makes a big difference too. You were kind of naturally doing that. And that's, if we think, oh, as pianists, as keyboards were restricted, think back to the harpsichord where you were, you were striking the note and there was no, no, I guess it's plucking the note. Is the harps cord plucking it?

I believe so, yeah. Yeah. But there's no control over the volume. So you can't do anything phrasing wise as far as dynamics. It's just kind of what it is. So like we actually do have that be able to control. Like the dynamics and the articulation is a big way, even though we can't control one note. But when we go to tremolo's or grace notes or any of these things to really get into that talking kind of sound.

It's awesome. It's awesome. Number six. Number six. This is learning how to phrase like a singer. Come on. And you know, go ahead. No, I was just, do you know what it means to miss New Orleans?

Breathe like a singer. Exactly. Put phrases. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The hammer 88. It's a little difficult, but it's possible. No, it is possible. And it's one thing that I think the piano does really well at

is playing things in sort of that melodic style. We can get very, very beautiful melodies out of this instrument in almost every range. And what we tend to fall back into is the typewriter, right? And then we all want to be, you know, John Coltrane on the piano. And so we type, type, type, type, type. But don't forget, Coltrane played a lot of things like a singer. Like he, you know, and our favorite pianists do too.

It's not just all, you know, 8th note, ath note. I mean, it is for some people, but really the greats could and do phrase at appropriate times like a vocalist. Yeah, and if you think about the process, like, you know, a lot of times when, you know, pianists will say, okay, I'm going to phrase like a singer. I'm a phrase like a saxophonist. And they think about it as they get into the phrase. And that's important. But I say think about it as you're starting the phrase.

So that starts with the breath because that has. such a natural connection with how you're going to start to construct a phrase. And it's just like saying a sentence or telling a story or starting a relationship

or doing a lot of things that have some kind of an arc and a place that you're coming and going. If you start things outright, everything can sort of start to fall into place. Whereas on the piano, so if you're playing saxophone and you mentioned John Coltrane,

you know, so that's the first phrase on Giant Step. So if you play it like a typewriter, that's how you do it. You just start playing. But think about what he had to do. That's a long phrase.

I mean, a relatively long phrase. He had to get a big breath. Yeah, yeah, exactly. You know, so it's like, we have to do that in terms of how we start the phrase. And you can't, like, use the same amount of breath and energy right at the beginning of the phrase because you're, you know. And they, of course, great saxophone is doing that instinctively. But it is.

It's like thinking, breathing, interpreting like a singer will take you very far in making the piano. And then just hearing like. that. You know, and that's why we preach so much, not only you'll hear it, but we preach sing as you're practicing, because there's nothing like matching up how the piano can possibly sound, or at least as close as they can get to a vocal kind of phrasing, like singing along and, you know, starting to internalize what it is the promised land for you as a pianist. I think it's so important. Yeah, man. All right, number seven, our final one, this is yours. This is kind of a bonus, right? This is a little controversial. You were poo-pooing this one a little bit.

Well, it is only something that we are good at as pianists, and it is. Oh, the casino lick. That's right. We've done some stuff on this before. Yeah, we have. But I didn't know what this was until I was mocked by a so-called YouTuber, a minor YouTuber, I might add. No, no, no. But this is like, of course, I knew the sound.

Well, why don't you demo it? Because you've got a great concept on this one. Yeah, casino lick is essentially, I mean, if we want to just go straight up casino style. that's like straight jackpot that's like Branson Missouri style it's another way to kind of extend you know a note to sustain it like a tremolo yeah exactly

just this rolling up or down I love it when they're moving around that's the exciting ones the ones that are just like you know those are ridiculous yeah totally so those casino licks check out our video on that too

that's kind of like bluesy double stops bit of a hit for us? Wait, we did a casino licked episode? I think we did, yeah. Wow, okay. Or it's been a part of our episodes before. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we've talked about.

Cool. Well, you know what? I feel like my piano's talking now. We nailed it. So if you're a pianist who wants more of this stuff, go to Open StudioJazz.com and check out the piano access pass. Peter Martin has a weekly lesson called the Jazz Piano Method that he's been doing for, I don't know, seven, eight years now?

Yes. Yeah. since I was in my early teens is when I first started it. Actually, wait, do I have, wait, can you talk to people for a second? Because I got something funny to show you and them. Can you talk to them for a second? Yeah, sure, no. So there are literally hundreds of lessons here at Open Studio jazz.com for piano.

So Peter has his jazz piano method. That's a new lesson every week. And then I have started about a month ago a daily guided practice session. Seven days a week, I'm practicing for about 20 to 25 minutes. every day and you're practicing with me. We set the metronome. I tell you what scale or what arpeggio or my Phillips exercises out here. And that's become very popular.

But between those two things, you get something new every week or every day. And then on top of that, all the other regular standalone courses we have, jazz chords for beginners, elements of jazz piano, all of Jeffrey Keeser's jazz piano courses, which are incredible. So what do you got? Okay, so that was good. You're still talking when I came back. You might think this is a paper bag.

I'm like a magician, you know. What do you know about this? That's a flip. I bought my mother-in-law one in 2007 for Christmas. You're really wooing your wife. Well, then. I just remember it was like, yeah, this is like it. Just plug it in, you go.

Yeah, so this is what, that's how long I've been doing. The original, actually, we're the, yeah, the first couple lessons were recorded on this. I think we finally archived them. But yeah, this is a flip cam. This is an HD. Oh, no, it's not. It's not. It's potato quality.

Potato quality. That's raddish quality. Yeah. Built in mic, you know, this is pre-Iphone. It's called, the company's called Pure Digital. And, yeah, it had a little mic input there. I wonder if they're still around Pure Digital. No, I don't think so.

A lot of people had those flips, man. A lot of people got those. Yeah, this was it, but this was the beginning. This was before there was, like, cameras on iPhones. This is before iPhones, buddy. Yeah, I know, yeah. All right, well, thanks. Thanks, everybody, for our first journey into YouTube social distancing.

This is fun. Let's do more of these. Let's do it. How about tomorrow? Sounds good. You'll hear it.