You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - A First Episode Retrospective

Episode Date: July 26, 2021

Peter and Adam take a trip down memory lane and react to the first ever YHI episode.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

Hey, Peter. Hey. You ready to get hacky? Oh, let's do it. Hacky-sacky. I'm Peter Martin. And I'm Adam Manus. Welcome to the You'll Hear It podcast.

Okay. Wow. What? What's going on here? So, okay, a couple of things for our listeners, we decided we're at number, this is podcast number 814. Is that what we said? 815.

I don't know. It's like 815. So we decided to go back to number one. And just see what it sounded like. Weird. You know, this might be, comes as a part. eyes to you, but we were looking for ideas. So we went back and talked. We went back to the well.

We went back to the well. It turns out the well is dropped. No, we just said, like, let's listen. We've never listened to number one. Let's listen to number one and just hear what we heard. So first of all, did we record that in Merrimack Caverns? Like, where? That's in the big room there. That was in the big room. Yeah. There was some, and then there's some challenges with, well, let's just take it back a little bit here.

This is very fun, man. So we're just going to, we're just going to reminisce here on number one and give our updated version. It's not, like we were saying, it's different, but Is it different enough? This will be a review of a podcast, our own podcast. This is very meta. Okay, we're going to listen to the beginning again.

Okay. Just to confuse folks. First of all, we didn't have Winnie Banser back then. Well, we didn't even know what Woody Banter was. This is going right into. We did have the same intro song. That hasn't changed. Listen to the levels.

My idea, by the way. Listen to the levels. I'm Peter Martin. And I'm Adam Manus. Welcome to the You'll Hear It podcast. Is it better? It might be better. No.

What is it? Okay, this is a long. It's a long-ass intro. This is, we were trying to figure out. Today we're going to give you seven great practice routine hacks. Were you reading? For you to work into your. Well, that's the funny thing.

I don't think so because this was very impromptu. Wait, wait, wait, wait, go back. You were impromptu? I sound like I'm reading, I might have been reading. Today we're going to give you seven great practice routine hacks for you to work into your daily. If I was reading, I got tripped up. Like, I stopped at the end. We're going to give you seven great practice routine hacks to work.

To work. For you to work. you're into your practice routine practice so I'm going to start with developing a routine this is so important you want to have a routine but you know what I was all about business I'm going right into the hack well we thought really people only wanted hacks back then they did let's do it okay you know how you're going to get into your practice so that when you sit down each day you already know what you're going to do that might be just a real simple that's the old Steinway yeah like the old old Steinway yeah real simple way that you like to start out your scales, whatever it is for you.

You know, trumpet players like to do those tonguing, exercises, things like that. But you want to have a routine. Singers like to breathe. Trombonists, they work on their long tones. On their beeper battery. I was out for random. I was kind of random.

Pretty random. Just some random. First banter. The first banter, Peter. Let's enjoy it again. But you know what? I don't, this doesn't sound planned. I don't think it was.

What should I do? You never planned. You also don't want to just sit down and play some random stuff you know I was out for random I was kind of random right just some random stuff you that's that's been my vibe this whole podcast is just pretty random guy yeah Peter you're the greatest man that's my official vibe from episode Ed McMahon that's the toy I'm the Ed McMahon I think I was probably half in the bag on this episode that makes sense we just got back from Vissia yeah and this is the thing this wasn't that long ago but it's like a whirl

How long ago was it? This was January 31st, 2018. You are joking. No. You sure wasn't 2011? No, that's what you would think. Gotta be kidding me. But fun fact.

Three years ago. Before we even get through this, yeah, guess how long this episode was? How long? This is guess. That's fun. 30 minutes. No, sir.

I'll give you a hint. It was shorter than any of our episodes we do now. 10 minutes. No, shorter. Eight minutes? Seven minutes? Seven minutes? Oh my God.

Even with the song, playing so long. You know what? No wonder why people like the podcast that listen to from the beginning. It's so much better. It's tighter. You want to practice one purpose. So develop a routine and make sure you're starting somewhere that makes sense. Number two is to don't play until the very end of your practice. What the hell does that mean? What does that mean? Number two is to don't. Number two is to don't play until the very end of your, that doesn't make a damn sense, Peter. Number two, hold on. Number two. I got to write this out. develop a routine and make sure you're starting somewhere.

Don't play. Number two is to don't play. I like that. It's to. Number two. You know what? I wrote in my little book here. Don't play till the end of, or don't perform or something.

I messed this up big time. Until the very end of your practice session, don't start performing a piece or a tune and just start playing around the tune. A piece. A piece. Don't start performing a piece. What's funny is this. What am I, Chopin?

The episode is only seven minutes long, including... We're already at seven minutes here, by the way. Including us rambling, like, circumventing and circumnavigating the tenuous facts that we were providing, as it were. We still fitted into seven. This could have been an easy... You've hit specific things that you need to work on. Why not? Because then you just get caught up in these, you know, rambling.

I was stumped. I was stumped. ...over and over and over again. Usually the same tunes you already know. And that brings us. I love how I play devil's... advocate. Why not? Well, why shouldn't you?

I could be at McMain too. Actually, that's a good... So, you know what? Those first two points are actually decent points. Well, once you get through our... The forest of confusion that we provide you. The third point, which is... Separate your conscious from your unconscious practice.

So what I mean by... What does that mean by... What does that mean by that? Because it's so confusing. That makes zero sense. So it was like me. It was like, number three is to don't separate your not unconscious mind from your

what does it mean? That is. I'm going to explain it. I think 70 brings us to you get to your context. Separate your conscious from your unconscious practice. So what I mean by that is like it's like I'm having to explain it to myself. That's what I'm about to do. Well, you don't believe it.

Let's hear it. Okay. Quick sidebar. Okay. How how were I mean, obviously we didn't know what we know now about this art form of podcasting. So much. But how were we unable to come up with some like within the first three points to be that cryptic like couldn't we have started on a little clearer on this journey well because maybe when you get to episode 815 no i'll tell you exactly okay i'll tell you exactly at this point we did not have the luxury of 815 opportunities to for users to tell us that we're full of shit like for users to be like what do you mean that's true of course yeah but we had like please be more specific is what they're just find it very interesting

I'm guessing that this is, we had a blank slate. That we did. We did. I found it very interesting that we chose. You know what? I'm remembering now. I was like, all right, I got four. You got three.

And so the scary thing is we front-loaded this with the ones we thought were best. It's likely to go downhill. Can't wait to hear number six and seven. I think 70 to 80% of our practice should be very conscious practice. That's very specific. Very specific percentages, Peter. But why, okay, why would I say 70 to 80%? And what does it very conscious mean?

I mean aware? What are you talking about? Awake? Awake? I don't know. Keep going. I don't know. But I mean, that really bothers me.

Okay, future self is being bothered by past self. You know what I'm saying? Present self, why? 70 to 80%. This is why you never listen to your own records later. So if I said 75% that would be wrong. You know, it's tough. Very focused where we're thinking about specifically what we're doing.

Really? You could have thought a little bit about this episode, buddy. How about that? So if we're working on improvisation, we're thinking about specific scales. Really? Because you said you're not. Yeah, is it conscious or unconscious, man? We're thinking about specific patterns, specific solos.

We're practicing in a way and thinking in a way that we wouldn't do when we're performing. But then you always want to have that unconscious kind of practice where we're just playing and letting. Peter Martin speaks about the duality of life. Does this contradict what I just said to? Like, wait until we get to point number four. Don't listen to point three and two. Oh, boy. And to your point of number three of waiting until the end.

of your practice routine. I think I realized I was contradicting. You did. You did. You caught it. You caught it. You saved it. Man, we were we were improvving. Oh my God. But you know what? Like as opposed to now. Well, now we've learned it. Literally episode one. I love the fact that we were like, we were so confident already. We got this to be fair to nobody was listening. So go ahead. That's when you're going to want to do your more unconscious playing. So maybe you're waiting until then to just play through the piece and not. think about all the stuff that you much in the way that we've put this podcast together you know just I'm looking here at Sean Jones Christian McBride two amazing players to great educators and I'm just so glad we're wearing headphones they can't hear this dribble good right well they didn't

listen to this that's worked on give yourself a oh this is the first of many oh did you hear that no yeah you did a chance to have all that come out unconsciously or maybe it's subconsciously I don't even know the difference to just play through the way point of number three of waiting until the end of your practice your team, that's when you're going to want to do your more unconscious playing. So maybe you're waiting until then to just play through the piece and not think about all the stuff that you worked on. That is another one of my,

it just means, it's what you know what it is in an audio podcast. That's just me saying, I'm here. I'm still on the clock. Yeah, because your honest can be like, or they can be like, you know, like. Sometimes it's like, well, they always. sound the same, but they have different meanings. You yourself a chance to have all that come out

unconsciously. Or maybe it's subconsciously. I love you're unconsciously. Hold on hold on. Or maybe it's that you say, or maybe it's subconsciously. I don't know the difference after you've already done. A minute and a half on it. You admit, you're like, I really don't know what word to use for what I just explain. Go ahead. Which leads us. But

I do know that 70 to 80% of the time. How are we still doing the show? It's amazing we got this one. Subconsciously. I don't even know the difference. I don't either. People wanted to hear, think about this. I don't either. Think about this. Our listeners, God love them.

They heard this and they were like, you know what we want? 815 more of these. They didn't hear this. We talked about that. We were saying it into a vacuum. But they're both important, right? And so that brings us the number four. You didn't answer me.

I didn't care. You knew there was no way to pull that into a sensical situation. Join us next week as we reflect back on today's episode, reflecting back on episode one, see what we've learned. Here we go. Don't practice stuff you already can do. Stuff. Stuff!

I said stuff. Don't practice stuff. Stuff and nonsense. Do not stuff a stuffed practice routine. Something that are... I don't either. But they're both important, right? And so that brings us to number four.

Don't practice stuff you already can do. This is something that are silly human brains trick us into doing all the time. our egos want us to sound good even if it's just for us this is number three again i'm stating number three and actually number four was also number three so we've just said the same damn well number four was contradicting number three so it's kind of the inverse i like that please skip ahead i can't take it much more of this man we're also we're 12 minutes we're already almost twice the length of the original twice as good but the thing about this is great like i say we had a blank slate seven all we had to do was couple of seven we've already pulled three together times but don't fall into that

trap. You will never improve just playing the same tunes in the same way, doing the same licks. But you know what? But you will improve just doing the same podcast over and over again. That is true what I said. And it was true the first time in the same keys. Sounds so good. I said it twice. So make a decision at the start of your practice routine to wait is that's the number five make a decision at this or is it still part of it. I have no clue where we are on things well off the rail do. That's the time to do it. You don't want to be doing it on the gig or at the jam session. You want to be doing it in the privacy of your own home where you can really focus and hone in on. Also, I can, I can, this is just a, this is my own shit that's here in my head here,

but I could hear the extra 50 pounds that are on me. Like, you can hear it on my face. That is not true. No, it's true. That is not true. I was much heavier man back there. Bring your entire level of playing up. Not just the stuff you're already doing. Yeah, because when you're practicing things that you can already do, you're actually not. You do a little bigger too, buddy. Oh, here. Now we're getting a little Partee, a little back and forth. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, you know, it's funny, we're not calling each other out. We're agreeing with our biggest bullshit.

We let a lot of good stuff go by. Now, look, I'm like, coside. And that might be fun. You can't practice. Well, playing up, not just the stuff you're already good at. Yeah, because when you're practicing. Yeah, you're like, of course. You're actually not really practicing.

It is true. This is actually true. And that might be fun. You can't practice. You can't count that as part of your practice time, can you? We save that to the end. We save that to the end. Number three.

Now we're tying it all together. Number three. Okay, number five. Have a discipline of practicing every day. Even if it's only for five minutes, it's better to do that every day. This is good advice. This is good advice. To be at your instrument.

I think overall, this is not bad. And say, I'm going to wait until Saturday when I know I have five hours. At least sit down at the instrument. You know, it's just like becoming a great chef. Be in the kitchen. Okay. Little, little thing. We love to.

Kitchens? Of course. Chefs. We love kitchens. We love basketball. We love different. But we love to take something. that we actually do know about and just to veer directly into areas we don't know about.

So that's our favorite thing to do. I've already talked about child trumpet players warm up. A great meal, how a great chef operates. You would think we were experts in all that. We are not. Small player. Have the basketball in your hands. We don't all have the luxury of being in our instrument for hours a day.

But we, we can all fit five minutes. Come on. You can get up five minutes earlier. Wait, is this the first dogmatic, Peter? Come on. He said, come on. Get up five minutes earlier. This was a precursor to the drop down and give me 20.

Oh, that was a great era. Or stay up five minutes later or one less bowl. Wow. Just five minutes. That's all you care about. A little cereal. I don't know. It's so true.

Yeah, no, absolutely. Very, very important. Number six is to switch it up throughout your practice routine. That's actually important. That's interleaf practice. We talked about not playing things you already know. Well, one trick to help you retain things and to learn things faster is to actually once you can kind of perform it.

as you're practicing, a skill, move on to something else. Can you pause? So actually, to be serious here, this is something I, especially at that time I was reading a lot about, as I was doing some more teaching work for Open Studio, trying to understand more like,

you know, we actually, as much as we joke around here, we do care about people getting better. That's all we care about. We're obsessed with that. We kind of are. But I was reading on like how people learn things and retain things. And this is called interlead practice.

This is when you sort of, you modulate your practice routine so that you don't stay on one thing. too long and you really switch it up you legit switch it up and it is important if you can have five things in an hour long practice routine and cycle through them three times each yes so that you kind of get something comfortable but then you go to two or three or four other things and come back to it and oh i forgot a little bit now i have to re-remember yeah you'll lock it in sooner if only we take that advice for how we produce i mean i wish i wish i could have said it a little bit more

clearly here let's come back to that later in your routine so you're kind of forcing your brain to forget it again and it It's what I said. To really absorb it the next time you come around. Sometimes I'll do... I think we're hitting our stride by this part. Yeah, we were like, figure out how to podcast. We figured out how to podcast.

Yeah, we're going to do next week we're going to do number two. It's going to be brilliant. We'll see about that. If I'm practicing a particular scale, I'll play it once. Once I can kind of get it, and then I'll move on to maybe voicings and then maybe some time practice, and then I'll come back to that scale. And it'll be worse than when I left it. And that's good.

I want it to be worse because now it makes me reabsorb it again in a shorter amount of time. That guy smart. you know in the same way you know hit things up day to day getting confused now so now till now now now I lost it I was like this microphone try it again you know like thoughtful practice I like it I like it okay okay you know listen we're talking about practice not a game not a game not a game we're talking about practice perfect see we're gonna look back to the first time we tried to use that and laugh now we've mastered I had remember I had the thing on my phone with some Miles Davis anyway good okay I wanted to

just point something out. And number seven, the last Finally, number seven, don't one day. Don't just ignore it. The next practice session, try it again. Kind of like thoughtful practice.

Thoughtful practice. I like it. I like it. So I said, you know, I have to come in the big boss man to summarize it. Kind of like thoughtful practice.

And you're like thoughtful practice. But what's funny about that, I could have said anything. I could have been like, I kind of like Alf back in the 80s. And I would have been like, Alf back in the games. You're so,

right boss? It was just, it was just a mindless like segue. Like, We were just like, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And in a lot of ways, we still are. No. Well, okay, are we on number seven there?

We are number seven. Okay, and number seven, the last one, okay. I think this may be the most important hack that we can give. Good. Why don't you leave with the, with the, why did you save it? Why'd we bury the lead? You for your practice routine, so we saved it for the end. And that is another, mm-hmm, listen.

What? Listen. Okay. What? What? Number seven with the way. We were already, man. And then somewhere,

this is when we hit our stride. Somewhere, we were like, wait a minute. Listen shouldn't be number seven. That's right. Listen should be number one. That's right. Should we listen to the next episode now? No.

No, we should. Now, it seems so simple. We say we're always listening. We're at the instrument. No, we're not. Sometimes we're thinking about what we're going to have for dinner. We're wearing his fat ugly head. Thinking about going out on a date.

Thinking about a gig we're going to do or whatever. But if you want your practice to be affected, And let's, especially if you only have five or ten minutes to practice. Why am I, you know what? We weren't very confident. Everything was like, if you just have five minutes. But yet we want to give them seven hacks. So no.

So you said this actually, but this is true. We were in an era here. We were really like into being very gentle. Like we don't want to make it too hard. But again, you know, another great thing about having this podcast and hearing from people is that they want to be challenged. Yeah. So I think we were a little bit like, oh, people don't really want to practice. Like they don't really want to get.

That's right. You know, but now it's like, whenever we do an episode where we're like, you should be practicing more, people like, damn, at you're right. Okay. You got me. You got me. And I love it, you know. That's true.

So you have to listen to everything that you're playing, just like you're in the audience listening to yourself. So you want to hear the nuances of everything that you do. And really listening to yourself has to apply to everything that you, even with podcast. Yeah. You practice, not just when you're sounding good, you know, or when you're playing your tune at the end. Especially.

Especially. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. So we, when you're practicing, wait, this was the first exactly. Exactly. Exactly. We'd be listening to the evenness. I missed that piano.

See how that kind of jumped out? That's the piano's fault, though. It's not my fault. But I mean, we're listening to everything. What a sound. What a full sound. Are not going to want to pay attention to when we're performing and we want to be more unconscious or subconscious. You know what?

You're confused them with those words. You still don't know why you're trying to pull it back. I was going to say both every single time. those are the things that we listen to very closely. And you know what happens when you listen closely? You'll hear it. Exactly. You'll hear it.

All right. See you guys next time on. You'll hear it. That's how you do it, buddy. That's a podcast right there. That's where we hit our strike. That's where we hit our story. It was listened.

That's it for today's episode of the, you'll hear a podcast. For more information or to hear more of these podcasts, go to open studio network.com. Okay, that's funny. For more information or hear more of these podcasts, that was mighty cocky because that was the first one. Wow.

Wow. So you know what? That's from? That's a holdover from the process because I would do the announcements on the process. So this was layered anything? That's it for today's episode. I think I remember recording this later. More information. To hear more of these podcasts. Go to openstudio network.com slash podcast.

What's that? Oh, yeah, let's be part of the track go, man. Well, this was fun. Yeah, this is great. Let's just let the music go. Well, we'll be here. Well, we do. No, that was great.

It was good fun. Thank you, everybody, for being on this journey with. Wow, I mean, that actually isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. And it's amazing that we... Well, one through four were bad. Well, we'll see. Five, six, and seven, we hit a stride. No, of the hacks.

Of the hacks. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That ending was good. We might want to go back to that. That was nice, yeah. I took a little work, I think. I think I edited these back in the... See if you could do it live this time.

See if I could do it live. I could probably put a button on it here on our roadcaster. No, but you know what? We wouldn't be at 815 without the fans, without the listeners. That's right. So thank you so much, everybody who's a subscriber. this is our audio only version this week. So thank you for the extra listening.

We really, really appreciate it. And thank you for listening to the end of a podcast. Yeah. Because that shows love and we appreciate that. Adam and I are both avid podcast listeners ourselves. And I know for me, when I get to the, when I want to go all the way to the end of the podcast, which I do, it's fun because, you know,

we like to have a little Easter egg maybe we could throw into the, this is when I just fall off the rails and start improvising. So you know what? We have a little announcement today. you have a new sponsor. You have a sponsor is? Who? Meundis.

Go to me. Actually, no, that's not true. Reundees.com slash open studio network. Don't try that. It won't work. All right, Pete. We're sponsored by Alf. We're sponsored by Alf and Open Studio.

Hey, Willie. Go get your jazz lessons. Email Alf and Alf at Open StudioJazz.com. Thanks, everybody. We'll be back next week. Peace. You'll hear it. I'm Adam Manus.

If you would like more information about any of our podcast, please go to Open Studio. network.com. Mmm.