You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Accompanying: When to Use Solo Fills

Episode Date: May 3, 2019

It's a quick SpeakPipe today, and Peter and Adam talk about playing fills. Wanna send a SpeakPipe of your own? Check out the bottom of the page at http://www.openstudionetwork.com/podcast.Check out Open Studio's Brazilian Rhythm Section Course for lessons on piano accompaniment.Artists to Check Out:Peter Martin & Dianne Reeves: https://geo.itunes.apple.com/album/a-little-moonlight/716525814?app=itunesAntônio Carlos Jobim: https://geo.itunes.apple.com/artist/ant%C3%B4nio-carlos-jobim/201663245?app=itunesOscar Peterson: https://geo.itunes.apple.com/artist/oscar-peterson/31620?app=itunesJohn Coltrane & Johnny Hartman - "They Say It's Wonderful" - https://geo.itunes.apple.com/album/they-say-its-wonderful/485515576?i=485515577&app=itunesToday's episode is sponsored by the Oxford American. The Oxford American is a magazine dedicated to documenting the complexity and vitality of the American South. Its award-winning annual music issue comes with a CD sampler and digital download - a must-have for any serious music fan. Recent issues have featured Nina Simone, Thelonious Monk, John Cage, and John Cage. Visit https://www.oxfordamerican.org/yhi today for a special subscription discount!Let us know what you think by leaving a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, or head over to our YouTube channel and leave a comment for this episode.Interested in more jazz advice? Go here to browse our catalog of jazz lessons and courses available for purchase.Follow us on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram at:https://www.facebook.com/heyopenstudiohttps://twitter.com/heyopenstudiohttps://www.instagram.com/heyopenstudio See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hey, Adam. Yes. We don't have time for a witty banter because I got somewhere to go, so that's it. Are you sure? No, really? I'm serious. Dude, stop. I got places to go.

So much that I could... Cut off. I'm Adam Mennis. And I'm Peter Martin. You're listening to the You'll hear a podcast. Daily Jazz Advice coming at you. Coming at you pretty fast day because Peter has to go, but we want to remind you that we are sponsored by the Oxford American.

Please go to Oxfordamerican. Oh, G-S-Y-H-I to take advantage of some great deals on... Start fast and slow it down. Luckily, but yeah, I've got it. had about six pots of coffee there, so I'm ready to go. Well, remember, most people listen to the podcast, and I don't even know if you can do it on YouTube, because you can always press 1.5 to listen to us, but I wouldn't recommend it today because we're already at like 1.7.

You might want to listen to this. I always wonder, like, why would someone, they have an option on most of the podcast players to listen at 0.5? So today would be good, because we're going to talk fast, and then it'll slow us down. V.J. Iyer was in 2000. Sorry, that sounds like finding Dory all of a sudden. You know, today we have a speak shot to Disney. Keep on creating.

Okay, let's go. Let's go. You shout out at least worldwide, like mega-corporation. We're trying to help startups. We're a fellow startup, man. Oh, my goodness. Big shout out to Nike. All right.

Keep on lacing. We got a speak pipe from David. Please send your speakpipe to you'll hear.com. Send us your questions. We want to answer your question. So this is David's question. Hi, Peter. Adam. This is David from Los Angeles. I had a question with respect to the use of Phil's, both in

playing solo piano and also while accompanying vocalist or other instrumentalists. I was particularly curious to see what practice routines and strategies you had with respect to the use of Phil's and also when to use them, when not to use them. Thanks again, awesome podcast, looking forward to listening. Phil's, how to practice them, when to use them, when to use them. That's a good question. I don't know that I've ever practiced this. I don't think I have. But definitely like listen to it a lot.

Like, because I remember being like really unsure about how much, how little it to do. And I remember going through a bunch of pianists that I liked. And, you know, you mentioned vocalist and instrumentalists. It's not super different. I don't think for either one. But checking out and being, you know, yes, kind of surprised and amazed at the variety of ways to go about this. So that was, I guess, eventually I kind of gratifying in that knowing that there's not necessarily a right or wrong answer. There's definitely a wrong way to do it when you're clashing.

So I almost think like listening to what pianists do is important, but it's like really listening to what a singer or instrumentalist is doing in the moment becomes the important thing. So maybe things that you're practicing where you're cluing in on listening to who you're playing with and like kind of breathing with them and getting really getting to know their phrasing so that you know when you can fit it. Because you can't go in with like a pre-practice plan on this. Well and the better you get at listening, the more you can, the more you have, have available to you to do. Like you could actually play as someone is singing if you're really good at listening and

you're really good at supporting. I mean, you are really good at this. Like, David, I recommend checking out Peter's stuff with Diane Reese because you have this totally down and a unique way of doing it. And you, I think, are on the busier side of, I mean, you don't play busy, but it's like you can play a lot and it still sounds completely appropriate and adds a lot. I think that's the key. Make sure that you, what you're doing is not, you're just doing to be doing, but you're actually

hearing things. Play what you hear, and to do that, you have to listen to who you're filling in. Great point. That's probably going to be the most important thing you hear about this today. Make it additive, not extraneous, you know, because, I mean, obviously you don't want to clash, but I think you're right in that you can play busy at times when the music calls for it. You can even play at the same time. It's not just about, I mean, the kind of base level is, yeah, you listen to the phrasing of the instrumentalist or singer and then try to play in the cracks.

But that's, if you only do it like that, it gets boring. Yep. You know, and it can almost become like, you know, like we have this conversation here. We don't really plan this out. But sometimes we both speak at the same time. We can't just be. Yeah, we can do that a lot. Yeah.

See how great it comes across. Yeah, it doesn't happen. You know who is good to listen for this? Antonio Carlos Joe Beam. Oh, come on now. Master. Tom Joe Beam. So we have this course here at Open.

Friend of the podcast. Well, we hope. Would be. We have this course here at Open Studio, the Brazilian Rhythm Section. Yes. And those cats talk about it. And our friend Elio Alves, who were about. about to release a course from great Brazilian jazz pianists.

They talk about Tom Joe Beam's ability to basically orchestrate things underneath the melody, underneath a singer, underneath a horn player. If you think about it like that, if you think about you're an orchestra on the piano, and that the fills that you do, if you want to call them solo fills, or if you want to call them melodies underneath things that are happening, it becomes a lot clearer what's appropriate. Well, because I think Jobim, he's such a master of, obviously, he doesn't need me to say it, you know, creating masterful melodies.

Some of the most iconic melodies ever created in the world. But the solo fills, it's almost like a little mini melody. You can't use as a fill your most masterful melody because that can compete with the actual melody that's going on. So it's like little mini, little riffs maybe. But, I mean, Duke Allenton, look, you're talking about great composers that know how to do this. So it's like knowing when to kind of scale it back, not the melodic quality level, but the kind of depth of it and whatever

and making it appropriate to that. And so then you can get into some non-competitive kind of playing with your fills. I would direct David from Los Angeles and others that are interested in this to Oscar Peterson as well. Kind of a different take. Now you're going to get into some very busy accompaniment

that can work, you know. Man, you know who I was listening to just this morning? I was listening to the John Coltrane, Johnny Hartman. and they say it's wonderful, that first track off that record. McCoy. McCoy gets a little busy on there, right? He can do it, though.

And it sounds awesome, man. He's filling around the melody like crazy. Yeah, and definitely not someone who, like, would come up in conversation as a great... Like vocal accompanies. Yeah, but only because he hasn't done it a huge amount on record.

He was killing it. Well, I mean, yeah, that's one of the best versions ever. Yeah. No, that's good stuff. And I think also, like, the ability to listen while you're playing. Now, maybe that is something

you can kind of practice. I mean, most of this stuff you've got to, look, if you've got a gig with a vocalist or instrumentalist, you're going to have to practice this on the job. If not, hire one to come over or cook them a dinner or something to come over. Practice doing it. Yeah, yeah. But you can kind of get into the mentality of it. But don't play anything you're not hearing and always listen to who it is that you're supporting and you'll be fun. Nice.

Yeah. Thanks, David, for the speak pipe. If you want to leave us a voice message, go to you'll hear.com. You could also leave us a rating or review. We love those seven stars only, even though they are impossible. And until... Why do you always focus on that, man? Because it's funny, to me,

that we ask for something that is impossible to do. I love your confidence. I mean, just because it was funny, like 75 episodes, is it really still... Oh, what I talk about it? Buddy, this is episode number one to a new listener, so I don't care. Until tomorrow.

Now we turn it to something funny. You'll hear it.