You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Best of: 7 Best Tips on How to Play Better

Episode Date: October 24, 2019

Peter's off traveling the world, so this week we'll be bringing you some of our favorite moments from YHI Season 4. Today, it's 7 of our favorite tips from one of our most-discussed topics on the podcast: how to play better.Like those You'll Hear It shirts Peter shows off on the podcast? Want some YHI swag of your own? Take a visit to our store! Just go to https://teespring.com/stores/open-studioLet us know what you think by leaving a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, or head over to our YouTube channel and leave a comment.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.

Number two is swing. Now, Swing is one of the foundational principles of jazz, and it's something that you need to listen for. These are one of the things we're actively listening for. And what is it? Well, that's a great question that nobody knows the answer to, but you know it when you hear it. And it's one of those things where it's a language that,

unlike, say, harmonic elements of jazz or melodic content of jazz, swing, you can break down in a notated way, but it's hard to actually notate the way. that some people swing. Yeah. And so it's one of those things that's better felt than it is red or any experience any other way. You have to listen to a lot of swing,

a lot of swinging musicians, and digest, internalize, remember, be able to draw up, have your own arsenal of rhythmic vocabulary to draw from. That's the only way it works. Yeah, and I mean, it gives you confidence. For sure. You know, you have to know this, but it's such an essential element to being able to play

and understand and interact in this music, that it's just something that we're constantly putting a focus on. Now, I would just say that swing, too, I don't see that just as tang, tang to tang. No, no, no, no. As a swing beat. There's a lot of different grooves that exist within this music, some of which haven't even been invented or played yet.

But swing is more of like an attitude with, like, towards groove, I would say, that we bring as jazz players. Yeah, I mean, I would say there's swing in all kinds of music, and reggae and bluegrass and all sorts of stuff that, that to me qualifies as a swing in musicians. you know what I mean? So that's what you should be listening for. Yeah, and totally foundational, which I think you said right at the beginning. Very important that we lay this as that foundation and constantly revisit and maintain it.

No, so this is number one for a reason, as always. When you are soloing, when you are improvising, I mean, whether you're soloing solo, piano, solo bass, or with a big band. Listening is the most crucial thing that you can do always, but especially when you're soloing, especially when you're improvising. Because it's, first of all, it's helping you get ideas because you're reacting to things that are happening in the moment. Yeah. Right. So you're there with the audience. You're there with your bandmates.

And you're responding to what they're putting down. You're responding to sort of even just like the vibrations in the room sometimes can affect the way you might approach your solo. But then also you're hearing yourself in your place within the music. And I think that's another key thing there. That's great. Number two. Okay, number two is of things not to do for a good sound, and that is use a ton of sustain.

Can I clap for this? No, I'm not clapping for using a ton. I'm clapping for not using it. Yeah, if you don't want to sound good, use a ton of sustain. Yeah. I get this a lot. Anytime I take on any live student,

which actually isn't that much anymore, but whenever I do, it's usually the first thing I have to say is like, why is your foot on the sustain pedal? Yeah. Why are you playing so much sustain on everything? That's right. Why is every phrase sound like it's underwater?

You know what I mean? The sustain pedal is used as an accentuation. A crutch. And it can be a crutch. No, but I mean, if you want to get a really great sound, you need to develop a legit legato. And to develop a legit legato, you have to learn how to keep your one finger down

while moving to another finger. And to do that, you have to tie your foot to the piano bench. Exactly. If that's what you have to do, do it. Because I promise you, you will get a better sound in just a couple of weeks if you practice without the sustain. Things we have never said. Wow, you have such a great sound and your overuse of the sustained pedal really contributed nicely to it. It's so true.

If you are using the sustain pedal pretty much at all while you're practicing, it's not good. Things that I've never said also was like, wow, I listen back to that recording of myself. I wish I'd use more sustained pedal. Never. All right, number two. Number two, daily practice. This is number two of our seven highly effective habits to make you a better jazz tradition.

Why is this one so important that it sits at position number two for us? We want to keep a daily connection to whatever instrument we're playing. It's the easiest way to grow. It keeps you sharp. And it helps you discover new things that you have to put into your practice routine.

If you're not hitting your instrument for at least like five, ten, fifteen minutes every day, you're not going to grow as fast as if you do. It's just true. You know, and the easiest way to do this is just to carve out sometime on the regular, whether that's at lunch or in the early morning or before you go to bed, to just sit at your instrument and be with it. Yeah.

Yeah. And yeah, and this one is so binary that it should be simpler. Like, we can get, we get into some more, and we're going to get into some other things a little bit. But, like, this is literally, I mean, just the, as you say, sitting at the instrument and playing the thing. Then you've accomplished it. Of course, you want to, you know, do many of the other things. talk about it and stay longer and be effective and everything. But when you commit to daily practicing, connecting with your instrument every day,

you either do it or you don't. Yeah, sure. Yeah, like number five, it's omit the bad parts of your solo. Breathe, take your time, only play the good stuff you know. Now, that sounds simplistic. Just don't play bad, is what you said. Stop sucking so much. What did you mean by this, actually?

So this actually, it's kind of funny, but I really believe this. If you want to improve your soul in like tonight, like something, like, We're trying to do things that are quick, but they all require practice. But this is one that you literally can just do on your gig tonight without any improvement before. Yeah. Totally mindset.

But what this is like, it's just being a little bit more thoughtful about what you're going to play and commit to playing less. So you're not going to play everything you can possibly play, but what's going to happen is the good stuff is going to have some room to breathe. Well, I think part B to this, too,

is something that I like to do every so often is, you know, ask yourself, am I about to play something? I actually want to play? Exactly. Or is this just something, you know, I learned along the way, and I don't even really like it. Yeah, just sort of muscle memory or whatever. Yeah, yeah, like, why am I playing this?

I don't even want to play this. Yeah. This is number three of our list of things not to do for a good sound. And that is to get real excited and tighten up. Yeah. So, yeah, when we get excited or nervous or anything that would cause tension, fearful, but I think you're even talking about even in a positive way. No, I think like a lot of people,

try to put energy in by tightening up or get, you know, stank face or whatever. Stank face or whatever. You know what I'm saying? Well, stank face leads to good sound occasionally. Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah, exactly. So we want to really, and I think this is about, you know, I mean, look, when you get into the flow of a gig and stuff, who knows what's going to happen.

But especially for when you're practicing, it's a really good time to make sure that our physical skills are developed and those good habits are in place so that we're putting ourselves in the best position to make a great sound. Because it's a technical challenge. Once you really start listening and stop using the pedal, I mean, if you do number one and two, number three, you're going to have to do. Because when you listen

and let go of that pedal, then you're going to start to be exposed. That's right. You're going to be like, whoa. And so if you get, if you tighten up and stuff, that's going to come out even more. Like with the sustained pedal, a lot of this can be covered up and you can be stank-faced in and tighten up and it's going to sound. Well, you're not going to sound great though. No, you're not going to sound great. And you know what? If you're out there and you're saying, well,

what about Keith Jarrett? What about Oscar Peterson? Hello. They are relaxed from about the shoulder down. Yeah. And you know how I can tell? Because they sound great. Exactly. Like if Oscar Peterson is doing his like,

uh, thing that he kind of gets into whatever, I guarantee you that his hands and his wrists and his elbows and his shoulders are relaxed. He's doing that. He wouldn't be able to do it without it. There's no way. He would sound. He would tighten up.

I wonder if we should change this to seven things not to do for a great sound. Should we? No, I don't know. I'm not trying to know. No, I'm doing it right now. Well, the other thing about that, talking about Oscar Peterson.

I'm capitalizing every life. Keith Jared and. And Ossar Preachian, the other thing is, like, if you think they're tightened up and something they're playing and you want to do that, that's fine. As soon as you sound as good as them in your own way, then you can tighten up, no problem. One of the things that struck me was that great artists spend two to three hours every day ingesting what their art is. Wow.

Not their own stuff, but. I love that. And they ingest a mix of new things and old things. Yeah. Right? So, like, if you're a jazz musician, two to three hours. every day should be spent listening to music.

Old stuff and new stuff if you want to be good. That's sort of this what the data points can. I mean, it sounds very sterile and analytical, but it's really, really interesting that the same data points were true from someone like Leonardo da Vinci with painting

or, you know, and someone like Beethoven with music that two to three hours every day of ingesting music that's you know helping them become a better artist. So think about that. Think about that. out when you can use free time or or commute time or at work time or whatever to ingest what you're doing like it's part of getting better and it's a super important part and I mean this doesn't change as you say since Da Vinci or Beethoven or even before you know in the creation of

art none of this has changed and technology changes but that really there's parts of technology that make it harder to do this because we're in a distracted world yeah so we get on this thing I don't have time but it's all about priority but technology also helps, as you say, during our commute, anytime we have access in a way, so we need to be able to limit and push out the noise, get the signal going, which is ingesting

like the concept. And that's just what for us is listen. And I love the way you put it, ingests the art. For being an effective jazz, a better jazz musician, it's listening. Well, and you know why it's so important? Like, so since I've read that, I started doing this on the regular, like really making it a priority for me, because you get

distracted with phones and Netflix and all this stuff or whatever. So, I've really tried to make this priority of like, okay, I want to be a more in-depth listener. I want to keep it in a regular part of my day without getting distracted by all the noise. And so since doing that, I mean,

music starts to take on this whole other tone when I listen to it because you come so steeped in it, right? All the time. It just becomes part of your brain waves almost. It's an important part that can go by the wayside too quickly. And it's so good. I mean, I know

for me, I've gone in and out of this habit over time. I've been kind of in it for a while now where it's pretty habitual, but the fun thing is if you do fall off of this habit, and look, everybody falls off some habits at some point. But if you do, it's so exciting when you get back in it. Actually, some of the times I've fallen off or on have been when I've gone on like vacation. I'm not a good vacation. We'll talk about that another episode. Seven ways to be a better vacationing jazz musician.

Bring your steel pan drum with you. Then you can do gigs. That's number one. But the idea of like when you have been off and you get back, you realize, how important it is, how inspiring, how invigorating it can be to the rest of your routine. That's right. And don't freeze up thinking you have to listen to some important stuff every time. Just listen. Just listen to stuff you like. Listen to whatever you like, whatever that is. Allow yourself to listen. Connect with the...