You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Best of Season 5 (7 Tips on Technique and Creativity)

Episode Date: December 25, 2019

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Hey, Peter. Yes. Merry Christmas, bud. Merry Christmas. Yeah. What are you doing today? You know, I'm spending with family with the kids. Oh, that's beautiful.

Watching their little rosy-cheeked faces light up when we get them whatever crappy presents. We got them. Yeah, what did you get them? Oh, we can't even say yet. They might not have opened them yet. They might be listening to the podcast. They don't listen to this. Oh, they don't listen to me.

So today we have, this is our week of best ofs. Or as we like to call it, we don't know what they was. But, no, I think we have some good episodes. We've been getting some good feedback. Well, I'm really projecting it to the future now. You have no idea. I have no idea. But we're having fun with it.

We have a suggestion for folks. Did you know that? I did know that. That's why we're doing these. Do you know what the timing of how the timing of this works, though? I think so. You think so. You open your presence.

You watch your loved one open the presence that you gave them perhaps. And then it's time to take care of Papa or Mama. That's right. Now it's time for you. So now we're going to be, we want you thinking. We know you're thinking about 2020. And the whole thing is, do you want to play better next year? or do you want to continue to suck?

I don't want to be so crass on Christmas Day, but isn't that the question? That is the question. And to answer that question, you can go to openstudiojazz.com. You can get whatever course or subscription you want to get and you could enter the code play better at the checkout and you could say 40% on all of it.

Yes, and this is our, we can't say it's our biggest savings of the year because we had a little bigger on Black Friday, but this is going to be the biggest for the next 10 months. So this is the time to jump in on it. Consider the piano access pass, annual access to all of our people, piano courses at that same great discount annual plan gets you the the boot camp in January which

we're going to sort of kick your butt through January so that when you come out the other side. Soldier get that wrist up right now. You heard me? But by the end you're going to be playing better. And then, you know, if you get the annual. Come on, maggot play jazz better. I promise he's not going to actually say that. But if you get the annual, then you get any of the piano courses that we release throughout

the year, which are substantial. They are substantial. It starts out substantially. It gets substantialer. So Merry Christmas, everybody. and enjoy today's mystery episode. So why don't you kick it off with number one? So number one is from great trumpeter Cecil Bridgewater,

and he once told me, play half of what you hear. Now, I might have been overplaying a little bit, but I think this was his philosophy in general, that you don't have to play every single thing that you're hearing because, you know, with jazz and decisions, we have pretty overactive imaginations in minds, and you can just spurt and spurt and spurt, you know,

language all day long. That doesn't mean you should. You know, this was very much, when I was a young man, him sort of like guiding you into artistry, which I think is a very solid point. I love it, too. And it's like, I love it. It's like play half of what you hear because it's like so specific. It's not like play less than you hear, which makes sense also and falls into that. Or it's not even like play one, it's like, play half of what you're.

Because what else I love, then maybe you do that. And then he might say to you, you know what, do another half. So now you're at one fourth and it's working out pretty good. That's exactly right. It has infinite possibility Here's the thing I just want to add one more thing

The tale to this Is even if you play Half of what you're here You're still going to play a lot It's human nature We just kind of tend to To overplay overtaught Well and when you play half

I mean if you actually do this And get conscious About doing this Especially in your practice Or like on a gig You will be forced to do more listening Because you're not playing As many notes

And then you'll start to hear Like better How much Should you go another half? Or should you go up to three-fourths or whatever? Yeah, yeah. But when you're playing everything that you're hearing, there's no room for listening.

You know, it's just like if you say, you know, if you meet someone and you start telling them you're excited because all the things that you know about. And then also all your inner monologue. He starts going, you know what I mean? You're not supposed, I used to do that a lot talking. I didn't realize why I didn't have any friends at dinner parties. Everyone walk away from me.

Now I guess I can. Now I have a podcast. Now, Eli wants to talk about hand independence, which is part of jazz piano technique. He says, I just bought the, um, sorry, jazz piano course, and I'm beginning to internalize the sampa and basanova rhythms. But I need practice tips on how to keep the rhythm going in the left hand while playing the

melody slash improvising in the right. I can't do it. I take it slow, but easily get off track. Would love a podcast on the subject or anything that can help me. Like walking and chewing gum at the same time, only harder. Best wish is Eli. Awesome. So some practical tips, Eli, for you once you have that belief. And I'll just add to your thing. I believe I can fly. I'm just saying a little background music to inspire. I believe my left hand can fly.

While my right hand is gliding by. That's right. Practical tips. And just first of all, I think, you know, what Peter just said is so crucial. Patience has got to be a big part of this. And you have to be consistent with this and really included in your daily practice routine if you want to see any results from this at all. You can't just sit down at the gig and be like, okay, and now I'm going to play independently.

You really have to work at this. as he said. So, but, but as he said, you can do this. The first thing you, you need to do is to sort of simplify things.

I would start with the most basic Basanova rhythm, uh, that Aalio teaches, which is, you know, something like a, dun,

dun, uh, uh, uh, something like that. And just play it in your left hand over and over and over again. One core,

just get that rhythm. So solid. I mean, I remember, uh, Peter and your jazz piano for, course you talk about this a little bit about hand independence and and you say something to the

fact of you just have to make it so easy on yourself that it's not it's not overwhelming anymore and the only way to do that is repetition so start with the most simple thing the and not the simple thing that I just said but whatever you consider to be simple something that's easy for you to do and really work it in your left hand only at first until it's it's like you can chew gum and do it at the same time you can check your email and still keep it going, keep it in the pocket, and then start adding your right in, but add it in in a very simple way.

Maybe you don't even start with the melody of the tune. Maybe just start with whole notes, so you can feel what it feels like to play whole notes and then do half notes and then maybe quarter notes. And then you can start mixing in some syncopations, but you're not going to be able to just go in there and do the girl from eponema

with complete hand independence after you've practiced it in your left hand for an hour. You really have to feel what it's like for the hands to work against each other, than to go and work with each other. That is definitely where I would start with this. Okay, next idea for how to crush it. How to crush it on every solo.

Come on every solo. Start with a strong opening statement. A great jazz solo is not unlike a successfully adjudicated court case, right? Prosecute a lot of court cases. I did, you know. Bam, a great solo is like, you know, guilty as charge. Yeah, so we want to. want to come out of the gate with a strong opening statement, that does not mean you have to

come out yelling. It does not mean it has to be loud or the, in fact, that usually is not the way to start it. For sure. There may be some situations. Strong, you know, just strong just means appropriately strong for the situation. But something that gets the listener's attention in a positive way, not like a, okay, now I've got your attention. Yeah, yeah. I mean, there might be an occasional time. You want to come in, yeah. Do something to engage the listener like you'd engage your opponent and get the party started in the right way, though, you know. Number three, confidence is key. Yes.

I find any time I see someone who is not confident take a solo or really do anything, I'm totally taken out of it. And they've lost me because I don't believe that they believe what they're doing. Yes. And that's not cool. Like, unless it's not going to connect with anybody. No, bueno on that. Wrong and strong.

No, but honestly, like, whatever you do, come at it with. You are the authority. in that moment on what is going on. You are the authority on your playing. Right. And so you shouldn't give a rat's ass about what's happening outside of the bandstand. Sorry.

What a strange. No, it's correct. And it's huge. What a strange statement, though. I mean, comparing something to it. Why do we do that? I guess it's because it's worthless. All right.

So number three is we have a G major pentatonic. Whoa. Over a C major seven or C major nine. So, you know, when we have a C major nine, chord. Let me just get one note there. Oh, I sure. Like that right.

That's right. And these are really note choices that you can have. That was a noteworthy choice you made. Noteworthy choices. And we're even going to go next level on the next one. But you could just go on a C major chord like a C major, but that's a little square.

Yeah, very square. Right? It's kind of an older sound. But you hear cats with a Z running these pentatonic scales based off of the, based off the fifth, you know. Again, you can practice these by going up.

So I'm going up a G major pentatonic, G, A, B, D, E. Yeah. Over C. One, two, three, five, six. This time maybe come down. I liked your way from the technique course, down up. That's a nice one. Right?

You're going, skipping one down and then going up and skipping one and coming down. Yeah. Good stuff. I like it. So that's G major. And do you ever think about it like one, two, three, five, six? That major pentatonic? Like the interval, I mean the scale tones?

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I do. Now that I've implanted that in your head, you will. Because I wouldn't think about it like one, two, three, four, five. Right. You know, I would think about it in relation to the major scale because that's just been what's drilled in me. Yeah, me too.

I mean, and it always connects it with the ear when I started thinking about going into other keys, the shapes. Exactly. And then what it sounds like, you know. Because, yeah, because to me, like, this shape, that to me is like, oh, that's based off the sixth of G. Right. That's a minor sound to me. Right. And that leads us right into number six, which is to compose music when you're on the road.

To really think about composition. And maybe it's something that when you're at home, you know, in your normal routine, you just never have time to do or you want to do more of. You know, it's kind of like reading more. Sometimes when you get out of town, taking a trip, you know, you bring a book along. You can be a little more focused to hit that. I think composition is the same way. And you can do this anywhere. You know, you don't have to have a piano.

You don't have to have a guitar. You can do it by ear. Obviously, it's harder if you haven't done a lot to be able to compose away from your instrument. But it's basically, it's definitely possible. And in fact, a lot of times for me, it's a preferable way to compose, at least the early stages of working through a composition. And actually, Adam and I have talked about this, I think on the podcast, but definitely we've talked about it with each other.

He really likes that to, you know, at selected times of the composition, process to compose away from the piano, away from everything, maybe go outside somewhere. And so all it takes is, you know, some notation paper. Or you can even just bring your phone along and, you know, sing something or make some notes that way, you know, with the audio recording. But I find traveling is a great time to work on composition. And that ultimately is a big part of our musicianship again that's going to contribute to keeping our playing together.

If you're constantly transcribing, you're going to be constantly getting things that you can apply to your playing. But it's going to be like a rolling effect. So it's not going to be coming like right in real time as you transcribe that you're going to be able to incorporate that into your playing. It might be months later. That's where the patience part. So I think if you take some of these things, I know we're always saying like let it come out of your playing organically and it should. But maybe taking a few phrases, especially as you're playing that exact tune. and playing them, you know, maybe when you're practicing, maybe on the gig.

I still don't like doing it on the gig, because I think it's just going to sound contrived. It always does. But if you play some of those, it does. Yeah, but if you say play some of those phrases when you practice enough, and it just sort of starts to roll off of your fingers, then it can become a part of your language. It's still going to become a part of your language, even if you just listen to a solo a lot. But the actual playing of it. And then what we talked about for sure is playing along with the recording.

I think that's something that we've mentioned, but people need to be doing more. just, you know, after you learn the solo, play with the recording. Keep the headphones on. Get the speakers going. Play along with it. Match the phrasing. Match the vibe. Don't just get so excited that you move right on to the next solo.

I love it. Another thing to think about with this, I love the coming at it from a language aspect. And something that you can do, Paul, if you feel like you have something that it's not coming through, is to break it down a little bit and see what are the moves of this solo? What are the moves of maybe this lick? that I like here or this voicing that I like here, why did this player play this? And how can I use this not only in the context of this tune

or this chord, but in other ways? Like, is it the shape that I like? Is it because it has this motion to the line, this shape to the line that I enjoy? Or is it play off of expectations from what happened before it? Like, doing a little analyzation, you know, and this is after you know the solo.

You can play with the record. you don't need the music. But I've done this before, and it's been very helpful as just helping me see sort of perhaps what the player is thinking, or even just getting like a sense of, oh, this player, like, you know,

plays this scale over this chord, but this other player plays this scale over this chord. That's interesting that they do these two different things, and these are my options. You know what I mean? All of those kinds of things can be really helpful as far as just ingraining it eventually. So if you're having trouble,

if you're getting a little stuck with it not coming out, maybe just take a step back and ask yourself, okay, why do I like this? What is it about this solo? And then get surgical with it. What is it about this bar or this lick or this phrase that I really love? And why does this work against the chord? You know, it's a combination of arpeggios and enclosures and a scale

or it's a, you know, a pentatonic run that starts and stops and, you know, then leaps or whatever. You know, those kinds of things, just like looking at phrases, phrase by phrase, looking at voicing's phrase by phrase, can really help you decipher maybe some of the intent behind it and hopefully lock it in even more.