You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Best of: Ultimate Tips (Season 4 Edition)

Episode Date: October 22, 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, we've compiled the best Ultimate Tips from this season.Best Ultimate Tips:7 Reasons Not to Start Your Own Band7 Things Not to Do for a Great Sound17 Tunes You Gotta Know7 Jazz Standards You Gotta Know7 Things Not to Do at a Soundcheck7 Highly Effective Habits to Make You a Better Jazz MusicianLike 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.

Oh, let's get to our bonus. Okay. Our bonus is all... Oh, wait, wait. Oh, sorry. Sorry, we've got to just define this. Make sure we remember it. The bonus is the one reason you should start your own ban.

Right. This is the one reason... We gave you seven reasons not to start your own band. Here's the one reason you should. You ready? You ready for this? I love this. Okay.

This is, by the way, it's a new territory for it. It's inspired, man. I'm just trying to build up a little more. The reason you should start your own van is all of these seven reasons, but on the flip side. So let's go through them real quick. Exactly, yeah. So number one, we got money. We said you can make more playing with others.

True. All right. But if it's you and you're a band. Right. You can rip off the band members and make more. No, no, no, no, no. No, but if you have any kind of success that you are going to. Mo money.

Right. Logistics. Okay, yes, you have to deal with the managers and the bookings, but you get to decide on all of these things. You get to decide where you're staying. That's right. You can decide where you're playing. Vince Carlton, here I come. You get to decide all that.

Steinway piano 10 foot every night. Hiring and firing. Pain in the ass, no? Well, you get to decide who's the, your band and who's not. Yeah. Another power, control. Time. Okay, you do need lots of it. It's true. But wouldn't you rather spend your time working on your own music with people you love than

doing it like digging a ditch? Right, exactly. Building up your own name instead of somebody else's. That's right. Decision fatigue. Yes, you get to make a lot of decisions. But you know what the flip side is? You get to make a lot of decisions. That's right. It's all you. You get to decide where this ship is being steered. That's right. You are the El Capitan, as we say. Number six. It's your name, it's your rep. Yes, if things go south, it's your rep on the line. But if things go north, hello.

And you get all the glory. That's right, right. And then number seven, love of music. Yeah, you can't play the stupid wedding gigs that you have to have been playing in all these years. But you get to play your own music all the time. If you're hiring and firing with people you like, you get to do it with people you like. If you're deciding where you play, how you play, how you play, how much you play, you get to enjoy all that. That's right.

I love it. I love it. So it turns out that this. seven-headed monster of an episode here. Actually, it was like a seven-headed coin with a 14-sided coin with two sides to each of these. We are

such a layered podcast. That's what I love about us, man. We're like a bad onion. It's so deep. Too many layers. Too many rants on it. Scratch the surface and then there's, well, there's nothing else. That's right. Well, tomorrow. You'll hear it. Oh, we've got to give our bonus. That's right. What do we got? So the bonus, this is something to do. If you want a great

sound, something that you can do today to work on that, is to whenever you're practicing, whether that's scales or tunes or anything, practice getting an even sound across all your fingers on both of your hands. I don't want to hear your thumb is way heavier. I don't want to hear your fourth finger and your left hand is way weaker. We will take a ruler to that hand if we hear that. The way to do this is simple.

Listen. Play a C major scale and then listen to where the notes are weaker than the others or where they might be stronger than the others and then adjust. and be honest with yourself. Evenness is so important. Evenness is the most important. The control of the evenness is important. Play the C major scale, see what you can hear.

Then play the B major scale. See what you can hear. Play the C major scale. See what you can hear. Play the B major scale. Be what you can hear. How about that? And until tomorrow, you'll hear it. So we have a bonus of our 17thune.

So this is actually number 18. And the reason I wanted to do this one, the bonus is I got rhythm. Now, this is a funny kind of bonus because normally people don't call this. No, almost never. And when it is, this is another one that would raise some eyebrows.

But the reason I said it's a tune that you've got to know is that you've just learned 35 tunes, right? How many, yeah, are you going to go through all 35? We don't have that kind of time, man. Yeah, exactly. So, I mean, you're learning a bunch of tunes and it's just like learning a blues or whatever.

Wait, that was straight, no chance for in B-flat? Oh, that was good. That's what I said. It's a blue. Ignore that. Do you know, I got rhythm? It's got the little funny tag thing I mean I could sing it I can honestly say

I've never played it Yeah yeah but it's so this is the only one on here that You gotta know it you're probably never gonna play it Because it's not gonna get called but it's gonna be good that you do know it You've learned a whole bunch of other tunes and you understand a big sort of faction that's needed to be known Yeah cool cool till tomorrow you'll hear it Non-prevue Alright let's get to our bonus jazz standard you gotta know

This isn't even a title of a tune This is just the title of a man. Yeah. And the man's name is Wayne Shorter. Who? Wayne Shorter. Saxon player? One of the most important composers of the 20th century, in my opinion.

And he has, I mean, the reason why we didn't put any Wayne Tunes specifically on here. I did think about it. I did too, but there are just so many. I know. Speak no evil. So varied from all the Blakey era stuff. I mean, there are so many great ones. Yeah.

I was just playing, this is for Albert. Yeah, all the weather report stuff. I mean, there's a. Oh, this is for, I love that period. I love that whole thing. Pretty blind mice. Like all that stuff, man. It's so good.

So shout out to Wayne Shorter. You can learn a lot about composition as you play it and just play. Same thing like long tunes. Any great jazz, modern jazz composer, I feel like it's an age. You're learning so much. The edification that you get is amazing. I'm not sure if there's been a more copied modern jazz composer. All the stuff you hear today from young musicians has so much Wayne influence.

I know. Well, on that note, you'll hear it. Okay, so what's our, what's our bonus? Oh, the bonus. Yeah, yeah. Okay, this is really important for something, we always look at these double negatives. We're so negative here. Seven things not to do at a soundtrack, so I got to phrase it right. Don't treat the crew like crap, okay?

Don't even think about them as a crew in the sense of support crew and things like this. Treat them as your equals because they are, if not above you, actually. You're all making the show happen. You're all making the show happen. And, like, as musicians, it's so easy for us to think because we're on stage and the spotlight is on us. But just like this podcast is here with Andrew, our producer, is like, you don't see him on camera, but he has an outsized ability for the actual success of how this sounds, how it's given to people and stuff. So we want to go in with an attitude of, you know, camaraderie with the crew.

And you don't go in there and step over them because they can make you sound bad. You can't really make them sound bad. This is just practical advice. Like, I'm always amazed at people who. who berate sound engineers, people who... They don't usually sound very good themselves, though. Have you noticed that?

I know, yeah. Like, make me sound good. Very cute. Can't polish a turd. I don't have a non-suck button here, buddy. But you know, like, you're yelling at the guy who's going to make you or break you tonight. Exactly.

So it's just like, you know, I bring them cookies. If you treat them like crap, you could actually sound really good and they could make you... They could just make you not heard. If I could afford it, I would bring a brand new pair of black cargo shorts

and black Doc Martin boots to every gig. I was on just for the sound engineer. Are you applying to the sound engineers might want to wear that kind of attire? Is that what you're saying? Okay. I'm not even hiding it. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so... Till tomorrow, you'll hear it. Okay, bonus, I'm going to say, I'm going to throw an

audible here and say community, okay, as a highly effective habit of being a better jazz musician. Being a part, and that can be an online community like we have, that can be a jam session, that can be somebody that you get together and play with. This is a communal music, you know, and the more, like, we want to encourage, and I think we've done a good job of, like,

talking about, a lot of this is personal practice, and that's a huge part of it. Yeah. But when you come together, you're going to be able to put these effective habits in place, and I would say that's in a community. So you have to be in the habit of doing that. And because you can't wait until, oh, once I get to a certain level, then I'm going to become a part of a jazz. No, no, no, no.

You've got to start now. You've got to get in the habit of doing that. You've got to do some failing so that you can get back up, get back on that horse. But find your peers, find your mentors, you know? And actually find people that you can mentor because you'll learn from that as well. I think it's your spot on. That's a really, really good bonus. Awesome.

Well, until tomorrow. You'll hear it.