You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Can We Write A Song In 30 Minutes?

Episode Date: June 17, 2024

Can we write a tune in 30 minutes? Well there's no time like the present! Tune in while Adam and Peter dive into writing a tune under the hotspot. Improvisation and perseverance converge for this very special episode. Can they do it? Let's find out.Unlock your FREE Open Studio trial to become a better player today.Check out Peter's Composition Course Check out the lead sheet here!Have a question for us? Leave us a SpeakPipeCheckout courses from Adam, Peter and more at Open Studio🎹 Head over to our YouTube channel for a better look 👀.Follow us on Instagram

Hey Peter. Yes. Clock is ticking, bud. Clock is ticking. What's happening? I don't have my watch today. No, we've got 30 minutes. Yeah, 30 minutes to write a podcast.

Well, no, we've got more than that to make a podcast. But we've got 30 minutes to write a new tune. Oh, that's today? That is today. Yeah. Okay. Well, I've been preparing my whole life for this. So let's go.

Let's get to work. I'm Adamannis. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear at Podcast. A beautiful meeting place for musical and cultural ideas, expounding upon issues both tactile and non-tactile in a loving, friendly, warm environment. Is that good enough for you, buddy? Yeah.

Wait. That's a good. If the listener only is, so Peter's, he's really at his head about the taglines. And so he's trying new things to make it simpler. I'm sorry. Okay. Oh, my God. That was so good.

Have we ever seen him laugh like that? Oh my gosh. Go to open-studiojazz.com for a deeper. Oh, your jazz lesson needs Peter. We got to start over. No, we can't start over. That's too good. It's too perfect.

Oh, my gosh. So good. Yeah, we're going to be... No, let's not start. No, we're starting over. No, we cut around. We cut around. That's too good with all that.

That was magnificent. Don't even cut around. Just leave all this in, Caleb. Seriously, it's too good. Okay. Cut around. Today, Peter, we're writing a new tune from scratch. We're challenging ourselves.

of ourselves a 30-minute countdown. We're going to write a new tune, and then we're going to perform it at the end of the show. I'm going to try to make a lead sheet as we go so that the folks can follow along. Quite a little agenda you have for us, El Dictator. It's ambitious, yeah.

Yes, sir. But I just want to let everybody know that Peter Martin actually has a composition course at Open Studio. Go to Open Studio, jaz.com, and start your free 14-day trial, and you can check out Peter's course. It's all about you composing the tunes

from your Generation S album, yeah? Yes, yeah. And I think it's, you know, the feedback's been really good. We haven't talked about a lot, but I think it's kind of a cool thing because I just pray. You're still laughing. I really got you. Those of you that don't know, Adam seems like such a serious and an upright guy.

And he is, upright citizen. He's an upright citizen. Wrong pocketist. But at times he degenerates into a degenerate to a degenerate laughing. Like he's a fan of comedy. He is a fan of the comedic arts, we would say. True. And he has a laugh that I would say lights up the room, but it...

It does something to the room. It does something to the room. It's always proud of myself. I don't try to do it, but if I get Adam to laugh, it's pretty funny. Some good moments. Are we going to be laughing at minute 29 when we have a crappy composition unsolved and unfinished? We might be. They might be laughing at us, honestly.

I don't know. You came with this idea this morning, which I thought was, I was like, yeah, cool. And then we did another podcast, and now it's facing us. I know, and you know what? It was so dramatic. Do you remember the way I presented this idea to you? I don't think I've ever done this before, but I didn't even say it. So we were like brainstorming ideas for episodes.

I didn't even tell him the idea I wrote it down and then I spun my journal around and I said, check this out. And it just said, can we write a new tune in 30 minutes? And Peter was like, absolutely. So we're going to give a shot. I thought it was a rhetorical question, but it turns out you've actualized it into the podcast. I've thrown the gauntlet down, Peter. I've got a timer setup. We've got our Sebelius set up.

Yeah. Oh, it's getting real. It's getting real. So we just have to decide what are the parameters for the tune we're going to write. It has to be great. It has to, well, that's a horrible mindset to go into it. Great is, that's the enemy of good. If it has to be great before we even.

No, good is the enemy of great. That's true. That is how the same goes. I agree with you. That's usually, no, but to come in with the expectation that we have to write a great tune, we just have to write a tune. What do we hear from? for, dude. I can write just any old tune in three minutes.

I don't need 30 minutes. Maybe let's choose the timer. No, we can write. Of course, it's going to be great. Peter, it's us. It's going to be great because of us. I was thinking we would start. And then a little flourish that would change it up.

That's great. See, here's where we can get in a trap. So we should talk about how we want to start. Maybe we shouldn't talk about it. Maybe we should just write the tune. We should start the timer. And we can't talk about it until we start the timer. How about that?

Like we can't talk about the tune or our strategy for writing the tune until we start that timer. Well, no, I think we can talk a little strategy before because we haven't started compo. I mean, not to start like the strategy of like the layout of the tune or anything, but just the strategy of composition. Yeah, and like what it is that we need to come up with and how we want to do it. Are we trying to get the whole chart finish or just the thing? We're trying to get it all finished and then perform by the end of the show. So the goal is that we will collectively, like is one of us going to lead or we're just going to be like, hey, what do you think about this? No, we've never done this before.

Well, let's get a little strategy on that. Okay. I mean, I'm all about off the cuff, but... I feel like the best way to do this, I've done... I've done some writing in the studio, and you just kind of start jamming, and then you just kind of see what happens. We can start that. We can start with...

But we've never actually composed something together. We have done arrangements together. We've done arrangements together, orchestration together, but we've never done just a composition from scratch. How will this unfold? I don't know, man. This is exciting. We don't really write the same kind of songs, either.

No. Our compositions are... I should both write hits. They're all bangers, but we don't write in similar veins, so it'll be interesting to see what happens. Let's see what happens. Okay. All right, ready?

Can we put our timer up on screen, please, Caleb? 30 minutes. Can we not start it yet? Can we, like, I feel like we need a moment to center ourselves. Should we maybe start it and then give ourselves 20 seconds of silence? Okay. Okay, ready? 20 seconds, silence to start.

Okay. This is a cocky move, but we'll see how it works out. Here we go. Mm-hmm. Okay. Okay, so we got a little form going on. The hardest thing is like we just don't jam together for 30 minutes because that we know how to do. I don't easily do that.

So we got, it's a nice little thing because we're starting on the C minor, the relative minor, and then we end on the thing. And I was already kind of hearing this could be a nice sort of simple pentatonic situation. So I think you had. You go down to that, was there F moo happening next? F moo happening, yeah, then like an A flat major seven. Yeah. And then a... F minor, was it?

Nope. This is where it gets kind of cool. B7 over F sharp. B7? B7 over F sharp to... I like this melody. This is kind of nice, but is this can be one of those things. It's like, oh, that was another song that I heard.

Yes. Oh, it is? It very much could be... You know, I've written We Are. the world before so it's me too i love that too i like this little melody that i kind of stumbled upon this little apagia torah got a barra okay i got a little something for you maybe for like the second chorus or something you said b7 over f sharp play me that again oh key to this I could already tell I'm going to need a couple of stages here.

That sounds weird, B7 over X sharp. I'm not voicing it right though. Like F sharp minor 6? So thinking more like... Let me say... Like a diminished. How about the second time instead of going to the A flat, we go move there too?

Okay. I like it. So the first time, and then... So that... Let me show you, just break down real quick. So the B7 has the B on. top and then can just resolve to C

so it actually is kind of like F sharp and you were doing like that might be good though for the next part like the next part of the melody so he'd be like oh yeah I like that

is that Barney Miller's thing though let's go with it don't judge don't hear and this is all just penitonic stuff but this would be like whatever the fifth bar something well hold on let's let's work on our let's work on our first bar real quick our first but you had like the part you had for the melody that's the end of the phrase that's so that's on the two five so this is like yeah yeah yeah so okay so this is like

f minor seven da da b flat seven instead of We're gonna do mootastic here until it drives us crazy. So I love what you just did. It's interesting to write something when you have the resolution, the melodic resolution. Check that out. Check that out, though. So when we resolved to the C, I can make this a little bit bigger here. So do, da. What about doing that the next time? You're giving all your tricks on. No, leave it in there for now. Okay.

But if it feels like we're going to go. We'd do that something like that the second time, but if we start out Is that too basic though? So what was it? So like we'd be starting up here. What about? What about that? Da.

Kind of like the simple because we're just at the beginning, you know, boom. And then we're gonna, the answer, I love, scream, boom. Like what matches before that in terms of like directionality and complexity? Watch yourself Kirk Franklin. Okay, so if we go... And then this... Okay, so...

Scree, do we like that? Skip, be ito. As a starting point. So, so... Play it again. Buh. What if it's just that? Scream, skit.

And then like a little counter melody down there. Oh yeah, yeah. I like the... What about that? Like on the two, right? On the... On the end of one. Oh no.

Oh no. I guess it's on the one. And then one. You could have the same thing. Yeah. And then maybe this time we go to that that funny, the other, the additional moo, the mootastic. Scat.

Anticipation on the A flat then. Oh. A flat. Mugle, A flat over C. Yeah. No. There's the thing here, just down a half step. Oh, just another move.

Why don't we do this? To give it the little rhythmic, like. Yeah, yeah. And then they, all the ha-huh. Babu-dibu-du-du-do-bo-do. Nope. Yeah, 16s. Yeah.

Ooh, that's not. And then on beat four. Here's what I'm hearing. that we reference again that B7 over F sharp with and then finish it up I can't remember I like that oh I got a title for this you got title from mood to you don't think I won't we got time for that whenever I do something real basic I'm like wow I've got a chance but we don't need to right I I think we might need to just.

Yes, she, let's you. Stop the timer. Okay, no, keep going. I think it should be, um, so it'd be like, that'd be an eighth note. Eighth note tied into that, yeah, and then that would actually, ah, no. So it goes on two.

Babbo doo. So that would be. Bhabu, and of two. Do do, daigoo. That's the eighth note now. now do do do do do isn't that no that's right no i mean in the in the bottom is a cord yeah the bottom the bottom the bottom i'm still i'm still i'm still i'm still cleaning up the bottom that's correct this is great no i think it should go into two so it'd be like check it out

you know what i mean got it yeah because that'll give us a little more resting and balance hopefully i'm just going to play from the top hey now oh oh do a little counterband I can add more moves if you want. Okay, so check it out. Hold on, let's clean up. Let's give us some, this is a good thing for composition for y'all. Look, we're not only gonna make a tune, we're gonna teach a tune.

Play it from the top, exactly, get the balance. Actually. You want that? So it's like D minor, 11. So I think that B shouldn't be part of the melody. I think that should be just part of the, like, so we should sit, like make the F. I think it shouldn't be in the first time.

I think it's... Okay, yeah, if you change the C, maybe. Second time. Hear me out. F7. Da-ba. That's what you thinking? It's a sauce, yeah.

And on the tonic. So first time, I think I'm going to take that B-7 out. Like something, maybe a walk-down. Like this. Check it out, check it out. So quarter notes more straightforward. So like E flat over G and then F sharp. Diminished. So you keep that E flat on the...

I like it. Bounce out. What about just a little rhythmic? Are we too early? Not too early, too early. Let's leave that over. Ah. Both played it. We literally both played that.

And then I'm going to do, to counter. Yeah, starting on the one. On the one. We'll take that off here. And then we'll add that as like an actual. Now we need to go somewhere. We've got 12 minutes, buddy, 12 minutes. Oh, man.

We're getting down to it. We got to get a bridge. We got to get a bridge. Yeah, I think we might be ABA this. Welcome. Let's see what we got here, our first two A sections. Give a little repeat. We just, we just got double the, oh, green smoothie.

So we do definitely want to go like. I think that might be triplet there. So this is like. Didn't we go along there? Yep. Were you doing a D minor 11 to like a G7? D minor 11. G7.

Flat 13. Got it. And I'd like to put this. flat on the one actually the chord like the melody I think is cool yeah but I think this works better so something like that like taking that pop but down it'd be nice to go someone just totally like somewhere completely off of it like what was that other stuff you want to like so be like let's use the moo as a bridge let's see now that's a weird one

What about this? We've been hinting this whole time with this B7 over E. We stay on this. So we turn this E flat major into a B-Moo, B over D-sharp. And transpose to E, but not like that cheesy, obviously. Eight minutes, eight minutes. We got to write a bridge. That sounds weird.

I think always got to go to the four. I like. I like the idea of starting on the F over A or the A have to finish. Oh, so right, Peter. So we could have a... No? From moo to you. Okay, so...

Is that too much? It's never too much, Peter. It's from moot to you. Okay, oh, there we go. Why don't we leave it? So F over A, G. So then the F minor, which seems like, oh, we're going to go back. But then we go somewhere like...

D minor 11, F minor. I like that. Okay, yeah, yeah, I like that. Why don't we do something. Why don't we do something getting away from the bomb, like here we got like a break, like so it could be... What about something that's kind of double-toned. Yeah, exactly.

So we go A flat minor, nine, with the B five time. I like that. Oh, here we go. B minor nine. What's the first chord? A flat minor nine. Oh, that's the. Why don't you do C in that major third?

C minor and the A minor. Yeah, that's good. So it's like, duh. Yeah. Yeah. We go D minor. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Let me catch up, let me catch up.

We've only got five minutes left, man. Oh. Should we, uh, A flat minor, go smoker, smoke a marble red? E minor, nine. What did we say, C minor nine to A minor nine? No, no, so A flat minor, F minor. Yeah, and I thought it was E minor? Oh, yes, sorry.

I thought it was. Yeah, so A flat to E to C, to A. I thought it was A flat E, C, A. So A flat E to C, C minor, 11. Yeah. And then I think we should, we could do that or we could go. What's that? What was that?

Let's do that. And then we need one more. Ba-muh. Yeah, then we can get back, no problem. Oh, we got extra time. What was that last chord? So we got A-flat minor. What was the last, after the A minor?

So. F minor. Okay. And that's our linger chord. So we're going to repeat that. We're going to repeat that. What are we doing melodic? So is this melody look all right?

Let's write something on top of that. So the... So it'd be like, uh, uh, uh, something cool, right? Is that too much? We could do some kind of pattern like... Yeah. Something like that.

Some kind of escape pattern. Like, what is that? So it started on 16th notes starting on the second, the up, yeah. No, the first would be rest. B flat, bflat, b, yeah. I think that'll fit. What's the third note? B natural.

And then? And then A D-D-D-D-A-F-sharp E. It couldn't be E on the C minor in 11, right? Probably F. E. I like G. B'bh-b-b-b-flat. Come on, come on.

Finish this line. And then I'm going to go. I'm finishing it. I'm finishing it for you. Because we're running out of time. B-ba. I'm going to end on. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.

There's no time. We did 57 jazz standards in one minute. We got plenty of time. And then I'm going to put a B-flat 7-Sus here. And then we're going to add... And then let's just play the bridge. Wait, what is this? We got dopeios going.

Wait, where's the bridge? Sorry, man, this computer is acting all slow because it's all plugged in. And I'm trying to finish this chart. Okay. I think we finished it. I got the last day... Two times through? Two times through.

Okay. Let me see it. Let's play it. Let's play it. I can't. It's not moving. We really wasted that first 20 seconds. Yeah, this is not moving. That's all right. Five. I'm unplugged on this, Caleb, for a second. All right, we got it. We got it. We're done anyway. Hold on. I'm going to plug it back in a minute, folks, but it just needs a minute because it's all messed up. Okay.

This is good, man. We got it, though. I finished putting the last eight. Oh, look. The timer's up. Okay. There's your bridge, buddy. There's your bridge, buddy. a bridge. Can't see it. Can you put that back on the screen, please? Okay.

Can we play it? Yeah. The whole thing or just the bridge? We're not allowed to fix it, huh? That's what happens. We got 30 minutes. That's what happens, man. All right.

All right, Kim, slacked it over to you. Go ahead and pull it up. Woo! From Moo to you. From moo to you. Look at that. It's not bad, man.

We definitely ripped some people off here. It's definitely, I know we both we're watching the Bob James tiny dust. Does it sound like Bob? Yeah. We might have written a Bob James tune, a bad Bob James tune, but a bad version of a Bob James tune. So put in the comments what you're hearing here. Who do we, what tunes do we write?

Well, let's play for. Well, yeah, there's a couple of spots I want to just hit real quick. So the bridge, that's awkward A.F. Is that what that says? Yeah. I like it. Wait a see. You play the melody and I'll play the chords.

Two, three, duh. Oh, I play the melody. One, two, three, and... Okay, I'll play the melody and you play the chords. And... I got it. Two, three, and... That's pretty good, actually.

That's better than I remember it. For being on fire when we wrote it. The only thing I would change would be like, rest. It would be way... Like breaking it up a little bit. Are we a lot? No, we can't do it. We can do that.

We can do that. We wrote it. All right, let's, let's play it. All right. I'm going to, let's just. I'm going to get the vibe going. Yeah, let's get the five going here. Here we go, here we go.

That's really nice. I'll let you one more time. One more time here. It's up.