You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Heavy Pianos

Episode Date: June 13, 2019

Peter and Adam answer a question about overcoming the different action strengths of pianos.Today's episode is sponsored by Soundslice. Soundslice is a web-based music-learning software that is a hybrid audio player and notation viewer that syncs music notation with real audio. To find out more about them, visit www.soundslice.com. And check out our Slice of Emotion In Motion (the You'll Hear It Jingle)!Be one of the first 20 people to leave us a rating or review at https://www.youllhearit.com/sticker and you can score a FREE You'll Hear It sticker.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. How's up? How much can you lift? About 225. Good day. 225 pianos? Yeah. Nice. Yeah. I'm Adam Manist. And I'm Peter Martin. You're listening to the You'll Hear Podcast. Daily Jazz advice coming at you. Coming at you today. Today's episode is brought to you by SoundSlice.

Our brand new sponsor, we love SoundSlice. We use them here at Open Studio every single day. Almost all of our courses have some kind of sound slice on them. We love to transcribe with it. Go to SoundSlice.com. Check out our version of our theme song, Emotion Emotion and Motion by the wonderful Peter Martin here on yesterday's lesson, and you could see exactly the music as it's playing the track. It's incredible. And then check out all the other things that Sounds Lice has. The community, the Slices.

It's all good. Yeah. So why don't we get that emotion and motion in the community there? Can we do that? It's done. Oh, it's done. It's done, buddy. Oh, we'll go check out the community.

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crazy but it's just it's such a delight to use the player the elegance of it and it does somewhere you can transcribe with it you can actually no time with it. Exactly. And it's, I mean, they're very much, like, and it's also an online browser-based notation. Yeah, it's not software that you have to download. And we've seen that develop over the last year and a half or so to an amazing level. So it's

always getting better. And we're very proud to be associated with them, both on the podcast and at Open Studio. Yeah, buddy. Okay. So that's soundslice.com. Soundslice.com. Yep. All right, today we have a question from an email. This is from Rick. Rick, Rick asks. I've been playing in London full time for about 12 years now, and I'm lucky to have a Yamaha grand at home for the last three. My chops are pretty decent, I'd say, but occasionally I play a nine-foot grand that just kicks my ass,

and I lose so much facility and volume. It's usually the Steinways. Yamaha's usually feel like home to me. Do you and Peter have any advice on how to deal with this? It's a horrible feeling to feel like you're waiting through, I don't know what that word is. Treacle? Triacle.

Triacal. I don't think that's a word. I don't either. Are there any specific outside? exercises for this does working out your back help many thanks Rick well I mean you could work out your legs you can do shoulder day yeah oh tria trache treacle that's called that's how you say it I'm looking it up in the it's a real word yeah it's British term for molasses oh so we got lost in the lift elevator conundrum kind of thing that's right all right treacle's like molasses well that

makes sense yeah I mean this is this is sometimes you encounter especially with bigger piano, some that can maybe be a little bit sluggy. You've got to be in good shape for sure. Yeah. And I wonder if, you know, there's the idea of the action being very heavy, we typically say, or, yeah, as I would say,

not weighted, that's more like with the keyboard, but just heavy or tough. Tough, yeah. But I think he's talking about specifically the piano and the amount of energy we have to put it in to kind of harness the sound, I think. But there's both different things because you could have a, you know,

nine foot Steinway or Yamaha or anything, a big piano that has a very light action, actually. And maybe that wouldn't feel as much as treacle to. I'm so excited about my new word now. This is actually really great. No, you know what, though, this is a difference because sometimes, a lot of times it can be action, and it's not just how heavy it is,

but it could be how deep it is, maybe it's way too deep, you know, and that can be a problem, that the key literally takes longer to hit the bottom. Right, and that's like a regulation issue. It's a regulation issue. Sometimes it could be the soundboard in that it's your piano at home.

Also, you're in great conditions at home, right? You're in a little room with a smaller piano and it feels fast. The sound comes out fast and is controllable. Sometimes you're in a bigger room with a bigger piano. And if it's not a great loud piano, you can feel like you're really trying to push to get the sound out here.

There's, you know, obviously you can practice to get more chops to get stronger. Yeah. We like to do, I think for me, man, the exercise that you, you showed me is the the one three one three one two three chromatic scale um it's a great exercise uh rick it's just literally the chromatic scale using your thumb and your third finger and then anytime there are two white keys in a row it's your third and your second finger so that you're really

working out these larger muscles that'll kind of help with some strength make sure to be playing every day but then other than that man i would say actually you have to kind of use your imagination on some of this stuff sometimes. And you have to lighten up. And you have to have your fingers in the keybed, not trying to push, not trying to slam, and let it come to you as opposed to going to it. I totally agree.

And I actually think that the better the sound and condition of an instrument, if you're doing it right, it should be the less work you're having to do. So if you do what you're saying in terms of really working with the instrument, then it should be less energy you're putting out. Now, that is certainly tempered with the very valid concept of the larger the instrument,

the more power it has. And so potentially to be able to harness that power in the way that you want to, the more sort of strength and agility you need to have. But I think the quality of it, that's where, you know, if you can tap into that, which is sort of based upon the feedback you're getting in terms of how it's sounding as you play, So to your point of like different rooms and stuff, that could have a huge effect on that. For sure.

But if the feedback of the sound that you're getting and you're able to control the instrument kind of within the range of what you're trying to get to sound, then you really shouldn't be getting as tired, I think. So that's why I'm wondering if this isn't a little bit of an action thing that Rick in UK in London is more used to that Yamahaaw action than a Steinway. And I think, you know, in general, there's nothing wrong.

Look, these are Yamahaaw makes some amazing pianos. Steinway makes some amazing pianos. These are, you know, truly great companies, Ghazoli, Bowes and Darm, we know all the Kranek and Bach sitting right here by us. I don't know if I would include that in the list. Yeah, but, you know, we want to, we want to stay away from just playing on one instrument as much as we can, I think, because you do get used to that, and that becomes like your skill set to be able to control an instrument. It's so much based around that instrument, and you're not always going to have that. We are not violinists or trumpet players or floutists that could always have our instrument.

And even they will tell you, though, when they get in different halls and stuff, if you're, You're a floutist that. I just like to say that works. I'm so good at it. Floutist. A lot of people say flutist. But yeah, it does. And it makes it feel like the instrument's different

and everything. But they know that they're on their instrument. Like for us, it's always like, wow, it's a new instrument. But we got to have that flexibility. So I would recommend to you, Rick in London, is working to your practice routine, maybe a friend's house or a studio. You know, someone you can rent a studio.

I actually had a million dollar idea. I'd be happy to give it away to all. You'll hear it listeners. Which is like an app. It's almost like it would be like an Airbus. and B kind of app, but for practicing the piano. We have all these people with great pianos, especially in a city like London. All right.

Let's trademark that already. Andrew, check that out if that's a valid idea. Idea of so, this will never get heard. Yeah, yeah. No, but it's like people are going to work all day, and they have these beautiful panels that are sitting there. Out of work, jazz musicians just want to sit around playing a great piano all day. So some kind of system where you go in and for a couple bucks.

I'll be honest. You'd have to pay me a lot of money to let me let a jazz musician in my house when I'm not there. I've just known too many jazz editions. No offense. You're saying they wouldn't be using the piano. It'd be more like using the bar situation or whatever else. It's a whole host of issues. I think it could be worked out somehow.

Yeah, but maybe you have a friend. Maybe you have a school. And this is not about going to get better pianos. You've got to be comfortable. It's just different, you know, a little bit of practice on different pianos. I think our flexibility, we've talked about this before, comes from sort of being forced to do that all through. I mean, certainly when you're in school and whatever.

Just what you have to deal with. I mean, you'll get to an important gig, and oftentimes the piano is not ideal, you know? Right. Or it's not even there. Or it's not even there. And you just have to learn how to deal with it, and it sucks, but it's part of the game. You know what I mean? That's what we don't have to bring our own stuff, which is nice, but then we have to deal with whatever's there.

Part of it, though, Rick, is a little bit, I think, in your head as far as just like, don't feel like you have to push. If there's an opportunity to have, you know, the sound in a monitor, which is not always the case, but in clubs or theaters, it's a case, make sure you can hear yourself so that you're not overplaying. You know, if there's no monitor situation, I remember Sean Jones talked about this, about playing with pop bands and R&B bands that like, you know, the horns are usually the quietest thing on stage compared to like the electric bass and the drums, right? So you have to use some imagination that you are louder than you are so that you don't overblow. And it's the same thing. I think about this all the time. Because oftentimes, you know, especially if we're acoustic piano and there's drums and it's

the situation where there's not great sound. Yeah. You know what I mean? We will have to use our imagination and deal with it. Absolutely. And just not overplay. Keep it light. Keep in the keys. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, if you're playing any nine foot piano in even moderately good condition and, because I think you said loose facility and volume, you're not losing as much volume as you think you are. No. I mean, the way that the piano is positioned, the way the sound comes out,

depending on the room and stuff, but on a nine foot versus like a six foot or even a smaller like Baby Grand is not that different sometimes to the pianist, but out in the hall or to the other people on stage, it's very different. So you have to kind of trust the instrument, depending on if you play an acoustic, if you have a sound engineer, you have to kind of trust the sound engineer or go check it or have somebody doing that. Truth. But yeah, the sound is there for sure. Cool. Well, again, today's episode was brought to you by SoundSlices. Go to SoundSlic.com and follow this link here that we've put in the description to check out our SoundSlics version of emotion emotion that you hear it theme

step it do but do bit do bit do bit do bit do bit that's how it goes hey you know what give us a rating and review too we like those man why have we been off the rate we've actually got can I read one can I share one I know you'd like to well I mean only if you'll let me okay good um um maybe we don't have any oh yeah we do here we go okay this is uh the title of this is the seven star review yeah that's cocky right there this is an A7 star I mean that's cool yeah this is from just a couple days ago. It's better be good. Yeah. As a classical musician and composer looking to diversify my

intellectual diet, this podcast is perfect. Not only do I get to spend quality time listening to great jazz, the podcast is stimulating and keeps my mind open to different sounds, ideas, and philosophies. I'm grateful that my friend recommended this podcast to me, and I continuously pay it forward recommending it to those who will give it a chance by C.L. Thomas Music from the USA. Thank you so much, C.L. And yeah, if any of you guys, if it's upon your heart pay it forward and and share this on Twitter, the Internet's, Instagram, Snapchat, wherever you want to share it. Whatever. Share it.

Share it. Share it on the YouTube's wherever you want, man. It's all good. We love it. Yeah. We love it. Totally. You'll hear it.

Tomorrow. You'll hear it. You'll hear it. Still rusty. Still rusty. Put that one on the old. You want me to go into the Catalyst Lounge and we can go remote. No, no.

That's harder. Put that one Andrew on the bloopers. This too. Yeah. Put it all in the bloopers.