You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - How to Absorb What You Transcribe

Episode Date: March 25, 2019

Peter and Adam answer a listener's question today about how to transfer skills you learn from transcribing over to your performances.The ending theme song for today's episode is "BMX Bandit" by Shannon Stitt. To get your music featured on You'll Hear It, send an MP3 recording of your music to [e-mail]'s episode is sponsored by the Oxford American. The Oxford American is a magazine dedicated to documenting the complexity and vitality of the American South. Its award-winning annual music issue comes with a CD sampler and digital download - a must-have for any serious music fan. Recent issues have featured Nina Simone, Thelonious Monk, John Cage, and John Cage. Visit https://www.oxfordamerican.org/yhi today for a special subscription discount!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, Pete. Hey, man. Did you ever go to prom but on a BMX bike? No, but I was at prom during that era. Send me an angel. Send me an angel. You'll hear it. I'm Adam Ennis.

And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear it podcast for some reason. Daily Jazz advice. Coming at you. Why are we singing, send me an angel? Yeah, why are we talking about BMX biking and all things late 80s prom? I'll tell you why. It's because we've been having, using.

are sending in tracks that Andrew then puts at the end of the shows. Today's track is by Shannon Stitt, and it's called BMX Bandit, and I was reminiscing about one of my favorite movies from childhood, the movie Rad, which was pretty much Karate Kid on BMX bikes. How did I miss that one? There's a

scene where the lead character and his date to prom, played by, by the way, Aunt Becky, who's now in a bunch of hot water for... Oh, she is. Yeah, yeah. And Becky might be going to the slammer soon. They dance at prom on their BMX bikes to real life's classic 80s. ballad send me an angel. Wow. Yeah. See, you're a few years behind me because that

movie, you know, like those kind of movies, you have to be an exact age. They don't span like 10 years. Oh yeah, it doesn't hold up at all. Yeah. No, because I'm, I was more like fast times at Ridgemont High, 16 candles. No, when I was six, man, I thought rad was the raddest. Yeah. It was great. I was at that time I was actually on a BMX bike, uh, competitively racing in my neighborhood. Really? Yeah. But not dancing at prom? Maybe a little dancing at prom, but not on a BMX Bandit. Well, shall we get into the episode? Yes.

All right. Well, today's episode is sponsored by the Oxford American for some reason. The Oxford American is a magazine dedicated to documenting the complexity and vitality of the American South. It's award-winning annual music issue comes with a CD sampler and digital download. It's a must-have for any serious music fan. That is true. Recent issues have featured Nina Simone, Thelonious Monk, John Cage, and John Coltrane.

Visit Oxfordamerican.org. slash YHI today. That's OXHFERAmerican.org. forward slash YHI. There's some good deals there for you'll hear. There are some good deals and they're limited time. So you're going to want to jump on that while you can. Get on it. And okay, so today's topic is appropriately titled.

Well, they're always appropriately titled because that's what you do. Some more than others. This is how to absorb what you transcribe. But this is flowing from a listener question, right? Yeah, this is from a friend of the show Elias. He says, hey, Peter and Adam. Elijah Sweet Lips Smith. I think that's some kind of inside joke,

writing to you from Porto Vallarta, Mexico. Enjoying the podcast, especially the cringeworthy bantered, which is the best part. Agreed. My question is about transcription. What are some effective ways to get the language we transcribe into our improv? I've transcribed dozens of solos,

including some by you two gentlemen. Thank you very much. Big mistake. But very little of that material seems to come out organically in my playing. How do I turn transcription into real language? not just licks. Okay.

But then he writes back again. So he really wants to know... It was like a preemptive answer to his own question. I know. I like it. Kind of like, how do I sound like the masters without just regurgitating their licks?

Like, how do I get that sound? When I think he talked about, he saw Jeff Kieser's new course that we just released, advanced jazz piano, and he gets into this a lot. He has a whole lesson on it. He has a whole lesson

and just some great concepts. But I would just say, you know, the first thing is, listen, of course, but I think that we, the whole concept of of how to absorb what you transcribe is a little bit different

but connected to how do you get what you've absorbed into your playing. I think if you absorb, and so I'd rather talk about like how to absorb what you transcribe because I think if you do that, it will come. I'm a big believer in that it will come out in your playing. not in an inorganic way, which is like just playing licks,

but it will come out in a very organic way. Now, the thing about that is it doesn't come out as quickly. If you learn a solo, or let's say you started to learn a solo and you've just learned like one chorus, you've already got a couple licks and you're excited. Then you go on the gig and you're like, okay, next time I see a B-flat 7, I'm going to use this lick because that was one of the ones that I learned in that solo.

So it doesn't become any less organic or authentic than to do it that way. And it's just really of not much use. You're not really developing your ears. You're not developing your storytelling ability. You're not developing your connection with the really deep listening kind of and deep understanding of a solo that we can get and then parse through slowly and have it affect our own concept of our music. So I think that we shouldn't worry as much. And I want to encourage folks not to worry as much how it's going to come out and kind of just trust and let that happen and put your energy into really. really learning and absorbing the solo in the right way and putting yourself in the best position

to be able to just then have it come out naturally. And then you just kind of let the magic happen. That's right. It's kind of like training for a marathon or something in that, you know, you have to trust the process. You know, you go through doing these different things and, you know, preparing, maybe doing some weight training, maybe doing some speed work, maybe some tempo runs, all these different things. And then when the race day comes, you got to kind of put all that to the side, you know, and just go out and run as fast as you can.

for that amount of time, you know. And, but then the great thing is when the process all kind of works. So it's not a matter of like, okay, now I have to use the technique that I learned when I was doing my speed work or whatever. It's a part of you. So how does that sound? We can talk about the first part, right? No, that sounds great.

And I think, you know, to that point, maybe towards the second part about learning, you know, this kind of what I, what I gathered for that second part was like the style of the masters, right, of whoever you're into, say that's Bud Powell, which is someone he references, without just playing a bunch of Bud Powellicks, if you absorb it fully in the right way and you're really listening a lot and deeply and you're transcribing those transcriptions and that listing should give you clues

to a color palette of rhythm and harmony and melody and form that those masters used that could come out. You know what I mean? And that way, if I understand sort of the language of Bud Powell's phrasing and its harmonic thing, like he never would do this on that, you know, then I have that sort of color without just playing as licks.

Yeah, you know what I mean? I have that in my arsenal. Yeah. And I think that's important, whether that's Bud Powell or Chick-Koree or whoever you're into. Like there's a vibe they create that is just as important as learning the actual notes is what they play. Yeah. Yeah. They would, you know, they would always, not always, but they would often do this in this situation.

They use this kind of form. You know, they use this kind of chord changes. Like those, I think, are as important as learning the actual solo. Yeah. And I think it's important that we remember that. that it's the process that's the most important. So what we're talking about here, you know, in terms of the end result,

how it gets into your playing, how it's manifested in your actual playing, is really not that important. And I know that's hard for people to accept because it's so much work. I mean, it's probably the most labor-intensive part of a jazz practice regimen, potentially, to learn solos by ear.

I mean, it can be very frustrating It can take a lot of time. I mean, you can do a lot of work and only get, you know, it's like digging ditches. That's why it's the most rewarding, though, is because it is so time-consuming an hard. But it's like that process. So even if you only learn one measure, what that does to your ears. And then at the end result, when you've got the whole solo, you know, kind of being. And we've talked about this before.

It's very important once you've learned a solo that you don't then go run and say, let me break it into Licks and apply them to situations. The whole point of knowing the whole solo is now you can really play along with the recording. and really absorb the whole thing. Now you don't have to go measure by measure or phrase by phrase because you've got it. Now is the time to really absorb the feel of it. Because that's another thing.

I mean, it's not just the Licks. I mean, we talk about Freddie Freelot or solo so much, not because it's so much better than any other Winton Kelly solos. It's just an iconic soul that a lot of people know in reference, but you could go to almost any Winton Kelly solo and get the feel. And that's one of the most important things about that. It is the most important thing.

When you transcribe anything, it's the feel and the sound that that musician produces. I mean, we can play the same thing. as Keith Jared a voicing or whatever but he has a knack for this feel that you don't get unless you're actually playing along with the record right you could read it from a paper

from a newspaper from like you could get a transcription off the internet and just read it and try to and you understand I guess maybe some music theory behind it that's what people think is the thing but it's really not it's how he plays that chord

and being able to replicate that is only done by playing along with the record and then you get more of their stylistic tendencies, more of their sound and super important part. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So I think that, you know, in terms of what are some effective ways to get the language we transcribe into our improv, just some tactical things as you're learning it. Make sure you're learning phrase by phrase.

And then, you know, chorus by chorus or however the solo is structured. I mean, chorus by chorus is kind of a way to learn it and to structure it that's musical. But once you start learning that, you want to. really think about like what I mean a solo improvisation is a composition or at least it can be compared to a composition in that you want to understand I remember when I was you know playing a lot of classical music growing up and then even well I haven't been doing it recently it's something I really want to get back into but I remember the mentality of like learning say a Beethoven sonata it can be so overwhelming because there's so many notes and you want to have it you have to have

it memorize and you're going to perform it and on the one hand it's easier in some ways than playing jazz because the notes are there so you can just play them but on the other hand it's like you got to learn all those notes those thousands of notes be able to play them in the right order and everybody knows well a lot of the people know the piece yeah and then what do you do if you get lost and all that so it's like you have to start understanding it from a musical and concept you got to break it down not measure by measure a line by line because it's just too overwhelming that's right but you have to break it down by musical concept so it's the same thing with an improvisational solo so even as you're learning it note by note by note and look we have to do a note by note a lot because you're trying to

hear what's going on, especially when you're just learning how to do this. But you want to be able to first hear those complete phrases so that you can make some sense out of it. And then things we've talked about before are being able to sing the whole solo, listening to it a lot away from your practice so that you really know it before you even start. That's going to help so that when you transcribe it. And then I would say too in terms of, I don't know, what's your feeling about writing it out versus not writing it out? I do it if it's something that I really want to analyze. I might write it out if it's something. or something I want to remember and come back to.

You know what I mean? Yeah. It's the last part of the process and the one that I usually skip, you know, if I'm on to something else. It's definitely not mandatory for getting this kind of, you know, language and absorption of feel into your playing, you know, to kind of transfer over. But I think it's good.

I mean, you could think about doing it like, like maybe one out of four solos or something. Yeah, I would say. Because you don't want to get bogged down. I have come back to solos I've written out and been like, oh, yeah, I remember that voicing. And then it kind of became a part of my playing because I remembered it. Right.

You know, anyway. I don't know if that's the most important part. Actually, I'm thinking now, I haven't written out one out. I mean, I've learned a bunch of solos, but probably like one out of ten or something I've written out. Same. Because you get so bogged down. And then, like, for me, I get to be kind of like a perfectionist when it comes to that. And that's a horrible thing to be a perfection in because you can never get it.

You can't represent the way somebody's playing something entirely accurate, rhythmically or dynamic. I mean, you can get close and then you just get frustrated when it's not quite right. Yeah. So, yeah. Well, thanks, Elias. Yes. Sweet lips. Sweet lips.

for the question. I hope you're having fun in the sun in Portovaliata. That's right. I was remembered on that show. Now you're going to, now I've got to start finding things that you're too young to remember. I got to go back further in the 80s.

Oh, yeah? The love boat. I remember. I mean, it was on Reruns when I was a kid. Oh, yeah. Re runs doesn't count. Doesn't count. I watched every episode.

I think that counts. No, I remember it on Saturday night, ABC, Fantasy Island and Love Boat. That was two hours well spent. Should have been shedding. But anyway, they used to always stop and Porte Variaartan. I was like, man,

this is such a beautiful farm. off land, you know. Hey, Pete. Yeah. Did you know that for a limited time you'll hear it listeners can subscribe to the Oxford American for only $25. I did know that. Visit Oxfordamerican.org

forward slash YHA to subscribe today. Can't be happy enough with our sponsor here, our charter sponsor. I can be happy enough. I'm very happy. Why can't you be happy? Sorry. Can't be any happier. Can't be any happier.

Man, I'm hungry. When's lunch? Exactly. All right. Well, good. Do we have, oh, yeah, we've got. Shannon Stitt's BMX Bandit. That's right.

It feels like hours ago, we talked about that. It was the big buildup, right? That's right. You'll hear it.