You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - How To Fix Boring Solos

Episode Date: September 16, 2020

There's nothing worse than a solo that puts the audience (or you!) to sleep. Today, Peter and Adam show you how to put some life into your solos.Interested in more music advice? Go here to browse our catalog of jazz lessons and courses available for purchase. And be sure to check out our All Access Pass - every course from Open Studio on every instrument.Wednesday's Open Studio Live Events:1:00 PM - Adam's Daily Guided Practice Session (for Members Only)3:00 PM - Edu Ribeiro's Drum Conversations and Q&A on YouTube8:00 PM - Peter Martin + Sullivan Fortner | Duo Concert & Conversations on YouTubeFor the rest of this week's calendar, follow this linkLet us know what you think by leaving a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, or head over to our YouTube channel.Follow us on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hey, Peter. Hey, how do I not be so boring? Um, oh, I'm so bored with this question already. Come on, man, I just need an answer. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear a podcast. Music advice, life advice, and other good things coming at you. He's improvising the tagline again, folks.

I am. I am. I am. Are we going to be daily coming at them soon? We're talking about it. If we can get our schedules together, you know what it is? We're in here in this beautiful podcast. It's sweet. Legitimately gorgeous right now. Right.

But we've got this plexiglass. We've got precautions. We take temperature before we come in. Mass and everything. So it takes a lot of energy. And then we get in here and we have not been able to pump out the number that we used to be able to. But we've been feeling a little bit inspired, right? I think we're set up now, man.

We are. I think like everything is ready to go. The stars have aligned. And I think we can honestly knock some stuff out. So we might talk about going back to five days a week. Let us know what you think. And yeah, today we're sponsoring. by Open Studio, go to Open Studio Jazz.com to check out all of our jazz lessons.

And today we are talking about how to not be so boring. That's right. With our solos. Yeah. And, you know, we're talking about fixing boring solos. Really, you want to be proactive about this and maybe not play a boring solo from the beginning. Yeah, don't start boring and you won't end up boring. Right.

But the idea is that I know a lot of folks feel like, you know, we hear this all the time. This used to happen to me all the time. I don't think any improvising musician has not gone through this stage for longer than they would have wanted when you hear back what you're playing and you're like, wow, that's so boring. Or you'll look out the audience as you're solo and they are going to sleep or bored or playing on their phone or any other way that you might find out or have an inkling that what you're playing may not be quite as exciting as it should be. Do you ever catch yourself in the middle of a solo being like, I'm so bored with my. self right now. Well, not really, but I think that's probably, you know, if you are feeling bored, you know, like, it's possible that you can be excited and engaged and your soul still sounds boring. But if you're bored, it's very easy to fake the flunk at that point. So you've got to find a way,

we have to find a way always to be engaged. And it's, and it's not about like bells and whistles and like just crazy random stuff flying around in your soul. That's not the way to get out of the boredom thing. But I think a certain level of concentration for sure and commitment to yourself not being bored is the starting point. Actually, that's a great way to start this episode because you think about it, we can really start with what not to do. And I like your idea of not going,

whether musically or not, if you were bored in real life, if you're talking to a friend and you're bored, would you just be like, Like a circus. Probably not. So what would you do if you were bored? You would probably change the conversation, probably do a whole host of things in real life

that you could probably apply to the bandstand. But that's not what we're starting with because we always know that when we have to have a list, number one needs to be. Make a list. What? No. Oh, no.

What is it again? Listen. Oh, listen, of course. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So this is like, this is part of the preemptive, proactive side of this. you want to be listening to great solos that are not boring.

And there is like any great solo, and look, yeah, we know great subjective to a certain degree. But, you know, a great solo that's edifying to the listener is not, it's by its very nature, not boring. Because it's like an interesting story that somebody tells. A great book, a great novel, a play, you know, any kind of artistic work from something as small as a one-minute solo up to a four-hour movie or whatever. It doesn't mean it's not slow or to some people that are not engaged enough. I might be like, oh, I'm bored with that. That doesn't mean what's there isn't boring. Hey, Peter, I'm bored.

I'm bored, man. Yeah. But, I mean, you want to be engaging from a listening standpoint with things that are not boring. So it's really easy to do. Just listen to great solos that you like. And you want to always be thinking about the many things, the myriad of techniques that that soloist uses to keep from far. into like that boring kind of doldrums. Well, I'll just add here, and we briefly mentioned this on our previous episode

when we did our live on YouTube that was very much not boring. Oh, my God, it was so exciting. It was like, it was like. Mondays at 4 p.m. Eastern. That's right, yeah. Lenny and Squiggy. Come down. Balky and cousin Larry.

No, one thing that I'll just add to that about listening is, and we talked about this then, is really try to challenge yourself to like not just go back to the solos that you know are great. I mean, definitely always hit up older music and music that you have a strong connection with. But challenge yourself to mix in new things that actually challenge your ears and challenge your sense of what, you know, what you already know, right? We always want to be growing. Think about that beginner's mind that's so crucial when we're learning and we're discovering things. And you're excited and like you can't even imagine being bored because you're so engaged. You might not know how to play a good solo, but you know how to, you might not know how to not play a boring solo,

but you know how to find and listen to a not boring. So that's where it really starts. So be an explorer. Be an explorer. Be a discoverer of things as you're listening to all your regular. Be the veritable gulliver of... The Magellan. The Magellan.

That's right. I love number two here. What do you got? Okay. Number two on our way to fix boring solos is always remember, you can't go backwards. Like on the meta level. as far as your inner soul, if you start out with a boring phrase,

don't go back and try to fix it. You can't because you can't go back in time. You really can't go forwards too far either. Exactly. You got to be in the moment. I mean, that's both the exciting thing and the challenging thing about playing this music.

But you can sort of be thinking, you know, proactively about that next phrase that you're going to be doing and how you're going to develop it. And the idea is also like as you're learning to develop your overall craft, don't think about,

or wallow in like listening to a recording you have from the gig last night where you're like, you're playing so boring the whole time. Don't sit around and listen to that. When we say number one listen, we're like, do not listen to that. So you got to put it behind you and say, okay, you know what? That's what I did. I was boring last night, but I'm not going to be boring today. So you always have to be thinking of the next gig, the next solo, the next phrase, not looking backwards.

And, you know, so that you can continue to have cohesion in your solo, you can't get discouraged by the thing that you just play. and say, oh, I'm going to keep playing boring because I started out boring. You've always got the chance to reinvent yourself. Every solo, every phrase, every measure, every beat is an opportunity to become a new, better you. Well, and you know, the flip side of this, too, is you can be boring if you had a great night the night before

and you are looking back to that. Right. If you're like, oh, I played so killing last night, I'm just going to do that again. That can get really boring for your audience. And you're going to bore yourself. It's not going to be as fresh. It's not going to be in the moment, right?

You're trying to recreate something that was good. So if you're trying to, if you're grasping at something or if you're pushing away from something, either way. Yeah. If you're looking backwards,

it's not, it's not what made that night great, you know? No, it was the moment. It was the air, the audience, the you. And I think, too, like, and I can't remember

what is the phrase, you're only as good as your last solo? Yeah. I would turn that on his head and say, you're only as good as your next solo, buddy. What have you done for me lately? Come on, come on, exactly.

Ooh, yeah. Okay. I love number three, too. Live a passionate life so that you have an interesting story to tell in your solo. Boring life equals boring solos. Yeah. You know what? I think this is absolutely so true. Have you ever done anything just for the story?

Just because you're like, well, this is going to be, this is going to suck. It's going to be a damn good story when we're all through this. That's having that love of life, that explores mentality, as we said, that you need to have. I mean, it may seem totally unrelated to music, but it's not. Like, you have to be optimistic and adventurous and all of these things if you want that same kind of spirit in your playing. Because if you think about exciting solos, and that's why it's so important when we talk about listen, it's like, don't just listen to great non-boring souls, but think about what makes them great. Think about what the specific things within the craft of the solo. How are these ideas being developed that keeps it from being boring?

Because, I mean, fixing a boring solo, we're not talking about. talking about like there's a lot of things we have to fix in our plane and by fix we even talk about just working on you know your time your your intonation your you know sense of of of of feel and all these different things understanding the form but in terms of like a boring solo an exciting solo those are things that we can focus in on just like we focus in on those other elements and and but you have to have when it comes down to it if you're going to play over a blues or like you're not always going to have like the coolest change. to play over and like you can't be the kind of player that's like oh I don't I play exciting

solos when everything's perfect like if I have the best rhythm section and I've got the best piano and I get no you have to be able to like pull out something exciting no matter what or just real and true and interesting yeah not even exciting but even if it's depressing but something that's like you have you know it seems like you have knowledge of this is why it's so interesting people like Joey Alexander right yeah it's not that he's just a great technical piano player. For some reason, he seems like he's 40 years old sometimes. Even when he talks, you're like, are you more mature than I am?

Exactly. But it seems like, you know, that gives him this realness when he plays. That's why he's, it's not because he's like this. I mean, he is an amazing technical pianist, but that's not the reason why people have freaked down about him. Right. And that's oftentimes easier to get to that kind of, you know, technical proficiency at a young age.

I mean, it's freakish sometimes. But, I mean, to also kind of have an outlook on the world and to live, on whatever look, when you're 15, 16 years old, living a passionate life is different than when you're 50 or 40. But, you know, being able to do that. And I think, you know, there's so many things love and laughter and adventure, like all the different elements of life that we go through. If you don't live it, it's going to be very hard for it to come out in the music, I think.

I had a really funny friend like two decades ago. This record came out. I won't say what record it was, but it was on Blue Note. I'll say that much. It came out. And we listened to the whole thing one afternoon. And my friend goes, this is a big. boring music for boring people.

So don't be a boring person. Oh, that's great. Number four. Number four. Oh, we're doing this as a list, right? Oh, we do have some notes here. Yeah. Okay.

Okay, this is kind of a tactical way to fix up boring solo proactively as you go. Start simple and develop just one great idea. Yeah. This is tried and true mythology. Methodology. It's not mythology. It's methodology. It's like create a list and then just talk about it.

Yeah, exactly. idea, just keep going. Yeah, and so sometimes people get tripped up on this because they're like, oh, if it's simple, it's boring. Oh, no. O contrairema frere, as they say in a pa. Giant steps is boring, buddy. Exactly, exactly. So, well, God's Suprem is boring.

That's not simple, though. Giant Steps. You're kind of messing up the thing here. But yeah, Love Supreme. Well, no, actually, Giant Steps, it's just these movements in major thirds. That's a very simple idea. What a genius. Yeah, pulling it off.

This is easy for Adam Maness. I'm just saying. Shall we do a giant steps off again? I don't have time. But yeah, so start simple. For sure. And the hardest thing with this is if it gets in your head that like you've been listening to yourself and you're like, wow, I'm such a boring player. And look, remember, everybody goes through this where you hear yourself.

Especially I would say for pianists, this can be a problem because it's such a great instrument, but there's a little bit, there can be a lack of personality and personalization inherent in the instrument that's right. a trumpet player would not fall prey to as easy. Like a trumpet, you can always be like, and that's not boring. Well, but what we, I think we fall in the pattern of that us, and guitar players fall in this too, and maybe drummers to a certain extent

is we can run our fingers over our instrument. Right, right. And that can be the death-nar good solo. That is when it becomes, not like that. Okay. Well, we just know. That was excited. So we talked about this again in our life,

but sing what you play so that you're not just, you know. Sing for your supper. Yeah, baby. Yeah, that's a different one. Exactly. No, like, you know, that's making me start simple.

I can't. I can't sing anything too complicated because I'm not a great singer. You know what I mean? So it's like, I have to sing something simple. It's a great way to start. Yeah, and so, yeah, just remember that it's going to go against the grain and it's going to be hard. It's kind of like, you know, when you, you know,

it's like stuff that I'm learning in terms of like my running and my training with that that's counterintuitive. of like you have to put a lot of miles in very slow in order to actually run fast. Yeah. 80% of your miles need to just be like easy pace. Yeah. And your tendency is to push and be like,

I want to get faster, so I got to run faster. Same with this. I want to do something that's an exciting solo, so I got to play something exciting. I don't even want to know what your pace is for slow because I'm sure it's embarrassing compared to my fast pace.

No. What's your slow pace? Be honest. My, I mean, it varies because I do it by effort, but it's generally like nine minutes a mile, nine and a half minutes. It can go up to 10 minutes. That's,

that's my, I'm trying to get fast pace. Yeah, but that's the thing. So you got to stop, you got to stop thinking about trying to get fast. You got to just relax in. And then you got to do some speed. We'll talk about that on the other podcast.

On our running podcast? Yeah, the one that's... We should do a running mindfulness podcast. It'd be great. Yeah. Cool. Well, thanks, everybody. I love these, man.

You know, I love a list episode. We'll be back at it. You know what? We'll be back at it tomorrow. Whoa, whoa. Look at him. He just threw it out. And look, he's looking at me.

He's living a passionate. No, you know what? Actually, by the time, Peter, by the time this episode airs, we'll have already been daily. Come on now. I'm going to tell you how after we... Okay.

Okay, well, we got a couple of things real quick. Email us. We've been getting some great emails. Y.H.I. at Open Studio Jazz. I have another list of things. Housekeeping. You don't even know about this.

But you can email us. This comes directly to Adam and I, I think. Do you get these emails? We do. Y.H.I. At Open StudioJazz.com. Y.I means you'll hear it. And how about give us a rating review?

We've been kind of falling out. I decided what we're going to do in order to get more ratings and reviews. We're going to give a shout out for every single person that gives us a rating review. How exciting is that? That's not boring, is it? And I mean, that could be a lot if we start getting thousands of them. We're going to be sitting in here.

So hit us up. And we did get one recently, even without us prodding. So a man true to his word, I'm going to say, read it. Okay? And give a shout out. So this is from Jeterfer. Jeterfer. I live five stars.

I live in Palestine and listen to jazz music since childhood. I know a lot of songs by heart, but now I sing, signed up to learn how to play the music. That's life-changing decision. I just want to express how grateful I am for the content you're offering. Hats off. That's so awesome. And I think we might have had one other one. No, that's it.

Oh, yeah. No, here's one more. And this is from Marama or Marama. Started first watching the Open Studio YouTube channel and didn't realize this was a separate podcast station from their YouTube. channel therefore great to have those extra these extra tips and nice to hear them conversing on different subjects around becoming a better jazz musician thoroughly recommend i needed more stars to make it to 10 stars 10 stars we were just requesting six at one point right seven five seven yeah i don't know i forget we haven't requested stars that's so long so give us a rating

review wherever you're consuming this podcast it really helps spread the word it's not just about boosting our egos it is a little bit but if you do we guarantee we'll give you a shout out how fun is that until tomorrow you'll hear it