You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - How to Handle Playing Badly

Episode Date: March 18, 2020

Sooner or later, it happens to everyone - you're on a gig, and you play something that totally sucks. Peter and Adam give advice on how to react when you find yourself in this situation.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.Let 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. Have you ever played badly? There was that... No, no. No, actually, no. Never. I'm Matt of Maness. I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to The You'll Hearer Podcast. Daily Music Advice. I was kidding in that intro. Why did we leave that in? I don't know.

Of course I played badly. I did it last night. No, you really didn't. Oh, stop now. You came and sat in on my Thurman's game, which I appreciate, man. It's always great hanging with you, but it's special when you get to play a little bit, too. It wasn't all great. It was some good things and some bad things. And that's what we're going to talk about today. Yeah, yeah.

Because it's all about how you handle. That's right. When life knocks you down, are you going to get up? I mean, think about any of the... Well, you know what? I'm getting ahead of ourselves here. That's right. Yeah, yeah.

So before we get ahead of ourselves, just know that this podcast is sponsored by Open Studio. If you want to support, go to Open Studiojazz.com and check out any of our courses. You know, we have courses priced from $17. What? All the way up to pretty expensive. Well, and I'm doing a little bit...

Exactly. Yeah, we have the Hyundai all the way up to... Oh, no. Mondays are expensive now, aren't they? Yeah, yeah. I saw a fancy Hyundai. We have like the Ford Fiesta, all the way up to like the Land Rover. The Tesla Cyber Truck.

Oh, the Tesla Cybertruck. Ugly A. Which is the Kieser Advanced Jazz Piano Concepts, essentially. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, I think we have a little something. And I'm doing a little bit of slow paradiddles because I've been thinking about our drum courses. We're always talking about the piano courses. Yeah, man.

How about a little, you know, brush mastery on that nice Greg Hutchinson. Mini course. Yeah. Man, there's some. I just like listening to it. I don't need to learn how to play brushes. Master those years ago. Man, it's awesome, isn't it?

But to hear Greg Hutchinson just lay it down, man. Dude. And the shapes, the overhead camera. Come on. What about watching Adieu Ribeau explain how to, like, swing your samba like a real Brazilian? Man, I could listen to that all day. Yeah. So, okay, cool.

So today we're talking about how to handle playing badly. And I wanted to put this on there because you did come by my gig last night. I thought I didn't play great for some of it. And I felt like, you know, there was a time where, if Peter Martin comes by my gig and I don't feel like I played my best, but I could have handled it in a way that was probably not the most productive, i.e., just drinking myself. Which, well, you know, we did anyway,

but that was part of the course for a Thursday night of thermans. No, seriously, though. But one of the things that I've tried to work on over the years and tried to grow at is realizing that we all have nights where we don't feel like we played our best. Sometimes it's just not there, man. It's human nature. we like to try to limit those as much as possible.

But when it does happen, when you don't feel like you hit everything that you could have hit or even that you were in the right frame of mind while you were playing, what can we take away from that so that we minimize that in the future, that we take a lesson and we can grow from that because we talk about that.

And it's easy to give lip service to this idea that when we're not at our best, it's time for growth or whatever. But like what are the actionable things that we can do to actually turn this around and turn it into a learning moment? Well, it's easy to give lip service to it because that's basically what this podcast is, giving lip service to these subjects. No, man, we're doing concrete ideas.

Yeah. Well, I think the first thing would be, and, you know, this is possibly a little bit advanced, but I think it's never too early to start thinking about it. But I think the best way to handle playing badly is nip it in the bud, so that's like as you're playing more on the meta-micro level, right? You're talking about awareness now. Yeah, awareness. And then, you know, I think the advanced part of it is you eventually get used to making adjustments all the way up to the point where I would say right before you're about to, quote unquote, play badly. I mean, there's definitely, I think, a point that you can get to just sort of with your understanding of the instrument and the music and your professionalism where you not only can't can't get out of just like a whole bad night. Like that you can't really do.

I mean, we'll say it's like, oh, I had a horrible night. But you can't actually do that that often, like where it's horrible to the last. listener into the other music where it's just unacceptable. Yeah, yeah. So we have to kind of, you know, frame it in terms of was it really, but like, like, just because you weren't executed on everything, if you're, if you're professional, you know, you're still doing the gig and getting through it, you know. Yeah, yeah. I think that, you know, we're probably both at a place where I thought I didn't play my best last night, but I doubt if anybody else but me noticed it. You know what I'm saying? And that's because of the work that I put in to get to that point. It becomes less

shades but I think as you're moving to that point you can already be kind of in that mindset where you know you as things do go south or things are not being executed the way that you want them you don't let it rattle you into like to devolve into this just like I mean to the point where it's debilitating for some people they can't even get through a tune or whatever because they're so so you have to go in with what I think at a minimum kind of mindset of like I'm going to execute on playing this tune and playing this gig all the actual pieces they go through it like I'm going to get through this. Now, that requires, you know, at a certain level of preparation. And depending on what the gig, if you're going to play, you know, second obo with the Chicago

symphony, you can't just show up and, like, hope that your mindset's right. Sorry, I just had a panic attack when you just said. I know. I was thinking, like, what would be the most stressful thing? It's even worse than, like, the first in a way. But, but I mean, yeah, so you have to, you know, preparation is key. Yeah, because you're sitting next to the first and they're going to vibe you the entire time. Yeah. And you got to be ready in case the first goes down with their part also. I have night sweats tonight. Yeah. But so I think that. But so I think that, you you, preparation obviously is key. And that's sort of the ultimate level, that kind of position.

But as jazz musicians, as whatever, I mean, this is for all musicians, know that when you prepare, you know, you put the pre in pen. No, you don't. No, but you prepare to a point, but you never, like, that can be. You prepare it before you play it. You pre it before you pair it. No, but, but you better grow a pair before you prepare it. Exactly. I think that no one, even the most prepared and mindset stricken person is ever like,

my biggest fault is I'm too prepared. There's still going to be doubt. There's still going to be something. So you have to go into it knowing that whatever your preparation from zero to 99.9.9 is not going to actually be enough. But that's okay. Yeah, yeah. You go in, we go in with a human element. And that's fine, you know.

And that's ultimately, I think what's going to keep you. I mean, you can never exceed what you can actually do by that much. I do believe that with concentration and even if, you know, whatever your preparation, your skill level, there's things with mindset and prayer and a lot of things that you can kind of exceed your limits, but it's within a range, you know? And the main thing is not even, that's not even so important. That's going to happen. Like, you're going to get inspired and be like, oh, my God, I can't believe what I just did.

That, you just have to allow that to kind of channel through you. but what you can control is not letting the lows kind of pull you down. So like when you start to dip, you're like be that on like a day by day basis, like on a tour. And then as you get more professional on a tune by tune and even measure by measure,

kind of phrase by phrase, you're like, I might dip a little bit, but I'm not going to dip for two, you know. And by dip, I just mean, like if you're improvising or, you know,

if you have a part to play, you're either playing it or not, you know, your accuracy level is what it is. But I mean, when you're improvising, it's very subjective. But you know,

like, can you listen and like, how closely are you executing to what you're hearing. So I think it's great that you start off with preparation because I think one of the things that was a turning point for me with this of getting out of my head as it's happening is being prepared that I'm not going to be 100% like it's not going to be easy all the time. Right.

Right. But being prepared that there's going to be some nights where for whatever reason, physically or whatever, I'm just not lining up the way I'd like to be. Yeah. And not being like, oh, I can't believe I'm not lining up the way I'd like to be. even though it keeps happening over the course of my lifetime and my career, right? Expect that some nights you're not going to line up with your body or your mind the way that you would like to be, and then have a plan for that.

You know, be prepared for those nights to happen and not get surprised by it. I've been reading a lot of stoic philosophers, right? And they, you know what I'm talking about? I'm all about the stoicism. Come on. Stoicism, amazing. Marcus Aurelius, where you at, brother. Seneca, my bro.

But so, you know, they preach this, like, negative visualization, which sounds like it's a, negative thing, but it's actually a very positive thing where you sort of picture kind of worst possible scenarios of good things you're about to do in an effort to prepare yourself when problems actually arise. Setbacks are always going to happen. You're going to be on a gig and the drummer's going to be drunk or, you know what I mean? Or you're going to, like, the piano's going to suck. Setbacks are going to happen. You cannot let those get in your head. Hold on. The pianos don't always suck. I mean, the drummer's always drunk. Yeah, but the piano, okay, sorry. No, no, no. The piano you're playing might sound. I know. That's what I mean. Oh, yeah.

That was a joke. Apparently wasn't funny. Oh, he's, he's, nobody's laughing. No one's no cares. All right. Well, email me at lack of humor at Open StudioJJ.com. See, you got to prepare. Some jokes aren't always going to land, but you are prepared for that.

So I, um, I love the stoic concept. I think it applies here beautifully. I love that you brought that up. I think, you know, not only expect the discomfort, expect the challenge, embrace it. For sure. That's like the, like that's where the magic starts to happen. So, yeah, when you, you expect it, that's kind of level one.

And then when you, you don't necessarily create it, but you know that it's coming. Yeah. So you're prepared for that too, but know that like that's when the ultimate diamond is, you know, by all the pressure is created. You know,

we don't want to just come in. And I think this applies, you know, I don't know about all kinds of music. And I always, we talk about jazz and classical a lot here because that's a lot of kind of what we do and what our training is. Yeah.

But, you know, everybody always wants them to talk about them being so diametrically opposed in terms of, And even like classical musicians and jazz musicians, classical musicians will be like, how do you guys, it's like improvise it's, I could never do that. It's such a different mentality. And we're always like, how do you read exactly what's on the page only and don't change it? Right, right.

But what I found is the reality is more shades of gray between those. Because I think that the great classical musicians, yes, they've got the notes to play. But they embrace the challenges and creating something special and overcoming things and not perfection. I mean, the most perfect pianist, classical pianists are not my favorites. And they're usually not the crowdfare. I mean, the ones that just execute precisely, but don't have that like... Shit's boring, man. The shit is boring, and they're not willing to go out on that ledge and maybe kind of, you know, and push and pull and stuff.

So I think it's more of just an attitude about music and the improvising or not is just a part of it. That's right. You know, going back to the Stoicism thing for just a second, I heard someone frame it in a way that was really, that spoke to me in that. you wouldn't be playing a video game and then you get to like the next level and you're like, okay, well there shouldn't be any problems with this level. This should be easier than what just happened. That's not

how that works. And what do we talk about? Let's go next level. And also that's a boring video game. You know what I mean? So like when you go to the next level, there's just going to be more challenges. And getting better doesn't mean necessarily that you're getting to the point where there's no hurdles or challenges. In fact, as we know, as we get older and

get wiser and better, there's actually more challenges, more money, more problems. I mean, big He was the truth. That's right. That's right. But it's true. And so if you're in, if you're going into this like, I'm in a weird kind of less money moe problems period of my financial life.

I don't figure that out yet. It turns out that's true as well. That is true, actually. No, but if you go into this like, okay, well, this is going to be smooth sailing. And then it's not smooth sailing and you get pissed. Like, that's on you. Yeah. You're not prepared for that then.

Well, and I think part on a grand scale, part of what we, a big part of what we're supposed to be doing as artists, not just musicians, but as, you know, as art is interpreting the world and people's emotions and the greater struggles that people have and channeling through the art to mirror it back to people. For sure. You know, that's like our job. And so just like in life, you know, you get to the point where you want to embrace challenges, be that between, you know, different people and cultures and food and all these, you know,

different things that differentiate and unite us with the music. Like, if we don't have that same kind of attitude as far as, like, we want to challenge the listeners. And we understand what that means because. we are challenging ourselves and we're rising to that we embrace when stuff starts to go south it's like how can we pull it out because that's part of our story

and then when we mirror that back to the listener that's exciting and thrilling for them they're like wow this is like my life and they might understand all the intricacies they don't need to because it's entertainment ultimately

but I mean if we just wanted to please people with our entertainment we can just come and play a bunch of triad doesn't this sound great we're never going to go to an alteration or anything it's going to be so lovely the entire time no tension at all

and then someone's going to hang themselves when they hear that. It's just terrible. This is terrible. So don't expect perfection. Don't expect it to be for sure, not. But don't expect it to be easy. Embrace the challenges. Treat it like a video game. Treat it like, okay, we're at the next level. How cool can I keep during this challenge? Like, I'm going to have fun with this challenge.

Like, I'm not having a good night. Okay, this is going to be good. I'm going to have fun with this. And then if you can execute, document that. Like, go immediately write down the things that you didn't feel you hit or that were blocking your creativity or that you weren't paying attention to that you should have been. And then that's things you can then address in the practice room. Because you can't do this just by thinking like, okay, I'm going to address challenges.

You actually have to work at this stuff. You know what I mean? So you have to take that to the shed. Yeah. The mindset in some ways is definitely the simple part of it. The actual work and the grind is applying that in the wood shed. For sure. And then it's a piece cake notes.

Yeah, yeah. You'll hear it. Yeah, go there. Well, I have to say, man, this is another, I know where this is the last of a few audio episodes. Ooh, we have to talk about that offline. But what? I can't say it. Why did you just say it now?

Well, because, you know, we're here and it's not, we'll talk about it in a second. Until tomorrow. You'll hear it.