You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - How to Practice Technique (It's Not What You Think)

Episode Date: January 20, 2020

Everyone hates practicing the technical stuff during their practice sessions. Wait... everyone doesn't hate it!? Today, Peter and Adam tell you why you shouldn't dread this crucial part of your practice.How to Practice Technique:MindfullySlowlyDynamicallyMethodicallyCreativelyWhat to practiceWritten musicThe SpeakPipe hotline is back! Go to https://youllhearit.com/podcast/ and leave your question for Peter and Adam. If we like it, we'll do a whole episode on your topic or question.Interested in more music advice? Go here to browse our catalog of jazz lessons and courses available for purchase.Let us know what you think by leaving a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, or head over to our YouTube channel.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, what if all I want to do is play fast and loud and octaves? What if all I want to do is party all the time, party all the time, party all the time? I'm Adam Manus. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to You'll Hear It. A podcast about getting better at music and listening to music. Oh, it certainly is.

And we're brought to you by Open Studio. Go to Open Studio jazz.com. Check out our piano access past. If you're a pianist or even want to be a pianist, it's the perfect tool for you. It's all of our piano courses, all the courses to come. And we're planning some big stuff this year. We are. We are fast becoming the piano side for a cradle to the grave.

I don't want to overstate it. But that's your whole life, right? Life and death. That's right. So what are we talking about today? Well, I mean, I'm so excited. We're starting to settle in nicely here to the Pod Suite. Oh, man.

You know, are we going with that for sure? Potsweet sounds great. I just listened to the first episode that we did on, you know, like there's something about listening to it on the podcast app itself. You know what I mean? Like I listen to all my other podcasts. Right. It makes it real.

Like we can listen to the first. to it in the suite. You can listen to it on the headphones here in the studio. But when it's actually like a real podcast, we send it up to the to the Apple servers and it's come back down via satellite. There's something about it that it seems very real. So I listened to the first episode from the brand new pod suite with a new dual flying V. Actually, it's more like a flying H. Yeah. It radiates. And it sounds awesome, man. It does. Sounds awesome. And we talked about even just given, you know, if you want to talk to a little background music. Yeah. So when I was a young boy in high ridge Missouri. Oh yeah. There was none of that going on. I'm going to do some high ridge

music. That's just going to get derogatory fast. Oh, that's great, man. Cool. What are we talking about today? So today we're talking about how to practice technique. And it's not what you think. It's not that. It is that. But it's not like that. You know, we don't want to really talk about what to practice so much is how to practice in a way that you might not be thinking of. That's right. And I think, you know, with all things, but especially, with technical practice, I think the biggest, it's not what you think, is it's not mindless. You know, I mean, for some reason, we go into this thing of like, oh, the technical part of our practice, the technique portion. And if you've been listening to us, you know, we recommend often

that this is at the beginning of your practice session. So you want to be very mindful because not only will you not get a lot, you won't get anything out of it if you're not mindful about it, but you're also set a bad tone for your entire practice session by starting out non-mindful. So you might think, oh, I'm just going to rip through some scales and stuff, and then I'll be done with that. But what you've done is you've just set the tone for your practice session to be like zoning out. And so when you get to the more creative side of things, you're not going to be ready to go. That's right. And you're also not getting anything out of your technique practice. If you're not mindful about what's going on, you could be practicing the hardest

technical stuff. And if you're not zoned like in to what's happening with your body, to with your mind, then it's not going to be doing you any good at all. Like, on the flip side of that, I could practice literally just a C major scale like this. And if I'm mindful about what's going on, like if I'm not doing a podcast,

but if I'm mindful about what my hand is doing from middle C up to the C above, that could be very valuable practice, even for a pro. Yes. You know what I mean? And pro tip, pros do practice like that. We practice simpler things than you think you should.

That's right. And that's going to be a big part. I think what we talk about. So hopefully we're going to give you these. Oh, is this like a seven thing? Or we're just going through a list. I mean, we have seven right here. Oh, we do.

Okay, awesome. So these are seven things. But the idea for all of this is we want to just try to help you to be first and foremost, intentional about your practice techniques. So that, you know, this is really not just for piano. This is for any instrument or vocalist or anything. anything, think about what is your intention on a daily basis, but also on a kind of overall basis for what you're doing technically. Never make it just like, oh, these guys told me to

practice like this or even make it like a thing of, you know, I'm doing this because I have to or whatever. Know why you're doing it. That's nothing wrong with getting advice from others, but have your own intention. That's right. And I think that goes along with mindfulness. Yeah. Not just what, where your mind is, where your thoughts are, where your body is. Right. So that's really number one. That is number one. Mindfully practice technique. It's really the most crucial part of all this, because if you're mindful, you're probably going to be getting some good stuff out out of this. Yeah. Okay, so how can we start out mindfully? Because it's sometimes easier said than done. What's some tips for that, even that's a little sub-tips? Well, I mean, I know you and I both

are believers in practicing meditation. That helps me be mindful with everything I'm trying to do throughout the day. But I think especially when I get in the practice room, it feels enormously helpful for me to get in a mindful place. Yes. To just recognize where my body is, where my mind is, where my thoughts are, where my feelings are. Yeah. And like literally just paint that picture.

Paint it done. Paint it done. Yeah. What's going on right now with all of that. And that way I'm in this space of like a sort of clear head or at least recognizing what's in my head. Yeah. And I can decide what it is I want to practice technically.

That's how I do it. Yeah. And if you're practicing the technical stuff at the beginning, that's not the only way to do it. That works for me. And I think that you've said it works for you. For sure. We don't want to box anyone in because I think it can be successful on certain days when you're feeling very creative at the beginning or whatever.

Oh, yeah. It's not going to be every day where you strike a Zen pose and then get in the practice. But, I mean, if it is the first thing you're doing the real technical stuff, it's even more important. And look, for 60 seconds, you'd be surprised. Sometimes that's all I have time for. 60 seconds of meditation. Because, you know, meditation is really, and what we're talking about is not meditating while you're playing a scale. No.

We're talking about just doing nothing. just sitting in silence is a surprisingly long time, especially as you start to get a little better at meditating. And remember that this is not a meditation podcast, although it's starting to feel like it. But there's never like, you'll feel it. You'll feel, you're feeling very quiet. You are in the pod suite. No, but you're never going to, there's never a, from what I understand, even at the expert level, there's never a total emptying of your mind for any amount of time.

People who've reached enlightenment. Yeah. But the great thing I love taking into music, it's the same thing. There's never, like, a total mastery of your training. Of course not. There's never a total mastery of technique. We play the piano, buddy. It kicks our ass every single day in and out.

And so meditation even gets you part of that mindset. As you go into technique, you don't have to get that perfection kind of thing. Especially, like, with classical music and musicians, that's a real barrier to development sometimes is that everything has to be perfect. But I think the key to mindful practicing is really just being aware of where your thoughts are. Where is your focus and attention as you're practicing? Are you present?

Are you present? Yeah. Like I said, you could be practicing the most technical thing and not be present and it's doing you literally no good. That's right. Or you could be practicing a very simple thing and be absolutely conscious of what your hand is doing, what you're thinking about, trying to bring your attention back to the sound that you're trying to get, to the shape of you're trying to get.

And that will have way more of an effect than any kind of fast technical thing that you're just zoned out on. So, all right, let's get to number two. You are getting very mindful. Okay, got it. Number two. And this kind of goes along with mindfulness. Okay, slowly. Yeah. This is how you practice everything. And slowly, this is a sliding scale, but always, I would say, slower than you think. Like, you never need to be pushing, you know, yourself to your limits. You'll have a chance to do that. I actually think that you never have to go to max speed at anything. Well, I've heard you say, I've heard people like, like, read people like Jaco, Pestorius say, I've never practiced as fast as I play on the game. Right. And I'm such a believer in that. And I know some, you know, your mileage may vary YMMV on this. But I've heard this from enough people on different instruments and different genres that certainly the largest percentage. And this is a big, it's not what you think. You know, ripping through a bunch of things fast. And I think a lot of people for some reason are asking me about like, how do you, how do you, I mean, I've gotten this question so much. How do you practice fast? I was like, I never practice fast. They're like, oh, you can play fast so good. Yeah, practice slow. Yeah, practice slow. It's like so, it seems like it's countering. I mean, I've got to practice slow. It's like so, it seems like it's counter. It seems like it's counter. intuitive, but it's not. And I think that the

marathon training is very much we can use as a model, really any kind of athletic training, because there is a certain, especially for the piano and, well, almost at drums, almost every single. I mean, we're using our body in a way, so there's an athleticism. There's an athletic kind of component to it, and we want to be very mindful of just practicing slower. And so this one's an easy one. If you stay

mindful about this and just whatever you're about to do and you think you can do it, take it down 25%, 50% or whatever. The other thing about practicing slowly is it exposes. Like if you think that you know, okay, I can rip through that diminished scale. But when you go, now I'm exposing a little bit of lack of,

you know, maybe evenness. Yeah. Control. That's exactly. Some things that are. Yeah. Like when you're playing fast, all I can tell is if I'm playing the notes or flubbing or not.

That's kind of it, you know. Well, that brings us to store number three, which is to practice dynamically. And I think this goes hand in hand with slowly. Because I think a lot of people equate technique to speed and power. And yeah, that's part of it, but really technique means to me control. And that means speed and power, but that also means that speed is not fast.

Speed is a variety of speeds. And I have control of what I'm doing. I can time things exactly where I want it. And power doesn't mean just powerful. It means the ability to control my power so that I can play dynamically. I can play at any tempo. Yes. You know what I mean?

Yep. So I love to practice at different dynamic levels. Like if I'm doing scales, I love to practice doing crescendos and demenuendos. To have that control as I'm practicing a scale, it brings a whole new. So like if I play a C major scale, like, you know, I've been playing since I was a little kid, it adds a whole new dimension of difficulty to it and focus that comes out dramatically in my gig playing. Yeah.

And this one, the dynamics, practicing with technique with dynamics is going to come up a little bit later when we get to the creative stuff, because this is one of those elements that's very easy to, you know, infuse your practice with to get some variety, some creativity, to keep you engaged, to keep you challenged,

both on a physical level and a mental level. What do you got for number four? Number four is to practice methodically. Okay. So, you know, there's a certain dogma to this, but I think it's also like, have a method to what you're doing

and then stick to it. Don't get caught up so much in, you know, it has to be the handed method or whatever. We can talk about that in another. We have talked about that, different things. But it's more the methodically practicing whatever you're doing with a real method,

not so much what the, like if you're doing scales, whatever, but it's to take like practicing slowly, using dynamics, being creative, using the different techniques that we have as you go through these things and then sort of sticking to that as your general pattern, you know? And the cool thing about that is when you do it creatively, you've got an infinite ways to set it up. The bad part of that is it's like, wow, every day I'm going to create a new method. No, that's not methodically.

That's kind of random. So, you know, with any kind of thing that you're building up not only muscle memory, but kind of mental memory and some kind of acuteness where you're starting to really learn things on an intuitive and automatic level, it's important to repeat it. So a method is really about just sort of repetition. You know, we can talk about, well, is this method better or whatever? That's all fine. But if you don't give it a chance to really do its course, be engaged, repeat it over and over. again, then the method is not going to be able to bear fruit. And that's why we encourage you to keep a practice journal.

I mean, it's not just for the creative things that you're practicing in tunes that you learn, although it's very helpful for keeping track of that, but for keeping track of these methods that you're practicing your technique. And I think it's super important for a technique. And then be mindful about how you track this, too. Don't just put like the BPM and what you did. You know, I like to make little notes about like, you know, did the diminish scale with a crescendo and demenuendo?

had a hard time at this tempo because my fingers weren't hitting in the way I wanted to maybe it's because I had too much to drink last night you put those in your Pujo? I put those what?

Practice journal instead of a bullet journal That sounds terrible Okay number five So okay Or Prujo Oh by the way If you're ever being chased by Kujo

The dog The Prudjo comes in the end Okay So he can go on from A little side note We did get some comments Out of Jen last week That really confirmed

Exactly what we just did that I infuse some corny banter and then you go, ugh, groaned and go on, that some of the charm of this podcast is actually based on that interaction. It's a, it's a timeless two-man operation. That's right. It's been going on since Abbott and Costello.

All right, what's number five? So number four was methodically, and I was like, well, why does he have creatively, creatively? Creatively. Creatively. Creatively. So how is that not the opposite of methodically? Okay, well, I'm going to tell you, sir.

this is about keeping variety in your practice you still have a method but it shifts because you have it doesn't even really shift it just is infused with different ideas one of them we mentioned was dynamically and then there's just real tactical stuff like practicing in thirds

broken thirds fifths contrary motion parallel all these different ideas but that's what keeps it interesting and it keeps us from going too much automated where we're not actually challenging ourselves. So we don't, and everyone always thinks about challenging themselves by playing it fast. We want to stay away from that, but we do want to challenge ourselves in terms of like, say

you're practicing scales and you feel like you've mastered them all. Get creative with your scale practice. You're still on the method of hitting these scales every day, but you're doing it a way that's creative and having to engage yourself, you know, really having to engage mentally. And then also for your specific instruments, you can hit some challenges in a new way. Piano, you know, it's always a two-handed thing. So that's a big challenge for us. But maybe for trumpet, it's like alternative fingerings.

I don't know. I don't know what they do. But use things that will also be useful on your performances. I love to incorporate. We already talked about dynamics, but things like articulations, staccato and super legato. And then mixing those up within a scale can all be a creative way to practice anything you're working on. Yeah. And just in general, you know, how to practice technique, it seems counterintuitive to be creative at all.

But we have to actually always be creative. I mean, this is music and this is like this can. potentially become the most mundane and boring part of our practice, but it doesn't have to. It doesn't have to be that. It doesn't have to be, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. And you got to love the process of this or you won't keep it going. I mean, we're both like doing new things for the new year trying to improve, you know, be a diet,

exercise or whatever. And musical development is very much like that in that you have to enjoy the process. You can't just be like, oh, I got to get through this thing. And creatively practicing is one of the easiest ways to do that. Okay, so we've talked about five really great things to think about and ideas to of how to practice. Now let's probably talk about some bad things. No, let's talk about what we're practicing. So scales, arpeggios, and jazz arpeggios, we have listed here as things to practice for technique. And I think that's just a great place to start. Yeah. And yeah, with this, we were kind of

thinking, you know, these six and seven will be kind of what to practice. And this first category is things that are not actually music, I guess, would be the easiest way to look at them. Right. You know, scale and arpeggio, and jazz arpeggia. I kind of threw that in there just as a reminder. It's just one of... What is that? So that's like... Going up to the 9. Maybe even up to the sharp 11 to the 13.

Anything that's... You know, normally, especially for pianists, I think really for any instrument, we look at like... You know, just the straight arpeggio, obviously can be minor, could be diminished or whatever, but the idea being that we're not bringing in any of...

I mean, yeah, you could also have the dominant seventh. It's not just about that. That would be more from a classical standpoint. But in jazz, how many times do we get to a C and go... I mean, if you're corny AF, yeah. Corny AF, yeah, we're not corny AF. So, but we do. Actually, I love the idea of, on a dominant chord, going to that sharp 11.

I think that's an incredibly insanely useful thing to have in all keys. And you can set up your practice. So over the C-7, C-dominant 7, if you think about this as practicing the jazz arpeggro, as we'll call it, TM, G-Miner 7. P-M-T-M-M-M-G-M-S. seven, sharp, I mean, G minor, sharp seven. Ooh, I'm sloppy on this. What's up with this? I think it's my height here.

Yeah, we're still adjusting. Not my physical height, six feet, but my chair height. Yeah, you get in that Lydian dominant sound. Yeah. And then you can add some creative thirds or whatever. Oh. Oh. It giveth and it taketh.

But we're layering that over the C-Sap. For sure. That's kind of the reality. So when you go through all the different scale qualities, major, minor, diminish, augmented, minor with a major seventh, major with, you know, I mean, there's many variations,

but you get them in all keys. They're not just useful for that key. So it's a kind of creative way to practice. It's a way to challenge yourself with these. And it's just, I mean, practicing just straight arpeggages is a right. But for, you know, jazz and more modern improvisation, definitely try to hit it up to the upper extensions. That's great.

Number seven is written music. And I love that you have right stuff, because I think this is crucial. I always come up with a lot of my own technical exercises. Actually, I meant written stuff there, sorry. Oh, written stuff. I left a letter. But you got to do the right stuff too, right?

No, but I was thought you meant, like, write your own technical life. Because I do that all the time, where I'll come up with my own little atudes. Yes. Especially if there's a, I mean, we talk a lot about drop two. Don't we have some of those in the guided, the GPSes? Yeah, I mean, it's probably my job here to write some atudes. But I like to write my own, like, if I'm doing something technical that I don't have my fingers yet, I like to write a little atude that I can kind of run through all keys that I know will be super

useful for me on performances, right? Because you know how you play better than anybody. You know what you want to have in your playing. You know how your voice should sound as a musician. So why not write your own stuff? I also think playing some of the tried and true classical canon of written technical exercises, the Phillips exercises, even Hannan, if done the right way in a mindful way, can be incredibly helpful. Churning, like all that stuff. Yeah, yeah.

And that's just, that was kind of what I was trying to delineate between the six and seven is like we're practicing things that are pre, you know, digestible. Right. But if you can think about them as two different ways, just for how you organize your practice

in terms of scales, arpeggios, you know, things that repeat in all keys that are not musical. And then, yeah, so some people would say a technical exercise is, there's a little bit of a gray area because some of them are not really musical, but some of them are quite musical.

A Chopin Aitude is a piece of music, you know. A beautiful piece of music. Those first few are so tough. Yeah. But the mindset of those is a little bit different. And I think what you're talking about even writing in terms of what you practice is, is that it's addressing a specific technical challenge. That's what I would call an A-tut, be a jazz or Chopin or anything else. Yeah.

Whereas the number six, the scales arpeggios are you can take a number of different technical challenges and work on them on that same scale. You know, be it, you know, finger, dynamics, all the different things. More of a general thing. Well, this has been great. Well, great for the listener because we just drop some knowledge on them. No, I'm inspired now. I want to go practice some technique stuff. Right.

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