You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - How to Rehearse - #44

Episode Date: October 25, 2018

Today on You'll Hear It, Peter and Adam discuss different rehearsal methods. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hey, Peter. Hey, Adam. Do you want to rehearse this intro ever? No. I'm Adam Anas. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to The You'll Hear It Podcast. Daily Jazz Advice coming at you.

Brought to you by Open Studio. Now, I don't know about you, but I actually love rehearsing. Really? I have a love-hate relationship with rehearsing. No, at times, like, when it's needed, when you have the right combination of musicians that want to rehearse. And you've got the time and the place. I love it, you know, because it's making music.

and making it, you know, trying to like, you've got that goal of usually a performance or recording or something, and it's the growth, kind of collective growth process to get there. Yeah, I should amend my original statement that I love rehearsals when they are not terrible. Right, right. When rehearsals are good and useful, I think they're one of the most important tools that bands can use. It's like a vegetable keesh. When it's good, it's great. When it's bad, it's not.

And I actually think that most modern jazz musicians sleep on rehearsing. I mean, at least a lot of people I know, like, don't rehearse at all. I'm like, you know, like, the classic bands rehearsed all the time. Like, even when you think they weren't, like, all the Miles' bands rehearsed. You know what I mean? Like, Coltrane's bands rehearsed. Like, of course, Blakey's, you know, all that stuff. I mean, yeah, there's always going to be a certain amount of, like, we're just going for it.

Yeah. You know, you should know this and we can just figure it out. That's jazz. Like, we're always going to be able to do that. But there's more rehearsal than you might think in some of these, these classes. classic bands. And I think it really is not that different than the classical world world, at least what I've seen in the limited participation I used to have in that, in that, you know, if you have a great orchestra, they could get up on any night and you could put whatever from the classical repertoire in front of them with a great conductor, no rehearsal, and they should be able to, and will be able to execute a wonderful performance. Of course. But when they've got that rehearsal, and they're very good about being very organized about rehearsing, almost over rehearsing. perhaps, but getting those details in there that push it from, you know, a little 10% better

on the performance to really get it to that thrilling level. You know, this might be our first tip. If you have the opportunity to perform with any kind of classical ensemble, you should do it for a number of reasons, but one of them is you can learn a lot about how to rehearse from a well-oiled machine. I mean, I can't tell you the few times I've been honored to play with the St. Louis Symphony how much I've learned from the rehearsal process, how efficient they are, how timely,

how prepared everybody is, and how ready to go the rehearsal is. It's not like my high school concert band in freshman year, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. This is like... Well, I think that's a problem with a lot of, even fairly high-level jazz groups and organizations.

The rehearsal, there's not, that's always kind of bugged me, like, you know, people coming in late, and just like a job. general wasting of time. I think the classical world, maybe they're even too far to the point of efficiency, but they also have to be. Yeah. Usually, but I think we can learn a lot. So I love that tip of just, you know, kind of learning about the process. Learning about the process. By doing it with people that do it well. Yeah. And most classical ensembles are union too. So they have that in their

contract of like, if you rehearse this much, it costs this much more. So then the management is down to like get them going. Yeah. But that should be like a number one for rehearsal. is time is money and and other people's time is worth something to them yeah and so be prepared be on time have your stuff together if you don't you know know the music maybe at least have charts or something you know what I mean like yeah sometimes you can you know if time isn't of the essence for everybody if you're 18 years old and just want to like play all day that's cool too right and that's not yeah that's barely rehearsing and that's more like jamming yeah you know jam session which is cool too it's cool too but if you have a gig coming up and you're

you're trying to, like, get an ensemble together in a tight way. Yeah. Make sure that the time is taking care of. Hey, Peter. If I wanted to view every course Open Studio made, how would I do that? You would go to OpenSudonnetwork.com and purchase an all-access pass. In all-access pass, that sounds like everything. It's everything.

Every course, every lesson. And you might think, well, you might, though. And, in fact, we're going to recommend you go with the annual version, so you have all year to check out our wonderful lessons. The annual version, that's $20 a month. when you pay annually. Man, come on, like ice coffee. How much did you spend this week on ice coffee? I spent, like, no joke, 50 bucks probably on ice coffee. That's right. Now it is getting cool. Actually, that makes me sad. It'll go down. But I mean, $20 to further. And look,

we're trying to just give you some ongoing inspiration, a little bit of jazz love for you at any time, you know, so that as you're practicing, you have fresh concepts and ideas and you can be inspired by folks like Christian McBride, Gregory Hutchinson, Peter Martin, Jeffrey Keiser. You know what I love about the All Access Passes. I play piano, but I also play, little guitar. I also play a little drums. And so I go on there all the time just to freshen up on stuff on my secondary instruments. And that helps me

understand, too, as a pianist, all the other things that I'm doing. Yep. And now for limited time on the all access pass, on the annual version, I believe you get access to all of our new packs, which are curated collections about like blues. These have been very, very popular. We have some on voicings on

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Come on, that's how we do it. So go to openstudio network.com slash all access pass, and you can get your all access pass today. Open Studio, jazz lessons from jazz legends. So another really good tip that I think this leads directly to is that, you know, come to rehearsals with the mindset that this is a collective rehearsal. This is not the time for you to learn your part. Totally. So of course that goes along with the be prepared.

But really, I think if you have the mentality that this is the time to focus on, you know, not just the obvious things like starting and stopping and how you're going to, you know, kind of the roadmap of the thing. But like how are you going to interact with and play with the other musicians? So like you're not as much just focusing on, oh, I'm working on my part and getting better. I'm listening, number one, listen. Right. But listening to what's happened around you and really going through.

I mean, if you think about it, rehearsal, it's like almost like a walkthrough of what you want to be able to do on the performance. So there's, you know, the parts that need, you know, ensemble parts and things you need to coordinate of like how are you going to do them by listening to each other and maybe talking about it and then some repetition. But it's, and then the improvised section, it shouldn't just be about, oh, I'm going to rehearse my solo. It's like, no, how is everyone going to play behind you? How are you going to interact with them? It's all about the collective thing because you're still going to have time to practice. You should have already been practicing this stuff. And even if you didn't, you're going to have to take that time after the rehearsal.

So like you really have to, I think, commit to that collective will. And that's what I was saying at the beginning. I love rehearsing when everyone's thinking of that. When people are just kind of there doing their own thing, I'm like, you know, let's just all do that home and then come together on the gig. If that's what you're going to do. Do I sound bitter? No, that's exactly right. But that's a waste of time.

And it's the same thing. Like, if you're at rehearsal, it's not a jam session. You shouldn't take 20 choruses. Yeah. You know, just to figure out how to play over the changes of a tune. Like, yeah. That's something you could do at home. I mean, it's like you come to a team basketball practice.

Yeah. And, you know, there's one guy or gal that's just like, every time they get the ball, they're just like chucking up threes. Like, well, I'm working on my three. No, you go do that on your own. Totally. Work on how you are going to interact with the other players at that time. Such a great opportunity to slow things down and really examine all those kind of things

that need to be done. Yeah. Not to say that you should never take a solo at a rehearsal, because sometimes you know, you want to figure out the vibe of the tune, how you're going to gel on the solo sections, but that can be done in a chorus or two, you know, as far as like,

how are we going to come in and out? How are we going to vibe on it? That's all done then. That's a great point, too. Yeah, don't take 30 choruses on, I mean, unless there's some reason in terms of the ensemble for everybody to really learn how to do that. But, and especially I think the higher level things go,

I do believe there should. be, and there is less rehearsal. The better the players, and like when things are going well, go through it quickly and leave, especially like the improvised section. I don't like over-rehearsing. I mean, over-rehearsed things that need to be rehearsed a lot, under-rehearsed things that don't need to be. That's a part of the efficiency, and you'll learn that certainly from going through a

classical rehearsal. I mean, I've been part of some, you know, symphony rehearsals where there's parts of the program we never even played because everybody knows that we're going to be able to nail them. Save it for the gig. Save it for the gig. And I mean, for sure, like, when you get to like solos and stuff, don't put everybody through, you know, first of all, you're not that great. So don't put everybody through having to hear all your souls.

Leave a little mystery for the game. Well, but you could also actually spoil the vibe with that first time you go through improvising something. You know what I mean? There's some magic in that. Well, we've been on things before. Remember when it's like stuff starts feeling really good. At rehearsal. Yeah, but then we're like, well, save it.

So like we're like cut off because we don't want to jinx it, you know, we want to have that magic still. You know, something that we do now in rehearsals that I think is. so great and useful that I didn't used to do as much before there were smartphones. And this is a really good tip, I think, is once you have sort of the arrangement of something, you know, play it through once in a short form, you know, with maybe limited solos or whatever,

and record it on your phone. Yes. And then when you practice it in the days leading up to the actual gig, you can hear exactly how you rehearse it. Right. I used to take detailed notes, but now I can just record it. Right.

I can play along with it. I can remember how the arrangement went. And that way I don't have notes at all. I don't have to look at anything. No, it's great. And that's a great, you know, Diane Reeves is so good at that. Like, she'll always have her phone or she used to have, like, record or whatever, but she would, like, if we're rehearsing something that she really wants to work on.

And look, I mean, she's paying us. This is her band. She could have us in there for hours. But, like, we'll go through it one time. And then she'll say, all right, can you just play one chorus now without me? And she'll record it. And then she's like, okay, cool. And she'll go and then practice on her own with that, as opposed to just saying, sit,

up there singing, you know, over and over again with us. And it's, that's a like, she's really good at, like, and she always sort of knows how to find those parts that she wants to work on later, but then have the documentation kind of of how it goes. You know what I was also just thinking about for rehearsing is, sometimes the rehearsal can be part of the editing process. Just because you rehearse something doesn't mean it has to make the gig.

And in fact, this is your time to like, if you haven't really played through material, to be like, you know what, I don't want to play that. Right. That's not working. Yeah. Don't be afraid to cut things at rehearsal. That's great.

Yeah. And yeah, I mean, I think, and that's usually, it's so much easier to cut things and to add things. I mean, we have to add them sometimes and then you need to rehearse those or talk them through. Everybody knows the blues, buddy. That's right, right, right. Yeah. And, yeah, I really like that. I think even, you know, we've probably both been in situations too.

I know I've done this. Like if you have written a piece or like a commission piece where you're playing, it's being played for the first time, whether you're just there listening or kind of walking people through or playing. or playing it along with the ensemble. Don't be afraid to take stuff out of your composition. Totally. I do that. I very rarely want to add something,

but take that moment. I mean, don't like stop everybody and be like, hold on, we're going to rewrite it. Just make a note. And then, you know,

everyone's going to be able to play even if you don't rehearsing and taking something away. Just make it clear to everybody. Yep. That's great. Yeah. Man,

we're so smart. Man, I want to feel like, let's go rehearse. Rehears. Yeah. If only we rehearsed our podcast. Yeah.

So let's, exactly. Let's review our core principles. Be prepared. Yep. Be on time. Be on time. Listen.

Listen. As always. Don't overplay. Don't overplay. And really come to the rehearsal with a spirit of collective progress towards the performance, not personal progress. Record the arrangements, yeah. And then don't be afraid to edit to take away things at rehearsal. That's the time to do it.

That's right. That's Adam and Peter's recipe for a success. If you have a rehearsal question or a question in general for us. Well, it's not possible for them of a question about rehearsals. We just answered everyone. We just put a button on rehearsal. That's right. You can go to you'll hearat.com.

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