You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Jazzing up Holiday Tunes

Episode Date: November 24, 2020

It's another live edition of You'll Hear It where Peter and Adam take your questions. Today, it's a holiday-themed question as a listener asks how to take standard holiday tunes and freshen them up with some jazz influences.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.Tuesday's Open Studio Live Events:1:00 PM - Adam's Daily Guided Practice Session (for Members Only)3:00 PM - Piano Guided Practice Session with Adam on YouTube8:00 PM - Listening Sesh with Peter and Adam 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.

All right, should we kick into our, um, our segments, as it were? Yeah, let's do our segments, but first, we need a call here. We lost some questions. So, please leave us your questions here. We're here to just kind of nerd out on all things. Oh, I may still have those. No, they're gone. All things jazz piano.

Yeah. Someone already says, can you teach us shoegaze piano? You know I can. Yes. You know I can. Triads. So, yeah. We'll talk about that, though.

Leave your nerdy questions here, and we will do our best to answer as many easy. That's right. So, practice check-in. How was your practice week? How was your practice weekend, big guy? Practice weekend was really good. Thank you. We're working on a new tune on the Monday Transcribing Club.

Sonny Clark's version of Blue Minor from his Cool Strutton album. I love that record. Yeah, really beautiful. It's such a great tune. So I worked on that. I worked on being able to, you know, I did the old school transcription. of it where I sung it all first. Like I learned the melody by singing it.

I didn't even know what key it was in. It was just me in a room with a stereo, just singing to it. And then I took it to the piano. It felt really good, actually. It's a really deep way to learn the melody. So that's like if you don't do that, if you're not learning your tunes by just getting to the recording and being able to sing it and really take your time.

Like I was using any tune, which is a former sponsor of this podcast. That's right. And I was slowing it down and really trying to get like, because, you know, this. it's pretty fast. So easy to do on the piano, but when you're just singing it, you really have to,

you really have to hear it, right? Or else you're just like, you know what I mean? So you really have to slow it down. Do da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da. Make sure to get each note. It's really fun. We should talk about sometime,

man, we could do a whole course on this or a whole tutorial on like how do you, like once you know where you're starting something, Like, how do you get those details in here beyond the intervals, beyond, well, actually combining all those different elements, the intervals, the minor, like, what are the clues that you put together? Because I always think it's in interest, it's not just about, I think when you start out, it's note by note. You know, you're going one note at a time for a line. But then you start to like, maybe you can tell it's from, like, from here to here. Yeah, exactly.

And then you're connecting the dots. And you're doing a little bit of educated guessing and trying to get your odds up, but using your ear to kind of discern and make a few. mistakes and then fix them. That's exactly what happened. So, you know, I was able to hear it start here and then the first part of the melody, like I could hear that. So I knew I had this in between. And I knew it was a minor key, right? So that was my first inclination. That was right. Now the second phrase, though, is this. So the first thing I did when I, the first way I heard it was this, especially when you're singing it, right? It just seemed to make sense. I'm just filling in the dots. I'm connecting the dots. And then I had to listen back and listen more carefully.

And I could hear it was a repeated note. So that's exactly to your point of. And I think, again, if you can do this outside the piano where you have these buttons that sort of give you some visual and pitch information, try to do with your voice, even especially if you're not a good singer, actually, because it really forces you to hone in on the pitches. But again, if you know your target, if you know your starting point and where you're, you're, you know, your starting point and where and where your target is, then you can make a pretty good guess. And you can start hearing little melodic cadences like this.

That's easy to hear. That's way different than, you know. Yeah, we should do, you know, there's things you can do, especially if you have somebody and you can do this remotely or if you're in the same room. Like the parts that go together to put together a melody, the little motifs, the little riffs, there's actually a limited number of them that cover

I mean there's an infinite number that's the hard part if you look at it but if you can learn key ones there's a very finite number that probably covers 80 to 90% of all melodic phrases so for instance you played that and then you did and then there's

and then there's only so many options yeah and if you can learn those that's the beginning of taking you beyond note by note and learning arpeggios and all the different ways that you can get from those key notes as you're moving melodically, understanding that kind of underlying harmony maybe. Yeah, totally, totally. And then, and then, yeah, exactly right. You can hear it as more than just note by note, but you hear it as more of a whole.

Yeah. Yeah. Because really, I was thinking, you know, advanced ear training or just, you know, getting your ears to an advanced level is, it's as much about being able to quickly tell not just what's being played the exact notes like you hear it like kind of a savant being able to spit it back but when you try something being able to quickly identify exactly which parts didn't match

like that comparison kind of your training I think is such an important part to developing agree well everybody out there who is in our Monday transcribing club on the Daily Guy to Practice session do your homework this week learn that melody

he's getting a little nasty he's a nasty teach you. Do your homework. But no, I'm just more suggesting for all of our listeners and watchers out there. Go listen to this Sunny Clark album, Cool Strutton, and that Blue Minor. It's such a good record, man. Great cover. Yeah. Great cover, too. Yeah. Cool. We already have some questions here. Should we jump right in? Should we skip over all our other crap? I want to start with Austin's question down here. Did you guys catch that new Adam Neely video about Monk's 25 tips for musicians?

You know, Austin, the better question is, did Adam Neely catch our video about? about it two years ago. Exactly. To the game. Exactly. You know what? We might have a lawsuit on our hands. No, that's definitely not.

Well, I got one for you. Did Adam Neely catch our original live stream today before we switched over to the current stream? Doubtful. No. So this is Monk's famous. Remember the sheet? Who was it that did it? It was someone else.

Steve Lacey. Steve Lacey, right. That's right. I believe. The one that always stands out, there's two that stand out for me from that sheet. About a 25. That's it? Well, that are really, I think, that really grabbed me.

The first one, is make the drummer sound good. That is, I think, the most useful advice for any non-drummer, and even actually drummer, make yourself sound good. No, but whenever I apply that thought, like if I'm ever feeling a little stuck or I'm needing some inspiration,

comping or playing a melody or soloing, whatever it is. And I just think, all right, I'm going to make the drummer sound good now. I'm really going to make them sound great. Always works. Always sounds great. It's such great advice. You can hear it in Monk's own playing.

And the other one for me that sticks out, I love to hear your thoughts on this too, Pete, is the genius is the one that sounds most like himself. I think that's a great quote. Yeah, that's extraordinary, extraordinary, as we would say. But no, I'm looking forward to seeing that. I love it when Adam Neely, I love his stuff, but I love it when he digs into, you know, I think he sees, whenever I see him doing kind of more jazz-oriented things like this, he really takes on like a precision and seriousness.

And not that his other stuff doesn't have it. but like a real reverence for you know how he's putting the information out which is fun what else we got let's go above we'll start kind of we'll work our way up here Hank says Lidian dominant chord movement

shapes to play with unlimited Lidian dominant chords like 2-7 so man there's one Hank that I can recommend that kind of sound so if it's a C-7 check this out this shape here

is what we call around here the Rob Block arpeggio. Would you do a little ear training test sometime, a little mono-e mono. Oh, that'd be fun. You kick my ass on it. So the Lydian Dominant here, right, the C-7, this is based off a G melodic minor. Right, so this is a little G-melotic minor arpeggio where you surround the G with an enclosure, A, F-sharp G, G, B, flat, D, and then just go up a G minor, nine.

G minor major is 7-9. And then you do it all over again. That's a great shape to get you started on Lini and Dominant. Cordy's got you good, I think they're right. Is that it? I think so. That's it, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

What do you got on a Lydian dominant? I think that's great. I think, you know, when you, when we think of it as, you know, based off of that other, you know, G minor major seventh in this case, I think that that opens up a different way of thinking about melodic lines and also kind of arpeggiation and patterns that would develop. Yeah, exactly. And that's all the same stuff. tonically as yeah broken seventh chords broken triads for sure

and then also I like to think about or kind of hear like B flat major seven sharp five because sometimes this can become a thing of you can see where this is going big out you know it's just different ways of thinking

about the same notes like how can you like what do you find and by fine I don't necessarily mean just looking at the keyboard although you certainly can do that but like Oh, where we at? So if we go, you know, C triad, D triad, should I cordiate up? Yeah.

C triad, D triad. What is that? Half diminished, right? That's B flat, EG. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, EG, B flat, exactly. So you could even think about it.

Now, you're hearing it like, right? But, you don't like that, all that great stuff. So that can open up the same way the raw block G minor 9 sharp 7 does. Ah, so good. Yep. Bruce says I'm working on taking simple Christmas songs, building out arrangements. Can you talk about adding jazz stuff to a basic arrangement of a holiday tune? So, you know, a lot of holiday tunes come straight in the Great American Songbook tradition.

Yeah. You know, and even that one has a very, like, jazz standard tradition. vibe to it. You know, the great It's the jazz too, I think. As far as adding jazz stuff, Bruce, I mean, the first thing you might go to is just some more extensions on your chord

than you might typically do. I mean, again, though, these are like, you know, this song was written by Mel Tourmet. Yeah. Well, that's a straight up. Yeah, so a great American song book, extend. So, but things like, like, Peter's got you covered here.

Yeah, got it. That's exactly, that's exactly what I was going to say. say adding some chromaticism right so so anticipating a chord uh from a half step above of bruce is like the first go-to of like jazzify i mean i hate that term that's silly but this is your life you're doing a jazz podcast called you'll hear it using the word jazzify jazzercise yeah 21 year old me just barfed a little bit but no bruce uh adding these little like we'll call them slick things right just like these little slick things and the level of slickness can i mean you could really you know you can go

we're about to shoegaze this mug uh you can get super super slick but adding these just little chromatic things from above can yeah that's good yeah yeah and that's one of those ones i mean i don't know all the the christmas stuff is somewhat jazzy not all of it what's the other stuff we play well i mean it is all somewhat jazzy it's all from that era like uh and some of it is like you know, like Irving Berlin and like, it's like great,

like people who wrote Great American songbook stuff. That's a hard one. I struggle with that. Yeah, actually those are tough, man. Well,

the worst is like, wait, what how is? Oh come all ye faithful. Well, I struggle with just playing the melody quickly. Just jazzify it,

bro. Okay, so no, check out. This is what I would do on that. First of all, let's,

should we courtify it? Do it, do it. Come on. See, he's coming in, Bruce, he's coming in from a half step below on some of these two. Look at that. And then a lot of these tunes have this like where it'll go to the five becomes the tonic from it. So you can play with that. Ooh, do that again.

What was that? I don't know. So I'm really thinking about that D. You're going to D momentarily, right? Which is the five chord. The five. So then I'm like, gee, I'm telling me bedtime starring it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Credit goes where credits do. What up, Herbie. Don't sue me. So, yeah, but you can go there. Man, that's great stuff. What's wrong with a little Bruce Hornsby? Nothing's wrong with a little, by the way.

Bruce Hornsby is not a little, by the way. I've done a gig with him. He's about six foot five. He's a tall gentleman. Fun fact. Tall gentleman. Yeah, but you can, you know, gospel it up. Do you just do a whole, just do a little chorus of that.

It's not even Christmas yet. Okay, fine. I mean, it's not even Thanksgiving. Huh. That's why you're the cat, man. This is why you're the cat right here. I think I'm playing a different tune now. Yeah, you switch tunes in the middle.

That's all right. No one might. It's good. It's a medley. We call that a medley. All, let's move on. Let's move on. Even though we're not out in public and we're not being forced with Christmas music,

all musicians are a little sensitive to it. Mark, but Bruce, hopefully that answers somewhat. And I would encourage you because we have our cordiap here. That was a terrible ending on my part. I would encourage you to pause the video at certain. points and see these voicings that Peter's playing. Mark says, question, do you have any tips for breathing while playing? I feel like I sometimes hold my breath or be very shallow while I'm playing and especially

so long. Is that creepy? Yeah, it's really, yes. It's really creepy. Yeah, Mark, the solution there is to, don't forget to breathe. In the words of Ruben Rogers. Breathe, baby. Breathe, baby.

Wow. Really? I don't know if you put the baby on. Just breathe, baby. Between that and. We're going to get a bad rating. got our video here. I know. I know. So, okay, tips on, I'm sorry, can we focus a little bit here? I lost it there. Do you have any tips for breathing while playing? So like anything, Mark, if you're

having a problem with it, especially when you're performing, practice breathing. And really, I think what this comes down to is you are getting caught up in your head while you're playing and you are not connected to the moment, right? And actually, you can make a bit of a meditation practice out of practicing if you focus on your breath as part of your playing. So, one thing you can do is a pianist if you're obviously you're not a horn player or a singer because you have to breathe while you do both of those things but one of the things i like to work on and i've heard you talk about this too peter is breathe into your phrases right so take a breath as you're phrasing and blow it out as you play as if you were playing an iwi or something or a horn like

imagine that's what you're doing the other thing you can do mark is sing what you play You can't not breathe and sing. So again, if you're playing, like I'm going to try to not breathe. And I'm going to try to not breathe. And I'm going to die. Adam's dead. Yeah, so you have to take breaths and phrase.

It's going to help your phrasing too, by the way. Yeah, that's exactly it. So I would say if you were to do that what Adam's talking about in terms of, you know, singing, leaning into breathing as you're phrasing, that's one part of it. And then another part is, you know, think about it like, you know, when you get the hiccups and you can't stop thinking about it. And then you're like, if I just stop thinking about it, they'll go away, you know. So the breathing that you get into some problems when you're playing, it can really get into

your head. It's the physical manifestation is labor breathing. or, you know, feeling like something's funny. But sometimes it's just your awareness of that. So like we have to kind of train ourselves to be able to work through and play and to concentrate on the musical side of it while we let our breathing be a little bit automatic, right? With faith that we're not going to like stop breathing, right? So I think you can practice this during the times when we talk about practicing performing,

you know, where you say you're going to not think at all about your breathing. You're just going to let yourself breathe and you're going to let your instincts go. Now, what happens when you say, don't think about it? You know, don't think about the red folder. Don't think about that. That's a red folder. Of course. So that's okay.

Take a breath. Don't think about the breathing, but take a breath. And then move forward. So that's kind of just an awareness thing. And then you can start to just get in, you know, know, know that it's there. And then it's not going to freak you out. But you don't want to wait until you're in the heat of the moment because then it becomes a distraction if nothing else. Yeah.

And an outsized one probably. Ian Marling, what's up, Ian? I owe you an email, buddy. Ian knows some things about breathing. Breathing. Yeah, what is the last album you really geeked out with? Well, there's a few for me. I mean, we geeked out on Kind of Blue, K-O-B a couple weeks ago.

Wow, we're so adventurous. I know. Hey, want to come over and geek out on Kind of Blue? I've been geeking out on the Sunny Clark album this week. Also, just on the pop side of things, that latest Phoebe Bridger's record is just beautiful. Yeah. I guess, yeah, whenever I think about geeking out, it's almost like, you know, getting into the kind of nitty-gritty details, taking it beyond just, you know, enjoying it. You can enjoy it as well.

To me, geeking out means like you start listening to a whole other level, you know. It's kind of like there's certain movies that I watch. It's like a movie that you'd want to watch again and you're looking at something differently, you know. And I saw an interview with Robert De Niro the other day. and I was, I'm always so amazed, like, for him being one of my favorite actors and one of the greatest actors of our time, obviously. Yep. He's, like, one of the most boring interviews for some reason. Like, I mean, he says, like, super insightful stuff, but he's not acting.

He's just being himself. Yeah. He's an interesting person, but he's not like in Goodfellas about to bash you over the head and kill you or anything like that. It's not like Robin Williams and Jim Carrey just entered this studio. Yeah, I hear you. Exactly. And so, and plus he's like a shy, introverted guy. At least he seems like that.

way. I haven't worked with him. I've worked with other movie stars, but not. He's on the list that I haven't worked with. Wow. I'm saying I haven't worked with Robert Jr. Let me be clear about that. I have met him though. I have met him. Fun fact. Oh yeah. That's why I thought because when I met him, he was super like shy and like just you could tell he was like. Hold on. Buddy. Now you drop the name down there. Oh. You drop that name. Sorry, right down there. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Well, Bob. I do call him Bob. Oh, my gosh. Well, how did I get on this? I don't know.

Anyway, it's like movies, like where you want to... So I think with a record, you know, anything... And yeah, so we did geek out on kind of blue recently because we went so deep on that, like, listening to every little detail, like talking about the sound and, like, the research, how much the musicians got paid for the... I mean, it doesn't get any geekier than that, you know? I mean, and there's been two books written about that record on top of that.

So there you go. Steven says, hi, guys, could you talk about how beginners can work on keeping their left-hand rhythm steady? Well, improvbing. Thanks. So, yeah, there you go. You know what you could do, Stephen? What I always recommend? We're going to call it around here the red garland. So let's read it up. What? Yeah, if you take like a C blues and you could literally do the most basic voicings ever. You can literally just do shell, third and seventh, right? And a two and a four where you anticipate. Can you give me a baseline, Peter, so you can hear it in context. One, two, three. And so I'm, I'm anticipating the

core change. I'm on the end of four and the end of two. And just start with your left hand. Whatever voicing's you know, you don't have to get complicated with it. You can do it short, you can start mixing in long, but just the short one. And then start playing with your right hand, but play to your left hand. So just that, just getting this going and automatic. One, two, three, four. Oh, suss it up, suss it up, baby. It's sussy with me. And starting to fill in the blanks. like starting to improvise off of that and of four and of two rhythm. First of all, when you do that in a real life context, like with a rhythm section,

watch the drummer smile when you do that. The drummer is going to get really happy because you've just made their life a lot easier. You're propelling the music forward. Yeah. You're helping with the swing. You're helping with the groove. You're helping keeping the pulse moving forward.

And then watch the singer you're playing with get really happy too because you're anticipating the changes for them where they can hear what's going to happen right before they have to sing. It's great. Yeah, yeah. Great stuff. Great stuff.

Actually, I just thought of another one because somebody put Kenny Garrett's name out there. That's definitely a record I was geeked out on recently, the songbook. And jumping back into that. And part of my geekery even went into, like, looking up a much of live videos from the period when they were touring that record,

back when they used to tour records. Do you remember those days, Adam, touring a record? The long, long ago. You remember something called tour support? that's now if you're before time if you're under the age of what probably 35 you don't know what this means tour support or under the age of 30 that was a crazy thing when the record companies what the what to go on tour to go on tour what kind of magical candy land is that backwards ass world where we living in people were paying us to go around play music what's up joe

joe's uh gregory porter's latest all rise geeking out i haven't heard that have you heard that i did actually listen to a couple cuts i need to go deep on that i love I love Porter. Me too, man. And his touring band, speaking of tour support. Yes. Emmanuel Harold,

Jamal Nichols, St. Louis Cats. That's right. Yeah. Yeah, the last record I think I heard of his, which is going back a little ways now would be the Nacken Cole tribute. Yeah.

Which was Ruben Rogers, Ulysses Owens in the rhythm section. Great open studio artists there.