You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Learning the Tradition vs. Finding Your Own Voice

Episode Date: July 8, 2019

Peter and Adam answer a Speakpipe on how much time you could spend on learning the tradition while developing your own personal sound. Wanna send a SpeakPipe of your own? Just go to https://youllhearit.com/podcast-contact/.We have been nominated in the Music category of The People's Choice Podcast Awards! To submit, please sign up to vote for us in the Music Category here: https://www.podcastawards.com/We're proud to present the new-and-improved platform for Open Studio: https://www.openstudiojazz.com! Head on over, check it out, and let us know what you like and what needs improvement. (We have over 1000 lessons to move to the new site, so check in over the following weeks as we update our courses)And if a new platform wasn't enough, we have a BRAND NEW course available: Jumpstart Jazz Piano! This is a course for very beginner-level pianists who want to learn the basic fundamentals of how to play jazz. And to celebrate, we're offering an early-bird discount of $10 off for THIS WEEK only! Just go to https://www.openstudiojazz.com/jazz-piano-jumpstart and use the discount code JPJ10.Today's episode is sponsored by Soundslice. Soundslice is a web-based music-learning software that is a hybrid audio player and notation viewer that syncs music notation with real audio. To find out more about them, visit www.soundslice.com/transcribe. And check out our Slice of Emotion In Motion (the You'll Hear It Jingle)!Let us know what you think by leaving a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, or head over to our YouTube channel and leave a comment for this episode.Interested in more jazz advice? Go here to browse our catalog of jazz lessons and courses available for purchase.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, Peter. Hey. When was the first time that you played stride giant steps? Oh, the first time. It was, oddly enough, the last time I did it as well. Yeah, it was both. I'm Adam Manus. And I'm Peter Martin.

And you're listening to The You'll Hear at podcast. Daily Jazz advice coming at you. Coming at you, today's episode of the You'll Hear at podcast is brought you by our beloved Soundslice. Go to SoundSlice.com slash transcribe to check it out for yourself. It's something that we use all the time over here at Open Studio. We do. Even when we're switching our platform here to our lightning fast new platform, we still have a sound slice available.

Couldn't get rid of it. Exactly. No, I mean, if we were to even take it away, I think our members would, they would bring a tool to us, which would be a knife and a pitchfork. Yeah, it would not be happy. Storm Open Studio. It's so true. But we don't want to because we love it. OpenStio.com slash transcribe.

Also, open studio, I'm sorry, soundslice.com slash transcribe. Also, soundslice.com community, my little favorite. It's a good one. And also just soundslice.com if you want to jump right into the platform. Yeah, go check it out. Yeah. So today we have a speed pipe. We do.

Hi, Peter. Hi, Adam. My name is Hongne and I'm from Norway. And I really love your podcast. It's the best podcast ever. Seven billion trillion stars. You're worth every one of them. I was wondering if you could do an episode about Stride piano.

I'm really into stride. these days. So I'm transcribing and figuring out piano parts by striped piano players. But I also love bebop and more modern styles, you know, and I don't want to become a stride piano player only. I want to do other kinds of stuff as well, more modern stuff. So I was wondering if you have, like any thoughts on how much time to spend on learning the tradition and how much time to spend

on finding your own voice yeah that will be really cool to hear I guess I'll hear it or I hope I'll hear it goodbye thank you thank you thank you all right thank you Homiya. Am I saying that correctly? Hognia. Hognia. I think. Okay. I butchered it, so I was incorrect.

But thank you for that from Norway. I've said this before. This is one of my favorite. I hate to say favorites in terms of countries because that sounds so jingoistic. But Norway is thebomb.com. Okay. That means it's really good. I know.

I know. I know. I know. I've never been. Oh, yeah, you look so left out. I feel. I just disappointed that I. Norway.

Everybody that I respect, like, my traveling friends that I respect. respect their opinions on this, all say that Norway is the bomb. And you know what? It's of course immensely physically beautiful, but the people who are physically beautiful as well but they're just, their spirit of the people, they're so kind, so

smart, so genuine. It's truly a little utopian place. Keep rubbing it in. Yeah, that's great. But this is, oh, this is a great question and I don't think we've talked about stride a lot. And I think it's so cool to like have a part of the history.

part of the lineage of this music that you kind of are attracted to, Stride, ragtime, bebop, these are all just little, what, subgenres or genres, niches. Yeah, at this point, though, they're just all part of the history of the music and tools that we, you know, need to know almost if we're going to continue to push the art forward. You know, Pablo Picasso could paint traditional realist paintings as good as anyone. But could he plays tri-piano? Maybe. He was pretty talented dude. But you know what I'm saying? But he took that and made his own thing.

And that's how I see these kinds of things. Like, okay, you don't want to be a stride pianist. Neither does Jason Moran, but he's taken this and made this incredible art out of it. Out of elements of stride, elements of bebop. And I think that's part of our job as artists. And really, it's the hardest part of being an artist, is where do you take the history, what people have done before you and push the music. forward what do you get from that and how do you interpret it to to something modern and you yeah and i

love when it and i recommend for everybody you know i love when it comes from this place of your connection you might not even know why like why you were attached yourself to this little part of the music like what is it that attracted you about it why you know because we you spoke about first kind of that we need to know all these different parts of the tradition and that's true. But then once there's one that kind of stands out to you. To you. How do you bring that into your modern artistry and how does that inform your artistry? Yeah.

You know, kind of like Picasso, you know, it was eternally a modernist, but he had these elements of the tradition and he put him through his filter, his brilliant filter and stuff. And I think that we can all do that and learn from that. And I think in terms of like the impetus to use one of these. things be it like stride or and these are kind of in exact terms because they overlap I was going to say other styles you know yeah it almost doesn't matter what it is it doesn't and it could be not from jazz it could be not from music exactly you know but these are the things that we pick up that we that we make part of our artistic personalities yeah and I think that the impetus being like

what you like what resonates with you that's the place that it starts with and it doesn't have to be analyzed a whole lot further from that then you just kind of dive in take that and then do your thing with it that's the thing It's like everyone has to have a license to it to be attached to this art form. And everyone has a license to it. And this whole thing of like, well, you have to respect the tradition. You respect the tradition by learning it. Yeah.

By studying it. And then that's not disrespecting to take it and change it around. You mentioned Jason Moran. I just heard him. I just did a workshop with him where we both played some solo piano stuff. Man, he takes the tradition and like he's so connected with it. Yep. You know, that he can do things that others might say they are disrespecting it.

but he reshapes it and then takes other forms of art and stuff and puts it together in a very individual way, the way it's supposed to be. He's not mocking it. He's not much. He's pushing it forward. He's pushing forward and this is a living, breathing music and that's what we need. So I think the idea of like, okay, I'm going to be a stride piano.

So there's a set of rules. No, you go and learn how that was done and how to implement that into your playing. But then let yourself go and see where it takes you. For real. Yeah. And that's what's part of it. And Hognay, you mentioned that, you know, you like other, you like bebop, you like other kinds of modern playing.

You know, ideally when you're doing this right, all of those things become part of you and come out naturally. And it comes out in your voice. Yeah. Whatever that is so that there's no disconnect. Yeah. Between the more modern things and the more not so modern things, even though, you know, at this point, almost all of it is not super modern.

I know. What we call modern jazz is like... It's like in the 60s. Yeah. 1960s. Right, exactly. So keep that in. mind and and I always think to you know I know you're influenced by things other than jazz as well they come out all the time and you're playing and I consider those things as I'm crafting my sound

as well for me visual arts yeah and just you know minimalism and all these things that that I care about as an aesthetic I want in my music and then that's mixed with you know what things I'll be Hancock, things I love, you know what I mean? So that's the goal, right? I mean, I think, you know, one thing you've really opened my eyes to, I don't even think we've talked about it is food. Oh, yeah. Like, I mean, you're such a food. And I know, I love food too. But I think

that you found a way, you know, your appreciation level of the art of food and the art of cooking. I think through your wife, are also part-time podcast host here. Better than me. Is, you know, you've let that inform your music.

You know, you let that inform your composition. and like what the possibilities and the forms and all these different kind of things. And that's culture. I mean, you know, talking about culture. You talk about food, art people, you know, writing, poetry.

All these things are connected. And so I think the idea of like how much on tradition versus finding your own voice, I think it's more of a matter of like that's kind of a sliding scale because as you're learning, you know, I mean, we're always learning. We know that. But when you're in the earlier stages of your development,

I think as a jazz musician, there's more time spent, should be spent on studying the tradition. Sure. But you're always trying to find your own voice. That's not like you have to get to a certain level and then you start to. So it's just maybe you're spending less of your time

because you don't really know, you don't have the technique and the knowledge and the artist, not the artistry, but like just the technique to be able, we've always got that voice in us, but like you can't find it yet because you need to find that through others in a way

and you have to like move yourself up in the tradition first. That's right. Really, the question that answers this is, or the question you need to ask yourself to help you answer this is, am I presenting this in a way that is my own voice, right? Because you can be a master of stride piano, and if you just play it, you know, exactly like Fats Waller every single time,

I mean, unless, I mean, a little bit, like, unless you're just, like, really, yeah, like, unless you're really, that's my statement, because I'm going to do a two-week-long residency where I play ain't misbehaving exactly the same time for two hours a night. That's an artistic statement. but really what you need to do is find that filter, find the Hong Ne filter of this is how I interpret stride piano.

This is my voice with this. This is what I bring to the table. You know, and realistically, that is the hardest part about all of this. It is. It takes the most work and it takes the most commitment and the most time and patience. And courage and a whole mess of things, you know, so good luck. Well, no, I think that the courage part of it is you have to push out the fear. And we all have this, like, as what happens is as you're learning more about the tradition,

and actually growing in the tradition, you're realizing how great it is. Sure. So that makes you more fearful that what you have to say and your contribution is smaller. So like as, you know, you really uncover the layers

of this great artistic achievement that's already happened in the lineage, it gets you feel smaller and smaller, but you shouldn't. You should feel like you're standing on their shoulders and you are, you know? And so this question of how does the tradition inform our artistry individually.

We have to constantly be asking that. Like in the practice room, as we compose, as we improvise. For sure. But we're not going to be able to answer that for a long time. So you can't be afraid of that. And you're not going to be able to go on a deep dive of every single era of music that's ever happened. I mean, you know, Art Tatum never learned bebop. It was fine for him.

Right. Like it's fine. Whoa, whoa. He had some little kind of bebop-y stuff. Yeah, but you know what I'm saying. Like he didn't, he wasn't around for, you know, the electric revolution or anything. thing like that and it's okay like it's cool to kind of specialize where B3 were not happening I heard really but you know what I'm saying like it's okay to specialize and then and then

pick the sounds that only and only the sounds that you actually really care about make them part of your sound and we all want to hear that absolutely for sure great well good man thank you um hoognia hogne why can't I say that because I don't speak Norwegian I could be wrong about I love Norway but that doesn't mean I speak it no Norway is the bomb Thank you for this very deep and interesting question. It's a great question. Yeah, and it's, you know, I think this thing of how does the tradition inform our artistry, if you keep that question and look, there's no answer to that,

but asking that question and us thinking about that, that's the pathway towards artistic development. Yeah. And it's a lifetime thing. Yeah, one more ultimate thing here is you can't also, I think, the flip side of this is you really can't define your own voice unless you have some understanding about the history of what you're working with. You know what I mean?

It's really hard to have an original voice if you don't understand anyone else's stuff. If we don't know where we've been, how do we know where we're going? And on that note, we just want to send you to our sponsor for today's episode. That's soundslice.com slash transcribe. Check it out. It's Monday. Yes. And it's not hump day.

No, but it's a very important day today. Why is that? Today is our producer, Andrew's birthday. Hey, happy birthday, Andrews. And we're not even going to say how old Andrew is, because. It's too young? Well, no, no. I mean, he's of age.

He's of legal age, even in Norway or America for employment. No, but I mean, he does such an amazing job with this podcast. I know it seems like it's all you and I. And look, we are great. It's mostly you and I. No, yeah, it is mostly you. No, but I mean, I just have to say I want to just give a big thanks and shout out Andrew. Like, if we say how his age, people aren't going to believe it because they're going to be like somebody couldn't be that talented and versatile at that age.

But he is. And, you know, he's really been a partner with us on this podcast journey. and he's the one that make sure these episodes are out, but that they're sounding great, that they're looking great. He's killing it on the podcast game, and so we want to give a shout out, and a happy birthday. And if anybody wants to say happy birthday today to him, do it down on the YouTube comments.

That's right. He's looking in there. I know he's looking in there. Every day. He's going to see it. So give a shout out to Andrew. Andrew Kay, our producer. Oh, and also, we haven't mentioned this yet,

but we're a few days into this. We should probably get on this. The podcast awards. We've been nominated. Did you know that? What? Yeah. You don't know about this?

I don't know about this. Yeah. Come on. Andrew, you know about this, right? Yeah. We are nominated for... Why? Yeah.

What? Yes, we are nominated for a People's Choice podcast award. Why? What do you mean? Why? We are the people's choice. Who? We don't know if we are.

Yes. We're nominated. So we want everyone to go vote. You know why? Because we're very vain and we need self... Vote seven times. Vote seven times. Are they allowed to?

We don't know. Go on there and vote as much as you can. Where they're going to go is podcast awards.com. Okay? Yeah, so there's a little bit to do, but we've been assured it's two minutes maximum. We're asking for two minutes. We give the folks hours.

We're asking for two minutes. Go up, sign up to nominate, and then nominate, you'll hear it. I love it. Until tomorrow. You'll hear it.