You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - One EZ Way To Sky-ROCKET Your Playing

Episode Date: May 11, 2023

Peter and Adam let you in on one easy way to sky-rocket your playing ability.Have a question for us? Leave us a SpeakPipeCheckout courses from Adam, Peter and more at Open StudioLet us know what you think by leaving a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, or head over to our YouTube channel.Follow us on Instagram

Hey, Adam, if I could give you one easy way to skyrocket your playing, is that something you'd be interested in? Would that be something you might be interested in? Yeah, I think so. Well, that's what we doing today. Good. Drums on the table. Yo, I'm Adam Manus.

Yeah, what up? Peter. I'm just trying to catch off guard. You're listening to the You'll Hear It Podcast, question mark? Music advice coming at you. Period. Period. This is an open.

Full stop. Full stop. Don't forget about the GLA. Do you know what the GLA? The GLA. I know it. I created it. What is it?

GLA. Gentlemen and ladies agreement. That's right. Please go to YouTube and subscribe to our channel. Just leave it at that. Listen, we make the podcast. Stop belaboring it. It's free.

It's a free podcast. Go to YouTube. Like and subscribe. That's all right. It's a gentleman and ladies agreement put in the comments when that agreement has been fulfilled. That's right. Okay. So what are we talking about today?

I kind of threw something out there. Sky rockets and flight. Skylar. Yep. This is something that we've said before, but we're going to frame it in a different way, right? We're going to give you one thing. This is kind of part of our...

Just one? Should we give them 10 or 7? No, no. Today we're just giving them one because this is going to work into our MVP framework. Are you familiar with that? Most valuable player. That's one of them. This one is actually MVP minimum viable practice. That sounds...

What is that? So this is, if you can only practice, practice one thing today and why you may ask dear Peter would you say such a thing only practice one thing well because sometimes the wheels fall off of life right sometimes the wheels fall off of our day sometimes things go unexpectedly right life comes at us right the speech is going off their wheels cut but the idea is like is there one thing that we can commit to doing every day see normally people be like okay it's a new year I'm going to be I'm going to practice every day. I'm going to practice technique for 30 minutes, then I'm going to do 40 minutes of

your train, then I'm going to do repertoire for 42 minutes. And that's all great. I mean, we've talked about that. We've given you seven things to do. Um, I, I, ad nauseum. What do you call it on? Adnosium. Ad nauseum. Ad nauseum. Come to the oddnasium tonight. It's a wonderful, beautiful audnasium, uh, auditor. Anyway, oddnosium. Brought to you by Enterprise and a car. That's right. Um, but no, that's all great to have grandiose plans. But what's your MVP? What's your minimum viable practice? What happens when you get up and life is coming at you fast? Can you commit to doing one thing? The one little thing you can do that would be the most effective. Just skyrocket. Yeah. And so if you're only going to do one thing, of course, we hope that you

do more things on many days. But if we want to have just one thing, what is that thing going to be? Is that question directed at me? Well, did we talk about this or is that my presenting? Are you the presenter or am I? I can't remember. No, no, that wasn't. I wasn't being aggressive. I was being passive aggressive. My aggressivity was coming in much of a passive way. Poodles are one of the most popular and beloved dog breeds in the world. That's true. That is right.

So what this is, if you can only practice one thing a day, learn something by ear. I agree. That's what I would have said. Yeah. So, I mean, and that could be one chord. It could be, it's going to need to be more than just one note. How are you learning by ear? Are you going down to your local music store?

You're going to an eritorium. You're going to an erotorium. What are you doing to learn by here? You are listening to something, hopefully something that you've heard before. Yeah. And you're going to say, I'm going to learn what that is. I don't know what that is. So in other words, you can identify something in the musical sphere.

Now you need to translate that to your instrument. So if you're a pianist, as we are here, you would hear something. And then instead of going to a printed page, you would say, I'm just going to pick that out by ear. Now, why should this be our minimum viable practice? Well, because this, I think, is an area that hits so many parts of our musicianship, and especially when you can, you know, when you can string together multiple days. Like, think about during a year, if you could commit to say, I'm going to practice at least five minutes every day for this entire year. Or just let's start smaller. Let's start this entire week.

I'm going to practice five minutes minimum every day. Start with that. And then some days maybe you do more, but this would be like a five minute day. And you're using that. you want to be as effective as possible, but you also want to start to string together an activity day after day because you can have that network, that compounding interest kind of effect when you do that. And this kind of thing where we're developing our ears, when we're making connections that are a little bit more difficult to gauge on a micro, like moment to moment level, but we can see after a few days and certainly after a few weeks

where we can really start to see some development. This is, I think, the most effective thing where you could really sort of take off in that compound. What do you say to people who will push back and say, but that's hard and I'm, I don't like hard things. I like things better. I would say to them, your mama. What? Your mama. Your mama. Because that's the biggest insult I can think of. Okay. When I was a child. No, no. Seriously. It's a, so this is, it. No, what was the question you said if they said what? If they said, this is hard to do. Um, yeah. Well, it's, it doesn't feel as good as if I just sit down and play autumn leaves again. Well, it shouldn't be that hard. Like, that's why I'm saying five minutes.

Like you might, you got to take something that's doable within five minutes. That's why I say it could just be one chord. It will be hard, but just like, you know, any kind of sort of work or exercise, not anytime, but oftentimes the harder stuff, the more difficult stuff. I mean, the concept is very simple. Learn something by year. You can describe it in three words. So that's simple.

Yes, it's going to be hard, but you're going to be able to think about as it becomes easier. We talk about skyrocketing your playing. That's going to be like a lagging into. of doing this hard work. It's going to become easier. And then it's going to become like second nature. When it becomes second nature, that means your ears are developed at a super high level, which is a skill that probably more than anything, technique, repertoire, you know, vocabulary, you know, vocabulary, you know, like ear training, having great ears is probably the most valuable thing to become a great jazz player. Well, and what do you say to people who would say, well, how do I know what to? Are you think devil's advocate? I am. What's going on? No, I'm, I'm putting myself in the shoes of our dear listeners. Gotcha. who say, well, I don't know what to practice. What do I learn?

Well, this is why this is a great framework, because it can be literally anything. A recommendation would be to something that you've already heard and that you're interested and that could hit another area like repertoire. So if there's a voicing that you hear Chick-Correa play, you've always been like, man, I love that voicing. Figure it out. Figure it out because you're going to get the ear training. You're going to get the voicing.

You're going to get the application for it and sort of the theoretical placement of it because you listen to that recording, you love when it happens. When we talk about theater, I don't know if that's the right term, but to say, like the structural elements to it. Like it doesn't exist in a vacuum. It happens at a time with a group maybe or while he's playing something in the right hand. Whatever it is, you already know it you love it, now learn it. So, okay, what about someone who says, okay, so I just listen to it and I sit down at the piano

and I figure it out? Yes. And that's going to make me a better player? Yes, it will. I don't do any other playing. I just do that. Is there anything to do with this? or is there anything to do to it?

Not with this. Not with this. This is just one part of your practice. The thing is to go do it again the next day. If it becomes like so easy that you're getting it in 30 seconds, then just pick something that's a little bit more challenging to you. Maybe it's a little bit longer of a phrase. If you need something that's simpler,

maybe don't think about doing guitar or piano voices. Maybe go to a single line instrument, go to a Miles Davis phrase that you've always loved. You don't have to do something that you know and love, but that's a great place to start. It's more fun, right? What if someone gets frustrated? It's like cooking.

Think about it. I'm going to do the frustrated you want. This will keep you from getting frustrated. If you're learning to become a chef. Answer my question before I even answer. Go ahead. Well, no, no, you're frustrated. This will keep you from getting frustrated.

If you're learning to cook, you can do, you can learn to prepare a dish. Like, say you hate eggplant. I do not like egg plant. Okay, so you shouldn't go and learn how to make an eggplant dish. You could do that, but it's not going to be as, you're going to get frustrated because when you're finished, you're like, oh, I don't like this. I got to find somebody else to tell me if it's any good. So start with the dish that you potentially love. Then you're going to be able to have more fun.

It's going to be easier. And you're going to be a better gauge of your level of success because it's something that you already enjoy. What if I still love it? And again, I'm just playing devil's advocate here. What if I love it? But I'm frustrated because it doesn't feel as good as just going and playing things I already know. My ear is not developed yet. So it's really difficult for me to even hear this stuff.

And I'm worried that I'm getting it wrong. Right. You know, there's anxiety that what if I don't get it right? Yeah. And I'm learning it wrong. And then what if I don't? It just, it's frustrating. Well, that's, but that's for any, like, that's potentially a pitfall for any type of practice.

This actually, I think you'll have the least amount of problems with, am I getting it right, that kind of frustration because you're going to be able to A.B it instantly. Like, if we talk about like, how do you tell your story, how do you play an effective line that comes from your heart over a 251? That's hard to gauge because what are you comparing it to? You can be like, I don't like the way this sounds. Are you going to record it and listen? to it. You can have somebody else listen to it. Are you just going to kind of do it by feel? But this, this type of practice that we're discussing, you're listening to something on a recording. So you hear it and then you play it. Then you can, like, you'll be able to hear the difference

between what you're doing and whether or not you're matching it probably a lot quicker than you're going to be able to actually match it. So it's like you're still learning stuff even when you're not getting it right. What about what if I... And getting the benefits. What if I just, what if it's the fairly famous piece of music solo or I know there's a YouTube video of some jerk explaining it. Yeah. Wouldn't it be better if I just go get it? Yeah. It would be easier. It'd be easier, not better, but easier. Yeah. So you want the easy way or you want the better way? I want the better way. Yeah. So then you're not going to get the benefits of the process. This is not about vocabulary development. That will be a byproduct of it. Sometimes. It doesn't not always, but that's not

what the purpose of this. This is about ear training and developing your ears in a way that are very specific to the reverse, kind of reverse engineering of eventually, well, really ongoing how you're going to be able to tell your story as an improviser. Can I, just because I've been

playing, I've been really having a good time playing the role of the dear listener. Can I be the dear listener in like six months from now? Yeah. This really worked. I now have the skills. to be able to learn songs just from the recordings. I don't need to go out and find the sheet music or anything like that.

I can listen to something. And I was just in the grocery store the other day. And there was a song playing. And I was like, I really like that chord. And I just figured it out because I do this every day. Exactly. Yeah.

I mean, that's really the point of it. Thank you, Peter Martin. Yeah. That's the, I mean, it's funny because it's kind of like the result. Yeah. But it's a moving target too. So I don't want people to be like, oh, it's six months.

Like, there's always going to be, it's going to get better. That you will see. You'll get more detailed with it. It just keeps getting like it's like it's a picture that's out of focus. Yeah. And then it just, it's really, really fuzzy at first. And you're like, I don't know if this is, it kind of sounds the same. I know the top notes right or I know I got this section right, but this middle section, I don't know.

It's kind of fast. But then it just, the more you do it, the more it comes into sharper and sharper focus to where you can literally, you don't even have to be at your instrument sometimes. If you're doing this every day, especially. Yeah. I just like, oh, I can hear that. I know what that is. I know what that melodic content is. That's that thing, because I've already figured it out from before.

And it sticks. That's that pattern recognition. It sticks in a way. The pattern recognition sticks in a way that just doesn't stick when you do it visually, when you read the music off the sheet. Yeah, that's developing other skills. But I think that's exactly it. And the reason we're coupling this with the everyday practice is because this is one of those areas.

It's not the only area, but it's kind of the main one, if you only were going to talk about one that I would recommend that would have the benefits of that compound effect every day so try to really string this together I mean there's certain activities that we do that don't need to be done every day in fact they can even be counter you know they can kind of well there's probably nothing that's countered but you can kind of stagnate if you do them every day like certain things that you would and I'm thinking about like well we don't even need to get into it it's just this is one of those ones that really will benefit you in an outsized way. In other words, if you practice this every day for seven days in a row as opposed to doing this three out of seven

days or three and a half out of seven, you're going to get more than double the amount of benefits from this. That's why I say in terms of compound. Well, other things, it's like, if you practice half as much, you're going to get half as much of the benefits. So it's one of those fun little efficient things that compounds. Eventually just this, really the end results have become a really effective improviser. That's what we're talking about. What would you say to a listener? Last thing. What would you say to a listener who's like, wow, this was a really great episode. I really loved this free podcast that you guys made.

I guess I'm just going to... I would say thank you. I'm going to close my computer on this video and I'm just going to go get some lunch and not do anything else. What would you say to them? I would say thank you because obviously you're closing your computer. You've already adhered to the gentleman and ladies agreement. So thank you very much in advance. What if this listener is like, oh, I've not heard of this.

What's the gentleman and ladies agreement? Get your computer back open because you're going to YouTube. You're about to subscribe. You're about to like this video. Go search for us. You'll hear it. A lot of folks still didn't know.

We found that out on our live last week. We go live all the time here, by the way. Did you know that? We were live last week. And a lot of folks were like, wow, I didn't know that there was a you'll hear it bespoke. You'll hear it. I'm laughing because we've gone live like once in the last six months.

Well, but it was some important ones. So we went. All the time. But yeah, so please search us out. And then just that just helps spread the love. So that's part of the gentleman's agree. We give you the podcast. You give us the low.

Until next time. You'll hear it.