You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Peter Goes Solo...

Episode Date: April 22, 2020

...because Adam's too busy laying in a hammock. Listen as Peter gives an update on how he's adapted his music career to this current global climate.Social distancing might mean going to concerts is out of the question, but Open Studio is still keeping the live music going! Peter is performing solo piano every Friday evening at 8:00 PM EDT on YouTube. To watch this Friday's performance, use this link. And to see his latest solo performance, follow this link.In light of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic, we understand that money is tight for a lot of people right now. That's why we've decided that for the duration of this crisis, we'll be running a Choose What You Pay campaign at Open Studio. Choose whichever course you want and then let us know how much you're willing to pay - that's it. For more info, click this link.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.Let 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.

Hey Adam. Adam. We had, big guy. What's up, man? I thought we were doing this remote. Oh, I see what's up. I'm going back to solo version. What, what?

You'll hear it. Solo version. PM in the house. What? What? P.M. in the house. What? What?

Adams in his hammock. What? What? What? Raise up. I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear at podcast. Daily music advice coming at you.

Coming at you. quarantine style, sheltering at home, and coming at your solo style. Now, I thought Adam and I, well, we had gotten things worked out for our remote recording. I hope you've been enjoying the previous days and previous weeks. We're starting to get the swing of doing this. Even got some YouTube versions happening. Camera angles, everything. We're Zoom calling.

We're recording. I've learned about a lot of new technology. I can actually do some stuff without an engineer. Amazing stuff. But today we're going solo because Adam was very busy. We talked this morning and he's like, man, I don't think I'm going to have time to do an episode. So his suggestion was where we were going to go best of. And best ofs are fun because actually we usually go back and find some hidden gems.

But we didn't really have time for that. And I said, you know what? I'm going to step up and do a solo version. Still, if I see if I still have chops to be able to do this. So you guys can be the judge. Let me know what you think. Hit me up on Twitter. I've been getting a little active on Twitter, a little bit.

I forget to check some days and get busy. but hit me up there at I am Peter Martin, if you would like. Hope you guys are doing well. Hope that you're safe and their family's safe and that you're surviving and maybe even thriving a little bit in this strange time that we find ourselves. But I just wanted to talk to you, kind of give you a little personal update about what I've been doing because a bunch of people have been asking. I've been talking with a lot of other musicians and we've all been trying to build up the community. And so for those of you that I haven't been able to personally get back to you yet, Maybe some of the listeners and stuff just want to kind of tell you what's happening.

And maybe Adam tomorrow will jump in here and do the same. But basically, you know, just like most of you guys, everybody who's a musician, and I know we got a lot of musician listeners, music lovers. One thing I haven't really been doing is any gigs. Although I did kind of manufacture myself a weekly gig. I'll talk about that in a second. But the idea is that what was it from like March 9th or 10th? on. Every gig has been canceled, of course, in March and then April and now May, June. I mean,

you know, who knows what's going to happen. But it's given me a lot of time to kind of reflect upon how precious the, and what a privilege it is to play music and to do this vocation or avocation or job or profession, whatever you want to call it. It's almost like a hobby. I feel like it's a hobby because it's so fun and I love it so much. So it's like a lot of things when you, when you, it's taken away from you for a period, although music hasn't been taken away from us. We know this. But, you know, things that you're planning kind of things that you're in the habit of of doing concerts, doing gigs, playing in clubs, playing in concert halls, meeting people, doing recordings. I mean, all the different activities that that were blessed to be able to do.

When that's kind of taken away for a while, it really gives you an appreciation of it. So I can't wait to get back playing with other people. But in the meantime, one thing that I've been doing a lot of is just solo piano playing, something I've always been interested in, something I've always done some, but I enjoy playing with people so much. It's just kind of the way things worked out that I'm playing with groups a lot, you know, duos, trials, quartets, big band, whatever, vocals. And so this kind of seemed like a perfect time to do some solo piano stuff. So I've just been practicing a lot. And, you know, I'm kind of content. continually practicing even pre-pandemic.

You know, I'm pretty good about that, pretty interested in that. But I've been doing more sort of specific practice to playing solo piano and kind of getting interested in that, going back to some older repertoire, getting some new repertoire, doing some writing sort of specifically for solo piano because that's the ensemble that I have available at this time. So that's been really fun, you know. We're able to keep the studio still going, safely going, just kind of one-person operation down there. So I'm actually in my basement right now, but I've been going down to this open studio

and playing and practicing some and also doing a Friday night. We're calling it Shelter and Play solo piano concert. And I think this week, let's see, will this be the sixth one? Is that possible? Yeah, number six on Friday. So I invite you, I know a lot of you've been tuning in and I really appreciate it to have that little appointment for us to get together and celebrate some music and just you know making it through another week and um so that's on youtube uh weekly we'll have a link below to that but it's at seven seven o'clock st louis time eight o'clock new york time this that's five o'clock west coast time europe it's a little bit in the middle of the night and i know i said i was going to do something i'm i got to do that okay i'm making a note now this is why it's good

to do a podcast by yourself you can give yourself a little inner dialogue little reminders but um i want to do something for folks in europe because so many people have reached out and also for Asia and Australia, New Zealand kind of time zones. I want to find a time that'll work. Europe and Asia. Yeah. So, anyway, that's Friday. So I've been doing that and it's been a great thing for me just to kind of have that

appointment to prepare some music and really try to bring my A game to you guys. And then to have listeners, it's just so different than anything I've ever experienced. I've kind of, you know, from doing lessons online, recording lessons that are, you know, distributed online for so many years. Now I'm kind of used to that, like getting in front of a camera. and teaching. And it becomes, the camera becomes the student. And I know that folks are out there.

It's not live, but folks are going to watch it and hopefully get something out of it. And I've gotten feedback over the years. And I just, it's like anything, you do it enough, you become comfortable with it. But in terms of playing music for people, I'm so used to that energy and that feedback from the audience and also other musicians on stage, but even say a solo piano situation, It's such an adjustment to playing music when you're totally by yourself physically, but you know that there are people out there listening. So that's taking me a little bit of time just to start to get used to.

I'm still getting used to it because you do things in different ways for so many years. You know, it doesn't happen overnight. But what I try to do is really keep in mind the kind of, you know, presence and mindset that I have when I'm doing a live performance and just bring that. And it's kind of like you just pretend like an audience is there. And actually an audience is there. You just can't feel the physical energy. But I've really been trying to tap into people's appetite for enjoying live music.

And I always say that, you know, as jazz musicians, we have such a unique and interesting way of presenting music with there being so much improvisation in what we do that it's so well suited for live performance. So what I'm basically trying to do with the Friday night, the Shelter and Place concerts, is to try to tap into that same feeling for the performer and for, the audience and we're really kind of experiencing it all together. And I kind of started to learn that after the first couple of weeks because, you know, a lot of folks, especially, you know, like I was saying in Europe and Asian stuff, where the time was so difficult, they were like, man, I'm going to try to stay up. It's like three o'clock in the morning here in Italy when you're playing or two in the morning. And I hope I'm making it.

And I would tell them, you know, we're keeping it up on YouTube. You can watch it whenever. And but it really meant something for people to be experiencing it as I was performing a communal thing that we're all doing together. And so I've been learning a lot about that. And, you know, I think what can be done with this kind of live streaming is never going to be like being in the village vanguard or Carnegie Hall or, you know, any great venue with an interesting audience and interesting music kind of experiencing it all together, kind of moment and time, that excitement of that. But I think it can be a lot of it.

I don't know. You guys, let me know what you think. I've been getting a lot of feedback and I'm super interested in it. And I've been watching as much as I can other people doing streaming and stuff and trying to figure out what is it, like how far can we push this in terms of it being an exciting and edifying experience? The main experience I had with this. I mean, of course, I'd done live stream before. We had done some at Open Studio at our same studios prior to this COVID situation. but we always had a live audience as well.

So we'd have a live audience and then we did live streaming. We did some of a jazz at the bistro. So we have a little bit of experience with it. But it's a very different thing when you don't have an audience at all. Nobody in there. So anyway, I'm just trying to see how interest of an experience it can be for people. Because I think we may be in a period, you know, after, you know, hopefully as things get back to, well, maybe not normal, but start to get back. to something that we can conceive of as the new normal or whatever and people's

appetites for music how can it be quenched because if we open up a small jazz club and the authorities say that that could be done I don't know how many musicians and audience is going to just run to get packed in there at least on the first night or the first weekend so maybe some kind of combination of some some streaming of events at venues I don't know I'm just kind of doing it now to learn more about it but it's been very interesting I'd be super interested in what your guys feedback is on that. So yeah, so that's been happening.

And, you know, just kind of dealing with life. And the podcast has been very interesting because we've kind of shifted gears, obviously, in terms of how this is produced. But we're trying to keep the quality good. Please let us know about that, too, what you think. I mean, we're definitely still not quite to the level we developed in the, you know, pod cave and then the pod suite. But I think we're pretty close, you know, having a distributed

team now is sort of the biggest challenge with that as well. But we've worked through some different ideas. There was a learning curve for sure for me with some of the programs that we use, you know, logic, pro tools and stuff to really learn those. But it's been good. I mean, I actually enjoyed learning these new skills and stuff. And I had all these grand ideas of a bunch of things I wanted to learn, but just kind of continuing with Open Studio and then practicing doing the one weekly gig, you know,

spending time with my family and then just dealing with all the kind of life unfolding with so many gigs canceled and all that that entails. I kind of have my hands full, so it's like, you know, but I feel like, you know, personal growth, staying spiritually connected with our community. Like, those have been really important to me during this time. And I thank so many of you for reaching out and for listening and giving us a little bit of your attention because that means so much to me and to Adam. And I'll tell you about the hammock in a minute.

But it's very important because we, Adam and I. I do this because we love talking about and nerding out about piano and jazz and improvising and music and funk and all the stuff we talk about it. And we both love podcasts. So that was kind of how I had the original idea because we would always talk about, oh, you check this podcast out. And he had different things. He was like into keto diet.

I was into vegan and different people we followed. And I was like, man, you know, there's some good podcasts out there about music and stuff. But I think we might be able to do this. So anyway, I've still been kind of listening to some of my favorite. and, you know, the Rich Roll podcast, huge fan, switched on pop, who's wonderfully in our category of kind of music commentary. And so, yeah, so that's been fun and just reading and practicing spending time with family and loved ones and just kind of, you know, sheltering at home for me is a very different thing

than maybe a lot of people, unless you're like doing a lot of traveling. It's pretty much a shock to the system. you know if you're at home a lot anyway which I wasn't for a long time if ever then maybe it's not as much of a shock I mean we're all going through shock though it's a global shock and it's a different degrees but um then not traveling I haven't you know I miss going to these places certainly miss playing music with great musicians and for beautiful audiences and stuff but I know that's going to be back I really know it's going to be back I can feel it in my heart I just don't know what the form or when it's going to happen but it's got to be back because the world needs it you know

And I think when it comes back, it's going to be so special. So we're going to try to fill in where we can with the podcast, with the live streams, with Open Studio. We're also doing a bunch of just other live events and having a huge amount of fun, getting to know our members and all of our followers and stuff better. So that's been really a wonderful silver lining during this time for me personally. Just getting to put a face with so many different names and stuff and getting to slow down just a little bit to be able to interact with you guys. So thank you for that. can check out. And this, we have a bunch of stuff.

Actually, most of it's not even for members only. We have a lot of just stuff open to anybody, free content. But the live stuff, if you go to open studio jazz.com slash live. We're trying to keep that updated. But we're doing stuff almost every day. So go there. It'll link to all the different events, having stuff with our artists. We're doing a green room on Sunday for members.

And we have surprise artists, big time artists. I'm so I'm going to say. It's going to be happening every Sunday. And then we're doing workshops, Q&As. MAs, all that kind of stuff, just to stay connected, you know, stay connected and keep our artists busy in terms of they got so much knowledge and information for the world. And I learn so much when I set these things up and sometimes I interview them, sometimes they do it on their own.

But I'm always listening close just like you guys because there's some real gems. Ruben Rogers dropped a huge gem on Sunday. And I'll maybe, actually know, maybe we'll talk about that later because I wanted to make sure Adam knew about that too. So let's talk about Adam and the hammock. just real quick. He told me this morning how busy was. I was like, cool.

We zoom with the whole Open Studio team at seven of us. Every morning and every kind of like sort of 9 a.m. And 5 p.m. Sometimes it varies. But just to all kind of stay connected and go over what everyone's doing. But Adam was so busy this morning. I know he got a lot done. But I just want to note a few minutes ago, Mr.

I don't have time to do your podcast, buddy today. He was on the Zoom call literally lying down in a hammock. The weather is beautiful here in St. Louis. He's about four miles away, but I know it's beautiful there. Relaxing like he's on vacation, like a pandemic vacation. I mean, not as bad as that guy who was taking pictures from a drone of his yacht in the Caribbean, talking about he was quarantined. But almost, almost South St. Louis style a little bit.

So that's what's up with Adam. And so you guys can tease him tomorrow if he comes back about the hammock. Until then, you'll hear it.