You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Play This, Not That (On the Blues)

Episode Date: August 14, 2020

It's another new mini-series from YHI: Play This, Not That. In the series premiere, Peter and Adam show you all the correct and incorrect things to play when soloing over a blues.Today's Open Studio Live Events (All times in EDT):1:00 PM - Adam's Daily Guided Practice Session (for Members Only)3:00 PM - Live Piano Guided Practice Session with Adam Maness on YouTube8:00 PM - Peter Martin's Shelter in Place Live #22 - solo piano concert on YouTubeFor the rest of this week's calendar, follow this linkInterested 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, Peter. Yo. Don't play this. But do play this. I'm Adam Manus. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hearer podcast. Advice and inspiration for music and for life.

Coming at you. Oh, it was three ways that time. And for life. Yes, it was my liege. Not fanciful. Yeah. Well, today we are talking about a new series that we're starting called Play This Not That. It's kind of like this old, New Yorker-ish, eat this, not that kind of vibe.

Yep. And we thought we would start. start with one of our favorite forms, the blues. Who doesn't love the blues? I like the blues. I like the blues. Yeah. Do you like the blues?

If you don't, I'm not even that interested in what you have to say and don't even worry about it because we thought we can kind of like just juxtapose some different ideas. Like there are things we could play. Yes. But then there are things that maybe we should play. Right, exactly. I don't know. And do you really want to play that versus you really want to play that?

Yeah, yeah. We're going to get a little dogmatic because we're going to go to some sort of polar opposites. Like, that sounds like crap. That sounds great. And within that, though, we hope that all of our stories will be there to come out. This is not about saying you have to play like, like, well, it is a little bit like saying. Well, no, you know what it is? It's not saying like never play this and always play that.

Oh, I'm going to be saying that. No, no, no, no. No, it's really not like that. It's really more just like, you know, if you play this, you might like this. That's right. Right. This might be a little better. In fact, we're going to put our stamp of approval that it is a little better.

That's right. That's right. So number one. Come on, man. That's how we always do here. But listen to what? Should I listen to, I don't know, Jeff Goldblum and the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra?

Oh, that would be what not to listen to. Big shout out to Jeff. Jeffrey G. I love you. No, you're going to be listening to Oscar Peterson. Should I listen to Brian Setzer and the Hepk? I don't even know that is. I don't think so. I mean, maybe, but not to learn how to play

not what to play on the blues. That would be what not to play on the blues, you know. Because, I mean, Oscar Peterson, there's certainly many others, and we've talked about them and we'll talk about it. But we're trying to get focused here today. Oscar Peterson, like, and a lot of people think, oh, if I listen to Oscar, I'm just going to be able to play the blues only like him. Great.

Your day just got better, you know. So Oscar Peterson, that's a great blueprint to start with. Also, good luck with that. Exactly. Yeah, sounding just like that. Yeah, I would say that's a go-to, especially if you're a pianist for some really amazing ideas on what to play. I, you know, I would also maybe put in there for variety, some Lewis Armstrong, some Charlie Parker even.

Not bad. You know, one of the best ever to play. You're not being very controversial yet. I know. But even those three. right like louis armstrong charlie parker oscar peterson you're going to be uh just uh just surrounded by a wealth of information about what to play yeah and this shouldn't even be controversial but just to show that we slightly stretch here at the you'll hear a podcast little keith jarrott for some blues

oh no he's saying no no i'm just kidding yeah of course of course of course no i mean you know it's not just about like the overtly blusy players but look oscar peterson that's a great you know, so much blues depth and just in a great situation of jazz piano there. So let's get into some of the meat of this. So number two, don't play a new blues scale

for every chord. No, because it'll sound like. My phrasing is almost... Actually, it didn't sound that bad. Well, my phrasing is almost too hip for the genre here. But it's not... Listen, hey, it happens.

People do this. Like, I heard Christian McBride do this. It sounded hip, A, You're not Christian McBride. Yes. You don't have a handle on this yet. You mostly hear this from beginner improvisers. Right.

Here's what you should do, right? That's what you could do. What you should do is just stay on that one blue scale, baby. Just stay through it. You're still there. I'm somewhere else. Is that okay? I mean, that's like three notes of one blues scale.

You don't have to get super deep into changing your blues scale with every chord. It's actually not where it's at. That's right. And especially as a starting place. Yeah, for sure. You can get to Christian. McBride later a little later on. Also, it's easier to stay with the one. Exactly. Just tell your story with that one. Exactly. And I think a lot of these other play this,

not the knots, but to play this, you're going to be able to layer in with that staying on that same tonic blues scale as well. It's going to work good. Number three, and this is to our pianists and guitarists out there. Don't play your cheesy blues chord riffs. No. Give me an example. Like, don't, don't play like, uh, I mean, or like, my mama done told me yeah i mean you know especially in this jazz context right like it's really kind of out of the or or even like you know some more of like rock and roll style that's right right we get a lot of rockability rock and roll great stuff but not the blues really based upon there's nothing wrong with any of that like it's not wrong per se that i mean you're not in the

monkeys though so you don't have to feel like you can you can don't play the blues like a monkey yeah exactly what you you could do instead, though. If you're feeling a little too seen right now in this moment, if you feel a little too called out. Instead, play some bluesy double stops. Yes. You show him, Peter.

Well, that's... Oh, actually, that's not okay. Sorry. Yeah, yeah, I was trying to go monkeys. I couldn't do it. I got stuck. Or this is... I love this one, too.

A little block chord blues. A little... A block chord blues. I mean, unless that's your bag, but... Man, don't forget Oscar on Bag's crew. That's true. There's some block chord blues there. Super, super.

That's why we said number one. Listen to Oscar Peterson. Then you can do any of this. I mean, think about Oscar Peterson, a trio record he never made, which would have been great. You know what it is? Mr. Peterson plays the monkeys. It's someone. It's amazing.

Yeah. Oscar Peterson plays. It's somewhat. The British invasion. What you want to, what you don't want to be is that person that owns the entire Shermer, boogie, wuggy piano blues catalog. Is that a thing? Yeah.

Yeah. And then you're just translating that when you get to the jam session. You'd rather do some hit bluesy double stops. Oscar a la Herbie Hancock. Oh, yeah. Just an idea. Number four. Number four.

Don't always play bebop changes. Like when you get to the 36251. You know, like you play some good stuff. And then you want the one. And all that's cool. Back to the four. There's nothing wrong with going down to the three, but you don't have to be.

Oh, yeah. Oh. I mean, there's a time and place from that, but don't always do that. Don't always do that. And don't come out of character doing that. Now, a way that you can do this and really even just to give it some variety to still play a 36251, as opposed to where it may not fit right is go, go Oscar Peterson again, number one.

Oscar Peterson. O.P. You down with OPP? Are you down with OPP? Yeah. Yeah, you know me. Look it up. All right.

Oh, boy. I'm not down with that. Okay, so we're going 3625, but we're going straight dominant. Now we're not bebobbing. We can go bebop you're doing with the lines. Yeah. We got a little asterisk there. Yeah, yeah.

Don't ignore your bebop lines. No, no, no, no. Because that's a big part of this. But I love what you did there. So instead of B minor 7, E7, you did B7. You did B dominant seven, right? Yeah. To E dominant.

That's a very Oscar issue. Oh, you know what you can do in this situation too is maybe. All dominant science. We're going to get even more Oscar here. I'm dominating my dominance. You know what I mean? Get some more Oscar in here. Throw a little bluesy double stops in there.

Oh, yeah. into your dominance. Exactly. And then, you know, like you said, don't ignore the bebop line. So like if you go, you can go up to that diminished going up to the five or the one over the five. Yeah. That's a good place to sneak in some bop or maybe to the four. But now we're going dominant three.

Then it's a more adventurous bebop over the blues gives you some place to come back. Alternatively, what I like very, very much so is you're on the three. there you're in that B minor. Yeah. How about the flat three diminished? Yep. For a little more ambitious B-bop stuff. Yep.

Stop. Stop. Don't hurt them. Stop. All right. I love number five. Don't play rhythmically ambiguous crap. No, don't play that.

But what do you play? Play do emphatically state with precision your rhythms. Okay. So what's the difference between this? The rhythmically ambiguous crap. So something like... Right, right. So now you've got the right notes.

You're not on the wrong blues. You're at the right place, but it's just like you're trying to... You're trying too hard. But yet you're trying not hard enough at the same time. It's such a weird thing. Like, in order to play... You're trying hard, but you're not trying right.

You're not trying right. And you're actually not trying hard enough. So if you're going like, let's see... What temple? you want one two three four like it's just kind of out of time and sloppy oh i'm so bluesy oh oh i'm just feeling bad why you got to crank up your nose like that too why you got to crinkle up your nose i know that's well we're going to get to that lady too yeah yeah yeah so like you know you don't have to play like a robot but again we're going to take a cue

from oscar peterson yeah he might go like if it's a little like he might kind of let's a bad example but you know he'll lay back what's the what was that line we were doing on the other day on yeah yeah yeah and he lays back on it but it's not like it's not it's not rhythmically ambiguous crap it's it's a phrase and then it's humanized right by laying back and pushing forward so you've got to start from a place of practice this which is chord where everything lays right how great did that feel you just doing just hitting on the one there man. Exactly. Yeah, be confident with your rhythms. You know what I like to do with students sometimes is try singing your rhythms. Try singing what you're about to play

because it really helps you to get a confident sound in your rhythms. Yeah, and with precision in your rhythms and where you lay your phrases comes that confidence, right? So if it's later on you can get the, but don't start there because it's going to be rhythmically ambiguous crap. Yeah. Also known as rap. Rack. That's my rack. Number six is to don't play random one-off phrases. Do play repetition intelligently.

So don't ramble on on your blues. Two, three. Wow, you're kind of working in some rhythmically ambiguous crap at the same time, aren't you? They usually go hand in hand. Do you like that transition to triplets? Look at my technique.

Isn't it glorious? This is so bad. It's like messing up my baseline. It's terrible. Don't do that. I didn't do that. That's hard. I just let my inner self come out.

Now we're going to do some repetition. Yeah. But we're going to do it. And check it out how much easier it is to do repetition. Look at that. Ooh, I might have got a little too intelligent. Don't get too intelligent either. That's number six, B.

But the faith comes by hearing. Faith comes by repetition. The good book tells you that. So one of the great things about the blues is the repetition. Yeah. I mean, the entire, you know, form is based off of this A, A, A, B, right? Well, it's ABC, but those first two sections are usually some kind of repeated thing. And then you may or may not resolve it in the resolution.

That's right. You know, Bag's groove is that same thing that happens three times in a row. You know what I mean? There's nothing wrong with it. Now, what instead of if Bag's groove was written like this, right? Start it from the top. What if Bag's Roo's was like this? Two, one, two, three.

Be no liking. No, stop it, please. I'm loving going into these triplets. I love you're like wandering. I can't play the triplets and look at my hands. I think they're ashamed of me. Yeah. No, but obviously.

Exactly. They would have left the beauty, the foundation of what was there. Yeah. Of the beauty. I mean, play it again. Again, it's like you're trying too hard, but you're not trying hard. Exactly. I love that phrase that.

Well, and I think a lot of this, look, I mean, you got to put out a little bit of fake it until you make it with this kind of stuff. For sure. Yeah, yeah. Because, yeah, I mean, we're joking about play like Oscar Peters and listen to Oscar Peterson. You got to listen a lot and you're still not going to sound

like him. But what we're trying to do is take the concepts. So play, you're not going to be able to play as complex as Oscar Peterson. You're not going to be able to play

probably with as much rhythmic precision as he did, but you can do your version of your story of that. So that might be, so you play it again. You know, like faith comes by hearing. You got to repeat some stuff.

Absolutely. Tell your story. Be confident. If it's just some space, but do it with rhythmic precision and then later on you'll be able to oh I'm sorry to sound like the monkeys again

once it gets in your mind it's there listen Oscar Peterson I love the monkeys I'm not I'm not ashamed of that I don't even know who that I mean I can picture them hey hey with a monkey no I know but weren't they a fake band yeah they were yeah okay they were excellent number seven this is important

don't take on some sort of bluesy persona with some kind of fake stank face just because you're someone called the blues at the jam session. Like we've shown some examples of that today. Yeah, like intentionally getting sloppy. Like you're looking into the sky for some kind of inspiration. I can't look at myself.

Or trying to lay back because you think that's what it's the blues does. Or be sloppy. Don't. There's nothing sloppy about the blues. No. There's freedom in the sound and the phrasing and all that. But it's not a sloppy thing. It's not like a, yeah, man, I'm getting sloppy on my blues.

In all seriousness, man. Getting all drugs. No. The older I get, the more I realize that the blues is, as a form, is a complete gift to humanity. It really is a gift to us as musicians too as this incredibly simple, gorgeous form that is so fun and malleable to play over and can be anything we want. So tell your story.

Don't take on some kind of fake ass blues persona and try to do something that's not you just because you're playing some form. Like really just be yourself and let the blues take care of itself. It'll happen. That's right. And so we're not trying to downplay the cultural aspect and the history of the blues and how it came up. That's so important. That's the gift of the blues. But to honor that is to not to try to take that on in a fake way.

It's to take the musical attributes. You know, just like, I mean, not just like, but you could talk about like, let's play some Baroque music. Let me go get my powdered wig, my liege. Before, no? No, but it's true. It's the same. It would be the same kind of vibe. Yeah.

So we don't need to do that. Now, can we connect with Baroque music and still speak English and act like? normal people. Have respect for the gifts that the founders of this gave to us. Exactly. And be true to it and true to yourself. So no stank face or authentic stank face only. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the sloppy thing, that's not cool because actually if you think about some of the like, I mean, I'm talking about some of the greatest Delta blues musicians. I mean, going back to Robert Johnson. I mean, just all the OGs. And look, we're no, we're talking about jazz blues through Oscar Peterson is kind of our, you know, and obviously there's a huge history that led up to that point. All sorts of

genre there's fake band blueses like the monkeys that's right yeah i mean it's been talking about appropriation but i mean the idea is that like the actual great um blues players there's such a precision in what they're doing but there's such a sophistication and nuanced approach because it's such a specific kind of a sound you know it can't be forced into this kind of classical notation and even this idea of the 12 bar blues yes of course we do that mostly in jazz but that's that's like a fake construct actually because the blues can be any number of bars absolutely yeah Cool. But did we say what to do,

but not to be sloppy and all that? We said, don't, number seven, this is important. We got to end on a positive. We got a little dogmatic. No, we did. This is going to be a little negative. No, you know. Just realize you have that freedom to tell your own story.

So tell your story. That's what it is, right? So don't take on that fake bluesy thing, but do tell your story and step into that role of saying, I'm going to be the best blues player I could be. Man, this was a fun episode. I love this new series. I think we should do another one,

depending on how well this one does. but if how will we know if it does well well please hit us a like and subscribe it really does let us know what you like so hit like and subscribe if you found this to be helpful and or interesting and or you just didn't hate it we are sponsored today by open studio go to open studio jazz.com for

oh your jazz lesson needs we have tons of piano courses saxophone trumpet drums bass we have a new course from christmas bride coming out that's right coming out in a number of days coming out this month. That man can play the blues. I'm telling you what. He can play the blues. There's no fake stank face coming from him. If there's any stank face, it's authentic and related to what he's playing.

And I'd just like to say that all of our, I don't know if you know this, but all of our courses at Open Studio are currently FDA approved as being safe. FDA and CDC approved because you are receiving them via the internet, which is a very safe way to receive the courses. Have they been injected with various sprays and chemicals that could possibly No, they haven't. That's what I'm saying. It's all good. This is the time to stay at home, shelter in place, learn at home so that you're ready to come back into the world, play the blues, play your jazz. It's a certified organic. It is certified. Non-GMO.

Non-GMO, exactly. Until we get in any more trouble. You'll hear.