You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Practice Check-In: Preparing for a Performance

Episode Date: October 19, 2020

It's another live edition of You'll Hear It where Peter and Adam take your questions - during their practice check-in, Adam talks about how he's preparing for a duo concert with Peter. To watch this concert, 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.Monday's Open Studio Live Events:1:00 PM - Adam's Daily Guided Practice Session (for Members Only)4:00 PM - You'll Hear It Live with Peter and Adam on YouTube6:00 PM - Bass Guided Practice Session with Bob DeBoo 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.

audio recording. That's how we do it. That's how we do it. And we want to invite you in with our friends. Can you see here? You can just see kind of his arm there. This is Christian McBride. Maybe on this. Yeah, now you can see it. Christian McBride. That's Sean Jones. We're going to eventually get all the open studio artists in here. We just like to have them here because we can't be together. This is Adam Manus. And we are here to answer your questions to hopefully give a little bit of encouragement. Maybe you guys will give us some. And just to commune about music, life, trying to, you know, Everybody's trying to kind of get better and make some progress daily and do our thing, right?

Just be a little bit better today than you were yesterday. That's right. That's all you got to do. Well, that's important to you because I think Saturday and Sunday I got worse both days. So I got some catching up to do. Yeah, well, that's the caveat too, is don't beat yourself up if you're a little bit worse. Right. That's right.

Right. Okay. So I don't know if you remember this, Mr. Maness. We have, and I'm not talking to your dad. I'm talking to you because you're a little older now, so you can take it. we have some segments that we're doing now. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. What you got?

So we've got, first, let's do our practice check-in. Okay, cool. Because I think this is going to be interesting because I know I've been practicing a little bit thinking about our duo piano concert live stream, which is coming up on Wednesday evening. Did you know that? I did know that, man.

I'm working hard at it. Yeah, me too. And so I think, you know, a lot of my practice, I think solo piano works well, and we've done this before. But neither one of us has done it a lot over the years, two piano, because there's just not a lot of occasions to have access to another great pianists. It's a rare treat.

Yeah, and actual two pianos. And so the idea is that I think it's always fun for me to think about taking solo piano concepts and techniques and just conceptions. And then how do you layer that in with another pianist that you really enjoy their playing to make something that's interesting? It's not just back and forth solo piano. Although a certain amount of that works, I find works very well in this kind of situation. Although there will be that.

There will be that. Because you know what? It just works so well. You can't layer everything on top of each other the whole time, nor should you. So it's what we were talking about a little bit last week. It's just one option of sound, right? So there's so much we can do. I was thinking about this this morning that one of the things that I'm going to try to be present with when we play, our duo concert,

is to not show too much aversion towards any sound. So because we often think like, okay, well, we need. to leave each other's space. Sometimes that means just two solo piano sections, right? Yes. And sometimes that means if you're in the middle, I'll be out here. Right. Right?

That's another option for sound. But I don't want to be avert to that. But I also, if you're in the middle, sometimes I can be in the middle too, and that can create its own sound as well. Like, if I'm always outside or you're always outside and I'm always inside or you're always inside or vice versa, for always leaving all this sonic room all the time, that gets repetitive and boring. Right.

There are sounds to be made where we can be to be to. we can be like I can be thin while you're thick I can be super thin while you're doing thicker things yep we could both be thick on occasion I think it's just like anything else it's almost like composition right where it's like too much of one thing is not great there always needs to be some evolution with the sound and I think and that's what's so exciting about the duo concert with two pianos is that we truly can do all of that we truly like if you if it's a duo with the trumpet there's certain things you can do and there's definitely everybody has their places and it can be killing.

But this is like we have all of these colors to paint with. And I think the key for me is going to be exploring what we can get out of all of that, you know. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. That's been sort of the same. You know, we haven't talked about this a lot, which I think is great. I don't like getting into a thing where like everything's planned out. But I do, I think that conceptually we're coming from the same place in terms of understanding the instrument, understanding the power of And then also understanding that, you know, some of the same issues that come up with when you play with guitar and piano come up in a different way. But the idea is that, you know, you can get a little bit of addition by subtraction that can be very interesting. And number one, listen.

Yeah. It doesn't apply any more than a two piano situation. No, I mean, it's almost like the guitar thing, but even more. Yeah. Because we can do more. We have a bigger range than the guitar. We can play more notes than a guitar. So it's like we can actually, we can really bear down on that.

So I think it's really exciting. I mean, we did it last year. Was it last year? Yeah. It was like a little less than a year. Yeah, it was like a little less than a year. Oh, like right about a year ago. We did one night, two sets, right?

No, we did two. Do we do two nights? Well, we did a matinee member. We did like a, yeah, yeah. So I think it was three sets total. Three sets total. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was so much fun.

Yeah. We just had a blast. And I was really, I was like, man, by that third set, I was like, okay, like, I'm right. I know. Let's go on the road. What do we do it? I know.

There's so much to get out of it, but you need to spend some time in there. Yeah, I know. I remember that was the exact feeling. That last set, I was like, oh, man. And then you just don't get a chance to do it again. So, yeah, looking forward to Wednesday. So please join us. That's at the open.

It's right here, right? Open Studio, YouTube. I mean, it's not going to be in the pot, so it's going to be in there. Yeah. And we're going to have a little Bozzy, Bosendorfer v. Steinway action. But it's 7, 8 p.m. Eastern New York City time on Wednesday evening on the YouTube. So what specifically, are you practicing anything specifically? Are you practicing anything specifically?

for this situation or you just like getting your mind right for it? No, the only thing I was kind of, because you kept coming in here playing the, you know, yeah, the theme song. And I was like, I never really play. I mean, I do play it occasionally, but I'm never like practicing, but I did pull that one out a little bit. I just want to be able to do the first part with you. I got it. Well, what about if we split that up?

Like, what about if I'll do the left hand and you do the right hand. I'm going to comp and do the, let's see how this work. I'll comp and you play the melody. Okay. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Wait, wait, wait, a second. Yeah, one, two, three, four, five. Give me four.

One, two, three, four. Then we could switch. It's almost harder to play that line, maybe. I mean, yeah. One, two, three, four. Oh, is that too hard. Yeah. Sorry, it was a little rehearsal.

That was good. So I've been practicing that just to, so I can be comfortable with it. Also, I don't play a lot in seven in my own trio. I have one thing that's in seven. I don't do a ton of it. So I wanted to, and it's been a while since I've played that with the trio,

So I've been wanting to, I haven't spent any time in the pandemic with odd time signatures. It's my bad. I mean, the whole pandemic is such an odd time. It's such an odd time. So you're going to be fine. This whole damn thing's an odd time signature. Well, I think, too, that because we do, I don't know if we have questions about it today, but it's definitely something that's come up like, how do you playing odd time signatures?

And I just, one thing that I always like folks to think about is, you know, you've got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, one, two, three, you try to find that place of the groove, right? but like kind of next level and we're normally thinking oh I have to master that first but this is one of those things you can kind of practice as you go so it's like so you stretch it out over two yeah and you stretch it out over four so once you start kind of you got to kind of go off the end of the diving board you remember what it felt like when you get on uh uh uh yeah exactly exactly the big three over the the the three and back and forth so you can be practicing that kind of as as you're going folks and that's that's that's a fun

thing to kind of find within there. I've also been just working on, for myself, just always with just trying to clear that path, right? Just trying to be mindful of what is happening as I'm playing. I spent a lot of time this week working on that, working on the mindfulness of playing. Because I think there's a lot of really great music that gets left on the table sometimes. Yes. When we're playing from the ego, you know what I mean?

Yep. So I don't know. That seems very so-s-s-s-sha-sa-sa. But it's what I've been working on in my practice sessions. Like stopping if I'm playing something that I'm not truly hearing or interested in. Like getting out of the robot running your fingers mentality. Well, that's great. And that's the kind of practice.

We've talked about a little bit, but we probably don't talk about it enough, especially for a gig like this or just gigs in general, is that there's the technique, there's the ear training, there's all the technical, as it were, not even this kind of technical, just the actual attributes of the music we need to practice. But then you got to get your mind right. Come on, son, get your mind right, man.

Because, I mean, there's nothing like, and you know, to me it's like the sports music analogies are a little bit dangerous because there's such different endeavors. But I would say if you think about a great athlete that has done all the work, like there's a certain amount of element once they get into the game or onto the track or onto the ski slope or whatever, is like you've got to find that combination of going for it, but having fun too.

You know what I mean? It cannot just be execution and work. There's got to be some flair and panache. Did you watch SNL this weekend? I saw selected highlights on YouTube because I was asleep by 1030. So Jack White was the, I guess the guy that was supposed to play

with some young country singer. He had COVID. Yeah. Or he was at a party with COVID or something. So it was Jack White. And I'm got a space on the drummer's name. Oh, didn't he do like an Eddie Van Halen guitar tribute kind of situation?

No. Oh, okay. Wow, he might have. But the first, oh, it was Daru Jones. And, man, amazing. Like these low drums or whatever. But he did this fill in the middle of the first song, which it was just an eighth note thing.

I think it was even just like, doon, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dung. Right? Yeah. And he kind of, he was so joyful the entire time he's playing. And it was kind of like, it was kind of a falling down the steps thing and it wasn't like Stevie Wonderfill

yeah it wasn't on the grid at all it wasn't on any grid it was just he was so feeling it F the grid and you know what nobody noticed that it was no one cares it felt exactly human or whatever and I was like that is the path right there that guy's down the path that's what I that's what I you know with the mindfulness of all this or whatever playing what you hear what these things we talk about

having fun yeah it was so in the moment and so appropriate for what happened and there's nothing you could teach about that. It was just the way he was feeling those eighth notes right then in that moment and the entire studio lit up when he did it. It was awesome. Yeah, and that's the kind of thing.

You get your mind right in advance. You're putting a lot of pressure on yourself to try to just wait until you get into the moment, you know? And that's how some people get frustrated because they're like, oh, like you hear things like, I wasn't able to play all the stuff that I knew. Nobody wants to hear the stuff. I don't know.

I don't have this stuff that you know. Like, they want to hear you win. I want to hear you. And winning in terms of playing music is playing something that moves people. Like, it's as simple as that. So if that's one note, if that's falling down the stairs on the drums,

if that's being present and in the moment. But it's a lot of pressure to put yourself to just be like, okay, I'm going to go from this other kind of mentality. And then once the gig starts or the live stream starts, I'm going to be like, bam. So you've got to be not only preparing for that and practicing for that, but expecting that.

Yeah. And being like, okay, at that moment, I'm going to be like, in the moment, I'm going to, I'm going to honor that time with these musicians or if you're solo, whatever it is to really bring something. And so when you're having fun, then you become part of the audience almost and like part of the process. You're not just like up on high presenting down. You're part of the whole experience and you're having fun and you're doing your part by leading the musical part of it. but it really is something exciting when one can get to that level, I would say. Okay, so this killer performance tip, you ready for this? I'm ready.

You got it? Let's do it. So the peak performance book, right, that Ian recommended to you and you've since recommended it to me. Yes. So, yes, last week I recorded a trio concert, my first trio concert with my trio since everything went down. Yeah. At Jazz St. Louis. Nobody was there.

It was just the three of us and Bob Bennett in the booth and Paul Henrick in the upstairs booth. and it's going to be broadcast this Thursday and I did something that I never do before performance which is I didn't I really really rested that that day all day like I made sure to I warmed up on the piano

I kind of went through what I was going to do all the tunes that I needed to know but I didn't do much maybe 15 minutes at the piano right instead of what I normally do, which is really go through an hour-long practice routine, really try to practice the soloing that I want to do,

go through the changes. I mean, I did all that in the weeks leading up to this, but the day of, I completely rested my mind. I really considered it part of my performance that I was going to save everything. And then even when we got to Soundcheck, and we were kind of rehearsing at Soundcheck, which is what you do at a trio concert.

Of course. I held back. I didn't solo. I remember, man, being on the road with, like, playing some stuff with Aaron when Seamus Blake was on the gig with us, and he didn't, he would never do anything at Soundcheck. He would sort of, like, warm up his horn, but he wouldn't go, he wouldn't blow very much at all.

Wow. And that's what I did. And I had such an amazing night. It felt, I just felt like so energetic. I felt like, and I know this seems like, I shouldn't I know this by now, but really having intention behind this, right? And considering it part of the gig, that I just hold back and really conserve energy, really rest up for the performance. So I was stressing and resting all weeks leading up.

I practiced hard on Wednesday. On Thursday, I just chilled. Right. It was great. We call that chill to the next episode. So for our duo concert, I'm working hard today. I work this morning. I'm going to work when I get home tonight.

I'll work hard tomorrow, stress and rest. You know what I mean? Like go on my 90 minutes and then take into 25, a little walk around the block. and then I'll probably do a quick warm up on Wednesday afternoon and that'll be it. Okay. You know what I'm saying? Good stuff. I'm just, I'm still experimenting.

Now I'm feeling the pressure. I thought we were just going to do a gig. We're just going to have some fun. You got your whole week map down. I got to redo my thing here. All right, should we, oh, wait, we got to do what else we got? We got fitness and diet checking. Okay, yeah.

How are you doing on the fitness and diet, not diet, the food? Because you've been doing the plant-based Mondays, right? Plant-based Monday, lentil soup night tonight. Nice. Yeah, we had actually had pretty much. a plant-based Sunday because we did pizza head for dinner vegan pizza man that pepperoni that's very good yeah it's not real pepperoni it's better than real pepperoni and they're dealing with like a cashew type cheese I believe right on their vegan we didn't get the vegan pizza we got the regular

cheese right um but you know sundays are kind of my cheat day right where I have like the sugar had some Halloween candy but but anyway other than that man pretty much again all I stuck to something that really works for me right now which is just no processed foods at all no dairy no alcohol, just really trying to keep a clean, during the week, keep a really clean diet. Lots of plants. Clean mind, clean body. I'm averaging like two and a half avocados a day. I don't know what that's going to do to me.

I had a nice avocado yesterday. I never have that many, but nothing wrong with the avocado. Cool. All right. Should we get into the, oh, I'll just throw out there that yesterday on the exercise, you know, I'm preparing for a half marathon on. November 1st, which is kind of coming up pretty soon. Yeah, I didn't tell you about that?

Is your fourth half marathon? This will be my fifth. I like to take the first four and say they were twofold. That's kind of cheating because they were. But so I'm doing it on November 1st that's going to be here in Forest Park. Actually, in person, a very rare thing during this time, a socially distanced half marathon that's been approved by the city with a very limited number of participants. Obviously not elite level because I'm one of the participants.

but my coach had me go out yesterday and do a long run, which is easy miles, which is good. And he said 12 to 13. So I was like, I got to do 13.1. That's the half marathon, make sure I could do it. But guess where I ran? Where? I will give you some hints. A, I've never ran there before.

Okay. He's thinking? He's not sure. Okay. I need something else. There's a lot of places that you... B, it is not in St. Louis County, but it's close to St. Louis County. St. Charles?

Yes. Really? Yeah. You ran in St. Charles? Yeah. But you got to be a little more specific. So we're going to keep going with the... Okay.

Okay. Okay. See. The surface that I was running on was neither concrete, asphalt, nor a sidewalk or grass. It was gravel. Katie Trail. Yes. Yes.

Katie Trail. Which was great, man. I mean, I'd been on it before years ago, but it's really. really, you know, I started in downtown St. Charles, and it's a little scary in St. Charles because St. Charles is open. They're wide open over there. Although they're starting to close a little, but yeah, but I started right there. Because they've been so open. Yeah. But there, you know, I started right there. There's a trailhead, a nice park there down, old town St. Charles, right on the Missouri River. Yeah. And I went kind of

west, like southwest. You can go either way, obviously. But it's sort of the beginning of the trail, although it does go up towards the confluence with the Mississippi. But I, I'm like, you know, the Missouri River is so big. Yeah. And like, that's only our second biggest river around here. You know, it's, uh, it's a pretty an amazing thing. But yeah, it just goes right along the river. It was beautiful fall colors.

Um, quite a few bikers on, not many runners, but it was nice. Yeah, I could never bike the, because I always have the, I have the elite road bike tires. Right, right. You would just slip and slide all over. But you know what? I see probably not that skinny, but I definitely, you don't have down mountain bikes. No, they have like the hybrid tires. Yeah.

Quite a few of that. I was surprised. I wouldn't think that's great.