You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Practice Room Setup - #21

Episode Date: September 24, 2018

Today, Adam and Peter discuss their practice setup. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I'm Adam Mness and I'm Peter Martin and you are listening to the You'll Hear It podcast Daily Jazz Advice coming at you brought to you by Open Studio and today we are fielding a question from an email that we got you can go and send Open Studio an email especially if you're an Open Studio member I like it old school old school did I tell about my friend who a few years ago stopped me if I've said the story or we could just edit it out if I've already said I had a good friend who just a few years ago said was still holding out on not getting an email address because he thought it was just a fad. He's like, finally, he's like, I'm going to get an email

because it seems like it's here to stay. He thought it was like another, like Myspace or something. I'm not getting an email address? No, he didn't use. I mean, now, when I say a few years, this might have been eight years ago, but it was not 20 years ago. If you want to send us a physical letter,

I think down at the bottom of our website of openstudio.com is our address. Man, that would be awesome or like some gifts. Send us some stuff to like open on the show. Like Casey Nice that. You know, people always sending them stuff. Oh yeah, send us. No anthrax. No anthrax.

Yeah, a melodica, maybe. So, okay, great. So this came via email from April. Yeah, April Mink. That's such a great name. It is. Yeah. Are we okay using her full name?

I think so. You're such a trusting guy, Adam. Yeah, you know. All right, good. So what does she say? She says, I have heard you reference how important it is to really get your setup in your practice room so that you can pull up recordings, transcribe, watch Open Studio courses, smiley face, etc.

Maybe you could do a podcast episode on what you consider the essentials. I am getting ready to make an investment based on hearing Adam talk about how important it is and would love to get some advice. Right now, I'm just using my MacBook Pro and a Bose mini speaker. I plan on getting a monitor to view the videos in larger format, but would like to hear your opinion on speakers, what you use as backing tracks, IREL Pro question mark, et cetera. Thank you for your professionalism in all you do best April. April as a professional, I must say that my professional opinion is to, we do have diplomas on the wall here.

Yeah, I don't know if like there's one way to do anything like this, but I can kind of tell you, you know, I'm sure we can talk about our setup. I'm sure it's different for everybody. It's really whatever works for you. Yeah, why don't we just, before we get into our setup and maybe some possible setups, just kind of outline what sort of the goals would be for the setup

because then maybe people could adapt in terms of that. What are we looking to be able to have as part of a setup? So I think it depends on what you're trying to get out of it. Because so my setup is, I have a couple of different setups and they're often hybridized because I do different activities. Like I have my setup over here in our offices here are not only for my work with Open Studio, but are for writing gigs. You know, so that it's the easiest place for me to compose. I know you have a setup, like you have a specially custom desk for your composition stuff. Some people have that for like MIDI stuff or recording.

And then also a practice setup. Now my practice setup is at the moment completely mobile. Like I keep a small speaker. I think that's essential, a Bluetooth speaker, which are great now to have. And a laptop if I want to check some stuff. Yep. But that's, and then I also have my journal and a pencil box with a bunch of different like highlighters.

Hips your old school. Come on now. Nerdy stuff. Like it, like it. Yeah, yeah. So I do think that essentials are some kind of way to play music physically in the space. Number one. Listen.

Listen. And then some kind of way to make notes, whether that's an iPad or some other tablet or a phone or a laptop or a bullet journal, whatever it is, whatever you are into. Bujo. I don't know if that's a thing. Yeah, that's great. I think that the journal part or however you want to keep notes is really important from two different things. There's the kind of planning, you know, what you're going to do. And we've talked about this in other episodes in terms of practice routine, you know, having a plan.

And that normally, for me, having a written plan is nice. What's even better is kind of having a plan up here in your head, but you can do both, you know. But certainly having that. So that would certainly be a goal for me for any kind of setup just to have a simple, well, let me just say this, just stepping back a little bit. I think if, you know, you have the ability to make an investment into like kind of the perfect practice setup for you, which it sounds like that's what April's looking for. It's a great opportunity. It's kind of like, you know, if a great chef, a great home chef has the chance to redesign or to build a kitchen, it's like, yeah, they could go into any little. you know, a kitchen on a, on a sailboat or something and whip up something great, of course.

But what if you had the chance to have everything where it's like maximum efficiency for your movement, the perfect oven and all that? Yeah, that's not going to make you a great chef, but it'll make it so much more delightful and easy for you to be able to operate in that environment. So I think that's kind of what this is about is optimizing the things. And for me, it's like what you want to optimize for is focus. Yep. Like to be able to really, like the focal point is your instrument. always. So you don't want to have every bell and whistle around you maybe at that time for that kind of

focused practice unless you can just be somebody that can survive like that. You want it to sound really good. So that becomes a less thing of bringing in equipment, but your physical surroundings. You know, to your point as far as being able to listen, I think super important. And we've talked before about having, you know, a speaker setup. And I mean, thankfully, yeah, now even a $50 Bluetooth can do this where you can get the volume up enough, where you can really do some great playalongs, where you can pump up that volume enough and not have to just rely on headphones. Having said that,

I'm almost always end up just like having some headphones or something because I don't have the perfect setup always, which is weird because we should have the perfect setup. Well, that's the thing. So let's break this down a little bit. So she talks here about she plans on getting a monitor. I highly recommend, especially if you're using sort of Open Studio videos.

Yeah. I highly recommend getting a bigger monitor than just your laptop screens. Yes. Because it makes a huge difference in your workflow. You know, I, on my desk over here, I have a lovely Steinway to my right. I have a mini keyboard to my left off. And then in the front, I have a big monitor that I connect my laptop to

so I can use actually both screens. And I didn't realize how much that would be a game changer for my workflow. But that has definitely helped with anytime I have to do anything on video, anytime I have to do any composing, anytime I have to do any recording or mixing of audio, it is such a huge advantage to have all that space on the computer. Yeah. You know, to really do whatever you want and then to have the keyboards at my disposal on either side. And then I have two, well, now they're being used here for our podcast,

but usually I have two fairly nice Bluetooth speakers on either side, stereo speakers on either side so I can also listen in space. Right. And that's my kind of my go-to stationary setup. Right, right, right. Yeah, and I'm just thinking about, yeah, like the monitor-sized thing with the Open Studio lessons, that could really come into play, too, in terms of if there's something visually within the lesson, and then there's also the notation for those lessons that have that, where you can really,

wait, did you mention that already? Sorry, if you did. Okay. Where you can really optimize what you're seeing at the same time. You know, because that's the whole thing. It's like I think any kind of workflow, work setup, and then the workflow that you can fit into that is about being able to take those,

like being able to focus and listen, where you're getting just the right amount of stuff without having to fuss with different things at the right time so that as you're getting those little breakthroughs, they're very there apparent to you. I mean, none of these tools are going to make you better on their own, but the breakthroughs that you can have as you're getting information and then able to try it out,

if you're able to get those in an efficient way, And like you mentioned about your computer, it's like it could be any computer, but there's nothing like having a super fast optimized system where it never slows you down. You never have to wait as you're kind of either inputting or getting something out of it. That's the thing. You want as little filter as possible between what you're working on and getting it out. So if it means, you know, if your computer is slow and crashing every 10 minutes, that's going to be a problem for your workflow.

That's really going to hinder you. And it's when you don't notice it. That's what you want. you know, when you don't notice at all. So, yeah, and, you know, these big monitors, actually, as an investment, they're not that expensive to buy, to buy, I don't forget what size it is, probably 20-something inches than we use.

But they weren't outrageous. Right. It was completely affordable. And for what they've done for me, productivity-wise, it's been great. Now, I also have then, I have a kind of messenger bag, a computer bag, that I kind of keep a mobile setup because, you know, I do have a piano that I practice

across the street from the studio. I also will practice sometimes wherever I can find a piano. Yeah, me too. So that I keep my laptop in. I keep a speaker, a Bluetooth speaker, a smaller one that fits in there that I can hook up to my phone or my laptop and I can play along with records. Yep. And I keep a small piano tuning kit in case. That's the next level. I haven't hit that yet, man. That's just in case I come across. It is slippery slope. You spend all your time tune that, that darn piano. So April's also asking, I'm just looking through here, the opinion on speakers. I know we talk about the, you know, Bluetooth portable, which is nice or having some good. But what about the actual speakers? Because like one thing that we both have done at times is, you know, there's monitor, whether it's consider monitor speakers, powered monitor speakers, where you're going to get the most accurate kind of sound. And most people are not used to listening like this. But if you were creating a system and I'm thinking like here we have it more in terms of like at the workstations, either if somebody's mixing or working, or work. working on music, but the idea is that you're sitting in front of speakers very closely. Not in the typical way you do in a living room with like kind of eight to 12 or 15 feet away.

But what are they called near field monitors, I think, or something. But the idea is that, and you look, you can get some really good speakers like this for, I think as low as like $300, $400 a pair. I want to say like Mackie's, what is they, Genilex, those are a little more expensive. Little more expensive. But I mean, they're like if you want to get great sound for close up, and they're powered. You don't need an amplifier or whatever. You can come right out of a computer. You can come out of a bunch of different stuff. I'm looking around. We've got wires everywhere. But that's a way you could kind of get into some really good close-up sound. And then for me, and I think Mackey's are good, like the value prop on Mackeys is really good. For me, in terms of like home speakers, and like I'm thinking about, like I kind of have a listening environment in my living room that we've sort of adapted over the years, but it's just a great place to sit. I mean, like, visually focus-wise.

I don't have a piano in there. There's a piano in the next room and I can go down and play some. But I just want to sit for what we call focus listening. I have some B&W. B-N-W speakers. I have something, I mean, that's a very, like, luxury speaker brand out of the UK.

I have something on the very budget end for them, which is still kind of on the pricey side. But I love the way those speakers sound. Now, they're not for being up close. They're for, like, totally for living-room situation. Kind of for, kind of, you know, depending on the tuning of the room and stuff. but I love the way those speakers sound

and like that's my if money's no object I would just get their there I know man I often have to make a choice between gear that I actually use on my professional life and a setup. Like I have a nice turntable

and some vintage speakers that I bought at the record exchange here down the street but I would love to get like a super high end but it's like I got a vintage keyboards You might have a little man cave in your future I might have a mangues Hopefully the wife he's not listening right now. Kids go away to college

I'm going to get that together. So one last part of your question, April, where you talk about backing tracks. What do you use backing tracks? You say, IREL Pro. Actually, I Real Pro has gotten better. I don't actually know what that. Did they have, I mean, I know the fate, the real book.

It's like a real book. So you can actually, you can play backing tracks that sound pretty decent. It comes from the app. Come from the app. You can pick how many courses you want to do ahead of time, set the tempo, set the key. Is it automated, though? of any of yeah of any tune it's pretty crazy man actually i'll bring it up so we can we can kind of vamp on it but i will say that you know besides the iroro pro can be a little bit of a crutch

i think um here here's the little 262 you know ride patterns this is what i'm saying negatory it's not very authentico right uh but it'll get the job done in a pinch yeah i if i'm going to play a long with something I usually play along with the recordings yeah what I want to what I want to do even if that means I'm stepping on Miles Davis's toes you're like the do Saki's guys I don't normally I don't normally drink what I don't often drink beer but what I do it's do sake is anybody I don't normally play with tracks but what I do it's the real recording yeah but I think you get more from playing with with PC and Philly Joe yeah then you do getting you know space in this

in this play along. And we've started with Open Studio, shameless plug here, is that, you know, adding backing tracks by, you know, today's PC and Philly, Ruben Rogers and Greg Hutchinson at different rhythm sections that we've had.

And we've been experimenting with that and have them available for several courses and there's going to be more. Because I think that's a fun way to play along with. We have Montes Coleman as well. Nathan Pence. Nathan Pence. We have some really great players.

So there's some stuff there that you can play along with. We can do some trading stuff, didn't we? On elements of jazz piano? Yeah, in one of your courses, we have a whole thing where you trade fours with you. Right. Where our students could trade fours. Who's trading with who? Yeah.

That was a confusing sentence I just spoke. But I think, yeah, backing tracks. I mean, there was the Jamie Aversall ones. I'm sure those are still available. They are. And this is, I mean, I know those players were better than these software instruments, but it's kind of the same kind of deal where it's like it's not a real environment. Right, right, right.

There's some good, you know, you can check out some stuff on. YouTube too there's actually some decent stuff on YouTube but you know when it comes down to it go with the recordings you love and just play along that's that's the real deal to me yeah good stuff all right well great thank you so much April for the question and for the idea it's a super interesting and good luck with your setup and let us know how it goes and give us some tips anybody wants to hit us up on on Twitter hey open studio at hail open studio and let us know what your ideal practice yeah you know what maybe we could do on Twitter if you want to just send us a picture of your setup.

I like that. We'd love to see it. I'll maybe tweet out mine. I never tweet anything, so. Right. I can give you the link to the app in case you need that in a little instructional video on how to use it. That's right.

Yeah, good stuff. Cool. All right, well, until tomorrow. You'll hear it.