You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Practice Routine

Episode Date: August 13, 2019

On today's episode, Peter and Adam answer a listener's SpeakPipe on how to set a practice routine. Wanna send a SpeakPipe of your own? Sign up for You'll Hear It Premium to access our SpeakPipe hotline! Go to https://www.openstudiojazz.com/yhi for more info.Like those You'll Hear It shirts Peter shows off on the podcast? Want some YHI swag of your own? Take a visit to our store! Just go to https://teespring.com/stores/open-studioLet us know what you think by leaving a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, or head over to our YouTube channel and leave a comment for this episode.Interested in more jazz advice? Go here to browse our catalog of jazz lessons and courses available for purchase.Follow us on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram at:https://www.facebook.com/heyopenstudiohttps://twitter.com/heyopenstudiohttps://www.instagram.com/heyopenstudio See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hey, Peter. Hey, man. I'm not talking about the game. I'm talking about practice. Let's talk about some practice. I'm not talking about the game. I'm talking about practice. And you're listening to the You'll Hear podcast.

Why are we speaking so softly? I don't know. It's the end of the day. We've been podcasting our tails off. Even though it now is Tuesday, it's been like five days we've been sitting in here. It's not really Tuesday for us. We've got the old forester going. We did get the old forester.

Big shout out to the... I have the feeling this is actually... Is this your trash pile over here, dude? bad. I'm sorry. We're going to clean up the is your new intern. When's the intern start? And of the month. End of this month. This podcave is going to get dusty.

Yeah, dusty. We got the big dusty episode coming soon. Let's not give that one away. That's going to be fun. I don't know about that one. Dust New York. A lot of those people are still alive. Okay. Well, you'll hear. All right. Okay, so what are we talking about today? Today we have a question from email. Yes, we do take emails.

You can go to openstudiojazz.com. you can. No, you can't. What are you talking about? You know what you do? Andrew. Oh, yeah, Andrew at OpenStudio Network.com. He may not. He's, he's kind of moved up in the podcast producer world. So I don't know how much he's actually checking his email anymore. But you can try it. Give a shot. Just him and Robin Quivers hanging out. Is that what we're saying? Exactly. All right. We'll see. Today, we're talking about practice routine. We have an email from Jacob. Jacob writes, hey, Peter and Adam, love the podcast. It's been really helpful. One thing that I struggle with is keeping a practice routine. How do you build a routine?

like an hour or something, that covers all the bases. What do you practice when pressed for time? Thanks, Jacob. You know, Jacob, we've covered this many times, and we get asked this still on a regular basis, and that's how we know that it's really important. And we really can't talk about practice or developing a practice routine enough,

because it's fundamentally one of the most important things to improving your playing. Yeah, and we like to say we put the fun in de mentals. Okay, no, we don't. Anyway. The mental in fundamentalists. We put fun in de mentholmendental. No, but yeah, I mean, the thing about this is, I'm really happy about this question because I remember when I struggle with the same question.

So it's always fun like when, it's not that I've mastered the practice routine or anything. No, never. But I think it is the thing that the more time you spend with it, the more successful you become with your ability to basically execute productive practice, the more like anything, it just sort of becomes automatic. So it's kind of like, you know, have you ever skied before? You know how like when you first learning It's like how do you put the equipment and all this kind of stuff and then once you know how to ski You just kind of put the stuff on and go things that you never think about before Yeah, and I think that that's very much with the practice routine like I never worry about if I have an hour like what am I going to practice? Oh for sure

I mean I've already got a priority list going and I can just kind of sit down and know that I'm going to be productive But I do remember the the kind of chronology to get to that point so I think we can kind of help a little bit I think it's very important what you're saying here And I just want to reiterate that first thing, first, Jacob, you are not alone in this. Every musician, you're making fun of my empathy here, man. Come on, I'm trying to get in there with Jacob. Keep talking about it. I'm a little background for you. You are not alone.

I will be, wait, now you got that song on my head. It's a great song. No, every musician who has a great practice routine has at one time wondered what to practice or how long to practice or any of these questions that we get all the time. So it is something that everybody deals with and we're still dealing with. And it's just a lifelong thing. It's part of the gig is working on the practice. And I think that within your question, you've actually answered a big part of it or you're already on to something.

How do you build a routine? That's how, you know, build like, you know, a routine, I think is very similar to a habit. It's not exactly the same thing, but I think a routine is like a combination of several things, but most of them are kind of habits. Yeah. And so like a routine can become a combination of habits that you develop. And really a habit is something that you do. you know, in this case, we would probably measure day by day. So like once you get into the habit of practicing certain things,

that becomes part of your routine. And then it becomes routine. Like where you just kind of sit down like, oh, I'm going to do this. It's like brushing your teeth or flossing or whatever. And then you fall off for a day, but you make sure you don't fall off for two days. That's one of the most important things I think about building a routine is that you never let two days go by where you don't hit that routine. Now you might not, you're talking about an hour and I like that as a place to start as far as, building that routine. But we talked about before, I love this concept of having a percentage of time that you're practicing different things and keeping it simple too. So it might be 25, 25, 25, 25, 25, 25, 25, 25 work. That would be like scales and Hanon or whatever, you know, if you're a trumpet player or the, whatever that crazy stuff. They do Arbids and stuff. Yeah. Really just technical. And then 25% repertoire. Yeah. 25% learning a solo and then maybe 25% ear training. Totally. You know, and then there's other things you can.

bring in but you're saying then what if you have two hours all of a sudden you think you have an hour to practice but you're like wow I'm supposed to teach a lesson and my student didn't show up yeah so now you can kind of double up everything so as opposed to saying I'm going to do 15 minutes of this or 20 minutes I like to think about the percentage now that gets tricky if you've only got 10 minutes what are you going to do two yeah two and a half minutes maybe yeah or you might have to drop something off but I think as long as you have at least 30 or 40 minutes or even 20 minutes to practice you can certainly get through three or four different things I think that's true yeah circle back to the beginning of that point though which I think is a pillar of this and that is

developing the routine you know and you mentioned not going more than two days and I think the key to developing this routine is is finding a routine that you can keep that's the one that's the best right whatever is the routine that you can keep that's the one that works yeah so for me and I've talked about this a lot I saw a lot of growth when I switched my routine to first thing in the morning like before I do anything else I head to the piano and I spend at least half an hour most days an hour. Staring at it. Staring at it, crying a little bit.

And then I... Stroke it and blob it. I procrastinate on emails for a while, then I play 10 minutes a few. No, no, no. But I do, for me, early morning before too much stuff gets in the brain and I get too tired or whatever,

it's perfect time for me. And it's the one that's worked the best, right? And so, you know, at one point in my life, it was late, late at night. Yeah. You know, so it's like whatever can work for your daily human routine, that's the one that you want to approach.

That may be the most important part of developing routine actually, like making it convenient in a way. Like, you know, talking about what to practice during that time. Of course, that's important. But just being in a routine as far as being at the instrument for an hour a day, like the more you do to make that easy to, you know, make your practice area pleasant. Make it like clean or whatever makes. Put a plant there. Put a bottle of whiskey. Whatever you have to do to make it like, I want to be there.

It's kind of like. It's your studio, man. Yeah, it's what you... Yeah. I do a thing when I'm, like, on the road, especially, like, if I know I got to, I want to work out, I'll go for a run, and it's going to be like, I got to get up earlier than I wanted to, or it's going to be kind of difficult. Like, I try to make everything...

I mean, look, you got to get up early to do that. If that's when you want to do it, that's always going to be hard. Yeah. Even if you're in the routine of it. But make everything out, so you can't control the clock. Or, like, say you're going to bed at two and you've got to get up at six to go for a run. Like, you can't turn back the... Turn back the hands of time.

You can't do that. Unless you're shared. Is that share? That was share. I don't think that's how that song comes. Well, I was sharing a little. I was sharing a little. I couldn't remember it.

Sorry. If I could. There it is. That is. Yeah. So, but like what can you control and make it more convenient? Yeah. You know, put out your clothes.

Like, remove every other excuse or impediment. Yeah. So that once you're like, well, I might as well do it, it's easy. It's here. And then you start to get into the habit of it. You get the rhythm. And then you're like, whatever. I'm doing it.

So like, you know, you know, you're going to the instrument in the morning. Then you can kind of go next level and be like, let me optimize my time and really do the stuff maybe in an order that works well. Because you can also maximize that hour. You want to have a flow to your practice that really maximizes. And that also gives flexibility if you get to go to two hours or four hours or whatever. And those nice little surprises come up.

You don't want to be limited to that hour either. That's really good. And something that I want to get back to about what you were saying with the percentages. Yeah. Because Jacob kind of says, he alludes to how do you, the routine that covers all the bases. But you can't cover all the base. You can't, first of all, you don't need to.

Not every day. The fastest way to get close to that is your percentage thing. Because you could at least cover some of the things like a broad range of things. But I will say that like that's one way to do it. And you could do that for weeks, if not months, if not years. Yeah. But you might burn out on that way. And sometimes you might just want to take an hour and just play a tune for an hour and see what happens.

That's right. Or do two things. Or maybe not even have a plan. But the idea is that when you start getting burnt out, like, I don't really feel like heading the piano today because I don't feel like doing 20 minutes of scales and 20 minutes or whatever. Do something else.

Switch it up. You know, that's the beauty of self-practice is that we can kind of be our own coach. Is there any other way to practice in itself? Yeah, you can group practice. Yeah, I mean, well, if you're like in sports. Is that legal in every state? I don't think so.

But don't feel beholden to any one way to practice. Right. Well, you know what's great about that, too, is something that I believe deeply. and was really ingrained in me by some great teachers, really kind of started with my parents, is that the most important thing about a practice routine is time at your instrument, time holding your instrument, time.

You know, yes, of course, you want to be doing the right thing, and that will come. Like, you have to have faith. Like, that's what I was talking about at the very beginning. Like, once you've done this a lot, it becomes easy to optimize and, like, do the right thing that you need to do at the time because you're just kind of in habit. It's like if you go to the gym all the time,

you sort of know just because you know your body so well today, I got to do shoulders. You don't have to think about it and have an app to tell you all that. You just know, but at the beginning, you've got to kind of be told that. But regardless, it's like,

it's just like, you know, with the running thing, people are like, what equipment, like everyone wants to get all these impediments to actually just being out there running. It's time on the road, man. Just go out there barefoot.

You know, I mean, you suck. So it doesn't really matter what kind of shoes you have. You're not Elliot Kipchogi where you've got to have the best shoes anyway. Wait for that for, you know, like, so time at the instrument is the most important. So that should give you kind of a little bit of a relaxed thing.

Like the routine is just being like you're in the routine of being at your instrument every day. And then look. And then I think the other part that is more important than any of this other stuff is don't let two days go. Because then you start. That's when it gets to be easy I've found to lose a routine. Agreed. You know. You know, one day things are going to happen and try not to even let one day go.

But if one day does, don't get down in the dumps or be like I'm throwing everything out. I got to go read a new book before I can. get back going, no, no, get back on the horse the next day. Agreed. Yeah. Okay, so let's cover the what do we practice, because I think this is another pillar. Ooh, is that another episode or is that it? Okay. No, I mean, we can get through it quickly because I just want to talk a little bit about a pillar of practice, or really a pillar of learning, and that's curiosity.

And when I mean curiosity, I mean, or when I say curiosity. I'm curious to hear what you're going to say right now. When I say curiosity, I mean, just asking questions like what should I practice can lead to some real breakthroughs in your practice routine. We have always advocated, and I know you and I both do this, as we keep a journal, a practice journal, of ideas for us to practice,

of maybe tunes we want to learn, of compositional ideas we want to flesh out. All these things can be really important that when you get in the practice room, you're not like, oh, what do I practice? You have a plan. You know, you can map out that percentages, like you said, or you could say, like,

I haven't just done like performance practices. in a while and I have it written down. I need to practice performing solar or whatever it is. You know, that can be a game changer. Right. Well, and I think, too, that kind of speaks to the, like having a plan, having a log, whatever. Well, first of all, you said curiosity. Let's remember curiosity killed the cat.

I was wondering why there's a cat on the trailer car right now. Curiosity did kill the cat. Let's not forget that. But anyway, no, no, no. But having some ideas ready, a catalog of things that you want to practice, that's the same thing of just kind of making the practice convenience so that you never do, I mean, I'm reiterating now, but it's the same thing of like,

have your workout clothes ready to go. Put your workout clothes on before you go to bed. So when you get up, you're like, oh, I don't feel like, oh, I'm already in my clothes. Well, let's just go. You know, so because that's the other thing. Like, you know, we haven't hit on the dark side of the routine. There's going to be some days when you're not,

it's not all, you know, unicorns and and rainbows. Yeah. But if you can focus on that, it's the routine. I'm putting the time in. I'm going like there's going to be ups and down. tomorrow is going to be better. But if you have some of those maintenance things, maybe those more mundane things cataloged ready to go,

it's going to make it so much more convenient for you to keep that routine. One last thing before we go, because it's about time to go. Two things that I think you've got to put in. Because we're working 9 to 5 and we get this job done. And it's 456. So a couple of things that I think are really important. And we talk about before, but I think is important enough to reiterate. Right. Don't practice just things that you know really well.

You know? Don't ever practice them. Don't ever practice things. You know, no, practice things. Unless you just want to stay the same. Right. The only way to get better is to practice things that you're not good at. You have to push yourself to a place where you're not comfortable,

and that's where you eventually get comfortable with things you're not good at. And that's the only way to get better. So always make sure that you have your eye on the prize as far as, like, I'm practicing things that I can't do quite yet. That it's just out of reach. Not super, super hard. Like not like like like like the rock mona of you know Prelude number whatever and expect like oh get do it Yeah yeah do something that's just out of reach right

It's still within your grasp but you got to reach for a tune And but it can be a technique too so technique you could be practicing major scales and you might be like why I already know though so I don't need to practice them Practice them practice them with a certain attention to your sound or to your dexterity or to your articulation There's all like that's one area where I think people don't go enough back to the basics because because they're like, I know that, and you're saying practice stuff that challenges me. Challenge yourself of a major scale. Practice over five octaves. Preach.

Can I get an amen from the choir? Andrew, are you in church? Okay. Okay, he's not there. This was rolling into my next thing, which was like those things that you are just out of reach. Those who teach, preach. Those concepts that you can't quite do yet don't have to be super fast, blah, blah, blah. They could be fundamentals and should be fundamentals.

You know, like take a cue from professional athletes. The best professional athletes in the world still practice fundamentals every day. They're just trying to get as close to perfect with them as they can. Because they're mental. They're putting the fun in the mentils. Come on, man. You know, so you ask me here, like, what do you practice when you're pressed for time? You ask us.

You know, a lot of times I'll do the chromatic scale slowly, just because it's a fundamental. I try to control it as... Call to practice. Try to control it as much that I can. Exactly. You know, it's a centering thing. You try to have as much control over. something very basic. It's actually really hard to do.

And that's another area, like when you take it back to basics, still challenging yourself for how focus is almost a meditative thing. We've talked about this, in that, you know, that becomes a little bit more instinctual in terms of you know when you need that as part of your practice routine. Just like you know when there's a time when it's needed to practice performing. Maybe you've got a bunch of gigs coming up and you're feeling like you've got your technical stuff, you've got your tunes together, like you're almost backloaded with the chops and the knowledge, but now you need to practice

getting ready for actually doing it. Maybe it's solo piano. Maybe it's like maybe it's something you're not used to do and whatever. So it's like you've got to be in tune with yourself, just like you're in tune with your body as an athlete. We're in tune with the mind of an improviser and all this kind of things to sort of start to know. But don't worry about this stuff too.

I mean, like this will come. That's kind of like next level stuff. If you get a little bit of this each day, that's fine. Yeah, keep the journal. Yeah, keep the journey and keep on the journey. And listen to Journey. Love that. bad.

And until tomorrow, you'll hear it. Okay.