You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Reader Question: Mental vs Physical - 147

Episode Date: July 2, 2018

Today Peter and Adam answer a user question about mental techniques. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I'm Adam Maness and I'm Peter Martin and this is the You'll Hear a podcast good to meet you Adam how you doing Hey we've met before buddy oh we have we've done about 160 days. Oh yeah, daily jazz advice coming at yeah Thank you I wouldn't know what to do if you didn't tag it with that coming at them so today we're going to listen to a as you like to call it a voicemail I believe or a voice message is a voice message a voice memo from one of our customers So let's listen to this is from I believe it's from Tom Tom okay so let's let's say Take a listen. Hey, guys. I really like the podcast. I was wondering if Peter could elaborate on his comment about the percentage of piano playing being mental.

I studied classical pianos who did lots and lots of exercises for my fingers. And I think he is right. But I was wondering if he could expand on that. Maybe you could do a whole episode on the. mental aspect versus the technical physical aspect. Okay, thanks. Really enjoying it. And keep it up.

Cool. Great. Thanks, Tom. That's a great question. And I think what he's referring to is you said that, you know, playing piano or playing jazz is 90% mental. I think that was a percentage you use. Yeah, I'd like to actually change that.

I'm going to go with 88% because I've been doing some analysis of this. You're nothing if not precise. Yeah. Yeah, so I think that, I think that, you know, the more I learn about the instrument of piano and about jazz and about improvising and about this art form, I think all these different things are kind of related. And, yeah, it's not about if it's 90 or 92 percent or 88. The whole thing is it's overwhelmingly mental. Now, but I do think that there's a continuum of this, and it does change, I guess a continuum. doesn't change.

But over time, this changes. Like, when you're learning to play the piano, when you're learning to physically handle the instrument, when you're learning the basics of finger independence, of the hands, of fingering, of volume, of control, all these things that come together to just be the basic building blocks of technique of the instrument, then it is a physical thing more than a mental.

But there's always that mental aspect that's there. And then as you get closer to mastering the instrument, Not that we ever 100% master the instrument, but as we get more familiar with the instrument and more comfortable and confident in our piano technique, I believe the mental aspect becomes more important to our development. Well, honestly, I think the mental aspect is important the entire way. Even when you're developing your physical skills, it takes real mental fortitude to have the grit and the determination to keep up with that. because the physical stuff, when it's not there, when you don't have that together, it gets frustrating. You know, you hear people that can do stuff you can't do. It feels clunky when you're trying to. Remember that feeling of, I mean, there's still many things that feel like completely unnatural. I'm like, why can't I do that? I just don't play those.

Yeah. No, but it takes like real mental resolve to get through that. I remember when I was a freshman in high school, I was in the marching band. I played drums in the marching band. Oh, me too. And there was a guy who was a senior and I don't know if it was because I was young, but he also, he was one of these guys. He was like 40 years old when he was 15. You know what I mean? Old soul. Like had a full beard and all the stuff. And just, yeah, had the vibe of a middle-aged guy. Was his name Benjamin Button by the chance?

No, he was like 17. He probably had a holding down a union job somewhere, you know, in high-ridge. Family. That's right. No, but I remember he was our lead snare drummer in the marching band and the drumline. Yeah. And he was playing some kind of really cool, like, technical rudiment or whatever. And he was like, we couldn't get it.

And he was like, you know, the only difference. What is it about why I'm doing this, that it sounds great? And you're doing this and you can't do it. Is it my hands? My wrist. What does it look at it? And I was like, oh, I don't know. It's your wrists or whatever.

And he was like, no, no, it's all between your ears. It's all your head. You know, it's a mental thing that you don't have that that's what it takes. You know, to get it to click. You have to have the mental game together to develop that. And then as you said, you know, I think once you get older, it becomes even more of a mental game. Yeah. Performance is a whole other mental game.

I think there's the mental game of learning. and then there's the mental game of performing. Right, right. Yeah, well, I think that's a good distinction because the mental game that's directly applicable to developing technique at the instrument, at the piano, in this case, is very much, I think, related to getting past certain barriers and certain milestones as you build up your technique.

The mental game of becoming an artist and creating something and using the technique and the craft part and the tactics and all that, you know, in the service of something bigger, that's a whole other kind of a mental game. But I love this idea of always thinking and giving the props to the mental part of it. Because it's the easiest thing is to get sort of caught in the weeds of the technical aspects of the instrument or of the theory, like this scale. Your own physiology? You know, like, yeah, yeah. And I'm like, oh, I'm not feeling it today and all that kind of stuff.

And that all directly relates into the mental game. So I think, you know, one of the things that I've developed that's been most useful over the years for me at all different stages of my development was this sort of thought of when you're performing, you know, be it on a gig, you know, performing for your boyfriend or girlfriend, your spouse, or just playing for yourself, practicing performing, is, you know, trying to do. develop the mental fortitude to relax and be comfortable with wherever you are as a player. So that includes your technique, your ear training, your understanding of repertoire, of everything, like being happy and content with who you are. And I know this sounds very self-helpish. It's like, I am somebody. I'm looking yourself in the mirror.

No, man, it's a big part of it. But it really is because then you're able to leverage the mental game, I think, to the maximum for your performance. Because one thing about it is, is like, we are where we are in terms of, you know, our ear training or our knowing the tunes we want, or what our technique is, how fast we can play. But your mind, then that's sort of more the physical and the more mundane. Your mind is the thing that can kind of surprise us. So if you're able to really concentrate and let all that other stuff going, be like, I am who I am, I'm comfortable, I like this. Let me just see what happens. It's amazing when we put our minds to something, what we can achieve.

we can actually kind of outrank ourselves and what our level is if we let that be the barrier. And I think about, you know, for myself, getting involved with running and kind of long distance, I mean, not ultra long distance running, but longer than five miles. You're going to get bored with the park. Yeah, but I mean, that whole thing, I never really thought of it. That was just more about sort of fitness and getting out into nature and enjoying different places I traveled. But I'm sort of seeing a lot of parallels and lessons that I've been able to bring to music. And that one thing is like, if you're,

you're a runner, any kind of athlete, you are who you are in any particular day. Now, you can become something else, but we all have whatever our physical limitations are, or at least where we start. They can be developed a lot, and, you know, certain athletes develop to a very high level, and then they use performance and enhancing drugs to develop to an even higher level, you know, if you can afford it. But, I mean, the whole thing is that you are, every time you go to do a run, you are where you are physically. But the mental aspect of running can propel you further than I don't know about performance enhancing drugs that's could probably work well but I mean but beyond the training that you would be able to do unless you just had a whole slew

of professional trainers and you're in the gym all the time and everything right and so it's like once you accept okay this is where I'm at but then you kind of surprise yourself sometimes and that's why I think people get into oh I was really feeling it this day were you feeling it or were you like kind of able to concentrate in the weather and you felt good about yourself and you were able to put all your doubts to the side maybe it was more of that yeah see I mean that that that that to me is the key, is that mental attitude of like, oh, I was really feeling it that day, to be able to carry that over to every time. Yeah.

Of knowing that it's not you were really feeling it that day, that really was just you were comfortable. Yeah. You know, you were comfortable with yourself. You were happy, not happy, but you were accepting where you were, like you said in this process. Yeah. And then just be able to be free. And if you don't think that this mental attitude of performance makes a difference, think about a great young player that you know.

Anybody listening, think about like a really great young high school. player, teenage player, jazz player that you know. And they probably don't know as much as you do about jazz. It's possible that they don't, but they might sound better than you. And it's because... Impossible. No, no, no, not you, man. I know I'm looking at you and pointing right at. But you know what I'm saying? Like, they're young, they're great young players that you can hear them for a chorus and be like, they're going to be really, really great. And it's because they already have this mental attitude together, even though they don't know all the material. They're comfortable with themselves as people first. And that's a big advantage.

So, you know, it sounds like a lot of work, but like if you can kind of get yourself together in that aspect, as importantly, you know, put as much importance on that as, you know, any kind of voicings you might learn or whatever. Right. You know, you can get away with knowing shell voicing and still sound pretty amazing. Yeah, absolutely. The right mental attitude. Yeah, and I think that this speaks to the concept of the mental game versus the physical being a shifting thing, too. like when we're practicing the mental game, then the physical and how those interact is different than when we're playing.

I think that we both kind of believe, and I see this with a lot of really good players, that we have to pay a lot of attention to getting ourselves into the space when we perform where the positive attributes of our mental game can really become a force, or at least that there's a possibility of that. And I always think about like Keith Jarrett

as such a great example of this. I mean, everybody thinks he's such a, you know kind of prissy um jerk the way that he demands everything be perfect at the i mean first all a lot of that i think is probably exaggerated or they put together these stories but it's like the piano has to be perfect the audience has to be perfect he can't have certain people backstage and all that and maybe he overdoes it a little bit but i think it's it's all about he understands and knows that if all the things can be taken care of that would possibly distract from him in his trio being able to concentrate and that's really what we're talking about in terms of mental capacity. I think having

that concentration being in the moment, not worrying about anything except creating and letting the kind of spirit come to you and just letting it come out of your instrument. And he has such great technique and they have such a great rapport, such great repertoire. And so, I mean, it kind of makes sense that you want to have everything perfect so that it doesn't get in the way of that the mental and artistic capacity that they have. Yeah, he could take it to the extreme because he's Jared and you can get away with that. But you know, you should try to take it to as extreme as you can get away with to make yourself into this zone. And then there's, I think there are a couple different, you know, ways like we were talking about performance and practice. There's the mental game of standards and your choices, right, of decisions that you make as an artist, not as a pianist or a instrumentalist or a musician, but like as an artist that, you know, your standards of saying no to things, your standards. whether that's like no to playing a certain way or no to playing certain venues or certain people or whatever. And then there's the performance standard, which should be, I think, completely open.

You know, you should have very high, strict standards for yourself in practice and then let that all go in performance. And hopefully those standards have kept up and you're comfortable, you know, but you feel free. Right, absolutely. All right, this was fun. Yeah, I mean, I don't know if it was fun, but it was pretty much. No, it was cool. Thanks a lot for the question, Tom. Please, everybody, keep the questions.

We want the questions, right? We love the questions. The questions are great, yeah. You love the voicemails, especially. Give some voicemails to Adam, man. He's got an empty TDK cassette sitting in there. It's like this 24-7 with him. He's waiting on that.

So, please, as always, give us a rating or review. Seven stars, what? And, you know, we've got a couple of countries. Canada's doing pretty good. Can I read one of our reviews from Canada? From our Canadian brothers and sisters? This one is Oh no, I read that one already

So I got to do a different one This is a short one from Audio Tim And this is, he says Five stars, always inspiring Thanks guys, after hearing the show I always want to get practicing That's awesome man, we are inspiring Audio Tim, Tim, thank you so much for that

We love you up there in Canada And please leave us a rating review on Apple Podcasts Or Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast Yeah, I mean you could even Even if you want, you could leave us a review like on a bus station, you know, on a coffee shop, just post something. That's old school right there. That's old school reviews.

But, yeah, you know, if you're right for your local newspaper. Yeah. Yeah. Feel free to review this podcast any way you see fit. And you know what? We're about to step this thing up, so we want to start getting you guys ready. We want to have even more interaction. So we've been playing around with our Twitter and Instagram for Open Studio.

So if you hit us up there, we are now, I don't even know if you know this, Adam. Do you know what we are on Open Studio is, and the You'll Hear a podcast, is on Twitter, our handle, as they say? It wouldn't be, hey, Open Studio. It's Hey, Open Studio, because we want people to say, hey, open studio. I like that. So go to add Hey, Open Studio on Twitter and tell us into your questions or just say, hey, same thing on Instagram. And we're going to have some goodies coming to folks. We're going to start interacting with people on the social media world, maybe even some free giveaways, stuff like that.

Things I'm not even authorized to say yet. I like it. I like it. I like it a lot. Coming soon. Cool. So we'll see you tomorrow. You'll hear it.