You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - The #1 Thing You Need to Play Better

Episode Date: October 18, 2019

What's the one skill you need to improve your playing? How long will it take Peter and Adam to say what it is? What does it have to do with the Hallmark Channel? Tune in to find out!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. I hate it when that happens. Wait, let's do that. That'll just be the thing. Hey, Adam. Oh, sorry. One, two. Hey, Adam.

And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear It Podcast. Daily Jazz Advice. Coming at you. That was awkward. Can we recreate that? Yes, we just did. We have one of those days, man.

But the most awkward part, I mean, I have us on a schedule. I apologize. But the most awkward part of that, is we thought it was actually manufactured. Yeah, I know, it was not natural at all. That's why it was so awkward. I know. Yeah, we spoke on top of each other, and then we're like,

wait, let's make that a thing. And so as we've often said in our improvisation lessons and just advice in general, do you not? Listen. But that's an example of trying to play a contrived solo. You spend time learning, transcribing a soul, and then you're like, I'm going to play lick number three from the Sunny Rollins solo I just learned

on the seventh chorus. And it comes outside. It's like, wow, that didn't sound like Sunny Rob. It was super funny when we did it by accident. Exactly. We tried to do it in a funny way. It was terrible. As a service to our beloved listeners, we wanted to exemplify what not to do when you're

improvising by showing what we were doing with a verbal improvisation. Am I saving it? Yeah. No, you're going to say me. Ryan, let's just keep both of those in there. We'll do the original one. Oh, that'll be good. They can compare a spontaneous mess up with a manufactured mess up.

Going behind the scenes here. We're taking you, breaking the fourth wall. Actually, this pod cave doesn't have four walls. It barely has two. It's got a vertical, a horizontal wall. Yeah. So what are we talking about today? Today we're talking about the number one thing you need to play better.

Bam. Mic drop, value-driven. What else can we give them? You know, we're getting into our, I love these, by the way. Are we over-promising? No, no, no. This is the number one thing. You need to get better at anything.

And I love it when we do our inspirational episodes, right? When we just talk about it. Because, you know, it's a grind, man. Playing jazz. is not something we're doing to... It's a noble grind. It is a noble grind. Because you're doing it for the love of the music,

for the love of the art form, for the love of your fellow musicians and your audience members, and it can be hard. So I like the inspirational episodes of the ULHA podcast because it can't all just be about two-handed,

locked cord, stepwise, voice things. Thank God. You know what I mean? You know what I'm saying? Morning! Yeah. So, just to tease this along,

in about seven minutes, we're going to tell you the actual one thing. Seven minutes. We're going to banter until then. No, but, you know, the number one thing you need to play better. Just, I want everyone, let's frame the discussion here. Okay. Or as you like to say, painted done.

That's right. Perhaps. And that would be that this is not the only thing. I know a lot of people would be like, oh, cool, this is the only thing I need to play better. Or the one thing you need to play better. But we don't say that. We see the number one thing you need to play better. And I think our thought process on this is for to be, there's a number of elements, of course.

and that's the joy of us coming together with this podcast and connecting with the community and for all of us as jazz players. That's what makes it so fun. It's like the challenge of it. I mean, it's like, you know, people that are into playing baseball, they got these professional baseball. I don't, are we considering the Cardinals professional still the way they're playing right now? Come on, man.

Oh, sorry, sorry. No, but I mean they have so-called professional players that 70% of the time are not making a hit. So if you bat 300, you're like an All-Star or whatever. Yeah, yeah. So the failure rate is higher than the. the success rate, and I would say that that's what makes that sport fun. This is what makes jazz fun in that we're always trying. It's not like, you know, how do I get to play better? I figured that out when I was 26 and I just sort of rode along since then. So the grind of trying to get better

is never ending, but I think that people, the community that we have are people that enjoy that. It's not the pain. It's the joy of that process. So this is not a magic pill to get you out of that. I think this is something that if anything will make the journey better. Yep. It'll optimize it. It'll get you moving faster, more efficiently, but you're still on that journey.

But maybe it'll give you the fortitude to be able to continue on with joy. Well, and I chose this one thing, and we're about to, we'll just start. We've got four more minutes. I chose this one thing because it's, I chose it because it's the one thing that I've noticed

in all the really great players that I've gotten to know, have it in abundance. Yeah. And it's the one thing that as I improve and get better and get older and hopefully wiser, the one thing that I realize is the more I lean into this thing. Ooh, are you going to lean into it and then we're going to unpack it? Yeah, we can lean into it. Hashtag podcast speak.

So, I mean, yeah, so let's talk about what it is. No, before we talk about what it is, let's talk about what it isn't. That'll be fun. That's how we're going to get four more minutes. Okay. Is it patience? Because I feel like our listeners might need that. Okay.

It's not listen. It's not patience, although you do need patience. It's not any kind of lick or voicing or any crap like that. Yeah. And like we were saying, the reason this is so important is because this is the thing, the number one thing that's going to make all those other things that are important. Listen, practice, be a part of the community. Learn your 251s.

Learn your scales. Pay attention to detail. You know, be open-minded. Of course, all those things. This is the thing that you can combine with all those, I think. It's the glue that keeps it all. That was another minute. How do you like that?

What you got for me? We should talk about it. So the number one thing you need to play better. First, this is brought to you by open studio jazz.com. The finest in online lessons. Come check us out. We have a new jazz piano technique course coming out. We're doing good, man.

No, what's the number one? This episode is taking a real turn. I was really in a serious and improvement mood, but you're making it really far. Yeah, I'll set it up for it. you. The number one thing you need to play better is... I feel like it's built up too much now. I don't think we can do this. No, this is a good one. Okay. The number one thing you need to play better is resilience. Resilience! That's what it is. Yes. Now, it took a lot of resilience to get through those first five minutes of this podcast. So if you're still here, you're very resilient.

Now, I was, we were talking about this before and I was like, man, do I really know, I feel like I know the definition of that, but I just want to read this and I want you to just sort of give your thoughts on it just to frame things because I need this. Resilience, the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. semi-colon toughness. That's right. Those are both, you know, kind of main definitions. Resilience, grit, stick-toitiveness, thick skin,

whatever you want to call this or frame it, however cliched you want to get with it. Yeah. Get there because having resilience, having that ability to recover after difficulties. Yeah. It happens on a micro level, like in the middle of a phrase. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can uncover a difficulty, a problem that needs to be solved. and you have to stick to,

you can't just walk away from the piano or just be like, oh, you know, or whatever. Like, you've got to try to find the music in that and find yourself in that. And then it can happen at an incredibly macro level on the level of your career, you know what I mean?

Or your life of, you have decisions. You know, we get letters all the time, letters. We get emails all the time from people who are like, you know, what should I pursue music? Should I not? Like, that is part of resilience of how you want to be a part of this music, you know?

And it could be a serious. serious as a professional musician who's, you know, really needs resilience to get through technical hurdles and, you know, professional difficulties and financial, whatever, to, like, a hobbyist who's just like, well, I can't get that time feel the way I want it. Like, even that takes a resilience that is the number one thing you need to grow. Because you won't put in the time to fix things. You won't care enough to get things right unless you can come back after some difficulties. Yeah, and look, we know the difficulties are coming for everybody.

For sure. So, like, already put that on your, I mean, it's like if you're going out for a run and the 10 miles, and you know at mile 8, there's a big uphill. That's right. Once you start out, no matter how fast you go or how great you're feeling, that hill's still going to be there. You can't be like, oh, maybe when I get there, it's going to be down this time. Yeah, yeah. No, that's coming. So once you get that in your mind, there will be difficulties because I noticed about this definition, and I don't know that this is the, you know,

be all, end all. But I like this one because it's, it's the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. It doesn't say recover quickly from failures, although that's important too, and that's probably a part of this. I think certainly in the category of difficulties. It's in the category. But because it's difficulties is a little bit more encompassing. Totally. And so like what you were saying even in the solo, like you can, you know, yeah, it's easy to say, okay, I'm resilient because I failed. The whole solo fell apart. I got lost. It was horrible, but I still got back up down the next tune. Yeah, that's important. And that's resilience. But as to your point

about the micro thing, even a little thing that nobody notices recovering quickly, ooh, that's important for a jazz musician. That's actually how you build solo. That's how you build it. Because you want to get into difficulties. That's what makes it exciting for the audience. I mean, who, you know, who hasn't heard that kind of solo that's just

perfect and bland? It's just like a story or a movie. It's like the, sorry, I'm going to hate a little bit. Can I hate? Can we open up the hate? I would love it. I'm going to give me some hatery. Whoever you're about to hate on, they better have resilience, is all I'm saying. Ooh, it's my wife, sorry. Oh, no, she watches this channel sometimes called the Hallmark Channel.

Oh, my goodness. Okay, and I'm hating on the Hallmark channel. You know this? Yeah, they love. She loves it. Is Madame Manas, watch that show? Yes. I think their life is so hard with us.

Like, they need some, like, they need some, like, the blandness rom-com. Because we're, it was just monsters that come in. But the thing is, like, those stories, like, there is no resilience required for any of the characters because there's no difficulties. There's no drama. I mean, it's just like the blend. little bit, but it's like, Jimmy was gone for a week. Yeah, but it's, I mean, come on. So it's like, don't,

you don't want to hear a jazz solo like there, where, like, everybody's pretty, and every, like, the solo's pretty, and but it never gets in any troubles, you know? And, I mean, we talk about the master, Herbie Hancock so much, he's one of many that can do this, but he's certain at that master level of getting himself into difficulties.

Ooh, isn't that exciting when he's got to get himself out? That's like the thrilling part of the solo. I mean, O.P. We think of Oscar Peterson as being as clean, piano player, but he gets himself into trouble. Man, he backed himself into a corner like a piano playing felon. I mean, he obviously has the technical confidence

to be able to get him out of these corners whenever he wants. Not whatever he wants, but you can hear him working through it, right? Are you doing that just for Anok Cohen? Yeah, yeah. A knock Cohen recently said she was the great Anak Cohen, master of the saxophone

and clarinet and Hebrew language as well, fluent in Hebrew. Nice. As she's from Israel. She was commenting she was just in the pod cave the other day and said how much she loves that you'll hear a podcast but she said I need to stop making so much noise with my food and drink and you know what I was like really it's a free

podcast okay we never got that complaint from anyone else but well I hope you have the resilience to take that criticism carry on yeah I recover quickly no but this is good and then I love the other definition which is just toughness totally and this I think you know falls under the category even more as

that we are artists You know, I mean, yes, maybe we're jazz musicians first. Hey, maybe we're humans first. Maybe we're humans, people, musicians, whatever. There's many things that we are. But I think, you know, being in that broader group of artists, we got to be tough, you know, because the world needs us, you know. And this is not about lifting up, you know, trying to lift up any individual. I'm talking about artists. Like, we're the ones who speak truth through our art. That's what we're supposed to be doing. Like, that's our, when we get knocked down from a difficulty, it's because we're trying to get to that mountain top of. of like speaking truth and it doesn't have to always be overtly political or whatever, but we're supposed to mirror the world the joys, the sadness, all these things, and that's hard. And we can't be like, oh, I'm scared, we have to be tough because that's what our job is.

It's like, if you're a garbage man or garbage woman and you're out there, you can't be like, ooh, garbage smells bad. That's the gig. It's the gig, man. You got to be toughen up, you know. Jess definitely smells bad a lot of times. I mean, the good thing you're done by like 9 a.m., you can be like to take naps all day.

That's good for that job. But, I mean, each gig has its thing. And as an artist, we've got to be. tough. Man, so I think often... Let's go fight, man. Come on. No, no, no, I think often sports has great analogies to this, and I was just reminded because you reminded me of the, the woes and St. Louis Cardinals, our beloved baseball team here. Are they beloved today, actually? So they had a difficult night last night. Their young starting pitching, pitcher Jack Flaherty got lit up. They lost like 9 to 1 or something. Yeah. He was the best pitcher in baseball the second

half of the season in the entire National League. What about the second half of the playoffs? No, it's not happening. Yeah. But, he's a good follow on Instagram. He's a young kid, and he's got a really great attitude. His IG is slumming. No, but he posted today, and I think this has a lot. I mean, he had a really rough night in his first big, like, national stage playoff thing. And he said, life is for living, not living uptight.

Hashtag, don't think. And I feel like that is some resilience. And then he also said, hashtag, I made $9 million this year. No, but I mean. This is the pain. That's rough, like, to go out there and fail. On a big stage. He pitched well, too.

It just did not. work out, you know what I mean, which happens sometimes. You could play well and it doesn't work out. But I love the idea of that, like, you know, this music is for playing, not for playing uptight. You know what I mean? You got to get over stuff fast, have a short memory. I like his hashtag. He does hashtag this a lot, don't think, which I think is something we talk about a lot. Like, you know, when people say, what do you think about when you're playing? Like, ideally nothing. Yeah. You know, and that's, I think part of a tool. We're masters of the no thinking podcast. I got nothing going on. No, but I think the no think thing,

that's a tool to sort of help you get over these difficult. right so you're not thinking about the difficulty you're just not thinking you just keep going yeah absolutely and the toughness comes in in that like if you're this is not to say being resilient and recovering quickly means you're unprepared that's not an excuse for that no no opposite yeah so the the reason we can be tough and soldier on and all those kind of things is because we know we're putting our best stuff out there so like it's all about the preparation and then you can kind of relax but you are going to get into difficulties how you're going to respond that's right that's the resilience right and i think in the practice routine as well as well as well as you're well, this is especially, it's like, if you're practicing well and, like, developing, you're going to be doing

gigs and probably getting some accolades and some gigs and some money and, and, like, things are going to be going well. So it's easy to be like, oh, I don't need to be resilient. Everything, because you're going to have, you're going to be on the upswing and that's great. But what about when you're in the practice room by yourself? Can you be honest with yourself and be like, wow, I'm kind of, like, because that's where the resilience is really going to help you out. To thine own self be true. You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? Who said that? Hold yourself accountable. I don't know. Walt Shakespeare. Good old Walsh. Billy Shakespeare.

Or is it William Whitman? Who knows? I love the Whitman Candy Sampler. We're not really great with the English language, so we apologize to our... We speak it fluently. All right, well, that was good. So we made a commitment yesterday to read every rating, not every rating, because some people just leave a rating.

We can't read that. There's nothing to read. It's just stars. It's like blinded by stars. So many stars. But we're reading everybody who takes the time. And we appreciate it so much. We're going to read it out loud, and we did our first one yesterday.

We're going to go back in time because we haven't gotten any since then, but that's okay. So can we do that now? I wish you would. I wish you would. I love the title of this one. And this is the other thing. You can leave a title to your review. Did you know that?

I didn't know that. I didn't either. Okay. So this title is 7 up. Seven up. And it's from Bassman Ken in Ireland. We get a lot of love in Ireland. Adam appears to be the sensible one holding down the wacky guy, Peter.

who for some reason reminds me of Brian Griffin. I don't know who that is. The whole thing, oh, I think he's a comedian. Good-looking comedian. Great jazz musician. The whole thing is hilarious. I try to save up a few shows to listen on my way to work, which breaks up the commute and always delivers me with a smile on my face.

The fact that P&A are discussing jazz topics, theory, tips, et cetera, is an added bonus as it covers a whole spectrum of interesting questions. I love it says that's an added, but we always think of that as the meat and potatoes. But apparently it's just an added bonus, but that's probably true. covers the whole spectrum of interesting questions from the speak pipe and selected topic from P&A themselves. This podcast is funny, entertaining, and educational. Write that down, Ryan. Funny, entertaining, and education.

And I look forward to listening to the guys at every opportunity. Well done. Thank you, baseman. Ken, appreciate that. We invite you to leave a rating and review wherever you consume this podcast, be that Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher. We're rising on Stitcher. Are we, though?

Are we rising on Stitcher? You're rising, man. Stop hate on Stitcher. Have you got anything else? That's it. All right, well, you'll hear it.