You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - The 7 Habits of a Highly Effective Jazz Musician (Part 1)

Episode Date: June 8, 2020

In this two-part episode, Peter and Adam list off some good habits you need to integrate into your musical life right away.7 Habits of a Highly Effective Jazz MusicianListenPracticeBe socialTune in tomorrow for the rest of this list!Links From This Episode:Purchase a copy of Atomic Habits by James Clear right hereToday's Open Studio Live Events (All times in EDT):1:00 PM - Adam's Daily Guided Practice Session (for Members Only)For the rest of this week's calendar, follow this linkInterested 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.Let 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.

Hey, Peter. Hey, Adam. Is this a live thing? It's a kind of, I mean, I'm looking at you on a screen and you're alive, so yeah, it's a live thing. I'm Adam Anis. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear a podcast. Daily Music Advice, coming at you.

What are we talking about today, Peter? Well, today we are talking about the seven habits of a highly effective, effective jazz musician. And I came up with this title this morning as I was on my... Wait, you invented this title. Yes, I did. I feel like this sounds very familiar. Well, show it to me exactly like that somewhere. Except for the last part.

It sounds really familiar. It's possible. You know, it's like when you soloing and you, you know, you throw on a little dibo do bit deep up, but you're like, what? Did somebody do that before? But do be do bit deep, deep, you know, and you think that you've coming up with it yourself. But lo and behold, perhaps you didn't. So it is possible that that's been used by a book by Stephen Covey for like 80 years.

But, yeah. No, we thought it would be fun just to talk about, you know, These kind of lists, I think, can be good to sort of encapsulate many of the concepts that we talk about, kind of our core principles in a lot of ways. And I like to think about, you know, the things that we preach and we practice. And I think you and I, like, we're definitely, it feels like we're in the longest period these last three months of actually practicing what we preach on a daily basis than we've probably ever been, both individually and together. Oh, for sure. It's been a very creative and productive time. And so these habits are ones that I think that we have and that we've had at different times.

And we'll talk about that a little bit because I know you've been getting big into the study of habits as of I for a while. And it's great when you find things that are productive for your playing, both long term, medium term and short term. The short term is always what we want, but it's really that medium and long term that's great. So hopefully these will be ones that will, if you're not already doing, you can start to adopt. And if you're doing them, will further embolden you to keep that habit going. Well, I think it's also great to just acknowledge some of the commonalities that people who are good at something have. Even though there might be a wide variety of personalities, skill levels, artistic choices, and things like that, there are, you know, kind of a center shot of habits, of behaviors, of mindsets that the people who are at the top level of what,

whatever it is, whether that's playing jazz or whether that's, you know, medicine or whether that's running or whatever you want to talk about, basketball, whatever we're talking about here. These are things that all of the people at the top do. Yeah. Right? Like, you can be at the top and have some of the things on the outskirts be different, and that's what makes everything so great, is that people are different and express themselves confidently and in different ways.

But these seven things that we're going to talk about today. there's no great jazz musician that doesn't have all of these together. Right. You just can't get to a certain level without it. Right. Yeah, exactly. And I think what's important for everyone just to kind of think about, and we could frame all of these,

is that really these are habits. They're also, like notice we're not saying seven things you should do as to be an effective jazz musician. These are things that we're kind of thinking about that if you can develop them as a habit. And, you know, a habit is really, we can get into a whole other thing about that, but it's basically something that you've done enough

that it's automatic. It's just a part of who you are. It's a part of your lifestyle. It's a part of, you know, you get up, you put your shoes on, you brush your teeth, whatever. Whether it's a good habit or a bad habit, we think that these are all good habits for you

as far as being a jazz musician. But the fun part is, I mean, it's a challenge on some of these. We'll talk about that, you know, to develop them into habits. But once you got it as a habit, you know, you got to keep it. Yeah, yeah. Yep. So what's number one?

Well, number one, listen. Surprise, surprise. I was going to put it number two, but I was like, you know what? Why not? So, yeah, if you get in the habit of listening, now this is one of those habits, I think, that's like riding a bike and that once you get into this habit, it's very difficult to lose it, actually. Some other ones I found, like flossing.

I've had trouble with flossing. I'm not going to lie. That's not on the list for this, but just flossing in general, because I don't like it. So I've gotten into the habit of it, but I don't enjoy it. Listening is such an enjoyable part. You need a water pick, man. And kind of frictionless part of developing as a musician,

that I think that most people are probably in this habit. It's always a good reminder. But the idea is like how do we even broaden that? So like listening to new sounds, listening to, of course, the history and the lineage of the music, but also listening to other genres, listen to other styles, other musicians. But just being in that constant habit of listening to stuff.

And then that I think transfers over in an organic way into listening as you're playing and listening as you're on the bandstand and playing with other people listening in a recording. It just becomes a lifestyle because it's a habit. It's like you're always listening. It's like people who know are great conversationalists. If you check them out, they're actually great listeners.

You know, they're very good to listen to when they're talking or not. Like right now, I can tell you, you're listening, man. You're paying attention. You're listening. Thank you. I'm trying. I'm trying. You know what?

Actually, so you said that this one is easy for most people. This one, since especially I've had children, the listening for pleasure is something that I actually. that I actually have to work at to keep it easy and accessible to me. I just did a solo podcast on Friday about making our habits that we want to stick with making them easy and obvious. And I did that podcast because I'd spent the day making my sort of my home listening stereo setup more easy and obvious for me to be able to just put on music when I want. That's great. We don't have a huge house. I have two kids. There's a lot of media that's going on with like,

you know, we have television and we have their, now they're online learning. you know is all part of our like media center not to mention video games or whatever else we want to do as a family but the listening part you know i had to like really consider the configuration of my stereo my record player my bluetooth just to make sure that i was like can i just come downstairs in the morning and put on music without having to you know how like what what are the barriers to me doing that because i don't do it as much as i'd like yeah and that means it's not easy so i think for some people especially if you're caught up in life like listening for pleasure is something that i have to actually work at carving out time for.

And I'm somewhat embarrassed to say that, but that's, you know, that's where I am, man, that's, that's where it is. Well,

I think, you know, having the young kids is definitely a, a big part of that. And I remember, I remember that, like,

I used to do stuff just like, when I was driving, you're probably not driving around though now or anything. Exactly. It's another thing I've lost with my opportunities to listen. Exactly.

We'd always have, like, the CD player in there. But like, I've got one of the little Google homes in the living room. And, I mean, the sound is not, it does go through the sonos

course it's not it's not like having the LPs but I had the same thing like I wanted just to be in the habit of listening stuff I didn't want to have the barriers so I come in and I'm just like hey Google play Herbie Hancock radio and this is kind of embarrassing to say because it's so random but what it does that's okay that's okay though yeah yeah I mean but it plays like it's not just herbie it'll play like horace silver you know it kind of just it plays it's like a radio station without somebody jabbering on there and for when I just want to hear some good music and sit down and listen or if I'm reading I want to hear something I find that that that's in easy way. And then of course, you know, I like doing the focus listening where I'll really carve out

the time to sit down and hopefully listen to a whole album. The Tuesday night sessions have been great for that. That's really reinvigorated. And again, it's just like you schedule it and then you do it. And then you're like, wow, why am I not? Like, think of all the things that we schedule and we spend time on that are so much less useful than sitting and listening to a love supreme from beginning to end. Oh my gosh. I mean, Tiger King comes to mind. For real. When we did that last Tuesday, I was like, why don't I just do this once a day? It's 34 minutes long. You know what I mean?

I do so much other bullshit. Like all day long. I could easily spend 34 minutes to making myself feel like that. So there you go. You'll hear a podcast. It's the name of our podcast. Me and Adam just admitted we don't even do it.

And we say number one, listen all the time. Now that we do. But this, now make sure that this transfers to all, we're talking about listening to recordings, which is a big part of this, but listening to yourself,

listening. Like a habit of listening is literally as easy as that. like listening, you know, if you're talking to somebody. It's not just when you schedule time to listen to Love Supreme or whatever. It really becomes, you know, you just have to do it and then develop that good habit and then just reap the benefits that it bestows upon you. I have one more thing with listening, and I know we're spending a lot of time on it, but it's that important.

That's why it's number one. It's why it always comes up. You know. One of the other things from that James Clear Habit book, the Atomic Habit Book, that I really love, that I've already done with other things like, exercise and reading is that I've started doing with listening, too, just in the last few days, and it works so easily. It's habit bundling, right? And listening is perfect for this because it's a passive thing. We don't need to have our eyes focused on anything. We don't need to have, you know,

to sit down for it. We can be doing other things, even if it's not deep listening. It's still good to listen. So try, you know, putting it in with another daily habit. If you listened to a song, really listen to a song as you brush your teeth in the morning on your earbuds. You know what I mean? That could go a long way every day. At the end of the week, you've listened to, you know, seven songs intently and probably brush your teeth for a little bit longer than you might normally have too. But something like that. That's not what I'm doing, but something like that where you're tying the habit to something else. And any of these habits actually could be bundled with any other or with other daily habits that you have to, that you have to partake in.

Like we were just talking about driving, for me listening and driving were habits that were bundled. And now that that's gone, I have to find something else to bundle my listening with. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And we're going to link below to Atomic Habits because I had a couple of folks tweet at me about that. I think we mentioned in another episode. And so there's a link below.

I highly recommend that book. Okay, let's go on to number two. Number two is practice. and getting into the daily habit of practice, to fall in love with the process, to have the patience and the realization that there is no finish line with being a musician. There's no point that you can pinpoint one,

there's no day where you're like, that's the day I became a good musician. That doesn't happen. It's more of an ongoing process that you have to constantly come back to, constantly refresh yourself in, and then look back and see that you've made some progress. Now stay tuned for tomorrow's episode where we talk about how to tell if you've made progress or how you're making progress to stay motivated.

But practice is something that you can't just say, okay, I'm going to go in and I'm going to practice for two weeks. I'm going to get these voicing. I'm going to go. I'm going to practice for two months. You have to find however you can. You have to claw your way to a routine that works for you. And then you have to constantly reevaluate as your life changes because it's different practicing when you're 17 than it is when you're, 41. You know what I was 17? Exactly. The difference in your lifestyle is so different. Yeah. And

and the difference in everything and in in who you are is so different. So you really have to take some time to figure out how to include practice in your daily habit routine. Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, a little spoiler alert for tomorrow, you know, like when you're talking about, you know, practice so that you can become a great player on a certain date, you know, getting better. That's all the benefits that we reap from practicing are basically lagging indicators of a well-disciplined and well-intentioned daily practice routine that you have. So if you believe in and fall in love with the process, that will come. And for sure, you're not going to know what the day it's going to come, but it will come.

You just might not know it. But here's the thing is you can't, if you're not seeing the results you want, you can't stop. Right. Because you will. Like I have, I've had this shoulder injury for the last year where it's like, like it kind of hurts to lift my left arm above my head a little bit. Like, it's not terrible, but it just is a little painful. And I found this really great stretching routine, and I did it for a while.

And I was like, my shoulder still hurts. You know, screw this. I'm not doing this anymore. And then about, I started noticing, though, I would do this routine in about a week and a half later, my shoulder felt fine for about a week. And I would stop doing the routine. And then it would come back. And then I realized, like, oh, it's a major lagging indicator of this stretching routine.

Like, I just have to keep at it. at a regular schedule and eventually the pain is consistently gone and now it has been for a month. But it's the same kind of thing with the practice of the piano. You are not going to see results you're working on that day, that week, maybe not even that month, maybe not even that year for some of the technical stuff. Yeah. But you are going to look back in two years and be like, oh, I did all that work and now I can hear it in and like these things that used to be hard or easy.

Yeah. Now, we should just note though that what you will see results, sometimes even on a daily or hour by hour basis is like really on the meta level of say you're working on fingerings on you know certain scales that you don't know like as you learn those they will get easier like the inside like you should be able to mark those and you will you know people see that all the time and celebrate that and use those as markers and indicators of your progress the bigger scale like becoming a better player becoming a more confident uh improviser those are really a combination of all these habits and some more that we are mentioning but we're going to definitely hit the big ones

today, but that's a combination of that. And this one practice is really the one most, I would say, most closely linked with really having discipline. Like when people start like, oh, I'm not a disciplined person or not a discipline practitioner. I'm like, no, I mean, a discipline practitioner

is just somebody who practices every day. Like, anybody can be, like, you might not be the most efficient practiser, but it doesn't matter. It's like if you say, well, I'm going to, I'm going to become a runner. So, there's two different types of people when it comes to this. There's the one who's like, let me get a trainer.

Let me get a book about what are the best shoes to get. Let me do all the research and analysis. And there's the other one that's just like, let me go out and see if I can run for two minutes and then I'll walk some or whatever. And then I'll figure out the shoes as I go. They actually have discipline. They've started like discipline you can start today in your practice. Because if you practice today, you can say, I practice every day. Now tomorrow you might screw it up, but at least you've started it today.

We have the opportunity to reinvent ourselves as a disciplined musician. every day and how we do that is through practice. Practice. I'm talking about the game. No, no. The practice is the game. Find your way to a good daily practice routine and you will become a better player. Yeah, big shout out to Alan Iverson, his birthdays today too, by the way. Well, yesterday by the time you're hearing this. Most underrated players in NBA history.

Right. All right. Number three. Number three, this is the habit of being social. The habit of getting out, sitting in, hearing others live, interacting with. other musicians realizing that we have something to learn from others we have something to learn from interacting with others about ourselves and it's just really being in the habit of being outwardly looking um i guess that would be intrapersonal is that the technical way of saying that as opposed to no interpersonal interpersonal right like you just switched an r and e yeah yeah you know interperson yeah intra is more like the the lone wolf the unabomber right right right right so yeah

So this is a habit that can be harder for people. Like if you are an introvert, this can be difficult. Well, I should say probably more if you're shy. This is difficult. Introverts actually don't have a problem with this. I don't know if you know this, Adam. I'm an introvert. Did you know that?

No, it's not possible. No, I absolutely am. I've taken the test. I think I am. I do. I'm not shy. I'm not a shy introvert. But I think I am.

I mean, if you think about an introvert is somebody who is perfectly happy to be with themselves. It doesn't need stimulation from other people. I enjoy that, but you know. Yeah. And I think we all have these different size. I never believe in this. Like, are you an extrovert or anything?

I think we always have different size to these things. Yeah, I think most people are percentages of all of those things for sure. But I think that, you know, the whole thing of being social is, is work for some people. It comes easier to others. But like any habit, you know, you just do it. And then it becomes individual. And really, this sounds like a, you know, being social sounds like a kind of a rah-rah kind of habit. But it's actually one of the more practical habits you can.

have because you will learn information from being around people who are just a little bit better than you. That's right. And you will be influenced by their taste in music you've not heard of. It's just incredibly important to find your community. It helps develop who you are as a player, as a person, as an artist. Can't be overstated how important that actually these top three, these would be like the trident for getting better, right?

Listening, practice, and being social. You know, everything else that we have here is great and makes you a great, and makes you a great artists and as effective habit. But these top three really determine, I think, how good of a player you are. Yeah. So if you're super busy, you can just tune out now. You got the good ones. But I think, you know, number three is also like, listen to this podcast.

I mean, let's be honest. For sure. You know, if you think we got, you got something to learn. Let's go out to number four. That also is, and listen to this podcast could be number one and number two. That's right. You'll hear it.