You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - The Big Life Question

Episode Date: June 24, 2019

It's time to get serious. Peter and Adam attempt to answer an email-submitted dilemma about choosing between going to music school or getting a degree in a separate field.Special offer for our You'll Hear It listeners: For $129, you can get both Jazz Piano for Beginners and Elements of Jazz Piano ($320 Value). Just add both courses to your cart, and apply promo code "BOGO" to get this deal. Visit https://www.openstudionetwork.com/courses/Be one of the first 20 people to leave us a rating or review at https://www.youllhearit.com/sticker and you can score a FREE You'll Hear It sticker.Today's episode is sponsored by Soundslice. Soundslice is a web-based music-learning software that is a hybrid audio player and notation viewer that syncs music notation with real audio. To find out more about them, visit www.soundslice.com/transcribe. And check out our Slice of Emotion In Motion (the You'll Hear It Jingle)!Let 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, Adam. What's up? Do you have a master's degree? I do not. What about a bachelor's? Nope. Have you ever been to Bachelor's Gulch in Colorado? Uh, no.

Okay. I'm Adam Ennis. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear podcast. Daily Jazz advice coming at you. Coming at you, today's episode is sponsored by SoundSlic. Go to SoundSlice.com slash transcribe to check out this amazing transcribing tool and resource. You know, Pete, we use SoundSlice all the time around here.

It's on due. Every single one of our courses, we love it. We've literally have hundreds of lessons transcribed and in SoundSlice and so happy that they're a sponsor. Go check them out. Yeah, and they have some, but you can check out their transcribe pages you said and also the community page, which is soundslice.com slash community. And I've been digging into Shawna, S-H-A-W-N-U-F, one of the users who's been posting some great slices, great jazz slices, Hank Mobley solo, Dexter Gordon, that Ron Carter line, a lot of cool community-driven stuff. and then folks once you get your free account you can upload some of your own stuff yeah no it's it is really an amazing tool and resource um it's kind of like a cheesy jazz DJ that's a good tool and a resource that's right it's good stuff I got it harkened them back to our humor and jazz that's right that's right good stuff so today we have a question from an email this is from Varroon I think that's how you say his name varan or varroon hey Peter and Adam I was wondering if you could help me with a dilemma I'm in my early 20s and I'm in the process of deciding what to do with my life.

Well, Verun, I'm in my early 40s and in the process. I'm torn between going to music school and doing a master's degree in an unrelated but more employable field. I'm very much in love with jazz and I'm completely devoted to it, but I know it is very hard to make a living playing music, let alone your own music. However, I worry that if I do my master's, I'll have significantly less time to practice and I'll never realize my true potential thereby condemning myself to an unfurring myself to an unfulfilling life. I'd love to hear what you have to, what you two have to say about this.

I think it applies to all of us. How do we find a balance between making a living and doing what we love? The only certainty I have is that I need to release that inner urge. Good. Sincerely, Raroon. Thanks for all your hard work. Seven stars. Thanks for Rune. Appreciate that. Wow. Great question. Deep question. I'm trying to put myself back in the sort of mindset of someone in the early 20s because I think that's important to kind of get to the bottom of this. We probably look at a different being at a little bit older ages and at different places in our life. I think that the first thing I would say is that it's never, life is never as binary and cut and dry as it feels like it's going to be when you're at these kind of pivotal

places like when you're having to make a decision between do I get my master's or do I follow my passion? Yeah. And I understand why it feels like that because you're having to make a very binary decision. You either get your master's or not, you know? Yeah. And, but it's not going to affect things as much as you think, I believe. So in other words, it's not like, oh, if I go get my master's and, and they said their unrelated field, they didn't say what it was. No, they did not. Um, but I don't think, you know, short of maybe going to medical school or something where you're just going to be spending so much time and it has like so little to do with music, like, you might be able to connect what you're studying for your master's degree with jazz, with music, with art. I mean,

there's all different ways to look at this. So I wouldn't make it so much like, do I do this or this? Or am I doomed to a life of failure? You know, because it's, for me in my life, I think for many of my friends that I know, there's all these kind of winding roads and mistakes sometimes. Absolutely. Got to circle back or whatever. That's what makes life interesting. That's what gives you drive and grit. And there's almost nothing that you're going to do that's going to be irreparable, you know, outside of, you know, there's certain decisions you make, like maybe join the military where you're like locked in for three years or five years or whatever.

And maybe you wouldn't be able to practice. But there's Army bands too. So I mean, I wouldn't first. Some good Army bands too. There's some very good Army bands. So I wouldn't worry too much. But there may be a hybrid approach. There is a hybrid approach.

You might not have found exactly what it is where you can, you can pursue your different passions. And I think definitely be employable and employed and have a great life where you're able to follow your passions and make a living at it. Yeah, it's really well said, man. And it's true. Like, I don't think it is as cut and dry. Like, I either do this or I do this. I mean, I knew a lot of people who have, who dedicated their 20s, they were like, okay, I'm going to be a musician. And they had some success with that. And then later, like, you know what? I want to be a lawyer. And they went and did that. And that's cool, too. Like, there's still time to do that.

If you want to put off your master's degree till later, I mean, I'm not telling you to do that, obviously. I'm putting off my bachelor still later. tell your parents that the podcast told you to do that, but I'm just, I'm just saying that it's, it's not as like, it feels, I get it, because it feels like it's very urgent and you have to choose one way or the other, but there, there's, you have time and you have time. You have time to make some mistakes and you should make mistakes. You should, absolutely. You should lean into the mistakes, you know, don't, I mean, try to make the most informed decision based on your gut feeling as you can, but know that you're at a time in your life when you can do that. So most likely, like if you don't have kids yet or something, And I don't know, it always depends on the situation. Maybe you're supporting a loved one or a spouse or a parent or a child. Then you have to kind of make different decisions. But normally before you are in that situation, you can really afford to make mistakes from the standpoint if you're only going to be affecting yourself.

That's right. So worst case scenario, you set yourself back. But you haven't set back your family, whatever. Obviously, as you get older and you get more involved with family and different types of things, if you decide to go that route, you have to be not necessarily more careful, but a little bit more calculating and more a little more dogmatic about how you approach and pursue whatever decision it is that you make. Your margin for error does start to go down if you get older, but it's definitely not when you're in your early 20s. This should be a time when the world is

your oyster and everything is open. Absolutely. Yeah, I'm not sure if you have to be as calculating about it as you think. And if music and jazz is your passion and you're completely devoted to it and you want to take that time with it, this is the time to do it. Yeah. You know, this is the time to do it. And, you know, in terms of like, about how you do it, like, there's so many different ways to get there. You can look at the myriad of ways that musicians have kind of gotten to the point where, you know, if your goal is to be a professional musician in terms of like a high-level player that's making their living from playing or teaching or whatever you, however you want to be involved in music, if that's how you define yourself as a professional musician, you can think about all the examples. of ways that people got there that are different.

Oh, yeah. You know, and so you should never listen to anyone, including us, that says, this is the way you have to do it. This is what you have to do. Because ultimately, that's your decision. Absolutely. And like you can probably, there's probably four or five or eight or ten different possible ways that you could do.

It almost becomes like a personal preference kind of thing. It's sort of like, well, I want to go to dinner tonight. You know, how many different ways are the ways to nourish yourself? Well, what kind of food do you want? Do you want to cook for yourself? It's not a right or wrong. But once you decide to do one, you kind of want to go about that in the most optimal way possible. Absolutely.

But that first decision should be more like, how do I want to do it? It really depends on your comfort level with putting whatever kind of art you want to make above it. I mean, I know professional musicians who only play, you know, wedding gigs on the weekend. Right. But that's all they do, and they make decent money doing it, or they do some stuff during the week for that and they teach and stuff. And then I know people who make amazing, amazing, amazing artful music who are baristas. Right. You know what I mean?

And they just shed in their free time. And then they play these like crazy out concerts and they love it and they're doing exactly what they want. And I know musicians that are incredible and make a great living and then make an amazing coffee latte art on the side. I don't know. That'd be the opposite. That's me. That's me and my man. Yeah.

Yeah. No, but it's really everybody's individual journey with this. You know what I mean? I mean, you and I were lucky enough that we're kind of on different scales for sure on track to be players since we were really young. And that's just all we can. I mean, he's lucky. Rarun is lucky that he has the option because I didn't have any other options.

When I went into it, it was just like, I have to be a musician because it's all I can do. But I don't, the story is different for everybody, and it's always changing. Yeah, and remember, like, you can make your own journey as you go. Yeah. You know, I think this thing of like, it's fine to say have a five-year goal and a 10-year goal,

and those can be useful and a one-year goal. But be flexible with it. For sure. Once you get going, like the journey is everything because whatever goals you think that you have, they're going to become more like, like the fun part is when you make a very ambitious goal, like I want to be a master jazz pianos or something ridiculous like that. So if you're 22 years old and you're like, I want to become a master jazz pianos. That's a laudable goal and everything. But you're going to realize at a certain point that that's, that goalpost is always getting pushed back. And that's a good thing.

Yeah. So you're never getting there. Like you might get better than you ever thought you were going to get. For sure. But then you just see like, like you make it over the mountain top and then you're like, oh, there's that other mountain that's even higher. But then you start saying, wow, I kind of like hiking in the mountains. I like going down. It's good to be in the mountains.

That's a great metaphor, man. It's very good to be in the mountains. But it's always, there's always a higher peak. Yeah. You know, there's never a top. And when you're really young or just newer to the game, as they say, that's intimidating. Who says that? The game.

the actual guy named the game. No, so, you know, that's kind of intimidating. As you get older, that's fun. It is fun. It's like, oh, yeah, you know, you're not so much worried about what you don't do. You're worried about what you're currently striving to become and what you're striving to do. So I think that, you know, you adopt this mindset and mentality slowly and methodically as you go through life. No, we're not trying to get you, you know, to have the mindset of a 45-year-old now or 55-year-year-old.

You don't need to do that in your early 20s, but you want to know that you're going to evolve and that you want to enjoy this time. Like one thing about it is, is like take advantage of the things that are specific to your age right now and kind of your outlook on life. Like there's certain things that you're not going to know because you don't have the experience or time. That's fine. But there's other things that you can take advantage of. I mean, everything from something silly like you can recover from bad health, you know, decisions very quickly to you can grow very rapidly. That's right. because you've got a lot to learn and stuff.

So I think the whole thing of like whether or not you get your master's degree, like that's important, but that's not even the main thing. It's more like what kind of mindset are you going about your life for growth? Because you don't know, I mean, I know that I'm doing very different things than I ever thought I'd be doing. I think you probably, for yourself, would be the same thing. Absolutely. But we both are very much a part of something jazz music that we got hooked on at a very young age. So that's kind of cool to still be doing it.

It's almost like, you know, you're playing soccer as a little kid. and then you're still doing it when you're old, you're coaching or you're playing in the old man's league or whatever. It's fun to be part of something. Two old soccer dudes talking about soccer every day. Yeah, exactly. I mean, that's fun. So it's like the framework of the art is still there,

but like how you're going to be part of it and how you're going to change it. And then when you start to realize that you can push it jazz and, like, it actually has an effect. For me, this took me a long time. Like, I didn't realize that like, I always knew I was like part of the music and that I was pretty good. Yeah.

And maybe even really good at times. But I never really realized until recently that I actually have an impact on the music. Yeah. You know, it's like, wow. Like if I play something or whatever, some other people might copy and then it becomes a part of something, even in my own little way. Absolutely. And that's fun.

Yeah. That's fun, you know. That's part of the tradition of the music and what makes it so great. But, Brune, great question, man. Whatever you decide to do, you know, keep us up to speed, whatever you decide. Yeah. But whatever you decide to do, make sure that it's from an honest place, from a sincere place, and you'll be fine.

Absolutely. Absolutely fine. Yeah, yeah. And if you do the masters in the unrelated field, be a pioneer and figure out a way to connect it with jazz. Absolutely. You know, jazz surgery. There are people that do that kind of stuff that connect these. There's so many.

I mean, think about music therapy. That didn't exist. I mean, it's always actually existed, but it's an actual field of study. Yeah. And something you get a degree in. That's pretty recent. It's such a valid thing. Can I say we have a here in St. Louis area, we have a great music therapy college at Maryville University.

Yeah. And they are killing it out there. Yep. Yeah, one of the national leaders in music therapy education. I taught for two years I taught an improv class out there. And these are not jazz musicians. These are people who are terrified to improvise. And so I would just get them starting improvising with some chord changes or pentatonic skills.

And I've kept in touch with a lot of those students. We had a really good time in these classes that I taught. And almost all of them are working in the field of music therapy. Like it's taking off. And some of them in performance too. I know we heard from one of your former students, Brad Meldon. the pianist that you started out there. He's actually doing really good things, I think.

He was by far my most talented improv student. He really ran with the concept. I mean, he's a brilliant therapist. Thanks, room for the question. Let us know what happens. That's right. We're going to get a message back in six months. How dare you? Yeah, my life

fell apart ever since I took your advice. From his father. Cool. You can go to you'll hear it.com. You can leave us to speak, You can check out our blog. Hey, leave us a rating and review on your podcast app. That's right. Come on now.

Damn it. We're doing a free podcast up in here. Shout out to Old Forster for the... This can be our new sponsor. For the conversation today. That's right. Shout out to our real sponsor, SoundSlice. That's right.

Go to SoundSlice.com slash transcribe. Check out one of the most amazing transcribing tools you will ever see. Yeah. And I think until tomorrow. You'll hear it.