You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - The "To-Don't List"

Episode Date: April 13, 2023

Peter and Adam discuss what it takes to focus on your priorities in the day to day. What's on your "To Don't List"?Have a question for us? Leave us a SpeakPipeCheckout courses from Adam, Peter and more at Open StudioLet us know what you think by leaving a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, or head over to our YouTube channel.Follow us on Instagram

Hey, Peter. Hey. You ready to make some hard choices today? Yes, choice number one. Difficult choice, hard choice. Can we do an interesting and edifying and perhaps even humorous introduction? Let's make a choice right now. That's an easy answer.

What is it? It's easy. It's just... I'm Adam Annis. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear Podcast. Music advice coming at you as well as some new animal sounds. That kind of reminded me...

It's a meow cord. It's a... Mea-how. It kind of fits with this introduction song as well, right? Yeah, we've got the moo chord, of course. And then we've just christened. Just last episode, we christened. But available to all religions and races, to be clear.

The meow cord. The meow cord. Which is just an inclusive core. It is, it's. Okay, let's explain. Let me, we're going to paint a picture for you here. We've already done this, but let's paint another picture. We've recorded 17 episodes so far today, so we're falling off the rails a little bit, to be honest.

Right. But yeah, that's the meow cord. It's gaining steam. Why is that funny? Why are you laughing? I think it's such a funny title. How is it spelled the meow chord, Peter? How do you spell that?

Meow! Spell it in non-cat English. So it's really typified by this major seven. I'm doing it in the key of D-flat because I'm a fancy pants. I'm a fancy cat, because I like to eat fancy feast. Yeah. So this is what we call a traditional drop three chord. Nope.

No, it actually is. Oh, wait. Yes. Oh, you got me. Oh, my God. So I just got hip to this. So you were going to say drop two because for the moon chord, we would just take one, two, three, five, and then drop the third, making it a drop two down at the bottom. But so we got one, two, three, major fifth, major seventh, and we're taking the third and dropping that down.

Yeah, that's correct. You got it. Ooh, it's beautiful. Oh, man. There's nothing like a good meow chord. Ooh, a meow chord. Again, the meow chord, so just so people don't, one more time. So the typical D, D flat, major moo would be F, D flat, E, flat A.

Yeah. The meow, I love, mu-wow, meow. You can't say with a straight face. Muyao, you had that major seven on top. Which is the meow. Fancy feet. It's gorgeous, fancy feet. Because you know why you got this?

Ooh, it's beautiful. And this is actually the opposite. It's just gorgeous. This is an antidote to what we're actually talking about today. Did you realize that? What are we talking about today? Making hard choices. This is an easy choice.

Once you learn this, it sounds so good. It's easy. But we're talking about making hard choices. We are talking about making hard choices. We are talking about, oh, we got poodles is back in the house. Poodles are one of the most popular and beloved dog breeds in the world. For a good reason, because they provide these beautiful Peter Martin noodles. Peter Martin noodles, which became poodles.

Inside joke. Anyway. Yes, so we're talking about making hard choices because we're talking about. out, and we get asked this a lot, really it's about time management, energy management, and focus, right? So this could be put in the form of like, what should I be practicing, sort of an efficiency question, which I'm not really keen on. But there are times where there's so much to do that you really have to start pairing things down. You have to start cutting things, even things that are important to you or that you like. So, you know, right now, I'm, Peter, I'm in the middle of putting on,

putting together a concert with my new string orchestra here pop pop pop pop pop very topical with that sweatshirt you're on the YouTube you will see that you'll pop pop pop pop pop hoodie and so we're doing you know this big show all music of Jerome Kern I'm super stoked about it it's you know the kind of musical project I want to be doing for sure but it's a lot of work you know as and I'm I'm already fairly busy here it's called doing the good work it's doing the good work and but there's a limited time of that I have every day I've got a you know open studio going on I I think I have kids.

They're somewhere around, but I do want to, you know, see them occasionally. And so for me, I just wanted to talk about sort of the process of when you talk, take on a new project, whether that's, you know, writing string arrangements or just learning the piano. Maybe you're new to jazz piano and this is a project that you're adding to your already busy life. You know, there's a tendency to be like, okay, I can fit this in one hour a day here. Yeah. But I think there's, which we have the hours.

hours for, but something that doesn't often get talked about is how many hours a day can we actually focus with our energy very clearly in a productive way? 24. No. No, it's not. Okay. I was just guessing. I'm just freeball in here. It's not true. There's only so many hours in a day that you can focus to the extent where you're getting

something back from it. So if you're learning a new instrument or even if you're learning a new concept, some some choices, some difficult choices might have to happen where you have to take things out of your life that are not, that are just like pulling energy away from that project. Not even food, sleep, time, relationships, parenthood. These are things you can take away, right?

No, definitely. You shouldn't take away all that stuff. So I'll just give you, for me, you know, I've been really into like yoga for the last two years, right? And since starting these string arrangements, I've kind of put it on the back burner. Like I was doing it daily. and I've kind of put it on the back burner in favor of going for a walk outside so I can get out of my writing cave and go outside.

That's a tough choice because I love doing yoga every day. It feels amazing. But putting that on the back burner, saving that energy for this writing project. And this writing project has a deadline. So it'll be over in a couple weeks and I'll be able to go back to a somewhat normal schedule. But that's something that me, I think five years ago wasn't as good of doing. I would have been trying to really put in everything that I want to do. Okay, I got to get, you know, the yoga session in.

I got to do a meditation. I got to go for a walk. I got to hang with the kids. I got to do my open studio classes. I got to make a YouTube video. I got to, you know, call Peter on the phone and be like, oh, what's up, Peter? We do it in the pocket. You know, and then I have to also write as opposed to making some hard decisions where it's like,

I technically have enough hours in the day to do everything, but is that good for my long-term mental health. Because my goal for, you know, the string writing is I want to add this to my day. in a way that doesn't take away from the energy for other things and is enjoyable to me that it doesn't feel like I'm really pushing. You know what I mean? And this can be for anything, whether that's, you know, learning stride piano or learning how to play the guitar. Like you want to, for me, the dream is to add it to my daily routine in a way that doesn't add more stress or, you know, an extra layer of things I have to do, but rather really enriches how I want to be spending my day. Yeah. So I, I made a couple notes on what you were saying,

and let me know if this kind of reflects back a little bit. First of all, you're playing the long game in that you're trying to set yourself up. It's not actually just about what you can or need to get done today. It's about having a flow where you can get the things on a little bit of a bigger level done in a way that's mindful of things like, okay, Not only do we not have 24 hours a day in order to do creative work, that might be four hours.

It might be two hours some days. It might be eight or nine if you're lucky just in terms of like attention and energy and intentionality and all these things. But, you know, it's about identifying when those times are. But in terms of like getting into a flow with that, you're talking about saying no to some things, which is easy to do when it's stuff that you don't want to do. Totally. So you, you know, you're talking about yoga.

actually want to do that. Like what can you say no so that you're saying yes to something else that's a good thing? And I think that's where people fall down because they it's very easy to organize your life around things that you want to do and to say yes to things you want to do and say no to things that you don't want to do. And sometimes the situation like even- Some people have a hard time with that. Some people have a hard time with that. But even if you get to that level of organization, that's kind of playing the shorter game in terms of just today. Like if you look at your practice routine, it's like what are the things that I want to practice? Oh, that happens to line up with stuff that I need to practice.

Anyway, I know it's good at practice scales, and I actually want to practice scale. But, like, when you have to say no to things because you want to operate at a higher level on certain things, like writing or creating, or, like, really intense kind of practice. So what are the good things? What are the great things that you're going to say no to? That's, I think, a very, it's a great and a nuanced thing that made me remember something that I used to do. I'm going to get back on doing this, which is the to don't list. You know about the to don't list? I don't know, but I, it tells it all that.

It feels like a very Peter Martin thing. Yeah. No, you got your to-do list. Yeah. But what goes along with that as you do start to try to play the longer game and really start to develop over days and weeks and months, as opposed to just what can I get done today, you have to have a list of things that you're not going to do. And you're already doing that.

You're mentioning the yoga. That's on your to don't list. Not that you can't ever do it, but you're committing when you get up to not saying, I'm going to do these things. It's almost like the things that you need to do become so focused and narrow that. that you don't need a list for those, but you need a list of other things that you're not gonna do.

That's right. You'll gravitate towards those things because you got a deadline. You've got the creative impetus inside of you to want to do these things. They're not, it's not just like taking out the track. It's not a list of tasks or chores you have to do. It's big chunks of things.

So then you have to get a list of other things that you're not gonna do, I think, to give and to honor that time and let the sunlight hit the good stuff. And that's hard, that's the hardest part. It's really the hardest part. part. And I love that idea of the two don't list to help free up some of that energy. And I'll just, I'll add to this too that, you know, my my goal for this is to create a day where moment to

moment I'm really engaged in loving everything I'm doing. I'm really into everything I'm doing. That's why I actually started this whole project with string orchestra because I want to be writing for that every day. Like I want to spend my days writing this music. A little sidebar. I just had a mental image of like Adam in a beautiful meadow with like a flowing like like dress on just just dancing like from I you know like a piano and a ukulele why why is this coming up well you're just you're so happy you're dancing around from thing to thing that would be the goal that's the dream maybe that's the dream no but I just want to say too like so I I'm also treating this and this time like I also yeah I want to be able to spend my days doing the things I want to do it includes the yoga so

I am not quite here yet with this, right? If I'm not able to find a way to do these things that I love on a regular basis, I'm still figuring it out. And I want to kind of make that point that, and this includes things like practice routines, there doesn't have to be a finish line of like, here we are. You can use your experience of like cutting things out and adding things as like a way

to say like, okay, I'm going to try this and see how this works for me. And I'm going to change this if this is not working because that's the only way to just say like, okay, this is what I'm, I do now. This is all I do. It's got to be flexible. It's got to be flexible and you have to pay attention. That's why I use this man, the Bujo, right? The bullet journal of a way to be like, how am I feeling this week with what I'm doing? Am I spending my days doing mostly things that fulfill me and keep me engaged? Am I doing too much of things that are not? What did I have to cut out? Why did I have to cut that out is because I didn't spend enough time prepping this or whatever it is?

But like really being flexible and letting it organically evolve by following your heart, by following what it is that you're actually passionate about that you actually want to spend your time doing as opposed to things that you got to get done or things you got to keep cutting out trying to find that balance is what this is all about there's no like and I now I've got the perfect flow right it's like actually yeah as you would when you're practicing like improvising over a tune it's not like you practice it once and you're like that's the perfect solo I got it right it's the same thing here it's like what's the perfect solo for this situation at this club that's right these musicians and this audience at this time of year.

Exactly. And that's going to just change naturally, right? And it should. That's when it's good. That's when you're really engaged. So it's like this with this project and got just got me thinking of just learning a new skill in general or adding a new task to your weekly routine in general.

Being flexible and just being open to like the call of really your spirit is a corny way to say it. But it's true of like whatever is drawing you, it seems like sometimes our initial reaction is like, no, no, push that down because I've got all this other stuff to do. That's when you should be like, wait, I got to listen to this voice that's inside me saying, this is what I want to be doing, because that's when you're really going to get the good work done, as they say. Yeah, and I think that if, you know, if you look at it like, not to oversimplify,

but to kind of think about the bigger chunks that go day after day, the qualitative versus the quantitative. Like, if you're trying to push up the qualitative thing with like a creative endeavor, like really like always play music but especially like if you're going to write something or create something and then especially when it's attached to some kind of a time not like oh I hope to there's a difference between I hope I'm going to write a symphony orchestra one sometime in my life to I'm going to write a symphony orchestra before March 17th you know like where you make that decision you know and it looks as God willing we can do anything but once you make a decision that's a big difference so once you commit to something that's going to require or that your spirit tells you like, I want this to really be great. I want this to be

my story put into this and I want to give this to the world. If that's three people, if that's three million, whatever. But I mean, like the generous act of giving something creative, which is what we're here, I believe, on this earth as artists to do. Once you commit to that and the quality being high, by necessity, you have to find quantities of things. That's a don't list. Those other things that you're not going to do at least for that period. Because if you don't, there's really no way, I think, to keep quality and quantity both pushing at the same speed, not in the creative process, you know?

It's just because the way the inspiration comes and goes, I mean, you could spend four hours working on writing and like there's 12 minutes of that that's that bolt of like, ah, this is it. And if you're just looking at it from a time standpoint, it's like, oh, the rest of the time was wasted, just get right to that 12 minutes. Well, you might not be able to get to that.

You know, like you got to follow. down that hill, that creative hill, 45 times, and then you get up at one time. But if you don't have that space, you know, if you haven't pruned out all the crap, the, to don't list is all those weeds and stuff in the garden. Get rid of all that stuff. So whatever little flower can at least have a chance to flower, you know. Yeah, totally great. It's great stuff. And just keep it, keep it, keep listening to the voice inside of you as you as you're going. That's right. Hey, Peter, let me ask you a question. Yes. You know about the gentleman's agreement? No, never heard of it.

Gentlemen's agreement is something we've got going on here. You'll hear it podcast. We make this podcast for me. I've never done this, by the way. No, I like it. I like to take it the lead on it now. I like this. We make this podcast.

It's a free podcast. You don't have to pay anything for it. No, they actually do have to pay. Let me put my spin on it. Okay, sorry. Am I intruding? You don't have to pay any money for it. There you go.

We put it up on YouTube. We put it up on all the podcast platforms. It's free of charge of money. We actually just put it on one and then it goes to all the else. But anyway, I digress. He's not even letting me have my moment. He's not even poodling either.

But thank you. So we put it out there on all the platforms. No charge of money. But we do ask that you return the favor by leaving a rating and review on the podcast platforms. That's the agreement. That's the agreement. That's the gentleman's agreement. And a like and subscribe on the YouTube.

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And until next time. You'll hear it. We set it up.