You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - What Do We Wish We Knew 10 Years Ago - #24

Episode Date: September 27, 2018

Today, Peter and Adam discuss some things they wish they would have known 10 years ago See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Picture this, if you will. The second season of Flight of the Concordes was just released on HBO. A young Barack Obama became the 44th president of the United States of America. And Adam Maness and Peter Martin are still just playing jazz piano places. It's the most changed. I don't even know what you're talking about. I don't have HBO. And I'm Peter Martin.

And you're listening to the You'll Hear It Podcast. Daily Jazz Advice coming at you. That's right. And why are we going back 10 years, Pete? Well, because one of our listeners asked us to, and we will do just about anything for our listeners. We do love our listeners and we love our listener questions. Shout out to you'll hear it.com. That's the spot you want to go to if you want to ask us a question. You're shouting out the webpage or the... I'm shouting on our own web page.

All right, got it. Yeah. So we got a question from Mark and Corey in Glastonbury, UK. And they say, hi there, I've got a question that I'd love to ask Peter and Adam. Is there anything that you have learned or realized that you... Learned? Lernt? Yes. Mark... Is that how they're talking in Glastonbury? I think it might be. Lernt or realized. that you wish you found out 10 years ago. Me and my wife are learning jazz standards for piano and voice. Many, many thanks for the amazing content.

Well, you're welcome Mark and Corey, and we're going to learn you some new stuff today, hopefully. But, you know, I was actually thinking about this question, and I think the answers might surprise Mark and Corey, because, you know, like, there's no, like, scale that I knew 10 years ago. There's no lick I knew 10 years ago that I didn't know 10 years ago. So you've been in some stagnant learning, sounds like, the last 10 years. No, no, no, no. I mean, like, yeah, like, there's nothing I know now as far as like that.

But I have learned a great deal. But it's more about, you know, how to be a more effective improviser, how to listen better. You know what I mean? How to manage my time, those kind of things. Yeah, yeah. Well, no, that makes a lot of sense. And I feel very, you know, hearing you say that, I realize how similar I feel in that all those basic building blocks, I think I knew them 10 years ago, for sure. whether I was applying them all, you know, effectively is another question.

But yeah, there's no like, oh, so if you, you know, like five years ago, the sharp 11 is Lydia, awesome, you know. That's probably our age too a little bit. Exactly. Exactly, yeah, especially me. But I do think I've learned, I don't know, it's funny because there's a fine line between what did you wish you knew, which is what the question was, right? Yeah, yeah.

And what have I learned since then? Right. And, you know, a lot of the things that I have learned, it would be a little bit of a knee-jerk reaction for me to just say, I wish I'd known them then. But because I think, especially the things I've learned in the last five to ten years, I don't think I was ready for 10 years ago or was just starting to get ready. I was thinking the same thing. So in the last 10 years, I've had two children. And I've learned more from, from, you know, experiencing that, you know, fatherhood that I could have told my 29-year-old self, but he would have been like, what the hell are you talking about, man? 29-year-old Adam wasn't ready for you.

Time management, my management, I'm going out, you know. Well, it's kind of like the thing like I tell a lot of, you know, because my kids are older than yours, and I've told you this before in other young parents, the same thing I used to hear from older parents that irritated me so much is just like enjoy every moment when they're young because it goes by fast. It does. So it's kind of like, yeah, I wish I'd known that then, but I did. People were saying that.

We weren't ready for. You weren't ready. That's the thing is like, I don't think anything I've learned in the last 10 years would apply to, I was just such a different person. And then, you know, it's like you said, it's like you kind of learn, you know, learning is really absorbing the information. We all have the same information. Right. We all have the same wise quotes or whatever.

But it's kind of like when you're at a stage to really absorb it and to make it a part of you, any of that knowledge, whether that's jazz piano chords or, you know, how to, you know, a discipline of four-year-old. Yeah. Those are all waiting for you when you're ready for them. So it's almost a moot exercise to say, like, what are like? I wish I would have learned or information I would have had 10 years ago, because I just, like you said, it wasn't ready for it. Yeah. And I mean, interestingly, I'd say in the last, you know, 10 years, I've had to really

relearn or recommit to some things that I actually learned pretty well when I was young, certainly before 10 years ago. So that becomes an interesting question, too. We should never feel like, oh, I knew everything I needed to know at that time, and I'm learning only what I need to learn for this period of my musical development or even. in my life, but some of these things cycle. So, like, you know, there was a time when I had really, really good focus and concentration, actually when I was relatively young and it was because of music.

And that was, I mean, I had some great teachers and really good schooling as well. But, like, music focused me. Like, music, I mean, I don't want to be dramatic. And people say music saved my life. In a lot of ways, it did. Yeah, you know. I'm the same way. And it, like, set me up for a number of different things.

And so it gave me, like, that laser focus because I was so passionate about it and obsessed about it. And everybody gets obsessed with some things, but it's like, you know, thankfully I didn't, I got obsessed with jazz as opposed to heroin or something. And so, you know, as time goes along, like we've entered this period where it's become harder to focus. And so like, I kind of lost that for, I never lost it, but I got involved with a lot of different things and then didn't have to, I still had the passion for music, but I got passionate about some other things. So, like, I had to kind of relearn it. It was actually fun and invigorating to me, reinvigorating. to me in terms of just my focus on the instrument and stuff

and being able to do that. So I think always that, you know, looking back is never as interesting to me, like, what did I wish that I know? Like, I'm so much in the moment, you know, and I think that that's such an important thing. But, you know, the things that, in terms of when we're teaching people that are younger or older, it's more like the sort of stage of development, we're very much about sharing the knowledge,

sharing the information, because there's a lot of things that I know that other pianists or musicians don't, know, just like there's a lot of things that other musicians know that I don't know, and I listen to them, I read, I'm constantly trying to learn because, you know, even if the timing isn't right, you need to hear stuff sometimes for a while, and then the timing's right. That's right. You know what maybe we could do for Mark and Corey and anybody else who wants sort of like, I think, what they're getting at at this question. Maybe we can just make a little list here of some basic building blocks that everybody needs to have to kind of start out at this level and

begin the real journey after that. You know what I mean? So like, so Mark and Corey, some things that you need to do to actually be good at playing jazz are... Hip clothes. No, I mean, some things to focus on, I think, are definitely like listening and transcribing. Those are two biggest things. The third thing is to put more of an emphasis on time and groove and feel than almost anything else. And building up your confidence with the time and feeling group. That's right.

So you're doing concrete things to work on it, but you're also doing those kind of activities in terms of, you know, performing, playing with others, getting yourself out of your comfort zone so that you can stretch and so that your confidence can go up. All of the harmonic and scales and all that stuff, that's all available and you will learn that. But if you can't develop that groove and that time feel early, you're going to suck. It doesn't matter. Yeah. I mean, you and I know a lot about harmony and stuff, but there's still stuff we're learning all the time because it's kind of infinite and it's all these different layers to it. So, you know, don't feel like you should put so much emphasis on that, focus on the time, focus on the groove, focus on the feel. I think find a

community as fast as possible because those are really going to help you, communities of other musicians who you can play with and learn from are going to really kick your playing up into a higher gear. Find a good teacher or a good website that happens to teach jazz. All these things that can pinpoint your weaknesses and then work on those weaknesses, work them up to your strengths. Yeah, that's all just great stuff. And just the one thing I would think to add that you could kind of weave into many of those things is do not be afraid to make mistakes. Yep. You know, that's in terms of, but learn from them and don't repeat them.

That's right. So that's a way for actually rapid development in your playing. To take risks. To take risks, you know, both on the like real micro level of like phrases that you play, things that you experiment with, but also. in terms of your development. So it's like, yeah, we're going to give you a blueprint on some things. But then stretch out a little bit and try something that's out of your comfort zone. Don't just do it exactly in order.

And I guess that's one area I would say, you know, that I wish that I knew that 10 years ago, but not like I know it now. Like now I'm very confident with forcing ahead and potentially making a mistake because I know how valuable. I almost like, I expect it in terms of music, in terms of just my life or whatever. And obviously, you know, we're calculating these things. we're not, you know, getting into our vehicle and then drinking alcohol and then saying, I'm going to make a mistake now. It's not that. It's not a recklessness, but it's a really,

you know, a confidence in stretching yourself and in knowing what the benefits of that are for you. That's right. And if I can add just one final thing to this that I think every good jazz musicians need to have, and that is to fall in love with the process, fall in love with practicing. Don't worry so much about the results, especially at first. Fall in love with the try. I saw this great. interview with Robert Redford, you know, obviously amazing actor, really amazing guy. And he had a great quote, I believe it was from T.S. Eliot. And it was something like, you know, all there is is the try. We have no control over anything else. I'm paraphrasing. It was probably much more eloquent than that. But I love that. And I think that, quote, sums up what it's like to be a jazz edition.

All you can control is how you practice, how much you practice the try of it, you know, leave that, leave the results up to another another day. It's really about the process of this. And if you can fall in love with that and get a good process going, you'll be fine. Yep, I love it. Well, good stuff. Until tomorrow. You'll hear it.