You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - What You Should Start Doing TODAY as an Improvisor

Episode Date: September 24, 2020

Want to know how to improve your playing right now? Peter and Adam fill you in on some things you can immediately start doing to play better.Interested 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.Thursday's Open Studio Live Events:1:00 PM - Adam's Daily Guided Practice Session (for Members Only)10:30 PM - Peter Sprague - Live From Spragueland on YouTubeFor the rest of this week's calendar, follow this linkLet 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 Adam. Yeah. Check this out. Adam Manus. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear podcast. Music advice and inspiration coming at you. A little inspiration.

Thanks for let me have that one, boss. That was great. That's how we do it. You gave me the High Ridge Shuffle. I mean, that's, you know. You know what the funny thing about the High Ridge Shuffle is. It's not known as that in High Ridge, is it? It's neither known as that in High Ridge, nor is it a shuffle.

No, it's not. Neither. But it's fun. But I thought it was topical. That was just all creative improvisation. Something I'd call it creative genius, but we'll let others say that. I thought that would be topical today that we just, we're always kind of improvising and creating. But what are we talking about today?

Today we're talking about what you should start doing today as an improviser. If you're not doing these things already, these are things that you can really implement tonight when you go to play. Why even wait until tonight? Or maybe it's 6 p.m. right now. Yeah, I don't know. But if it's 3 a.m. the release time of this podcast, you can be doing it before the sunrise. That's true. you're in Europe, maybe you're in the middle of your morning.

That's right. But we are not a Eurocentric podcast, so you could be anywhere in the world. If you're in Asia. It's a odd way to call it. It's possible. Yep. No, but these are things that we can sort of just take as, first of all, the things we'll talk about, I think, are the responsibility of any improvisers. These are like top level things.

These aren't like what scale goes over what chords, Mr. Peter Martin, or how can I work on my ear training to be able to, play this kind of chord and then just yeah foe fall fall fall yeah no what these are let's be honest these are ways that we can be superior to classical musicians hey by improvising no but we jest

um you know these are what I like to think of this Peter is like these are like swing thoughts right like if you're playing golf or you're playing tennis oftentimes having one and we've talked about this before on the podcast I mean hell we've talked about everything before on the podcast we're on like 800 episodes of this stuff But a swing thought is in tennis or golf is something that there's so much that could go wrong in your tennis swing, right? In your back swing and your in your follow through that oftentimes just having one thought about the swing helps the stroke to land.

Right. And these could be the things as you're improvising. One simple thought that you can implement as you're soloing, as you're improvising that can really just help focus your solo so that you're not thinking about, okay, build it like architecture. Okay, make sure to listen. Okay, now I have to try to put some hip stuff in there. What is it? What's one thing that we can do? One swing thought that we can apply to this solo that will kind of bring it all together.

Yeah, no, that's fantastic. And I think that our emphasis on today, we're not trying to put pressure on you by saying doing it today. But we are trying to frame this in a way that, you know, being an improviser, it's as much of a kind of mental state. framework that we put on as musicians, not necessarily 24 hours. Well, eventually just, yeah, but it becomes kind of part of who you are. But as we're developing as an improviser, it's important to think about it every day. It's not like, okay, on Friday, I'm going to practice my improv. On Thursday, I'm going to practice my scales. On Wednesday, I'm going to practice, you know, preparing to prepare. No, this is what we need to be doing every day. And the beauty of

it is there's no preparation or homework necessary to start doing these things. You know, You know, like this is very much come as you are. There's no special clothing required. There's no entrance exam or anything. And this is like, I think the easiest way to understand this is what do you have to say today? Not what do you hope that you're going to become? Like, who are you today? You know, and as we get older, this becomes very much easier just to kind of wrap your head around in a calm way as a person.

when you're sort of comfortable with who you are. So it's taking that same mentality to your music. Now, you might not be there yet in terms of like, I'm not at the Promise Land. I'm not at who I want to be. I hate my playing. You might even be, we've all been there, you know.

But that's, you know, in terms of telling your story, there's a certain level of acceptance that you have to have and start practicing. And I think that's the most important thing that you can do as an improviser today is to give yourself the space and the credit and the ability and the framework to be a full-on improviser of who you are today, to not wait for tomorrow, not to wait until next week,

or once I get this together, then I'll work on that, or then I'll really be able to solo, then I won't do something planned. No, go for it today. That's the mentality of an improviser, you know. We're not going into improvised brain surgery. That's not a good idea. We can't improvise that because people die. This is about...

I've had brain surgeons are great improvisers, though. No, that's kind of a different... No, no. I don't want mine to be. Well, what if something goes wrong? I would want mine to be. Yeah. So what I thought we would do here, Peter, is we have these ideas we could talk about.

But I thought we could, sometimes a great way for me to frame these is as a question. So I have some questions here that I think we can ask ourselves. You could posit to ourselves. Yeah. Like that big word. We could posit to ourselves as we're about to solo and think of this as your, quote, unquote, swing thought. Okay. So when you start to play a solo, what happens?

if you ask yourself, can I play only what I hear? Right. That's my goal for this solo. Can I just play only what I hear? We're going to ignore the temptation to run our fingers over our hands. Can we play just what's in our head? So this is so important because what you hear is the most authentic music you're going to make. Right.

It's what is inside of you. It's what you've been listening to. it's how you're feeling it's all of these things combined it's what's ideally it's what's happening in the room if you're really paying attention but this question can really change the game as far as I love it I love it I love it and I think I want to caution everybody sometimes we think oh what I hear like you have to accept that so that's what I was talking about yeah like that has to be just whatever you hear and if that's me do be dee bob that's what you hear no problem like and I used to get caught up in this one because I was like I have to be an innovative improviser today

I have to innovate something. No, you don't. No, you don't. You just have to commit to playing what you hear. I think there will be a level of innovation at different times. At different levels, we don't all need to be the most creative, innovative improvisers, and certainly not every day. But, I mean, when you commit to hearing something, it just means that if you're regurgitating something, it's what you're hearing. Yeah.

That's what it is. Yeah. The second question you might ask yourself, right? can I make the drummer or the bassist or the bartender smile during this solo? That could be your goal for the solo. Is that two different things? It's two different things, but it could be the same thing. But can you connect with someone?

Right. I was thinking that in a human level. Yeah, in a human. Well, we're talking about drummer's bassist and bartenders. So not. Yeah, kind of human. No, no, no. Oh.

Big shout out to CMB right here. No, but you know what I mean? It's like where you're just like you would if they were, you know, if you were, jawing with them on the street. You're communicating. You're communicating through improvisation. You're BSing with them. You're having a good time. Can I do that? Or can I make them make them cry? Can you make the drummer cry? I can do that.

Oh, you've made media drummer cry. I've made many a drummer cry with my playing before. No, but this connection, I think, is the key. I do this all the time. If I'm feeling disconnected from the music, I'll try to connect with the humans that are there with me. Right, right. So you don't do your robotic thing to connect with human noise? Definitely avoid the robot. Avoid the robot voice.

Are you connecting with somebody on your phone right now? I am connecting with the entire world. Via text message? All right, cool. So the next question we have, can I stay in the moment the entire solo? It's a tough one. That's a tough one. That takes a lot of work.

Well, so this is a great one to start doing today because I would throw out there, Adam Manus, that everybody can do this today. Yeah. Now, the length of the solo is going to vary. Like so it's, you know, just like meditation in terms of like how do you become present and then remain present. Obviously somebody who has advanced skills in meditation and being able to control their mind in that way can stay in that moment for longer. But like anything, we're going to start small here. So don't try to play, you know, an extended solo on Lush Life, solo piano and say that's what you have to stay in the moment.

But maybe one chorus of blues. Everybody can do that today and stay in the moment. Stay in the moment. This is getting harder with the way the world. is like in the amount of just um look at me I'm checking my phone you know what I mean we're hyped up on spin drift I'm all jacked up on espresso and spin drift you know we've gone around the bend when we're pouring the spin drift into the espresso or vice versa not good yeah the next question we might ask ourselves can I integrate something new

into this solo so one of the advantages we have is improvises we can do whatever the hell we want to do the hence the name improvisation exactly right so sometimes I do think like okay, I am bored with my entire playing and everything I know. Can I do something I've never ever done before with this solo? Can I do something I typically would never do? Can I

make that work? That challenge can actually change the entire course of the night. Yeah, and it's not... And again, this is a great one to do when you're practicing, too kind of practicing, performing that part of your routine. It's not about just doing something

that is you know just crazy for the sake of doing it a novelty kind of thing it has to be combined with playing what you hear still but this is getting away from maybe the just

playing it safe and everything like commit so basically you have to hear something new so that you can play something new but if you're open to it it will come it might be small

it might be large might be somewhere in between well but you can you can kind of ask yourself like can I hear something new here can I hear something new over this tune what am I hearing that's new?

And I've seen you do this on game. It's super awkward because it's like you're playing and then you turn it into the bass player. You're like, can I play something new here? Excuse me. Can I play something new? Can I play something new? He's like, what did you say?

What's new C major? Okay, let's do it. Yeah, do it. Last one, Peter, what do you got? Can I play the mood of the tune? Like, I think what you're talking about is like playing the story and the like the lyrics as opposed to, as opposed to like play this phrase, right?

Right. It's like, can I play off of the actual ambiance, as you might say, if you are in fral. Right, so if the bass player starts to play, you know, starts to play what's new. Do I know the lyrics? Do I know the story?

Because maybe I'm like super happy about this. And that's not really the tune, right? I need to be a little more vibe. I need to be a little more moody on this tune. Or maybe... Some shoegazing. But if I'm playing like... Yeah.

Then I probably don't want to be like... Stargazing? No stargazing. No. No. I want to be a little more. bubbly, a little more buoyant, right? I want to be a little more like...

I got a surrey with the fridge on top, oh yeah. If I were a bell. No, but you need to like... Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, dong. First of all, you should be doing this anyway with every tune. You should try to capture the mood. But this could easily be a swing thought

of like, all right, we're about to play. Can I just capture the mood? Can I try to act this tune out via my solo with the music? You know, can I really try to capture... Get the vibe right, get the vibe right, man. Come on now. Well, that's good.

So that's a bunch of things. hopefully these questions and these concepts will help you as an improviser today. And then, you know, just remember that like every day we have the opportunity, you know, kind of like where we started to be an improvisist. Every day we're singing the blues, get in the vibe. But, I mean, we are improvisers and we want to exemplify that in an ongoing way. We do not want to wait until we're at a certain point. It's just like if you want to run a marathon, you can be a marathon runner in training

today. And you might not even run. You might just walk because you're not ready to run. So you're going to walk around the block. That's the beginning. But what if I can't run a marathon yet? Are you listening to me now? I know that I'm saying. Yeah, you got to walk before you crawl. You got to walk before you die in a crawl. This is why this guy's the best right here.

Come on. I'm the best and I'm the worst. Peter Martin. He's simultaneously the best and the worst. Okay, so we are sponsored by OpenStioJazz.com. That's right. That's right. Did you know that Open Studio Jazz is Open Studio is the number one meeting place for our global community of jazz players that want to get better. And it's the new way for jazz players, for players to get better

at jazz, basically. I mean, I figured as much. You know, because we can't, this is, come to Open Studio if you want to do some homework and get ready for, hopefully in 2021 when jam sessions come back, when gigs come back. This is your time to get better. And so unless you live next door to Christian McBride and you're willing to put on an N95. mask and go out on your porch and try to learn from him. I'm not. We're the only place that you're the only place that you're going to get those lessons. We've got a brand new

course from Christian McBride. We've got a number of great piano courses. We've got your latest course, which is from a series of highly hyper-focused courses on very specific piano. Quantum focus, we're calling these. Quantum focus. Very good. Issues.

In this case, actually, this is applicable to all instruments. It's not just for piano. It's for all instruments called bebop enclosures for beginners. It's where we kind of to break down just the fundamentals of how to get the bebop sound using some broken seventh chords and some enclosures. Yep. And how to combine those to make some killing lines like, oh, I don't know. Ooh, that might be something good to, like, hear today in your improvisation.

Absolutely. You know, that might be something. But yeah, so there's that. That's for all instruments. A number of other new courses from the last year. Jazz course for beginners is one we were just talking about, which is a wonderful thing for totally. If you're kind of like, how do I put, you know, voicing some chords together?

Little root shell pretty. You shall pretty. Ain't going to kill you. It's not going to kill you. It might attract a significant other. Hey. Not easy to do during a pandemic, but it's happening for what I hear. You got it.

Yeah. So anyway, please leave us a rating review too. Absolutely. That's exciting for us. Come check out our YouTube channel. We're going for, we are on the cusp of 100,000 followers on YouTube. Did you know that? Are we really?

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That's right. We are literally here waiting on Mondays. And then, Adam, you go live several times a week. I've been known to jump on their live as well. Yeah, man. And so like and subscribe so that you can. have access to all that, all that free goodness. We've got, you know, videos from Christian McBride, Sean Jones. We've got a lot of fun stuff on there. And join us tomorrow as we are live,

not live, as we are on our podcast now, did you know this, five days a week again? We are five days. Come on. Give us some love for that. That's daily. That's what we've always considered to be daily. Daily music advice coming out. By the Dreco Roman calendar, that would be daily, right? By no one's definition is this not coming at you? Quick question for you. Yeah. Got an argument with the wifie about this yesterday. Okay, okay. Such a heated argument. She's about to become the ex-wifey, by the way. Oh, no.

No, I'm just kidding. First day of the week, every week is... Monday. Exactly. She said Sunday. And you know what her backup was? She walked me around the house to every calendar in the house that's backed her up, I have to say, in terms of how it was lined up. But do you do the thing on Google calendar where you change it to Monday's first.

Yeah, I know, but she didn't have any of those hanging. It's harder to do it on a hanging calendar. I see what I see her point, but... Come on. Is Sunday really the first day of the week? That's the last day of the weekend, man. That's exactly. You know what I mean? That's the last day of it. Monday's the first day. She's like, well, that's the work week. I was like, I'm a jazz tradition. Man, all right. Well, until then. You'll hear it.