You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - YHI Live: Q&A (Vol. 2)

Episode Date: September 20, 2019

It's the return of our You'll Hear It Live Q&A segment where Peter and Adam take questions made possible by listeners like you.Also, be sure to check out the latest course from Open Studio (featuring YHI's own Adam Maness): Jazz Piano Basics - Lead Sheet Breakdown. In this course, Adam will teach you the correct way to read from lead sheets as well as how to customize your own arrangements of jazz tunes. For more info, go here: https://www.openstudiojazz.com/jazz-piano-basics-lead-sheet-breakdown And stay tuned for upcoming courses as part of our Jazz Piano Basics series!Like those You'll Hear It shirts Peter shows off on the podcast? Want some YHI swag of your own? Take a visit to our store! Just go to https://teespring.com/stores/open-studioLet 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? We're doing a live Q&A today. Are you available? Is this a live thing? It's about to start right now. I got to go. All right.

One, two, three, four. You know what that sound means? It's a live thing. I'm Peter Martin. I'm Adam Manus. And this is, oh, we got out of order, so I don't know what this is. I'm Adam Manus. I'm Peter Martin.

You're listening to the You'll Hear Podcast. Daily jazz advice coming at you. See, we're like Lemmings, man. We got to just keep it. My wife messes with me sometimes. She's like, I'm Adam Madison. I'm like, I'm Peter Martin. I just not saying it.

We got to get the wives back on here. I know. They were way better than us. Way better. Yeah. So today we're live on YouTube. We're taking your questions. We did this a couple weeks ago, and it was insanely popular.

No, I'm just kidding. Well, it was either mildly amusing or insanely popular. I can't remember. No, it actually was popular. Folks liked it, and we got a nice group of folks from around the world. We got France. We got Chicago. We got Iceland.

We got... Columbia. Columbia, not Columbia, Missouri. Cartagena. Well, I don't know if it's Cartagena. But Columbia in South America. So, yeah, we're excited. And so should we just jump right in?

We're Q&A in. Well, we're sponsored by Open Studio. We'll just say that. We are. We have a brand new course. We do. One of your... Well, you've got a couple now.

Adam Manus is planting his flag on the Open Studio. I'm trying my best. Yeah, this is Lead Sheet Breakdown from our brand new jazz piano basics series. And these are mini courses. Cheap, not cheap, but I mean, less expensive. Affordable. Affordable. Sorry, I've got to get my marketing speak.

No, they're shorter. The more digestive. lower figure, double digits instead of triple digits like we normally are getting some great response already. And basically you just walk through pianists. It's really mostly for pianists, right? For sure. It's just for it. That's why we call it jazz piano basics.

But it's really about how to approach a lead sheet. Yes. And yesterday, you know, we did a whole talk on the podcast about the real book and stuff. So this is a little bit related to that, but it's like you go through three tunes. You start it from really just the basics and you take these

four core elements, four steps. these elements and put them together. You got it, man. Have you taken the course? You guys. I have taken the course. I graduated. I'm waiting for my certificate.

So what I thought would be good today, since we're totally ill-prepared for this live, is to wing it and we'll just sort of jump back and forth with questions. Yeah, we got our first question here towards the top from Nick Tardiff Base 7. Hi, what do you guys like to think about in a turnaround that goes three, flat two diminished, to five, specifically on the flat two diminished? and C would be E flat diminished. Do you think B7? I love this because I've got a great answer for this.

Yeah. No. I don't either. I don't either. In fact, you're blowing my mind even thinking about that B3, the way he has it written, but what are you thinking about?

So, Nick, I'm going to blow your mind real quick here. I think about A flat 7, sharp 11 over E flat. Now, that seems like a lot. It's actually kind of a diminished voicing. Nerd alert. Beautiful. Yeah, even on the Cranican Bach. More time.

Hard to hear on the crank and box. But trust me, think about this movement here. Right? So this is kind of like diminished shell. So I have E, D, G, and then E flat, C, G flat. I'm going to try to reach it again. And then on the top, I have this sort of like a B-flat, D-F, A-flat stacked on each other. It's a voicing I completely stole.

from Bill Evans, and it's gorgeous on the right piano. This is not that piano. Yet we keep it here, because it's... But that's what I think about for that, especially for 3, 6, 2 kind of thing. That's great. That diminished voicing, and it's kind of a little bit off of diminished.

But for me, man, that just like pops. No, that's great. I had another answer, but it wasn't as good, so let's move on. That's perfect. No, I mean, that's the way it goes. Okay, so now we're going to jump down a little bit from Dave B. When you're

practicing something new, scale, voicing, lick, whatever. How do you know when you've got it? I feel like I can practice something forever. When are you done? That's a really good question because I've heard it a lot and I've thought about it a lot. And the hardest thing, first of all, I do think that there is a point that you got it. And by got it, I'll just, I mean, for me, what that means is it's a part of your repertoire. It's something that you're comfortable playing. And if you think about, you know, it's the difference between if you learn a new word, like let's say you read in the new, newspaper or in a book, a word. And you don't even know how to pronounce this. So you've got to find that out. That's easier now because the internet can actually pronounce things or Alexa, whatever. But, you know, once I think you get to the point that you can say the word in line, like as part of a sentence, and without thinking, I'm going to use this new word, and I'm thinking about how I'm going to pronounce it. It's a natural part of your vocabulary. That happens at a certain point, but you don't really know when that point is. So that's what's tricky about this. I think you can get it, but you're not going to know,

when you're done until you're actually done, if that makes sense. You know what I mean? So it's like once you've, you know, so you're talking about scale, a voicing, like, whatever, once you play that without having to think about it and without even knowing that you played it and you played it at the right time and it sounded good, that's when you know you're done practicing it. And you can certainly practice it more, but I think that then it's a part of your vocabulary. Then you just need to play it. Yeah.

Like if you do stop using it, you'll lose it, but that's not necessarily practicing it, right? Yeah, I mean, I know when I have something. when it comes out when I play. Then I have it, right? And I don't try to force it before then. If it just naturally comes out, I know I've been working on it, right? And I know then it's part of my sound.

If I work on something, and even if I know it really well, but I don't ever start putting it in my playing, I'm not going to force it. And it's like, I'm like, well, I just don't like it very much. Right. And so I'm just going to quit practicing it altogether.

But if something starts... And so you might have it. You might have it. Of course. But it's just not something... Now your musical discernment is taken over. It's not a matter. like you haven't practiced it enough.

Usually, yeah, usually if it's something that I'm really interested in, I can't wait for it to be in my playing and I hear it in my playing. I just can't execute it yet. And so if I'm practicing, it just, I want to be there with it, so it just starts coming out.

And then once I can execute it on the fly comfortably in time, you know, at varying speeds with control, I know I've got it. Yeah, and I think, you know, we joke about this because the name of this podcast is you'll hear it. Yeah.

But I think that that's really what we're talking about. Like, you can hear it, like, you'll hear it, but then, like, how do you get to the point where you can execute it? That's that time of practice. And then once you get the point where you hear it and you're doing it, and you're like, wow, that's when you know you got it. Hashtag reps, Andrew, when you're editing.

That's right. Hashtag reps. That's right. Because it takes reps. Cool. Okay, I have one up here a little bit higher. What have you guys been shedding lately? I've been putting the metronome to the first partial of the triplet to make myself focus on the placement of every note.

That's interesting. So first partial of the triplet means maybe the second. That's the dot dot da da da the first up Yeah That's good That's really good stuff Actually that thing I just record a lesson today

For jazz panel method On this new pentatonic exercise I came up with This is actually something I've been practicing And I go through Eighth Nose triplets with the same kind of pattern Over that scale And then

You know with possibility for different accents Within the triplet I think it's very important Because that's something that's super like applicable to actual execution of phrasing while we're improvising. And it's the kind of thing that you have to have

ingrained in you and the kind of control, especially for pianists. I think for horn players this kind of thing is important too because of like how they're going to, it's all about phrasing. That's the thing that's like the same for all instruments. And I would just say for practicing, every time I get a chance to like really go on a deep dive of practice, even if it's for

a couple days, I always think about in like if I'm doing scales and arpeggios and that kind of thing, how do I want the phrasing to sound like am I able to control the sound like that always becomes a big part of my practice routine because once you're working on music arranging or learning tunes or whatever that's the kind of thing

that you don't have a chance to really get into you know and I think it's so important so I'm always thinking about phrasing it's all about the phrasing it's awesome yeah I've been shedding a lot on just soloing with my left hand and my right hand together in one octave

and just rhythm changes rhythm changes right slowly just letting my left hand lead the improvisation. Yep. Because my right hand can do whatever my left hand can do usually. It's been eye-opening how terrible I am at it. Okay, here's a great question. It's more of a comment.

Well, no, it's a question. Greetings from Southwest UK, 7 stars, just wondering, this is from Terry. Yeah. Just wondering when you're coming out with a you'll hear it branded bourbon. Well, interesting, you should say that, Terry, because in the next couple of months, we're going to announce a new, no, we don't have.

No, we don't know. We just. First of all, we have to say we have some listeners under the age of 18 and under the age of 21, depending or 19, your jurisdiction in the world. Right, right. And we don't encourage bourbon and podcasting at the same time. However, for our adult members, are you got, how old are you guys? Are you over?

Oh, they're 22. See, they're real quick to say they're over. Is that what your fake says or you're real? We do. They're both the same now. We do enjoy a bit of bourbon. We do enjoy a bit of a burm. And that's a very interesting thing.

Now, would it be easy to brand it by just taking our beautiful logo and taping it upon a high-end bourbon? How would that work? Yeah, you could do that. I feel like, you know, so I have friends who are really into beer. And I love beer, and they brew beer. And I'm like, why would you want to ruin beer for yourself like that? I know. Just to enjoy these people that are really into making beer and they're better than you at it.

Three and a half mile. No, two and a half miles from here is the Budweiser brewery. If you want to get some questionable beer, you can do that locally. Go, go. Take the tour. That's right. But thank you for the question, and thank you for the seven stars especially. I think it's your turn to pick a question. I like this little back and forth.

We've got maybe, what, two more? We've got two more. Okay, so. I'll make you a couple more. Rob Jeterre. Sorry, Rob Jeter, if I'm totally butchering your Icelandic name. It's a beautiful looking name. The entire name is gorgeous.

It looks like your name looks like a mountain range in the distance of the beautiful Icelandic. A little bit of time I spend in Icelandic. and like the names are beautiful, the people are beautiful. Yes. The man and the woman, the old, the young. Everybody, I mean,

they've got like some secret a water source up there that they're hoarding, apparently. Uh, of youth. So he has a couple questions here about, I saw some tutorials from JPS. That's our jazz piano studio,

by the way, if anybody doesn't know. On approach note formulas and bebop, could you comment on this approach, important exercises or not? I think he's talking about JPS. I think he might be talking about a, jazz piano school maybe

maybe so oh a little competition no this is fine we do have a jazz piano studio Facebook group and that's exclusive to members if you are did you do something about this in there I've done many things about approach notes B-Bop approach notes we call them enclosures here at Open Studio

because that's how I learned them and that's just what we call them like that but I love to play them but yeah so these are these are incredibly important I think it's part of the jazz language it's part of our lexicon we all know them to some degree and we all play them to a different degree. Yeah.

But basically the concept is you have a target note, let's say it's C. That's C. And then you can surround it. The most basic level is by a half step or... And then you can even go from a whole step above and kind of come down. Or you can go from a whole step below.

Or you can do the opposite. Or you can do the opposite. and there's a ton of these. And the combinations are endless and they're super fun. And once you get going on them, I mean, you can do it diatonically. They're great.

And they create these like zig and zags in your rhythm. Yeah. They're terrific. And I think important elements to think about these and where it really gets interesting and the application can really work for, you know, kind of bebop, as you said,

is the timing of them, like strong beat, upbeat, triple it or whatever. and there's no right or wrong with that, but there is sort of intentionality in how you approach, you know, these notes and, like, how different it is. So, yeah, the intervals is, you know, there's different ways to do it with the interval

and the number of notes, but, like, where it lays in the time is just as important for the success of these things and whether or not they sound good. And it's easy. You just kind of go by if it sounds good or not. Like, I always think it's like, which ones work and which ones don't.

I mean, there's exceptions and that, but, like, how you play something and the intentionality and the phrasing and the vibe that you give it can almost, make anything work. So definitely think about that as you're learning those. All right. Hope that helped.

And we have another question here. L.A. checking in. What's up? I got a good one after that. Los Angeles. What's up, West Coast? Does your playing technique or thought process change if you're using an EPE, like a Roads or a Worley, or a B3, a Hammond B3, Oregon? Oh, yeah. I mean, 100

percent it does. And actually, it changes a little more with the B3 than it does with the Roads of the Whirley, for sure. And you know what? I'm not even super comfortable. I've done some records on B3 just for like rock projects or whatever. And even then I'm just like, this is not my, like, I feel like I'm faking the funk a little bit because I'm not a B3 guy. I never had one growing up.

You know what I mean? Because it's its own instrument. I mean, and the musicians who are B3 specialists, they can make them sing. I mean, I know what the black and white keys do, but everything else, I'm kind of like, I've Google just before I do the session. Well, I think, too, and it's just the main delineation between those is like a B3. and I barely play, I'm like, I don't even do it. I actually did it on one recording session

because they kind of really wanted me to do it and I didn't like the way I play. I'm like, I don't play this instrument. I'd love to learn it. Yeah. But you have to spend time on it. You got to spend time. Expression pedal.

Yeah, but I mean, generally, like, you're playing a note on the B3 and it can stay as solid, I mean, the same strength of the note until you let it go. That's the big difference between, you know, Rhodes and a Worley are the action is very similar to a piano in a way. I mean, yeah, it's not hitting a string, it's hitting a tone bar or whatever,

but the fact that there's a decay with a note, whereas on a B3, you can hold a note forever. Yeah. Right? And it stays at the same place. So that's the big difference in terms of, like, you know, how you approach it, what you can play. And so, you know, to me playing on the roads, it's more the sound is different, but the action and the attack and how that you play it is much closer to an acoustic piano. It is.

But I do actually change. I have both a Rhodes and a Whirley than I play regularly. Got the roads over there. Looking at it. And I like to gig on those things as opposed to like a Nord or something or keyboard. I prefer those.

And I do change how I play even based on if I'm playing the Roads or the Whirley because the Roads has more sustain. The Whirley doesn't have quite as much sustain. The Worley's ponchier has like a sharper attack. Yeah.

So I mean, I think just naturally if you're listening and you're trying to blend with your band and you're trying to support the music as much as pop, You're naturally going to play differently and approach those. I mean, you should anyway. If you're not, then you're not really listening.

You're just kind of running your fingers in the way that you would anything. I mean, I don't know about you, but I can kind of change my approach depending on the piano I'm playing. If I'm playing a really crisp, bright piano, that's going to affect how I do things. If I'm playing on like a nice dark belly Steinway, also going to affect how I do things. I think that, yeah, I mean, even thinking about the different kind of keyboard instruments, the main difference outside of the sound, which, like, you know, Like, as you say, like, the sound of two different acoustic pianos can be violently different. For sure. But in terms of, you have categories of, like, how the sounds produced.

So, like, if a string is being struck or if a, you know, or something's being hit with a hammer. Yeah. So that's a rose, that's a whorily. That's a piano. That's what else is, I don't know. Like a clavinet or something like that. But then you've got, like, a harp score where a string is plucked. Yeah.

Still from the keyboard action. And then you've got, like, where the sound is electronically produced and can just, continue to go like a Hammond or whatever else. So to me, like, that's the kind of main sort of difference in how you have to approach the instrument. And then you just have different sounds. For sure. Yeah. Well, this has been great.

I've got one more. Is that okay? Go ahead. From Jan or Jan, I'm never sure. Question. When forming a band, do you think it's important to set the bar high early and stop and replay it upon confusion's mistakes or just focus on having fun and getting serious later? Set a leader or democracy?

This is a going for you. I'm always the leader first. But I'm always like, I think no matter what you do, you have to put the music first. And for that, it takes a good leader to recognize who the musicians are in your band and what are their personalities. And some people respond really well to you being like, hold on, let's clean this up right here and right now. And then some people need to jam it out. Yeah. You know what I mean?

And you've got to be able to recognize that. But I've noticed you've over the years that I've known you, you've kind of grown into that role. maybe you've always kind of had that belief in philosophy, but in terms of just being able to state it that's, like, whereas before you were more about like, oh, no, democracy and, like, trying to set things up. And now, I think that you're a little bit more like, whenever the situation, and that could be you

or could be somebody else or whatever, but I love the fact that you said it's about the music and it's about the end result. Whatever is going to bring that about is how that needs to be set up with that group of personality with that music. Yeah, be prepared to come at your fellow musicians like on their side not in front of them if that makes sense

like get with them get down with them and understand what their motivations are and what their goals are for the music and so like if you have a player who really like maybe they just really need to play for like 20 minutes to actually figure out what do I want to do with this? Let them do it you know but if you have a player who

responds really really well to like direct hey you should maybe try or we should we should maybe do this do that. You know, whatever works for the music is, but it takes, it's a harder answer because it takes actually getting to know people. Yeah. And about this part here about, do you think it's important to set the bar high early and stop and replay upon confusion mistakes or just focus on having fun. Now that's, I don't think you, I think you absolutely, it's important to set the bar high. I think with doing anything from a, from a one-off gig to forming a band or whatever, the more

long-term it is the more you want to set the bar high. But I mean, like, I want to set the bar high musically every time. For sure. And a lot of times it just takes one person. Hopefully everybody comes with that attitude. But I've been in situations before playing with full orchestras and jazz groups and big bands and different things where you get a kind of a herd mentality and someone's got to like set the bar. They don't even have to be the best place. It's not about like, oh, I'm the best so everyone come to my level. It's just like, no, come on. Let's really do this serious. Let's kind of shepherd everybody together. Normally with an orchestra, that's a conductor. You need that to come from. But not always. It can be anybody there. And if you are the least,

leader of like if it's your project or whatever then you I think you have total license to set the culture of the rehearsals and of the session or the gigs or whatever by being like hey we're not moving on until we nail this but I think that you can focus on having fun and get serious I think that you can be serious and you can have fun yeah it's not mutually exclusive yeah yeah and I mean that's that's hard that you work on that the player some players respond to hard work with is like yeah this is what I want to be doing this is fun for me yeah yeah you know what's fun been fun for me is because we got the YouTube live. I've been watching us. Do you know how much

we do this, both of us, back and forth on the podcast, you can't see us, but we're rotating our chairs. We need straight jackets on this thing. No, it's crazy. Like the amount of movement. Man, it's like we got to go potty. It's like potty time here, man. Thanks for telling us where I am. We need like a fidget spinners. Or I do this a lot. I'm watching myself here.

We've already got a computer with like 30 screens. We got plenty of stuff to distract. We got keyboards. All right, cool. Today's podcast was brought to you by Open Studio, go to Open StudioJadio.com. Check out our new course. Jazz Piano Basics. Jazz Piano Basics. That's jazz with an S.

No, it's not. That's jazz with a Z. Lead sheet breakdown. It's already kind of popping off. I'm super excited about this course. I can see that. I can feel the excitement in the room. But yeah, until next time. You'll hear it.