"Avoid The Vibe" Lesson - Subscribers Only

Looks like today's lesson already touched a nerve, to judge by the YouTube comments...

This week, I wanted to reflect on one a few particularly painful experiences of my "youth", but with a drum spin, instead of a "what's wrong with society today" one.

Anybody who's been to "jazz school" knows what The Vibe is...

Unlike The Jazz Movie, in which reprimand was swift, explicit, and...over-the-top, negative feedback in real life jazz education is usually delivered on ice.

A subtle head-shake here...

...an obvious glance to the other musicians that's about you, rather including you, there.

And, the most obvious: adversarial playing.

Wrenching the steering wheel of the tune away, while you lock eyes with the recipient of the "vibe".

As I say in the lesson, however, today I'm not tilting at the attitudes behind "the vibe".

Just like the brigade system in French restaurants, you can have a conversation about whether it's the best way to teach chefs to work in a kitchen...

...but there's an easy way to alleviate it: have your shit together.

It's in that spirit that I tackle a Drum Conundrum: how to be creative in the specific setting of a jam session, without risking The Vibe.

Because we can avoid scorn by playing conservatively...

...but what if we want to be...slightly creative.

To see more, check out the lesson!

And grab your transcription here:

Jazz Jam Sesh

Time Exercises - Subscribers Only

First things first - grab your transcription here:

Time Exercises Transcription

How I Finally Made a Lesson about The Movie - Subscribers Only

If this week’s lesson is clickbait, it’s not very good clickbait.

Years ago, when a certain “jazz movie” came out, I vowed never to mention it by name, save in private conversation.

It’s not that I disliked The Movie, even though it’s hard to watch with suspended-disbelief as a “real” musician…

…but more that everybody was talking about it, and plenty of YouTubers were getting well-deserved view-count bumps by talking about it.

So I never wanted to make “just another W@#*&^$# lesson”.

I’d always secretly harbored a dream, however, of showing a new/casual jazz fan the gap between what The Movie depicts as “modern jazz”, and the music I’ve spent my life studying.

Because - c’mon.

Bright young 17-year-olds in 2001 would not decide to throw away money, status, and probably the opportunity for a big house with a 2-car garage just for rehashed Buddy Rich Band palaver.

It’s not like I was in a “jazz bubble” in high school, either. I also liked Led Zeppelin, and all the best music of the time, including (I was a grunge kid) Nirvana and Soundgarden. Not to mention some of the best hip hop of the era, from Tribe and Pharcyde to Illmatic and Jay.

Was I going to forgo playing that stuff to play a niche music with a much smaller audience to play…stuff like they play in The Movie?

Hell no.

This “jazz music” would have to be life-changingly awesome for so many of us to decide to study it.

So I wanted to make a video introducing a new fan to the jazz music I knew…

…but I also knew it had to work on two levels.

Because longtime followers of the channel weren’t going to sit through a dull video intended only for “outsiders”.

Soooo - hopefully I’ve split the atom.

See if you agree;)

Why I Whistled Jazz Solos on Instagram - Subscribers Only

As I say in the lesson, it started as a gag...

This spring, I've been putting more time into the channel, trying to tell some deeper stories.

That's meant more time in the studio, with cameras and mics floating around.

Around the same time, my friends Ben and Dan - brothers - have been training jiujitsu with me.

Ben's got a dry irreverence that manifests itself in some amazing Instagram comedy moments, and that was probably top-of-mind when I proposed my "just a lark" idea to his brother Dan:

"What if I start the 'bad whistle solos' YouTube channel?"

...which both brothers shot down, quickly, and repeatedly.

Almost to spite them, I pulled out the phone one afternoon while listening to Spotify.

It was then that I made the realization that kickstarted this whole silly detour in my life:

It's actually way funnier if I try to whistle a good solo.

So it was with tune-after-tune on my playlist.

Then, while listening to an Avishai Cohen (trumpet) solo, I realized how to "next level" things: "I need to start whistling jazz solos."

So began the multi-hour "accelerated learning" odysseys that had me sweating bullets, whistling along with tiny loops of jazz solos so I could get them accurate enough to get a laugh on Instagram.

It was all part of a big joke.

But the entire experiment turned out to be the perfect case study in accelerated learning, and caused me to crack open Dan Coyle's The Talent Code, and revisit the concept of Myelination.

The rest is history.