Playing What You Hear: The Myth

Ride along with me as I talk about why I think you are already playing what you hear.

If you'd like to support me, you can do so here:

Aimee Nolte

[RickBeato]

How can you talk and skate? Awesome but where is your ramp? Who is that person that said can Coltrane sing what he's playing? It's interesting that you are improvising what you are saying as well. You don't have it planned out, you had a theme and then you were jamming on it. Your video is a solo :) Great lines that you were singing!!

[beausalgado]

Skating around and talking jazz to selfie stick. You're an inspiration. The subject helped me too! I've been thinking a lot about this. Often at the piano my fingers move and play scale notes and are disconnected from my mind. Mind can't keep up, for one. But maybe it's a question of balance rather than hearing everything you're playing. Because if you only play what you hear you only play what you know. And when you improvise you want to create too! So maybe you play what you know with a dose of unknown chaos, which you turn up and turn down according to how brave you're feeling.

[atc]

I think you're awesome for your posts on the past, present and future of jazz Aimee!! Enjoy watching your vids!

[MrMewsique]

I think Sun Ra said " I don't want you to play what you hear, I want you to play what you've never heard before"

[sidneyrichard]

One concept you might find helpful is "chunking". This is a concept everyone actually knows: you can string together larger and larger chunks, and this is how Coltrane knew what he was going to sound like and where to put those sheets of sound. That's how you know how to use your lick that you were singing.

Another is the issue of developing the musical imagination. So, what intervals/lines/harmonies can you hear? Where does it get tough? How far ahead can you plan while you're actually playing a solo? If you're looking to resolve on the next chord tone, you can chunk that to some extent and consider the overall dynamics and shape of the solo. If you have a motif, what are you going to do with it? To even consider that aspect in real time, you have to be able to think ahead while not dropping the ball, and thus much of what you're already doing has to be automatic/transparent to you.

Like every other aspect of playing, all of these skills can be rendered automatic, and in fact that is actually what you WANT, because your unconscious, now free to handle things, will start to unify this stuff and make it sound the opposite of mechanical.

I think it's fair that we should acknowledge up front that it's far easier to play fast than sing fast. So OBVIOUSLY there will be a point beyond which singing just won't cut it. So why sing at all? Here's what singing buys you.

1) Just like you say, it provides real connection between player and music. IMPORTANT. The first step, and one I'm still taking the better I learn to decode incoming sound.

2) for non breath-dependent instruments like guitar and piano, it provides a) the opportunity to learn more about phrasing and b) the opportunity to learn circular breathing while singing. (I leave it to the reader to decide which of these is actually of benefit.)

Downside? Many of Keith Jarrett's recordings are not, I think, improved by his caterwauling.

[Stereosichtgeraet]

Thank you very much for your videos, they are extremely inspiring. After 20 years of jazz-drumming I decided to pick up the guitar and be a complete beginner again. All those tunes I used to play up and down at jam-sessions now have become quite scary and I found myself drifting away from using my ears like I was used to as a drummer. Thanks for reminding me that I actually own a set of ears and it might be worth using them.
Greetings from Munich

[elyons]

Amy you're spot on with your concept of playing what you hear in your head an instant before you play it. The real TRICK is to do it accurately! I play sax professionally and have become quite humble by doing what I'm saying here. Secondly, being able to create a good recovery lick when an incorrect note is accidentally played. That's something else that comes with experience playing any instrument. It's not easy IMHO to play exactly what you're hearing in your head and get it right all the time. Good presentation - I love the skateboard. Looks like somewhere in southern California. :) Thanks!

[ramirotell]

Jajaja i've never seen a lesson like this before, consistent tutorial, straight to the point, funny and healthy.

[Swfraley]

“What is the issue? I’ll tell you what the issue is: you are not listening to complicated enough stuff.” Cuts to the quick, but pure gold. Thanks.

[jazzen]

I totally agree!  Someone has to play the notes that come from the head, not the fingers. That is the hardest part of the teaching Jazz

[thismoment]

Listen, listen and listen some more ... then sing it ... then play ... then it's in my head ... I hear you! Thanks for sharing!

[NimeuMusic]

This is the best video I've watched in 2017. I could listen to you for days, dropping all that wisdom while skating. You're awesome!

[Vicnsi]

Totally charmed me off my feet Aimee! Have never before seen anyone give a music tutorial lesson while simultaneously getting a work-out (ok, skating, whatever) and doing both exceedingly well. So very original. Impressed the heck out of me. 👍

[estarling]

Such a quiet neighborhood ! Also a nice subject to treat here.
Every project starts with a first pencil line on a piece of paper, or a note on a piano. From that point on according to your own technical and artistic background you can fill up that space with new entities or wonders. One might have a fore vision to bring to reality, but most of the time everything starts from a scratch.

[ValentinTeodorTamas]

Aimee, I have been playing and writing music for over 8 years.
This is the single biggest piece of wisdom I have ever recieved from a musician.

You have helped me approach my composition and performance with newfound confidence, and a brand new perspective on how we interpret, hear, and create music.

[pogchamp]

This was exactly what I needed I haven't been listening to music much anymore just practising and writing... You're so right.

[luckypurl]

You're the single best piano tutorial I've even seen on YouTube. Love your style. Love your posts

[saxtant]

This is the first of your videos I've seen. refreshing to have your perspective on these topics. Play what your hear in your head.... that's my goal! I agree with most what you're saying, but I think that in Jazz, the ability to reflect on what has been recently played to feel the future direction is what its all about. To play what's in your head is not about your self, it's about being able to feel what you heard, whoever is playing, your self included, but not given preference. The music you're hearing and pushing forward is the entire source, it fill's you up and you reflect on it immediately, to do this, you get to bypass the other methods to interpret music. You say your creations need purpose and I agree that one needs to defeat muscle memory, but the purpose is to let go of all knowledge of what music is that isn't actually music. Knowledge helps you plan an approach, but to truly be in the moment of the music that is present, there is no time to deconstruct what's going on into notation, the language lies beneath consciousness, in the immediate connection between what you are hearing and what you choose to play. It's stored in the brain without being fully interpreted and you can feel it as you are interpreting it. This becomes the source of what to play next, keeping a natural flow as defined by the presence of a one in the rhythm. The shapes and mathematical structures one can deconstruct from good jazz are not calculated with any other language than the one in the subconscious, the one that represents the fact that something real in this universe obeys the laws of physics, the shapes are brain patterns that may even be actual shapes that are held inside this brain loop of the moment. The fact that the universe has consistency to its laws is enough to guide the music into shapes, that's how close to the moment playing jazz is. It's not supposed to be planned much, just enough to choose a theme or feel to this moment. It could feel like juggling or building a lego ferris wheel and it may actually be something like that in the brain. The goal is to tie your ear to the process of building and bring your consciousness as close to the moment as possible. Playing tunes back is doing the same thing with the same region of your brain you used the first time, not wrote learned, but simply the same construction space. No interpreted memory needs to be used at all, just the same physical space in the brain. That is what playing what's in your head is about in my opinion. I love Coltrane, but my criticism is that he wasn't as tied to his ear as say Wayne Shorter, who was able to use the music outside coming in entirely as his source of what to play, including what he has contributed so far! If Coltrane played with you, you needed to play what he played to a degree, If Wayne played with you, it would be more of a collaboration.

[richardcasey]

Hi Aimee! I've been carefully watching your videos now for about three weeks and I just wanted you to know that I have learned more from you about jazz improv than any of my jazz sax buddies. Your points of view and how clearly you present them is so enjoyable and informative ... you are the best teacher I've ever had. Thank you for doing what you do!

[Windwalker]

Being a skate boarder and snowboarder and jazz musician. I totally love these videos! I have been saying this for years. Play what you hear. Or another way is. I listen far ahead where the music is going and hear lines all the way out. I found I can compose the line and change it as I approach where I heard ahead. This is what pulls me to continue music. To listen to and express my soul. To be completely in the moment and be ready for any change as the road ahead changes unpredictably. This is what skate boarding is and snowboarding. Finding a line and seeing “hearing” ahead. To see what your do before you get there is like driving. Looking “hearing” way ahead yet being in the moment for a necessary reaction. This is Jazz and why I love it. It’s a soul moment. Thanks for sharing your soul with us!