please don´t give me any ADVICE plus exploring some HERBIE HANCOCK tunes

[00:00:00]Hey everybody, I'm very excited. I have my coffee right without the coffee. Oh my god.

[00:00:06]And then I have three tunes from Herbie Hancock.

[00:00:10]Maiden Voyage which is such a classic tune.

[00:00:14]Dolphin Dance and also where is it? Oh, a ballad Alone and I.

[00:00:21]This ballad is not very famous, I think.

[00:00:25]I I love it. It's on the Taking Off record. Because I've been thinking I need to do another webinar or I want to do some other webinars on tunes and I was thinking what am I going to do?

[00:00:39]And you know, there's the sweet spot that it might be appealing to you but also has to be fun for me and so I have been thinking about other jazz standards and I've been thinking about maybe bossa nova, maybe I will do that one time.

[00:00:53]And then I thought I would want to do something more modern and I want to do tunes that I have to practice a little bit as well.

[00:01:00]So I'm very happy with the choice of standards.

[00:01:04]I love Herbie Hancock. Also this book, if you don't know it, it's really really cool. I have to read it again.

[00:01:11]And yes, so I'm going to sit down and start practicing.

[00:01:16]I made a playlist on my smartphone with just like a lot of recordings of each of the songs. I'm just going to play a little bit the tunes just to get a lay of the land and get an idea what is difficult, what I have to work on. I'm really having fun.

[00:01:33]Timer is set to 45 minutes. That's most of the time that I use. And I also have this Bose loudspeaker which I really love because then I can have some bass because right on the smartphone, I don't hear the bass and this sounds really good.

[00:02:03]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> So, I really like to only work on one part of a tune, in this case the first two bars, and I understand that's all A major scale, right? And I find it so fascinating how many [music] ways there are to harmonize a melody, right?

[00:03:07]>> [music] >> And I just [music] play it in different octaves, so I have different ways to play chords [music] below, right? The more possibilities, the better, I guess.

[00:03:25]And also try to get the melody in my ear and [music] add one or two chords already.

[00:03:32]Sometimes I start at the end of the melody, in this case, [music] well, because I find the shape really easily.

[00:03:40]Doesn't always have to start in the beginning.

[00:03:46]>> [music] [music] [music] >> And yes, I want to learn about heart as quickly as possible. And then I add the next chord. Of course, I also try to understand it. I understand that that's the tritone substitution. I didn't understand it for a minute what's what's happening here.

[00:04:23]So, basically, when you strip it down, it's a lot of functional harmony again, just used in a really cool way.

[00:04:31]>> [music] [music] >> And then also, I would maybe record just one chord and play the melody over it to hear it. And in the And I find something like a sort of a uh pattern in the scale, stuff like this. I really love because then I can also sort of be more [music] flexible with it. So, I'm trying to get down to the core of the thing, understand it so that I can [music] really not only, you know, repeat over and over again what is on the page, but find variations.

[00:05:18]>> [music] [music] [music] >> I pushed one uh button on my lamp.

[00:05:47]This lamp is the best thing that I ever bought, sort of.

[00:05:51]And then it has a strobe effect. And how do I handle my technical equipment?

[00:05:57]I sort of you know, build it together and then I push a button and then I hope there's light. And that's happening with the lamp.

[00:06:05]And then it works. So, I'm never going through the manuals.

[00:06:08]>> [music] >> Um cuz just don't have to the time to figure it all out. But then if I hit one button that uh then disaster's happening. Because this morning is like, I don't know. I make it I made a meditation. I did meditate. I'm meditating on something very interesting.

[00:06:28]It's [music] in the headspace app again.

[00:06:30]It's called motivation. It's more for sports.

[00:06:34]My problem is not the motivation.

[00:06:38]But anyways, I find it really interesting. And so basically, you're meditating. That's very There's a ritual what you do it's always the same.

[00:06:46]But then you ask a question like, for example, what is the most fun for me? What are my goals? Like kind of loaded questions.

[00:06:57]And then you just let let it You don't answer the question. You sit there and you just let the question sink into your subconscious. It's very interesting. I find it very interesting.

[00:07:11]But today, in the middle of my 20-minute meditation, my iPhone had like an alert.

[00:07:20]And not only that, it also stopped the entire meditation. So, I heard the alert. And then I sat there and just waiting for the voice to come back because in the meditation, there are long stretches where nobody's talking. [laughter] And then [clears throat] I realized because I did download the Gmail app, that's where my email is.

[00:07:45]And then sort of something is new and I forgot to turn off the alert, so I turned off the alert. Then I needed like, I don't know, a long time. I already hear some of you scream, "Bettina, it's so easy."

[00:07:59]>> [laughter] >> Please stay away with with your advice.

[00:08:02]I don't need advice. [laughter] Then I um tried to connect my iPhone to this Bluetooth box and it took forever until it connected.

[00:08:16]And then there was something else uh while I was practicing. Okay, my timer went off, which is of course normal if you have a timer, then it goes off at a certain point.

[00:08:27]But then also the Bluetooth box um made a signal that it's shutting down. And the other thing that is really annoying me is very much.

[00:08:40]So, you know, trust you understand it.

[00:08:41]I'm just I just want to complain here. I don't want any help.

[00:08:45]>> [laughter] >> So, you can stop the video now.

[00:08:48]And the other thing that annoys me a lot is that my smartphone works as a microphone as well, which is great for the Zoom sessions, you know, upcoming webinars.

[00:09:01]>> [music] >> I have the smartphone as a close-up camera. That's really cool. But every time I open Logic, this thing here is trying to hijack Logic sort of and wants to be a microphone, so I have to turn it off. You know, I'm going to turn it off now because you know, but how?

[00:09:24]Camera, control center. [music] Oh, yeah.

[00:09:39]Yeah, and the other thing is I can't access any Google or chat GPT on my phone now because I have it bricked, which is actually like complete lifesaver.

[00:09:53]So you can have a brick.

[00:09:56]You do need to go and unbrick it. I can tell you another time how that works.

[00:10:01]And then you can choose which apps are not available. And so now the app that I need is not available. Yeah.

[00:10:11]Anyways, um I'm really happy that I've been choosing those tunes. I can't honestly tell you that I'm freaked out a little bit by it because they're like more modern and they're more advanced.

[00:10:27]But it excites me, you know.

[00:10:30]Herbie Hancock the first [music] part is just a melody in a major scale, but how he harmonizes [music] it is so interesting. I'm really deeply looking for new ways of harmonizing stuff.

[00:10:43]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Yeah, every now and then I clean up too, but only if I really need to.

[00:12:51]And then of course the vacuum cleaner was full, so I had to change the bag, which is of course catastrophic to me.

[00:12:58]So, I got this mail from someone that kind of upset me, but also I think touches on a point that's really interesting because when you look at our life today as a musician, you have to do so much stuff, right? So, it's not For me it used to be giving lessons, playing [music] gigs, and maybe organizing your own gigs.

[00:13:25]Now we have social media.

[00:13:28]So, I'm also kind of a producer, if you want to. So, I have to record my own audio. I'm recording my audio in Logic Pro. I have a sound card. I needed to learn all of that.

[00:13:41]Sometimes when I have the time, I go back and forth with Claude and ask him how I can mix something.

[00:13:50]And that I I actually love to do that.

[00:13:53]Really, it's really cool, you know, to panning and buses and whatever, equalizer. And I think I'm really getting the hang a little bit because I did it for some while.

[00:14:03]Nowhere near a professional, of course, but just for me it's fun.

[00:14:07]But if I would mix an audio track or if I would mix every audio track that goes with a video, it easily takes me up to three or four to four hours, right? Because when I do something, I really like to go deep. So, that's the audio part.

[00:14:22]>> [music] >> Then, the camera. Obviously, somehow I need to be in the picture.

[00:14:28]And the lamp that I just mentioned. So, lighting, of course, is extremely important and it can make me either 20 years older or 20 years younger, depending on how the light is.

[00:14:42]And what else? Of course, sort of I have to play the guitar, I guess.

[00:14:47]I have to check all the marketing stuff, but also like not only sales stuff, but when people get it, it's good if it works, right? So, like people buy the course and they can access it.

[00:15:00]>> [music] >> So, I need to understand all those platforms that are all very different.

[00:15:05]And yeah, and I get very often emails that I have to respond to. Some people ask for the freebie that they can't find that's possibly in their spam folder, but then I still send it out manually.

[00:15:19]And yeah, I'm also a mother, by the way.

[00:15:22]>> [laughter] >> And also, I have a partner.

[00:15:25]And so, it's so much stuff.

[00:15:30]And I don't think it's humanly possible to do all of that with my perfect perfectionist mindset.

[00:15:38]So, I have to just like always say jazz has to work. But, I think because that's getting so normalized and it's also my brain, the question is like, is it really so much?

[00:15:54]Or am I badly organized? Or maybe I have AD-ADHD.

[00:15:59]I don't know. Possibly a little bit. And why didn't you check out the lamp?

[00:16:06]Right. And then I get little bit like feeling guilty. Other people would have checked out the lamp.

[00:16:15]And then I get an email from someone who I'm sure have the best intention.

[00:16:22]But, makes like a long list of all the equipment that he sees in my apartment, which I kind find kind of creepy, right? Like, listing all the stuff that I have and like, you can be grateful.

[00:16:35]Like, I would be not grateful for my stuff.

[00:16:39]And getting advice how if I would do this like that and this like that, then this would be like that and this would be like that.

[00:16:47]And I can tell you I don't know on which planet this person is living, but it doesn't work like this. Life is not A plus B is C.

[00:16:57]No. At least not for me.

[00:17:00]And jazz improvisation is also not A plus B equals C.

[00:17:05]Because you can learn all your scales and all your legs and practice a lot and still always find more to explore. It's always like happening in the moment.

[00:17:19]It's always a process and the process is truly the thing and that can be completely annoying.

[00:17:27]But I think to only look at stuff from like a logical or rational point of view is not helpful also for chess and precision because there has to be some intuition and there has to be some letting go and then stuff can happen that we didn't plan.

[00:17:48]And I think that's where the magic happens. So, yeah.

[00:17:52]I just wanted to say that.

[00:17:54]Also, while I'm at it, I know that many men, not all of them, have the tendency to give advice.

[00:18:05]Great.

[00:18:06]If you're in a relationship, maybe don't give advice, but just listen. That's also very good.

[00:18:14]Listen, don't give advice. If you feel helpless, still don't give advice.

[00:18:18][music] But just listen and maybe put the arm around your partner and wait for her to be ready with her rant. And then maybe >> [laughter] >> many hours later you can give an advice.

[00:18:32]Bye.

[00:18:33]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Oh.