For those of you who are confused: Bill isn't suggesting that one play it safe and stagnate. His point is that one must grasp the key elements of a skill before one begins to elaborate. The main point: without a true and strong understanding of fundamentals one's output will reflect their superficial understanding. It will be all decoration without proper architecture: a pretty room on the brink of collapse.
Bill's insights here are so valuable. What Bill describes here is THE learning process for anything... get to as elementary a level as you need to... work there... make that subconscious... then go to the next level... It's the same for everything. If things feel too complicated, then you need to work at a more elementary level... When you take gradual steps, nothing ever feels that complicated. When you try to take big leaps, then things feel complicated. I've always assumed that I can't draw... I'm going to try to use Bill's approach towards learning to draw.
+otakurocklee I remember I stopped drawing when I was little because I didn't know the principles of this video and I didn't see the small steps as important. I think that the idea that Mozart is said to have commented on is from similar viewpoint when he said that he never tried to be someone great-he just kept composing and trying to get better.
the fact that i can watch a short movie of one of the greatest jazz pianists giving advice to me on a small device that fits in my pocket is mind blowing.
The very first minute all the way up to 1:01 with Bill talking is straight GOLD. Rene Descartes, the great French mathematician, wrote this waaay back in 1637 (330 years from when this video was made and over 380 years from today in 2021) and they're both pretty much saying the same thing! Descartes says, "For to be possessed of a vigorous mind is not enough; the prime requisite is rightly to apply it. The greatest minds, as they are capable of the highest excellences, are open likewise to the greatest aberrations; *and those who travel very slowly may yet make far greater progress,* provided they keep always to the straight road, than those who, while they run, forsake it." 👏👏👏👏👏
The other part is important, too, which is you have to enjoy the process! Finding a way to make your learning enjoyable so you can continue to make consistent progress. That's key.
3:32 - "It is better to do something simple which is real" -- Bill Evans. That kinda applies to life, too! IMHO. The best advice I ever got from the Jazz guitar masters, like Herb Ellis and Barney Kessel was to SING everything you play if you are a guitar player or keyboard player when soloing. That connects you with something deeper within and it can be almost a mystical experience because the Latin word for spirit is spiritus, which means breath. Thus, you are connecting with your "spirit", so to speak, when you sing everything you play as a string player or keyboard player-- and this advice probably can be applied to any non-vocal or non-wind instrument. Peace.
very true. i remember the first time i experienced this kind of thing, playing straight form your head without even thinking and the music just flows just as easily as talking, without even looking at your hands. it's uplifting and ethereal. way better than drugs if you ask me.
There are way too many pianists and guitarists who don't breathe when they play and instead produce an endless string of notes that leaves no room for anyone else to contribute.
Very cool. I had a teacher in college who said the same thing to me back in 1979. BTW, a sidebar---I got to meet Barney and Herb in Feb 1980 when the Great Guitars came and did a concert at my old alma mater, SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music. And....wait for it....I got to drive them for 5 hours to the Syracuse, NY airport the next day after the concert. What a couple of nice guys and very wise. It was 5 hours I'll never forget.
Playing singingly and using the ear is essential to be genuine. I can't sing with my voice while I play as a learning jazz trombonist, but I can "sing" through the instrument in how I play if I choose to. (Which is something I should always choose no doubt, but one of my faults is always trying to do more than what my ear hears for the sake of filling space.) Deciding how and especially WHEN I use certain articulations, small scoops, fast vs slow lines, when to repeat an idea or let it go, etc. is what is important and what I should do. I'm thankful for the reminder of this video, just want to say the advice applies to horns as well. I hope anyone who reads this has a good day
Jaco Pastorius called it "wiggling your fingers" - playing with the illusion of technical prowess and, in reality, saying nothing (or, at best, an approximation of something). This interview series is so great! I'd rather listen to Bill Evans' playing than almost anyone else's. Hearing him speak his thoughts with such clarity makes me appreciate him that much more.
"Intuition has to lead knowledge but it can't be out there on its own. On its own you're going to flounder sooner or later" - Bill Evans on NPR's Piano Jazz Dude was deep. Real deep.
Jesus Christ I was totally unprepared for how amazing that four minutes of film was. I was expecting a little interview about something boring and banal, and instead he gave me advice that has changed my entire outlook on life.
The whole film is profound - in fact, every single interview with Bill Evans is poetry. He was certainly an artist before pianist (as in he was an artist at his core, and piano happened to be the medium that best suited his voice). You should watch the whole thing, if you haven’t. It‘s called ‘The Universal Mind of Bill Evans’. I haven’t seen anything quite like it. Every line he speaks is a wonderfully dense and thought out maxim that could be contemplated for years. Love this man.
That was my experience, too. I saw that in the beginning I approached my profession in hairdressing by approximating. So at 16 years in, I began retaining and rebuilding my foundation.
@@helvarthered Thanks for that reference to the full interview. The other aspect that is revealing and mesmerizing for me this is utter humility. I love that in artists, and in all people.
"Simple is the key." Its the best design model when free-styling. It gives other musicians ideas. Just do it weird and unorthodox to the ear (here and there (every 8 measures or so)). Great vid. How the heck am I 16 years late!
100% - the weird thing is he convinces you he's right even if you're struggling to understand what the thing is. Another observation was (and this comes from some audio from his manager) that no one in the biz would front up to him with bad news or cross him - he had a kind of power aura. In the tapes from his last performances in the late 70's when he was pissed about something you could see it. Very quiet but there was a darkness to him. Fascinating
Apart from being the best jazz piano player in my life, his insights on playing jazz are the most interesting I´ve heard. HE really was focused solely on his art and not on success or money. The way he frequently stressed the importance of playing as simple and as common as possible instead of technical/show-offy way really shows he thought a lot about his art and how to best perform it.
My flute teacher, 1st flutist in Hartford Symphony, always said" Always go back to the basics." This is what makes a real musician. Sometimes music students/ musical novice lose track of this. We must walk before we run, crawl before we walk.
I love Bill Evans. And this conversation I find this absolutely amazing. He could be talking about so many things in life besides jazz improvisation. Anything creative.
Isn`t it Great that there is knowledge like this on UA-cam. A lot of times I just find Frivolity! Happy to have found this! I wish he was still with us too! Incredible!
Love this discussion. Bill listens to his brother and empathizes about overplaying but goes back to keeping it simple as a general rule instead of being too busy. His brother talks about the enjoyment (to himself) and Bill agrees it is good to sometimes get outside the frame work but with an eye to what succeeds and what does not succeed. Wise
I’ve got a couple kids and they aren't into jazz. But I played Bill Evans for them, and they say, 'Jesus, that's pretty good.' So I think it's great that people are just rediscovering Bill Evans, and I want people to rediscover Bill Evans. I think he's a great artist, and I think more people should listen to him and respect the beauty that he was able to create.
Watching a genius at work is as humbling as it is inspiring... I was struck by the fact that the core of Evans' message, do something that is simple but real, is an echo of Keats' famous dictum, "Truth is beauty, beauty truth."
Bill Evans continues to teach me so much and brings me great joy in his musicianship. If as artists we are not willing to try different things and make mistakes, we will never discover anything new. Some people are satisfied with playing it safe, such as piano basics at parties, and impressing some people with that, and don't get me wrong, that's cool if that's what you like and as far as you want to venture. But for true artists like Bill Evans, he's always wanting to go on an adventure and explore and discover. But he always knows where home base is and he has that as his foundation. That way he's able to venture out and create with security, yet has the freedom to discover what he doesn't yet know. He listens to the spaces between notes, much like a poet listens to the spaces between words. I could go on and on, but I'll end here by saying, I love you Bill Evans! One of the great joys of my life is listening to you play piano and hearing you talk about the creative process! Even the 88 keys, who've had countless lovers, are delighted by your touch! :- )
Evans has such an insightful way of approaching music. Every one of these interview clips I see with him, he says something that seems so fundamental but which I would never be able to grasp if he hadn't articulated it.
Mr. Evans-still alive in many musicians, that is his legacy-we should all do so well. Some of his most beautiful playing-as suggested here-not what you play, but what you don't play, listen to his intros on Kind of Blue with Miles Davis-Flamenco Sketches, Blue in Green, So What. He is composing a mini masterpiece while he is improvising! His thought process-how evolved it must have been. 2-3 measures of his playing-can be an entire study in harmony, voice leading and just plain gorgeous playing. And then when as a newbie I might think-well he was basically a ballad, chordal player-he plays a few measures of "bebop" lines-if you can call it that-and there goes that idea. The word "distillation" comes to mind. He could take an idea, distill its essential beauty and then create a live composition around it.
Keep it simple; understand the foundation of which your playing with and then elaborate, but REALLY understand the foundation of the framework your moving around. Fantastic advice.
Oh god I'm so glad I watched this because until now I hadn't realized that I have been doing exactly what he's talking about. It hadn't crossed my mind that I have been overplaying and trying too hard on my improvisations and at times playing things that are just gibberish so to speak and not real. Thank you Bill.
As somebody who fell hard for felt improvisation and drifted away from theoretical frames, this is a wake up call. I might be able to freely explore countless possibilities with my instruments, but then it's really hard to bring all of that home into a composition.
Before I saw Bills interviews, I always thought he would be awkward and shy because of his photos and music. What a surprise when I first saw him talking in such a sophisticated and intelligent manner!
I think the problem of vagueness I've seen people comment on here, has to do with the fact that these guys are not using the specific TECHNICAL language of jazz theory to communicate their ideas to us all. But y'allz got to realise that these guys were so top flight (to use Bill's term) and so advanced that it may have been difficult to reach for those technical words, y'know, like scales, chord changes, 32nds, voicing, etc. At least this is how I see it. Watch it enough times though to see if you will learn something valuable... for me, this video is highly insightful.
Accuracy as success in improvised music, how refreshing a viewpoint that is! If one starts with the notion that inaccurate playing cannot be sufficiently expressive, one will travel a LONG way down the road to genuine mastery. THEN if one wishes to move to open or free frameworks, one will have the necessary background to maneuver successfully in the Open Air. MBB
Coltrane said in an interview that he was working on a lot of different things at the same time and that he wasn’t comfortable playing them so he played everything at once.
Nowhere do I see this more nowadays than in journalism. People who’ve seen smart sober people (their forebears) ask insightful challenging questions and make sound conclusions (or better yet offer no definitive conclusions) and rather than emulate the hard work and personal wrenching it takes to become as good, as honorable they just play the part by acting sober, by being challenging but not at appropriate times or about appropriate or worthwhile things.
That's some of the reasons why I like Mick Goodrick and Bill Evans so much. Not so much about talent, but improvement. Not everyone can be a great musician but everyone has the potential to improve, and that is more important. Thanks for sharing.
You are so right! I love Bill Evans' music but after seeing his interviews and reading about him, I've learned and seen not only was he a very talented pianist, cool and hip, but he was also modest and reserved and yet so intelligent. Where do you see that in this day and age?
I had to watch this video a few times to really absorb all of what he was saying..but I'm so glad I did. This video has helped me tremendously. Bill Evans will forever be one of my favorites.
So cool to be able to see and hear Bill Evans teaching. One thought I had is that if you find yourself confused, just go back to the melody of a tune, and begin to 'jazz it up' some. Just like the greats, like Louis Armstrong, have been doing in the decades before bebop. And maybe start to throw some figures in during the 'breaks'.
I like Bill Evans's approach a lot. As I'm fairly new to improvising.. I never understood where to begin cause you hear all these really incredible solo's from master pianists (including Bill Evans himself). Everytime I started to work on it myself I felt like I was playing complete crap.. Cause in my mind I was maybe comparing it to the great masters. I would stop like after 3 minutes trying improv cause I just didn't like what I was playing. Nowadays (much thanks to Dave Frank's masterclasses on beginning improv) I really enjoy improvising simple lines of 8th notes like sentences with a rest over standard 2-5-1 progressions and easy standards on a really low metronome tempo (like 66). I think it's because how Bill Evans calls it "real". I know what I'm playing and follow my inner ear and feelings instead of learning to play existing bebop lines or pre-learned licks on way to fast tempo getting lost. I really enjoy the improv journey and take every time I need to learn :)
All those great master pianist spend years and years of practise and learning harmony. They had talent, but also they spend hours and hours on piano learning.
Dude it also depends on what your mission is in music. Are you playing to show off how good you are or are you actually trying to say something and have a conversation without speaking. This is why the Blues is amazing. Albert King would say ALOT with only 3 notes. And modern legends like John Frusciante epitomizes the concept of writing with something to say, look at the solo for the song "cant stop" by red hot chilli peppers. The guitar solo is literally just 4 notes and its one of their biggest songs and one of johns most iconic guitar solos.
I look at it like this too you can say something with 1000 words and say it as fast as you can or you can just get to the point and say what you need to say. People respond to the later far more often.
I am learning difficult Chopin pieces these days. Same hold true for that. At first, play them in a way that I understand it, maybe not even necessarily how it’s written, but with the chord changes, and then as I get more used to hearing and knowing the chord changes, go for more exactness of how it’s written, and then go for tempo. And have fun all the while!
".. We find a certain kind of enjoyment, and I wouldn't stop playing..." Bill: "You could be too cautious, to the point to where you never discover anything. I think you have to have a certain adventurous spirit. But I'll say over a long period of time, you have to be aware of what is really accurate, and what is not. And when you're adventurous you have to know when you succeed and when you don't succeed, that's all." Thank you, dear Bill! ❤️🎹
This music philosophy of Bill's is what really got me into Jazz, I feel a lot of Jazz tends to be over-seasoning and you can't taste the meat anymore just the spices and the salt, it becomes confusion. Even though the other examples still sounded good, the more "honest" approach sounded a lot better at least to my ears.
What he is saying here is just as true in music as it is in any of our life pursuits. Its amazing that he can just as expressive in language as he is in his music.
Billy will start talking, then walk over to a piano, and you’ll hear the rest of the sentence he was saying. This man is the best pianist in the world.
Bill is expressing something very precisely - I'm not sure why his brother Harry seems to have trouble understanding what he's saying. Basically, it's to have a firm grasp of what you're playing, from the beginning, starting with simple building blocks and then progress from there. This is important if one wants to avoid playing a bunch of bull shit that's meant to impress, but can't, because it's built on a faulty foundation. This way you can feel the reality of what you're playing, and others will, too. It's not just, as he says, an approximation, it's the real thing, and then from there you build. Bill is brilliant, and that's an understatement.
Really, what makes you think he didn't understand Bill, hmm? I don't see any of that here. I see very stimulating questions, with precise answers from Bill making this a very interesting interview.
TheObserver Because Harry thought Bill was talking about "overplaying", that's the word that Harry used (which he said he personally was guilty of). I don't think that's really what Bill was talking about - he was talking about playing in a "vague, un-focused, not clearly conscious way", there's a significant difference. This is a great interview, though - it's nice to not have an interviewer who simply is worshiping his idol and nods his head to everything he says - perhaps a little sibling rivalry works well in this case..
From my knowledge, I interpret what Bill is saying here as also being related to the shift from the swing era (a more basic 2-5-1 harmonic structure) to the bop style i.e. (2(2-5)5(2-5)1) - a more complex harmonic structure, and to modal which to my mind is really back to a more simple structure but where the full extend of chord tones are utilized as there was more time to explore them without the changes frequently changing. But I think what he is saying is that instead of just jumping into playing all these extra chords etc, you first have to understand why or how they work. This is just what I gather and I don't think anybody should take my interpretation too seriously as I myself am trying to get my head around all this stuff and am merely a student of this art. But I do love this video though, the guy could really play it all, a true genius
It's like saying, "I'm finding that working out with these 10 lb. dumbells is sort of difficult and boring - let me try those heavier ones and do only exercises I'm not very familiar with."
If your goal is to bench 185 lbs, but you can only bench 160 lbs at most, you do not repeatedly attempt to bench 185 lbs until you're able to - you work your way up.
@@p.as.in.pterodactyl1024 Right...I probably should have said I was sardonically speaking in the voice of someone who was approaching things in the manner Evans was cautioning against.. Obviously, in my example, the practitioner should stick w/the 5-lb.ers, do more reps & work up to the 10s.
That's a very good point, start simple and build from what you know. Most players have licks they play in different ways, but since they are not their licks they depend on effects or vibrato or volume to build their solo. When it's your simple idea it's easy to control and add to a finally.
Watched twice, just realized most (90%) of the dub step [evil techno] I was listening to was programming my mind to fail... now that I'm back to jazz, funk, blues, sitar Indian music. I feel sooo gooood :) :) :)
His explanation of improvisation is essentially respect the source. So many artists create new renditions around a classic piece that it begins to sound like something totally different than the original.
It looks like what he's saying is "keep it simple", and it's partly that but it's also more profound. "Keep it simple" would be just a stylistic choice. What he's really saying is that you have to make sure that you are in total control of the notes that you're playing, at any time, you have to know why you're playing this note and not that one. You have to have an absolutely clear idea in your head, and make your fingers play it in the exact way it is intended to be, instead of letting your fingers do an "approximation" of that idea, with random notes that are informed more by habits and "muscle memory". The result is often more simple, also memorable and sing-able, but it's not just about simplicity, not always anyway. It's about having a full understanding of what you are playing.
I don't think Bill is talking about emotion or being real/genuine here. In this discussion, I think he is talking about working hard in order to deeply understand the harmonies, intracacies, and movement of a piece so that you are never guessing or "approximating" as Bill puts it, about what your options are while improvising. It's like having a good idea of where you are driving your car versus knowing the area so well that you have a million options as to how to get there.
Very insightful... I feel a LOT of Musicians get caught up in the "vagueness" factor. It's MUCH better for a musician to keep things more "simple" and "real" than attempting to "approximate" a result that is beyond their command and full understanding. This goes for any player in any given style of music.
I think that by keeping it simple and real he means that one should play what he/she hears in their mind instead of running through scales or playing random licks that we don’t really understand. Playing what you hear or sing in your mind is the realest expression of one’s musicality. It’s difficult to get to that level of course. This is what I absorbed from what he is saying.
@22hka I think that's a good question. My sense is that the idea of starting out doing something simply but from the heart, where it represents you personally, that can apply to anything that requires practice. So homework, yes, the idea is to practice it so that it becomes second nature, creating a foundation you can build on.
Awesome comments by a master player and thinker. This will help me in my own musical development. It provides a template for true self evaluation and serves as a guide to actual implementation.
he has a very intriguing way of analyzing the creative process, and the way he effortlessly glides over the changes....well let the music be its own commentary:) masterfull musician!
You listen to Bill play and you hear all those notes, all those changes, and it's overwhelming. If you know a little about music, it's like drinking from a fire hose. For a casual listener, I imagine that much of it can sound like noise, especially his later, live recordings. Those late recordings are misleading, by the way. Bill died in 1980, but publishers have been pumping out Bill Evans records ever since, mixing tracks from outtakes and live performances. If you have an interest in his music, start with his trio work from 1960 onward -- Moonbeams, Everybody Digs Bill Evans, Sunday at the Village Vanguard, Waltz for Debby, and the solo creation, Conversations With Myself. I enjoyed his work with tenor man, Stan Getz, and I should mention the essential Miles Davis, Kind of Blue.
For those of you who are confused: Bill isn't suggesting that one play it safe and stagnate. His point is that one must grasp the key elements of a skill before one begins to elaborate. The main point: without a true and strong understanding of fundamentals one's output will reflect their superficial understanding. It will be all decoration without proper architecture: a pretty room on the brink of collapse.
+okGhostlyGhost very well said.
Thank you. When Bill Evans said it, I didn't understand. But now that lazyGhost has explained it, I understand.
Wish there was a way to save comments, this is on point.
Huh
Schoenberg basically said the same thing. Style is a byproduct of substance not the other way around.
Bill's insights here are so valuable. What Bill describes here is THE learning process for anything... get to as elementary a level as you need to... work there... make that subconscious... then go to the next level... It's the same for everything. If things feel too complicated, then you need to work at a more elementary level...
When you take gradual steps, nothing ever feels that complicated. When you try to take big leaps, then things feel complicated.
I've always assumed that I can't draw... I'm going to try to use Bill's approach towards learning to draw.
Wow... all the best, man.
Nice, this is the true meaning to 'before you learn to walk you gotta learn how to crawl' and it couldn't get any simpler than that!
+otakurocklee I remember I stopped drawing when I was little because I didn't know the principles of this video and I didn't see the small steps as important. I think that the idea that Mozart is said to have commented on is from similar viewpoint when he said that he never tried to be someone great-he just kept composing and trying to get better.
Three years. How is the drawing going?
Explain very well
the fact that i can watch a short movie of one of the greatest jazz pianists giving advice to me on a small device that fits in my pocket is mind blowing.
Exactly
The very first minute all the way up to 1:01 with Bill talking is straight GOLD. Rene Descartes, the great French mathematician, wrote this waaay back in 1637 (330 years from when this video was made and over 380 years from today in 2021) and they're both pretty much saying the same thing! Descartes says, "For to be possessed of a vigorous mind is not enough; the prime requisite is rightly to apply it. The greatest minds, as they are capable of the highest excellences, are open likewise to the greatest aberrations; *and those who travel very slowly may yet make far greater progress,* provided they keep always to the straight road, than those who, while they run, forsake it." 👏👏👏👏👏
Bill Evans read Descartes.
The other part is important, too, which is you have to enjoy the process! Finding a way to make your learning enjoyable so you can continue to make consistent progress. That's key.
His "simple" is still otherworldly
True artistry
3:32 - "It is better to do something simple which is real" -- Bill Evans.
That kinda applies to life, too! IMHO. The best advice I ever got from the Jazz guitar masters, like Herb Ellis and Barney Kessel was to SING everything you play if you are a guitar player or keyboard player when soloing.
That connects you with something deeper within and it can be almost a mystical experience because the Latin word for spirit is spiritus, which means breath. Thus, you are connecting with your "spirit", so to speak, when you sing everything you play as a string player or keyboard player-- and this advice probably can be applied to any non-vocal or non-wind instrument. Peace.
very true. i remember the first time i experienced this kind of thing, playing straight form your head without even thinking and the music just flows just as easily as talking, without even looking at your hands. it's uplifting and ethereal.
way better than drugs if you ask me.
There are way too many pianists and guitarists who don't breathe when they play and instead produce an endless string of notes that leaves no room for anyone else to contribute.
Very cool. I had a teacher in college who said the same thing to me back in 1979. BTW, a sidebar---I got to meet Barney and Herb in Feb 1980 when the Great Guitars came and did a concert at my old alma mater, SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music. And....wait for it....I got to drive them for 5 hours to the Syracuse, NY airport the next day after the concert. What a couple of nice guys and very wise. It was 5 hours I'll never forget.
Playing singingly and using the ear is essential to be genuine. I can't sing with my voice while I play as a learning jazz trombonist, but I can "sing" through the instrument in how I play if I choose to. (Which is something I should always choose no doubt, but one of my faults is always trying to do more than what my ear hears for the sake of filling space.) Deciding how and especially WHEN I use certain articulations, small scoops, fast vs slow lines, when to repeat an idea or let it go, etc. is what is important and what I should do. I'm thankful for the reminder of this video, just want to say the advice applies to horns as well. I hope anyone who reads this has a good day
Jaco Pastorius called it "wiggling your fingers" - playing with the illusion of technical prowess and, in reality, saying nothing (or, at best, an approximation of something). This interview series is so great! I'd rather listen to Bill Evans' playing than almost anyone else's. Hearing him speak his thoughts with such clarity makes me appreciate him that much more.
"Intuition has to lead knowledge but it can't be out there on its own. On its own you're going to flounder sooner or later" - Bill Evans on NPR's Piano Jazz
Dude was deep. Real deep.
Jesus Christ I was totally unprepared for how amazing that four minutes of film was. I was expecting a little interview about something boring and banal, and instead he gave me advice that has changed my entire outlook on life.
The whole film is profound - in fact, every single interview with Bill Evans is poetry. He was certainly an artist before pianist (as in he was an artist at his core, and piano happened to be the medium that best suited his voice). You should watch the whole thing, if you haven’t. It‘s called ‘The Universal Mind of Bill Evans’. I haven’t seen anything quite like it. Every line he speaks is a wonderfully dense and thought out maxim that could be contemplated for years. Love this man.
That was my experience, too. I saw that in the beginning I approached my profession in hairdressing by approximating. So at 16 years in, I began retaining and rebuilding my foundation.
@@helvarthered Thanks for that reference to the full interview.
The other aspect that is revealing and mesmerizing for me this is utter humility. I love that in artists, and in all people.
I love the way he develops his solo at 2:24! Such an amazing musician.
+Yes Box "something simple", he said.
Agreed; would expect nothing less from the man!
He was a genius
this is great...basically he's saying there's no shortcut, you have to start from the bottom and build or you have nowhere else to go
A house without a solid foundation
Is exposed to all sorts of elements.
Moreover, that you need to enjoy the step by step process of advancing
Bill was such a visionary. Such an influential player.
"Better to do something simple which is real" Yeah.
Steve Vai dissliked this 😂
very good advice. Ego is the worst enemy in learning anything. Drop your ego. Accept that your not advanced now. That's the only way to advance.
"Simple is the key." Its the best design model when free-styling. It gives other musicians ideas. Just do it weird and unorthodox to the ear (here and there (every 8 measures or so)). Great vid.
How the heck am I 16 years late!
How is it possible for one dude to be so talented, intelligent and articulate while not coming off as pretentious at all
100% - the weird thing is he convinces you he's right even if you're struggling to understand what the thing is. Another observation was (and this comes from some audio from his manager) that no one in the biz would front up to him with bad news or cross him - he had a kind of power aura. In the tapes from his last performances in the late 70's when he was pissed about something you could see it. Very quiet but there was a darkness to him. Fascinating
Apart from being the best jazz piano player in my life, his insights on playing jazz are the most interesting I´ve heard. HE really was focused solely on his art and not on success or money. The way he frequently stressed the importance of playing as simple and as common as possible instead of technical/show-offy way really shows he thought a lot about his art and how to best perform it.
it's simple ; lose some teeth
My flute teacher, 1st flutist in Hartford Symphony, always said" Always go back to the basics." This is what makes a real musician. Sometimes music students/ musical novice lose track of this. We must walk before we run, crawl before we walk.
I think one of the hardest things for a musician to do is know when to leave the spaces. Bill is the all time master of 'less is more' jazz.
I personally would have to say Thelonious Monk was the master of said form, but Bill was indeed fantastic
I love Bill Evans. And this conversation I find this absolutely amazing. He could be talking about so many things in life besides jazz improvisation. Anything creative.
Isn`t it Great that there is knowledge like this on UA-cam. A lot of times I just find Frivolity! Happy to have found this! I wish he was still with us too! Incredible!
Love this discussion. Bill listens to his brother and empathizes about overplaying but goes back to keeping it simple as a general rule instead of being too busy. His brother talks about the enjoyment (to himself) and Bill agrees it is good to sometimes get outside the frame work but with an eye to what succeeds and what does not succeed. Wise
I’ve got a couple kids and they aren't into jazz. But I played Bill Evans for them, and they say, 'Jesus, that's pretty good.' So I think it's great that people are just rediscovering Bill Evans, and I want people to rediscover Bill Evans. I think he's a great artist, and I think more people should listen to him and respect the beauty that he was able to create.
This video caused me to change my approach to conducting in college.
Watching a genius at work is as humbling as it is inspiring... I was struck by the fact that the core of Evans' message, do something that is simple but real, is an echo of Keats' famous dictum, "Truth is beauty, beauty truth."
Bill Evans continues to teach me so much and brings me great joy in his musicianship. If as artists we are not willing to try different things and make mistakes, we will never discover anything new. Some people are satisfied with playing it safe, such as piano basics at parties, and impressing some people with that, and don't get me wrong, that's cool if that's what you like and as far as you want to venture. But for true artists like Bill Evans, he's always wanting to go on an adventure and explore and discover. But he always knows where home base is and he has that as his foundation. That way he's able to venture out and create with security, yet has the freedom to discover what he doesn't yet know. He listens to the spaces between notes, much like a poet listens to the spaces between words. I could go on and on, but I'll end here by saying, I love you Bill Evans! One of the great joys of my life is listening to you play piano and hearing you talk about the creative process! Even the 88 keys, who've had countless lovers, are delighted by your touch! :- )
Evans has such an insightful way of approaching music. Every one of these interview clips I see with him, he says something that seems so fundamental but which I would never be able to grasp if he hadn't articulated it.
Do not try to skip steps. Brilliant man! No wonder he played such moving music.
Mr. Evans-still alive in many musicians, that is his legacy-we should all do so well. Some of his most beautiful playing-as suggested here-not what you play, but what you don't play, listen to his intros on Kind of Blue with Miles Davis-Flamenco Sketches, Blue in Green, So What. He is composing a mini masterpiece while he is improvising! His thought process-how evolved it must have been. 2-3 measures of his playing-can be an entire study in harmony, voice leading and just plain gorgeous playing. And then when as a newbie I might think-well he was basically a ballad, chordal player-he plays a few measures of "bebop" lines-if you can call it that-and there goes that idea. The word "distillation" comes to mind. He could take an idea, distill its essential beauty and then create a live composition around it.
Very valuable advice from the Master to a beginner improviser! Thanks a lot, Bill !
Keep it simple; understand the foundation of which your playing with and then elaborate, but REALLY understand the foundation of the framework your moving around. Fantastic advice.
"It is better to do something simple that is real" this is a sentence to live on
Never seen a legend's highlight jazz video
giving such a short, essential intuition how those video came from.
"It's better to do something simple which is real". Thank you Mr. Evans.
Oh god I'm so glad I watched this because until now I hadn't realized that I have been doing exactly what he's talking about. It hadn't crossed my mind that I have been overplaying and trying too hard on my improvisations and at times playing things that are just gibberish so to speak and not real. Thank you Bill.
As somebody who fell hard for felt improvisation and drifted away from theoretical frames, this is a wake up call. I might be able to freely explore countless possibilities with my instruments, but then it's really hard to bring all of that home into a composition.
Before I saw Bills interviews, I always thought he would be awkward and shy because of his photos and music. What a surprise when I first saw him talking in such a sophisticated and intelligent manner!
same
Bill and his music educator brother in conversation! Gold!
Bill Evan's masterclass on:
listening to structure,
keeping it simple and real, and not overplaying.
you missed the entire point
I think the problem of vagueness I've seen people comment on here, has to do with the fact that these guys are not using the specific TECHNICAL language of jazz theory to communicate their ideas to us all. But y'allz got to realise that these guys were so top flight (to use Bill's term) and so advanced that it may have been difficult to reach for those technical words, y'know, like scales, chord changes, 32nds, voicing, etc.
At least this is how I see it. Watch it enough times though to see if you will learn something valuable... for me, this video is highly insightful.
Accuracy as success in improvised music, how refreshing a viewpoint that is! If one starts with the notion that inaccurate playing cannot be sufficiently expressive, one will travel a LONG way down the road to genuine mastery. THEN if one wishes to move to open or free frameworks, one will have the necessary background to maneuver successfully in the Open Air. MBB
Coltrane said in an interview that he was working on a lot of different things at the same time and that he wasn’t comfortable playing them so he played everything at once.
Nowhere do I see this more nowadays than in journalism. People who’ve seen smart sober people (their forebears) ask insightful challenging questions and make sound conclusions (or better yet offer no definitive conclusions) and rather than emulate the hard work and personal wrenching it takes to become as good, as honorable they just play the part by acting sober, by being challenging but not at appropriate times or about appropriate or worthwhile things.
I very much like this approach. It leads to the real thing, the true nature of things, instead of an imitation.
The “simple” solo that he played just to illustrate a point is just so good it’s insane
Thank goodness for these instructional films!!
Wow, he was making a GREAT point. Such and articulated guy. Love it. Thanks!
Should be mandatory watching for every jazz musician on this planet
This has got to be the best advice to any experimenting jazz pianist. Not to mention coming from the master himself. Thanks for posting!
心に刺さる言葉ばかりだ...
That's some of the reasons why I like Mick Goodrick and Bill Evans so much. Not so much about talent, but improvement. Not everyone can be a great musician but everyone has the potential to improve, and that is more important. Thanks for sharing.
You are so right! I love Bill Evans' music but after seeing his interviews and reading about him, I've learned and seen not only was he a very talented pianist, cool and hip, but he was also modest and reserved and yet so intelligent. Where do you see that in this day and age?
Very true and inspiring... one of my favourite videos ever. And you can apply it everywhere! I really love the way he shows this little thought
So brilliant - thanks so much for uploading!
I had to watch this video a few times to really absorb all of what he was saying..but I'm so glad I did. This video has helped me tremendously. Bill Evans will forever be one of my favorites.
So cool to be able to see and hear Bill Evans teaching. One thought I had is that if you find yourself confused, just go back to the melody of a tune, and begin to 'jazz it up' some. Just like the greats, like Louis Armstrong, have been doing in the decades before bebop. And maybe start to throw some figures in during the 'breaks'.
I like Bill Evans's approach a lot. As I'm fairly new to improvising.. I never understood where to begin cause you hear all these really incredible solo's from master pianists (including Bill Evans himself). Everytime I started to work on it myself I felt like I was playing complete crap.. Cause in my mind I was maybe comparing it to the great masters. I would stop like after 3 minutes trying improv cause I just didn't like what I was playing.
Nowadays (much thanks to Dave Frank's masterclasses on beginning improv) I really enjoy improvising simple lines of 8th notes like sentences with a rest over standard 2-5-1 progressions and easy standards on a really low metronome tempo (like 66). I think it's because how Bill Evans calls it "real". I know what I'm playing and follow my inner ear and feelings instead of learning to play existing bebop lines or pre-learned licks on way to fast tempo getting lost.
I really enjoy the improv journey and take every time I need to learn :)
All those great master pianist spend years and years of practise and learning harmony. They had talent, but also they spend hours and hours on piano learning.
true
True statement man. I used to get so caught up in playing these elaborate chord voicings and licks, and then end up not playing in time.
Dude it also depends on what your mission is in music.
Are you playing to show off how good you are or are you actually trying to say something and have a conversation without speaking.
This is why the Blues is amazing. Albert King would say ALOT with only 3 notes. And modern legends like John Frusciante epitomizes the concept of writing with something to say, look at the solo for the song "cant stop" by red hot chilli peppers. The guitar solo is literally just 4 notes and its one of their biggest songs and one of johns most iconic guitar solos.
I look at it like this too you can say something with 1000 words and say it as fast as you can or you can just get to the point and say what you need to say.
People respond to the later far more often.
ほんとに何事に置いても基礎は大事だし小手先の技術にばかり頼るのは良くないよな……心に刺さる……
Great ideas! Timeless concepts...
I am learning difficult Chopin pieces these days. Same hold true for that. At first, play them in a way that I understand it, maybe not even necessarily how it’s written, but with the chord changes, and then as I get more used to hearing and knowing the chord changes, go for more exactness of how it’s written, and then go for tempo. And have fun all the while!
".. We find a certain kind of enjoyment, and I wouldn't stop playing..."
Bill: "You could be too cautious, to the point to where you never discover anything. I think you have to have a certain adventurous spirit. But I'll say over a long period of time, you have to be aware of what is really accurate, and what is not. And when you're adventurous you have to know when you succeed and when you don't succeed, that's all."
Thank you, dear Bill! ❤️🎹
More than a genius..
This music philosophy of Bill's is what really got me into Jazz, I feel a lot of Jazz tends to be over-seasoning and you can't taste the meat anymore just the spices and the salt, it becomes confusion. Even though the other examples still sounded good, the more "honest" approach sounded a lot better at least to my ears.
言ってることはいたって平凡だけど、永遠に変わらない大切なことです。
thanks for posting this! Really instructive to hear Evans talk about the creative and learning process.
What he is saying here is just as true in music as it is in any of our life pursuits. Its amazing that he can just as expressive in language as he is in his music.
Billy will start talking, then walk over to a piano, and you’ll hear the rest of the sentence he was saying.
This man is the best pianist in the world.
I reckon what he's saying is that you have to know clearly what you are playing, and what emotion it stirs up. "You have to know what you're doing"
Bill is expressing something very precisely - I'm not sure why his brother Harry seems to have trouble understanding what he's saying. Basically, it's to have a firm grasp of what you're playing, from the beginning, starting with simple building blocks and then progress from there. This is important if one wants to avoid playing a bunch of bull shit that's meant to impress, but can't, because it's built on a faulty foundation. This way you can feel the reality of what you're playing, and others will, too. It's not just, as he says, an approximation, it's the real thing, and then from there you build. Bill is brilliant, and that's an understatement.
***** yup, just like any good interviewer. You take the opposite side in order to create more interesting and full responses.
Really, what makes you think he didn't understand Bill, hmm? I don't see any of that here. I see very stimulating questions, with precise answers from Bill making this a very interesting interview.
Yeah, goes both ways... projection is a universal human trait.
TheObserver Because Harry thought Bill was talking about "overplaying", that's the word that Harry used (which he said he personally was guilty of). I don't think that's really what Bill was talking about - he was talking about playing in a "vague, un-focused, not clearly conscious way", there's a significant difference. This is a great interview, though - it's nice to not have an interviewer who simply is worshiping his idol and nods his head to everything he says - perhaps a little sibling rivalry works well in this case..
+Maxim Calixte Harry had schizophrenia
From my knowledge, I interpret what Bill is saying here as also being related to the shift from the swing era (a more basic 2-5-1 harmonic structure) to the bop style i.e. (2(2-5)5(2-5)1) - a more complex harmonic structure, and to modal which to my mind is really back to a more simple structure but where the full extend of chord tones are utilized as there was more time to explore them without the changes frequently changing. But I think what he is saying is that instead of just jumping into playing all these extra chords etc, you first have to understand why or how they work. This is just what I gather and I don't think anybody should take my interpretation too seriously as I myself am trying to get my head around all this stuff and am merely a student of this art. But I do love this video though, the guy could really play it all, a true genius
No offense but I think you missed the point. This is not a critique of musical styles or fashions.
It's like saying, "I'm finding that working out with these 10 lb. dumbells is sort of difficult and boring - let me try those heavier ones and do only exercises I'm not very familiar with."
If your goal is to bench 185 lbs, but you can only bench 160 lbs at most, you do not repeatedly attempt to bench 185 lbs until you're able to - you work your way up.
@@p.as.in.pterodactyl1024 Right...I probably should have said I was sardonically speaking in the voice of someone who was approaching things in the manner Evans was cautioning against.. Obviously, in my example, the practitioner should stick w/the 5-lb.ers, do more reps & work up to the 10s.
何事も基本が大切なんですね、よく考えてらっしゃる。益々尊敬しました。
Wow! I've never heard Bill Evans other than his music ( which is great ). Great advice!
How can you actually dislike this vid ?
+Spike Club envy that you'll never comprehend it
out of ignorance, arrogance, naivety, dullness
It was Stanley Crouch.
If you dislike this vid, you must be Trump or something....
have a listen to the shagg's "philosophy of the world" it explains everything
ビルエヴァンスのプレイに
迷いがなく自然で必然性を感じる理由
いわゆるマインドフルネス(瞑想)のことを
語ってる
指とピアノと一体化してて
感情にも巻き込まれないから
Egoに絡みとられない
それゆえに自由なんだね
After a couple of videos I have realized that I don't only love his playing, I also love his talking...
I like the idea of working with the tools you have and saying what you need to say. While steadily improving.
what an intellectual and talent - where ppl like him today?
That's a very good point, start simple and build from what you know. Most players have licks they play in different ways, but since they are not their licks they depend on effects or vibrato or volume to build their solo. When it's your simple idea it's easy to control and add to a finally.
Watched twice, just realized most (90%) of the dub step [evil techno] I was listening to was programming my mind to fail... now that I'm back to jazz, funk, blues, sitar Indian music. I feel sooo gooood :) :) :)
One of the most important videos to me on UA-cam.
His explanation of improvisation is essentially respect the source. So many artists create new renditions around a classic piece that it begins to sound like something totally different than the original.
It looks like what he's saying is "keep it simple", and it's partly that but it's also more profound. "Keep it simple" would be just a stylistic choice. What he's really saying is that you have to make sure that you are in total control of the notes that you're playing, at any time, you have to know why you're playing this note and not that one. You have to have an absolutely clear idea in your head, and make your fingers play it in the exact way it is intended to be, instead of letting your fingers do an "approximation" of that idea, with random notes that are informed more by habits and "muscle memory". The result is often more simple, also memorable and sing-able, but it's not just about simplicity, not always anyway. It's about having a full understanding of what you are playing.
I don't think Bill is talking about emotion or being real/genuine here. In this discussion, I think he is talking about working hard in order to deeply understand the harmonies, intracacies, and movement of a piece so that you are never guessing or "approximating" as Bill puts it, about what your options are while improvising. It's like having a good idea of where you are driving your car versus knowing the area so well that you have a million options as to how to get there.
all of the things that you mentionned are tools you use to express "genuine emotion"
Very insightful... I feel a LOT of Musicians get caught up in the "vagueness" factor.
It's MUCH better for a musician to keep things more "simple" and "real" than attempting to "approximate" a result that is beyond their command and full understanding.
This goes for any player in any given style of music.
You can learn more by simply listening to what he's playing and the process that inspires it than you can from listening to him speak.
I love his enthusiasm for intellect and emotions
This is incredible and applying it everyday is the key .Beautiful video .
Bill Evans has Always been my favorit jazz piano player ( i espacially love the album Symbiosis) alone with Lyle Mays.
RIP
I’ll really take his words and remind myself to take substantial steps when learning jazz and everything else
These words really opened my eyes to alot of what im doing wrong. Wise words
Thanks for these gems of truth, Bill.
I think that by keeping it simple and real he means that one should play what he/she hears in their mind instead of running through scales or playing random licks that we don’t really understand. Playing what you hear or sing in your mind is the realest expression of one’s musicality. It’s difficult to get to that level of course. This is what I absorbed from what he is saying.
The best jazz pianist ever
Better than Nate King Cole? Better than Herbie? Beer in mind...Bill in my top 3.
@22hka I think that's a good question. My sense is that the idea of starting out doing something simply but from the heart, where it represents you personally, that can apply to anything that requires practice. So homework, yes, the idea is to practice it so that it becomes second nature, creating a foundation you can build on.
Bill Evan's style is minimalistic.
Awesome comments by a master player and thinker. This will help me in my own musical development. It provides a template for true self evaluation and serves as a guide to actual implementation.
interesting use of "vagueness" here, i never thought about musical vagueness before but he hit the nail right on the head.
he has a very intriguing way of analyzing the creative process, and the way he effortlessly glides over the changes....well let the music be its own commentary:) masterfull musician!
''something simple''
Aahahahaha
If I could only play that "simple"...
Jupiter Le Grand try the first half of „One note samba“ :)
You listen to Bill play and you hear all those notes, all those changes, and it's overwhelming. If you know a little about music, it's like drinking from a fire hose. For a casual listener, I imagine that much of it can sound like noise, especially his later, live recordings.
Those late recordings are misleading, by the way. Bill died in 1980, but publishers have been pumping out Bill Evans records ever since, mixing tracks from outtakes and live performances. If you have an interest in his music, start with his trio work from 1960 onward -- Moonbeams, Everybody Digs Bill Evans, Sunday at the Village Vanguard, Waltz for Debby, and the solo creation, Conversations With Myself. I enjoyed his work with tenor man, Stan Getz, and I should mention the essential Miles Davis, Kind of Blue.