Episode 267
Decoding Musical Mastery: A Journey of Learning and Teaching
The primary focus of this podcast featuring Sean Wilson (www.seanwilsonpiano.com) revolves around the concept that enhancing one's musical vocabulary is paramount for improving the ability to hear and understand music, rather than simply relying on ear training alone. I elucidate that many aspiring musicians mistakenly attribute their challenges in music comprehension to deficiencies in their auditory perception, when, in fact, it is their limited vocabulary that impedes their progress. By developing a more comprehensive musical vocabulary, individuals can significantly resolve a myriad of issues they encounter in their musical endeavors. Throughout our discussion, I provide insights into the importance of analyzing musical movements and identifying target chords, which ultimately fosters a deeper understanding of the music being played. This episode serves as an invaluable resource for those seeking to bridge the gap between performance and comprehension in their musical journeys.
Takeaways:
- The importance of developing a musical vocabulary cannot be overstated, as it directly influences one's ability to transcribe and understand music effectively.
- I discovered that teaching and breaking down music significantly increased engagement, demonstrating the demand for educational content in music learning.
- Many musicians erroneously believe that their inability to hear music correctly stems from their ear, when in reality, it is often a lack of vocabulary that hinders their understanding.
- Understanding the direction in which a musician is moving is crucial for grasping the context of their performance, rather than merely focusing on individual notes or chords.
- To enhance one's musical ear, one must prioritize expanding their musical vocabulary, as this foundational knowledge leads to a greater understanding of music as a whole.
- Transcribing music requires not only listening skills but also the ability to recognize and interpret musical structures, which improves with experience and vocabulary growth.
Links referenced in this episode:
Transcript
Though now I'm known for teaching.
Speaker A:I think when I first came on the scene, I was known for my ear because, right, I would be breaking down, you know, all these top musicians.
Speaker A:And people were trying to find out how are those notes showing up on the screen, right?
Speaker A:So, so.
Speaker A:And that was because I was, I was having to break down these.
Speaker A:And so people kind of wanted to know, well, this guy's breaking stuff down.
Speaker A:And I did a little, I did a little experiment and see, okay, I wondered what.
Speaker A:Because this is the.
Speaker A:When I was trying to grow my YouTube channel, I didn't know what people wanted, right?
Speaker A:And so on one video I did one thing.
Speaker A:Another video, I did another thing.
Speaker A:But on the video where I actually explained, I think it was an Eddie Brown move.
Speaker A:And I just kind of was like, well, this is what he's doing.
Speaker A:That video like had four times as many views.
Speaker A:And then that's when it told me, okay, you need to be teaching this stuff, so you need to be using your ear, right, to break it down.
Speaker A:And then you need to go further and teach stuff.
Speaker A:And I knew I had something when people were saying, man, I will pay you.
Speaker A:He was like, man, I will pay you if you can give me that.
Speaker A:Because, you know, the thing is that the gap between, see that the performers are great for the teachers because they're the ones who give us, you know, they're the ones who.
Speaker A:Whose works we're going to analyze mostly.
Speaker B:Right, Gotcha.
Speaker A:So, you know, so because everybody sees the performers and they're like, I want their chords.
Speaker B:Right, right, right.
Speaker A:But the problem is that they trying to go to the performer.
Speaker A:See, that's the wrong thing.
Speaker A:You can't go to the person performing and asking them.
Speaker A:You, they're the performer.
Speaker A:You're supposed to go to the analyzer, the teacher.
Speaker A:You're supposed to be going to the person who's good at breaking stuff down to tell you what that performer is doing a lot.
Speaker C:Most people hate doing that anyways, right?
Speaker C:You'll ask them like, ah, that was just a B flat major 9.
Speaker C:They'll kind of blow it off.
Speaker C:And I think that's discouraging to a lot of people coming up because it's like you're trying to get help.
Speaker C:You're going directly to the source when you have access to them.
Speaker C:And the information they give you, as good as it may be, doesn't really help you when you're trying to get a grasp for the music.
Speaker C:That's something.
Speaker A:I mean, that's a good point, but I think I think the issue is that the performer doesn't necessarily even know.
Speaker A:See, the thing is, the high performers.
Speaker A:The high performers have gotten to such a degree of skill that it's natural to them.
Speaker B:Yeah, true.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So it's like when somebody says to me, you may teach me English, I'm like, I speak.
Speaker A:You know, we speak it so well that.
Speaker A:Trying to go back and explain why we're pronouncing words kind of like.
Speaker A:What?
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So that's why.
Speaker A:So that's why a lot of.
Speaker A:I think it's just a lot of musicians don't realize that, you know, and so they.
Speaker A:They think that the person is just trying to blow them off when in actuality, they just.
Speaker A:They just don't know what to say.
Speaker B:It's a good point.
Speaker B:Really good point.
Speaker C:Okay, you made a point there.
Speaker C:Also about language.
Speaker C:You also compare music to language and vocabulary.
Speaker C:I think you have on your website.
Speaker A:Somebody's been.
Speaker A:Somebody's been listening to me.
Speaker C:Yeah, for sure, man.
Speaker B:Definitely a decipher.
Speaker C:This is the test, man.
Speaker C:Am I passing?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:On your website, spelling won't help you speak.
Speaker C:I thought that was real powerful, and I know you have a lot to say about that.
Speaker C:Can you break it down?
Speaker A:Yeah, let me.
Speaker A:I'm gonna.
Speaker A:I'm.
Speaker A:I'm gonna be dropping down.
Speaker A:So many gems today for you guys.
Speaker B:So beautiful.
Speaker A:Everybody thinks it's ear training, right.
Speaker A:Everybody wants to know, how do I get a better ear?
Speaker A:How do I get a better ear?
Speaker A:And then they ask me, and then they see me online, hear something crazy, and they'll see me, and I just hit the cord, and everyone's like, oh, my God, his ear is so good.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:But again, my job is education.
Speaker A:My job is to tell people why they're not able to hear things, and they think it's their ear, when in reality, it's probably their vocabulary.
Speaker A:See?
Speaker B:Interesting.
Speaker A:The.
Speaker A:Gaining your vocabulary.
Speaker A:Gaining your musical vocabulary will solve 90% of your music problems, right?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Fixing vocabulary solves 90% of your problems, not your ear.
Speaker A:Because think about it like this.
Speaker A:Like, if.
Speaker A:If I were to play a wrong chord, everybody's.
Speaker A:Everybody knows.
Speaker B:Right, Right.
Speaker A:What's telling you that the chord is wrong?
Speaker A:Well, your ear is telling you that there's nothing wrong.
Speaker A:Nothing wrong with your ear.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:But see, to use your ear to identify what a chord is, you have to have an existing vocabulary to even hear what it is.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker C:True.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So it's.
Speaker A:It's like somebody saying that the reason why they can't speak another Language is because of their ear.
Speaker A:Well, no, you can hear the other language just fine.
Speaker A:You just can't tell what they're saying.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:And if you.
Speaker A:If you go and you sit in that country and you all of a sudden start building your vocabulary and you start memorizing words, then all of a sudden that same ear tells you what the person's speaking.
Speaker A:Does that make sense?
Speaker B:Yeah, 100%.
Speaker B:100%.
Speaker A:So everyone thinks it's ear.
Speaker A:And yes, the ear is used to identify chords.
Speaker A:Yeah, but the chords have to be there first for you to hear it.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker A:You can't hear chords that you don't even know.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:And so I tell.
Speaker A:I tell people, listen, you want a good ear?
Speaker A:Get your vocabulary up.
Speaker A:That's all you got to do.
Speaker A:Get your cab up.
Speaker A:And then all of a sudden, you'll hear stuff.
Speaker A:And let me just make this a.
Speaker A:Let me give an actual example.
Speaker A:When I first started transcribing, and by the way, just for anyone listening, transcribing is the process of hearing a piece of music and getting that and capturing all the chords.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:Capturing that music somehow.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:It could be either sheet music or it could be like a.
Speaker A:What we call a midi foul.
Speaker A:So when I first started my channel, I would try to transcribe some of the top players, and it was taking me sometimes weeks to transcribe those players.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Well, now cut, cut.
Speaker A:A few years later, cut to.
Speaker A:Now, people online, they see me doing a reaction video and they.
Speaker A:They see somebody playing it.
Speaker A:Just.
Speaker A:They just see me just hit the cord and they're like, wow, what happened?
Speaker A:Yeah, well, what happened is I.
Speaker A:I learned those chords.
Speaker A:I learned.
Speaker A:You know what I'm saying?
Speaker A:So what would take me two weeks, now it's taking one week, and now it's taking five days.
Speaker A:Now it's taken three days.
Speaker A:Now I could transcribe anything in a day.
Speaker A:And now I pretty much have a rule that if I, you know, whatever I'm going to transcribe, I got to do it in three hours and.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker A:And so even the Chick Korea song that I just.
Speaker A:I just did a Chicker song, I think two weeks ago after he passed, you know, I was trying to do something for him on the channel, and it took me about three hours to do.
Speaker C:It was.
Speaker A:It was a three, four, four.
Speaker A:Four minute, four minute song, which was take most people, probably half a year maybe.
Speaker A:But like I said, it's just working on that vocabulary.
Speaker A:The more you work on that vocabulary, all of a sudden things that used to Seem difficult for you all of a sudden, they're gonna seem a lot easier.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I thought Matt had something to say earlier.
Speaker C:Hey, Druki, won't it feel good when we get to that point where we're actually able to learn the songs and some of the pieces that Sean's transcribed?
Speaker D:Absolutely.
Speaker C:Good feeling we're working up.
Speaker D:I did want to ask, could you give some more specific examples of.
Speaker D:About what could be in that vocabulary?
Speaker A:What you mean as far as just breaking down?
Speaker A:Like, what vocabulary?
Speaker D:Like when you're.
Speaker D:When you're listening and transcribing, what vocabulary elements exactly are you hearing?
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:You know what I mean?
Speaker A:Well, really, when you are.
Speaker A:Vocabulary can encompass the.
Speaker A:The types of chords that musicians are playing.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:But it's also the type of chords that musicians could be moving towards.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:So I.
Speaker A:I break everything down, and since you guys are on site, y' all go check out progression.
Speaker A:Well, that helps.
Speaker A:See context.
Speaker A:Context matters.
Speaker A:See?
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:And so here's the thing.
Speaker A:If.
Speaker A:If I'm in here, let me give you a good example.
Speaker A:See, this is.
Speaker A:This is a teacher of me coming out.
Speaker A:So if.
Speaker A:If you're lost, you're lost in a forest somewhere, right?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Do you want somebody analyzing the heck out of some leaf that.
Speaker A:That.
Speaker A:That is right in front of you?
Speaker B:No.
Speaker A:Or do you.
Speaker A:Or would you prefer if they could get an aerial view?
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:You see what I'm saying?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And with the aerial view, you can see what direction to point that person.
Speaker A:You got me?
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So the difference between.
Speaker A:And again, I'm not.
Speaker A:I'm not gonna talk about anybody else's program, but I know that for me, when I was trying to learn different stuff, I felt like that analogy of trying to explain the leaf in front of me.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:That's people saying, this is a B, this is a C, and play this F.
Speaker A:And I'm like, what?
Speaker A:Like, bigger picture.
Speaker A:What does that do for me?
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:You see what I'm saying?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Give me the landscape of things.
Speaker A:So when we talk about going back to that question about vocabulary, you know, if you pan out.
Speaker A:If you pan out and you see the bigger picture, it's going to help out with a lot of this ear training.
Speaker A:Because now I could see the direction that this musician is going, and I could see it, and I could say, oh, they're.
Speaker A:They're trying to move to this B flat.
Speaker A:They may try to move to a B flat minor.
Speaker A:That's going to help me a lot.
Speaker A:Because if I know they're trying to move to this B flat minor.
Speaker A:They can't just play anything.
Speaker A:There's only, like a couple of things that'll work.
Speaker A:So it's either X, Y, or Z multiple choice.
Speaker A:You see what I'm saying?
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So being able to pan out and see where the person is moving while every other musician could be trying to focus on, you know, what are they doing?
Speaker A:They're focusing on the leaf.
Speaker A:I'm focusing on the forest.
Speaker A:I'm trying to look at the big picture and say, oh, no, no, no, no.
Speaker A:I know you think that was good, but you got to see what they were moving towards.
Speaker A:And then I'll go on my YouTube channel and I'm like, you could have done this, you could have done that.
Speaker A:You could do this.
Speaker A:And people think it's like a genius that I'm doing, but it's not.
Speaker A:It's just I'm looking at a different thing.
Speaker A:I'm looking at a different picture.
Speaker A:I'm not looking at the leaf.
Speaker A:You see what I'm saying?
Speaker B:I'm trying to.
Speaker A:I'm panning that thing out, and I'm looking at where that person is moving towards.
Speaker A:And it's actually quite simple when we break it down that way.
Speaker A:And I think that's why it resonates with so many people.
Speaker B:Definitely makes sense.
Speaker A:But to answer your question specifically about the vocab.
Speaker A:So that's why I mentioned that I'm listening for the target chord or a passing chord.
Speaker A:So if something's.
Speaker A:A lot of people are having problems with the passing chords because it's usually some kind of crazy movement that somebody did, and they're trying to figure out the movement.
Speaker A:No, don't figure out the movement.
Speaker A:Figure out, first of all, where was that thing going to?
Speaker D:Right?
Speaker A:Because once you find that destination, now you can translate it to your own plane.
Speaker A:Because if you just learn the passing chord, what you gonna do with it?
Speaker A:You're just gonna be sitting there with this cool passing chord.
Speaker A:You don't know what to do.
Speaker A:Wait for it.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So, yeah, so you got it.
Speaker A:You gotta figure out where that musician was moving to.
Speaker A:And then like I do in my channels, then you say, okay.
Speaker A:Oh, okay.
Speaker A:So how great is our God?
Speaker A:And moving to a B flat minor.
Speaker A:Then we start in the key of D flat.
Speaker A:Let's move to sing with me.
Speaker A:How great.
Speaker A:And then on that, you got a B flat minor.
Speaker A:Now we can use our passing chord, but I can't do that unless I know what the guy is moving towards.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So that's kind of how I'm looking at in terms of, you know, vocabulary, just kind of hearing the chord and hearing where they're moving to and then just kind of eliminating the options.
Speaker A:And so, so there's a lot of theory involved, you know, in vocabulary, I think.
Speaker B:How do.
Speaker C:Because you.
Speaker C:The song you just referenced made me want to ask this question.
Speaker C:How.
Speaker C:Because you.
Speaker C:Your teaching is I guess, based kind of with a gospel influence.
Speaker C:But there's also, I'm sure a lot who have either no interest or whatever the case is in gospel music on its own.
Speaker C:How does your teaching kind of connect to other genres of music and musicians who are not musicians?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I have great question because I do have people on the site who are not necessarily gospel based.
Speaker A:We have found.
Speaker A:And I just, we just got an ad, an ad company and so they started doing my ads in December.
Speaker A:And you know, they're, they're finding it's.
Speaker A:It's good to really target the gospel musician that it's gospel music so that it is clear to the person out there that it's, you know, that it's.
Speaker A:We've really niched down to that specific subject.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:However, here's the thing.
Speaker A:The basic fundamentals of music and playing by ear are all the same at the lower levels.
