INSTAGRAM LIVE 16/04/21: Jacob Collier Q&A

yo yo hello hello hey everyone welcome what's up nice to see you hello indeed hi this is jacob here can you guys see me okay what's the crack welcome hey everybody yo good to see you all good to see you all welcome indeed this is an instagram live stream and it's good to see you here well 3 000 people have turned up that's a lot of people where in the world are you listening from and watching from let me know uh it's wonderful to see you all it really truly is it's just it's just great um welcome this is my room i'm in london i'm back back home in london and we're up to 4 000 people that's a that's amazing welcome uh what is up i'm jacob hi yes hi from china what's up hi from london arizona fantastic what's up frank yeah good to see you all near vancouver beautiful i love it i love it orlando florida good to see you vienna superb cool newport beach california very nice india i love india indonesia oh wonderful scotland brazil tremendous island oh nice one that's that's not too far from it it's not too far morocco nice one brazil west london all right now we're talking west london france hey what's up laura yeah okay cool justin lee what's up everyone's here all the wonderful people are here indeed uh let's see texas cool nice one brilliant this is so cool look how many people here this is absolutely bananas i can't fathom it i can't fathom it i mean it's invisible you're here in silence so czech republic chile india superb lincolnshire india um so japan okay i mean i could go on i could go on brooklyn yeah okay nice one so anyway i'm jacob and um and what we're doing today is hanging out together that's what we're doing today um and i'm also going to be i'm i'm just going to be signing some signing some posters see these these posters here that's me on the poster and uh there are some there are some things around the edge there are some words around the edge which i put there and i figured that um it might be nice just to catch up with you all because i haven't done instagram for ages so it's just it's good to see you and i'm going to be doing a question answer so basically ask me whatever you want and i'm going to be signing these uh these these posters and if you want to you can you can buy one that's like that's the idea once one of the ideas about this is that you can buy the posts i'm signing here on my website but it's completely optional you just don't have to you can also just be here and hang out with me because it's good to see you all cool um all right it's it's so nice to so nice to see you all um so so any questions because this is your this is your moment um to do that and i think there are actually some questions that are already coming up in the in the questions section uh let me see if i can get a good um a good position you like my trousers i really appreciate that um that's that's really nice question how are you i'm pretty good actually i'm quite jet lagged if i'm being definitively honest quite jet-lagged where did i buy the sweater well i bought the sweater and never because it was a christmas present from my mum who's making supper in the other room i say to myself she is just doing so that's the vibe okay here i go ready i'm gonna do i'm gonna do this and then and then i'm gonna put it over here and this is what we're gonna do okay this is gonna be good that's ridiculously cool sweater i really appreciate that um it's very kind of you uh was after dinner last night i had pizza that was that's the truth turkey what's up um a good book of modern harmony i actually i haven't really read very many books on harmony so i don't know if i can recommend a good book on harmony but i don't know um yeah you should write one that'll be that'll be cool what's a song that has touched you since the beginning of the year um well uh there is a um there are a few of them a good friend of mine whose name is ethan griska he just released an album today a little ep of piano music it came out today and the second track on that one is called two is phenomenal it's just like groundbreaking and defines the piano for me uh in in one day he pulled it off so there you go um ethan griska's new album that's that's one thing i'll say laura's what are you doing okay so um gent now asap i appreciate that the uh this suggestion uh that that's cool deep frozen self-made or ordered pizza um i forgive me i actually ordered one from from afar supporting local businesses in this difficult time so yeah that's why that's what i did someone's someone's um jesse volume 4 question my question my question mark and the answer to that question is yes uh just volume 4 is indeed but um soon well actually maybe not that soon but i'm working on it that's what i'm doing i'm working on it that's the truth of the matter come to india i can't wait to come back to india that's going to feel very nutritious indeed and i would maybe say that the two my two favorite gigs i've ever done in my whole life have been were in mumbai and at the end of 2019 it there was just a crazy crazy crazy energy in that room and uh i can't wait to to do it again i can't wait to do it again um what genres would you say your music falls under um you know that's a difficult question what would you say i don't know i uh i i'm a staunch i'm a staunch non-believer in the in genre to be to be frank i think genre is quite 20 20th century and um i think nowadays uh music is quite unlimited and and it can exist in a more unlimited space than ever before and a lot of my favorite musicians tend to combine all sorts of different sounds and styles like lauren ravillo who's in this chat um she she uh she does that she combines all sorts of interesting ingredients in her music across many different genres and that's why i love it so much um okay cool how did i not know you were british what that's with no question mark and in capital letters and um i i don't have a comment of that i mean i've been british for a long time uh as long as i can remember and so i don't know how that how you missed the memo that's very stressful it's bizarre i don't know what what's going on with that um what's up guy guys in the house fantastic you'd sound great on hammered organ jacob thank you very much um i i love the hammond organ i have never really i've never really got to mess around on one before uh i'm quite i'm quite intimidated by uh proper hammond organ players who who are real like absolute beasts and um and yeah that said it feels like the right thing to be doing all that footwork you know crazy crazy um right someone uh thomas island's asking what guitar do i have behind me i have two guitars behind me right here this one here is a tailor it's one of the little little taylor guitars and it's tuned sorry that wasn't very good it was tuned to an open tuning of my uh creation well she'll probably didn't come up with it but um but it's tuned to it it's tuned to um e and b f sharp a actually that's normal machine to a but it's b now b b e like that and with the tuning like this you can do all sorts of finger stuff which is really appealing in open tunings and i'm not very good at like normal guitar tuning so i tend to tune in open tuning and um who's the onion girl i'm not going to tell you i'm not going to tell you that is a secret that's my personal secret i'm not going to tell you um what am i doing some people ask me what am i doing well if you're just joining my instagram livestream first of all welcome and second of all what we're doing is i'm signing uh i'm signing some posters and you can you can buy them it's just completely up to you if you want to or not but they're they're available on my website and um and i'm gonna do a swipe up after this live stream so you can like go and get them but but these are basically your posters so yeah if you want one then then um that's cool that's totally that's like totally fine um all right see you in stockholm next year oh i can't wait to come back to stockholm and last time i did the king of stockholm was probably in 2017 and it was it was bananas it was really really really fun and uh so soon i do miss touring a lot and i'm excited to come back when are you going to come to argentina again and then we've got lots of hearts and argentina flags um the answer to that question is i'm not exactly sure but hopefully really soon cause i just love argentina so much it's one of the most beautiful and life-giving places i've ever been to it's also the one place i've ever the only place i've ever attempted a stage dive and um i did that about four years ago when i was playing with the one man show and turns out there's a bit of a technique to stage dives that i didn't have together but the technique is that you kind of run up and you go backwards right but i didn't get the memo and so i just hopped in forwards with my feet into the audience and um you know i mean people were very accommodating they sort of like caught me and then we just like had a little had a little boogie together but um but yeah next time next time buenos aires is one of the best places to play music and the crowd is so incredibly musical and so incredibly energetic um yeah so yeah hopefully very soon um keep the questions coming guys um and don't mind me i'm just gonna just gonna keep on signing away here okay yes um do i have plans to come to korea actually i do um i can't wait to come back to korea and i don't know exactly when that's going to be but hopefully it will be within the next two years and if you want to you can reserve tickets for the show in korea on my website because you can do that now i have ticket reservations even for shows that aren't announced some of the shows are announced but for those that aren't you can reserve tickets uh for them so that when they are announced you can have them that's yeah so that's cool um someone's saying oh my god am i left-handed and actually i'm not i'm this is my right hand but you were fooled by the mirrored image of the instagram life and i don't blame you because i've been fooled by that in the past as well but you know it's it's it's all good you know it's all good um yeah how do i deal with covid and everything around it oh that's a big question um well it's a game changer isn't it it's a perspective bringer it's a perspective remover it's a chaos creator it's a doubt bringer it's a time manifesto um it is a a global tragedy it's um a revelation it's all sorts of things i think for me um i've i've i've enjoyed the space and the time that it's created and i've i've also struggled with the with the sort of four wall syndrome i mean i do love this room like very much and i've been making music in this room for 26 years because i love to walk in here but um you know ev every room can get a little exhausted after a little while so um you know i'm just i'm just grateful to be healthy in here i guess that's why this is what i'd say what's my favorite mode right now um my favorite mode right now you know i used to be like a dorian guy and i was like man dorian so cool and like man this natural sex is so bright and viola but you know what's really like royal is aeolian alien aeolian i think that having a flat six is really gorgeous and i like the way that the the the ninth or you say the second and the flat six fight each other i think it's quite romantic and it's like it's more romantic than um than dorian in some ways because dorian it's like you know but then alien is like richer because it has like slightly less um sort of resolution built in and so i think it it it gives me more it's more pretentious for surprises and and it feels nice and dark so i guess i'd say right now um great question good question what chord should i start jamming on right now that is really not my decision i mean you should that's your that's your decision but if i had to recommend one right now i'd probably say like like f e flat a flat d flat because you just can't go wrong with that chord you know that chord is like real nice it's really juicy and um but also quite quite transparent and quite simple um yeah so uh this is good d diminished someone says that's fine do i ever get burnt out oh heck yeah i do get burnt out i get burnt out every day because i have such a fast moving mind that my mind will take me on a journey and then in a matter of minutes and and then i get burnt out from that little from that little journey in a bigger sense though yeah also i do i think i think everybody goes through phases of getting burnt out and i'm learning how to protect my uh my space a little bit better because i think when i was a little younger than i am now i'm very old but when i was young i used to uh just kind of expend energy without thought it would go and and then i would then i would really get tired especially on tour because i'm quite i'm quite an introverted person actually and first time i went on tour it was really uh interesting and challenging because i'd never done the thing before with people there i'd done it a lot on my own and i'd worked out the sort of alchemy of um stuff on my own but but touring was a whole new killer fish and so i had to do a lot of protection of energy within that environment too and also sort of catharsis and enjoying it coming out so yeah that i think that's that's what that's all i have to say um someone says seven underscore on school four says i want to discuss life with you um thank you that's really that's that's um that's really nice and i guess we can do that i guess that's kind of what we're doing right now will we see more work with scissor or i should think so i should think so i can't say too much i can't say too much but um you know uh have you heard of pet sounds someone's saying oh absolutely pet sounds uh by which i mean rather than literally sounds of pets i assume you mean the beach boys album pet sounds from 1966 and oh i think it was 1666 and core blimey yes so yeah it's one of the greatest albums of all time wouldn't it be nice when it goes to d in the middle come on down on mine a third i mean you can't go wrong going down and mine a third in the song but the way he does it maybe [Music] i listened to that the other day brilliant brilliant tune amazing i'm a huge brian wilson fan thanks for asking let's see dude what food do you like um limoncello delicious nutritious food uh let's see um wow oh there's there's lots of lots of great questions here um [Music] have i heard of mid-air thief actually i have heard of mid-air thief is killing does that tune seismic something core that's a good one i like mid-air thief that's that's a little that's cool i would i'm glad that you know midday feelings about pure imagination from willy wonka well i have i have lots of themes about this uh dodie's here what up come on now uh pure imagination is one of the greatest songs ever written and you know why because it starts with which is also the antibiotic structure of the beginning of the song close to you why do perspectives and there's also the jacob collier song don't you know sticks and stones i just think that's a great opening thingy and that's why i um yeah that's why that's why i like it that's why i like it um jet lag setting in here um yes i love pre-imagination i it was one of the first songs i ever arranged as well i did an arrangement of pure imagination when i was about 17. if i was 17. and it's on youtube you can listen to it but if you want to can you give a brief lesson on key changes can you change to other key so what key chains do you prefer um key changes well if you want if you want a secret weapon a key to a key to the castle of key changes do you know what do you know what um i'd recommend exploring me tell you um i i would recommend exploring diminished chords and and i'll i'll give you a quick explanation as to why look at this okay so um so if i change my camera round here's my this is my shadow this is my hand and um this is c major so so the thing about the thing about diminished chords is that so this is a triad it's a three part chord a triad and a and a diminished chord is is this and a diminished chord is a chord where all of the notes in the chord are the same distance apart so minor third minor third and minor third and there are actually only three diminished chords that exist that exist within the piano because that's the same as that one you see there are only three and every diminished chord is i like to think of it as a four-way crossroads because the thing about diminished chord is it leads you to loads of different places and a good way to think about this actually if you want to is if you if you lower any note in any diminished chord uh by by a half step or as we say in the uk a semitone then it will lead you to a different location and it's a bit of a short shortcut it's like a a life hack so check this out this is c diminished if i put the c down to b takes it to e if i put the e flat down to a d takes you to g i put the f sharp down to an f takes you to b flat but put the a down to an a flat takes it to d flat now can you believe that can you believe that i'll show you one more time c to b goes to e e flat to d goes to g f sharp to f goes to b flat a to a flat goes to d flat and that is really really cool um and it means that when you're playing and you find yourself at a diminished chord you can go anywhere you want to anywhere you want to go absolutely anywhere and um it's a beautiful thing because diminished chords are actually kind of fun and they they're in a lot of songs especially old jazz standards uh that i really like to play and so man it's it's really capacious for for room because basically every every diminished chord is a dominant chord in disguise so you can seriously navigate in like exciting extraordinary ways just by just by using um diminished chords and actually you know what else is cool is that every dominant chord you know is is a diminished chord in in disguise so actually the insane thing you can do then is every time you play any any dominant chord you can also translate it into a diminished chord which takes you to a different key you see g7 is actually a diminished chord it's actually this which is actually that or g7 is really cool it's actually that which is actually that or t7 is a diminished chord which is actually there which is actually that or g7 is diminished chord which is actually that which then goes to what's the one i haven't done see yeah boom come on so yeah and obviously dominant chords are just triads with a dominant thing on it so basically every time you play a triad you you're playing a diminished chord and so every every single chord is every single other chord period and uh when it comes to harmonizing stuff you can um you can do whatever you want and i think there's this like there's this misconception within education that like certain chords are right and certain chords are wrong with certain notes but like let me tell you every single note works with every single chord that's like that's the truth it's actually true um you can do and you can do whatever you want to do in fact let me just quickly split let me oh whoa okay let me quickly explain that because like you know this is this is important most important stuff so if i sit down for a sec so um good evening and uh what was i going to say um what was talking about oh yeah harmonization so this is g oh i sing at home i'm missing that live man because live you get the whole come on good stuff g goes with every single uh chord right g but let me just g c yeah that's fine e flat major that's cool um let's see e minor a minor seven f major seven uh d major uh e flat seven over d flat you can say e center b flat b flat minor seven a flat major seven f sharp seven you could say e7 or this kind of e7 or d minor seven come on yeah jesus or c sus or f sus i'll be flat s or e flat sus um so yeah basically every single chord like c yeah i mean i could go on yeah c major c minor and then every single bass note and you just have to be careful um so when you're look at the viewer account going up um yeah so so my point being that every single note is um is compatible with every chord and once you realize that you can uh you can have loads and loads of fun and another thing that's really important what's not actually nothing is important in music other than doing what you want to do ultimately but um uh you can if you think about pivoting it's it's really a good idea for reharmonization um uh because like say this say this note is g for example if i'm in e flat major see how many flat major here i am right i'm just dreaming dreaming around right [Music] and then if i if i'm a g then you know what g's also do hey kimbra you know what g's also do g is also uh in other keys for example c so i'm in this i'm in this world e flat major right [Music] you see that we pivoted with one note as part of one chord suddenly you take that note and it's a part of a different chord and then in a different world and so a lot of the magic of harmonization is taking a note finally in a new context and building a bridge from one world to the next and that's a that's a beautiful thing it's a beautiful feeling to do it and and a lot of harmony is about momentum you know so it's like controlling the momentum from one world to the other and and stuff you know so so when we think about arranging and harmonizing often we think about um making sure that each note in every chord has a little journey of its own you know like the uh like the like the madrigals or like bach you know you take four melodies you put them together and they create harmony and because harmony is just the relationship between multiple melodies moving at once right am i right am i right so um if you have control over all the different voices then uh then you have ultimate power to be uh to be a storyteller because you can do whatever you want and if you if you compound knowledge with freedom then then you're then you're really talking and i think freedom is way more important than than knowledge for like freedom of thought and freedom of experiment being fearless is like crazily important with music because a lot of people sit around worrying about um you know crikey like this note is wrong or what if this no it doesn't sound good or um what if i'm bad or what if there's a right way of doing everything and i'm not doing the right way of doing everything it's just it doesn't matter it doesn't matter you can you can make what you can make anything possible just by doing it i think it's definitely harmonically and you can you can contextualize or re-contextualize melodies and songs and intervals and chords and you can do whatever you want you literally whatever you want and if you realize that it's just so capacious and so fun because you really start to dig the immense potential of kind of every sound in the context of like music and and stuff but for me like the harmony thing is that that that got me first that was like my teenage crush it was one of my teenage crashes and uh yeah it was it was it was good to explore and i'm still exploring but anyway i i divert i i diverge that was a little that was just a little thing about and i don't know if you're just joining or something but we were talking about diminished chords and how diminished chords are very powerful and how liberating they can be um i should have put the lid on my silver sharpie pen but um yeah diminished chords are heavy but i used to be like really really obsessed with um like just uh like cluster clustery chords lots and lots of notes together at the same time and like playing these dense structures and then uh and now i just crush on tryouts all day long like i just love triads and and so you know it aces for spaces whatever i don't know what the saying is but yeah basically it's it's about freedom and it's about uh momentum and control and uh play it's about play it's about play it's definitely about play oh i apologize i fell over just then um hello everyone hello my name is jacob and if you're just joining my name is still jacob from the last time i said it and um what i'm doing right now if you're interested is i'm signing uh posters these are the ones i've signed that's my signature and i'm signing this one right that's the next one i'm going to sign and uh and yeah and and so and you so you can you can actually buy the ones i'm signing right now this is something i do every now and then and uh it's a nice thing to do for me and uh it's nice to catch up with you guys too so yeah someone said asking am i still british the answer is yes i am actually i am my britishness is maintained since since i last checked yeah okay someone says jacob recommend a book please uh a book please so my favorite books in the world are his dark materials it's a trilogy by philip pullman and it's it's um it's about so good you may have seen the the tv show that they just made of it but you should read the books even if you have or if you haven't because they're so good so i'd recommend historic materials um also there's a book called the inner game of tennis which i really really like and it's about learning and ego and um freedom it's like everything that's what i was yeah so there you go someone says am i fully human yeah i'm fully human fully fully human so human it hurts yeah someone says do i like jamie cullen jeremy column was huge for me i mean the short answer is yeah i love jeremy cullen but james comes actually huge for me as a as a teenager like he opened up so many doors with like within the world of jazz vogue vocab but actually also songwriting um and he his energy is incredible and i used to watch him i went to his gigs i used to watch him plays you listen to his albums and it really is beautiful beautiful music and there's one song my favorite song of james is called all at sea and i really recommend it all at sea if you um you know if you uh yeah um let's see what interface so i used to make my pieces sibelius ableton i i've used sponsored enabled in the past but actually most of the time i use logic logic which is now owned by apple used to be owned by e-magic back when i bought it when i was 11 which actually i did i did well i didn't buy it with my own money it was a present um but yeah i use i use logic logic pro and uh and i i like it very much i really do and in the battle between logic and pro tools which perpetuates around my circles i always stand by logic because i know it and i understand it and things i know and understand have to be true right so i have to be superior because otherwise i panic um let's see jacob comma bestie i'd love to ask what's a herjanga mwah i had i don't think uh is a singular thing but herjango in general is um you know uh the way of things it's the hajjanga it's it's it's the um it's the endless cycles it's the it's a it's the joy of being alive i guess that's maybe what it is um the joy of being alive what goes up must come down uh yeah stuff like that someone said have you ever been part of an orchestra and actually i have when i was about 14 um i played double bass and orchestra at the royal college of music in london in the junior department and i was very very mischievous orchestral musician and i'm not i'm i'm not very good at i'm not very good at that thing i mean like for example i don't really read music very often like i write music on manuscript more often than i read it and even that's not very much and i remember we were playing finlandia which is a piece by sibelius and i was playing double bass in the doorway section and there's that bit individual was like [Music] the classic fernando melody and i was jamming away know and i got the dirtiest looks in my life from the um from the you know from the other people in the orchestra and the leader of the department it was just like bro there are some things you just don't do and jamming along in pizzicato style to a great piece of classical music is one of them and uh i didn't learn my lesson i i maintained my jamming but i did it even quieter and even more like deliberately and anyway now i now i musically misbehave for a living but back then i was it was all one there under the thingy you know yeah um cool someone says oh my god i live in finland that's really cool that's really cool um let's see someone creamundi 77 is asking tiny tim acting story uh well when i was nine i lived in budapest in hungary for six months and um and what happened and i filmed uh yeah i filmed a film um it was a musical film of the charles dickens novel a christmas carol and i played tiny tim who's the little the little boy in it and it was really really fun and there were lots of great songs and uh yeah kind of end of story i mean it was an amazing experience and i was really young to be doing it but it was exhilarating and great and i would recommend you do that if you want to as well and you can actually watch the film it exists in the world it does it exists in the world um let's see oh recommendations for training your ear listening listening is the best way to train your ear active active listening conscious listening listening to things that you like and trying to understand them and figure them out and and and also listening to people listening to your friends and family and your comrades is a good thing to do it's a good thing to practice so uh so yeah i i think i mean for me that was how i learned music was by listening to musicians i really liked a lot and getting every note of people's musical universe i i had like in my dna in my in my mind in my body in my in my ear and um and yeah it's it's the way it's honestly it's honestly the way um yeah have i thought about becoming a hogwarts professor yeah um not really not really but i mean i you know never say never never say never you know what i'm saying but yeah hogwarts is great hogwarts is a good vibe it's a good fight yeah uh if you're just joining i'm jacob and i'm signing posters for you and if you'd like to buy one you can go on my website and buy one that's completely up to you there is no pressure but that's what i'm doing that's what i'm scribbling away here if you're wondering what i'm doing that's what really and while i'm doing it we are having a conversation about life and other things and basically whatever you would like to someone says you were all i need in capital letters which i assume is a quotation from my song all i need thank you um alyssa what's up you're saying um hufflepuff gryffindor for me gryffindor for me gryffindor you know i'm so brave and and um heroic and and like trustworthy stuff like that uh yeah hello sorry i was just yeah uh all sorts of all sorts of other things besides uh would i dye my hair um again it's like maybe i may be on an on a crazy uh on a crazy whim sure i would i don't think i would do it like for fun but probably because i think my hair color is fine and i i and i i endorse it but you know yeah jacob what story by the name of your album's jessie uh well all of my friends uh well many of my friends call me jc that's like my nickname jc it's actually my also my initials as it's a bit of a coincidence uh and so jc such as like just scribble down on this poster jc is is me and i i identify as jc and um and so and so jesse uh was something that fell out of my fell out of my mouth one day when i was thinking about it and i've actually i've always loved the name jesse and so i wanted to character at the center of this quadruple journey and i figured jesse is nice it's like a refashioning of me but it's not me either it's like a a separate entity a growing a limb you know so so that's what i did that's why it's called that's why it's called jessie um talk about joni mitchell please whoa where do i even begin um joni mitchell uh kind of changed my life and when i um when i was 18 or 19 i i was studying uh at in london at the royal academy of music i was studying jazz piano there i studied for a couple of years and then i i ran away uh to do other things but um one of my favorite things about being at college was the bus rides like in and out of of the academy and so i would listen to like whole albums on the way one arm in one album out and uh it was a mad education it was brilliant and awesome and uh i remember i did like the whole of the beatles from start to finish and it was like whoa and then i did like hold of radiohead and i did a whole of uh other stuff and and then i did the whole of joni mitchell and and the whole journey ritual was so crazy it was such a journey for me because she went through lots of different eras and incarnations as an artist and she started with that beautiful folk sound right and kind of change that world or define that world for a little bit and then you know and then you you fast forward a few years and she's working with like jaco pastorius and herbie hancock and wayne shorter and blah blah and it's it's incredible it's incredible to see someone so fearless just just doing doing that and bringing worlds together and i met joni actually once uh i met um joanie once um yeah and uh i met joni at the clive davis grammy party in 2017 on february the 11th and uh she was really really gracious and it was really amazing it was really an amazing amazing moment she is extraordinary and very great i'm reading the uh yeah i'm reading the comments do i like afex twin i do i especially love his uh his very funny album cover of um is the arm called formula or is the song called formula on the album i can't remember but it's just great it's like a woman's body with his head on top it's it's hilarious it's good favorite beatles album uh revolve revolver i think revolver revolver uh yeah revolver is is the best because they would because they were still thirsty you know and you can you can feel when people are still thirsty when they're making music you can feel when someone someone's recycling their their momentum and you can feel when there's new momentum being born and with with revolver there's momentum being born like all over the shop it just felt like they were onto something and i just i think that's really special favorite chick career song actually uh one of my favorite chic career albums is not super well known but it's called it's called children's songs and children's songs are little compositions made written for children i think they were written for children to play on the piano they're very simple but they're very very quirky and very profound i'd recommend you check that out um children's songs if you don't know it already and i really like the first one on that on that album how's everyone doing i haven't i haven't haven't asked you that one for a little while it's a it's it's good to see you and um and yeah i'm still i'm i'm still scribbling away uh that's what i'm doing let's see lots of great questions so far wow favorite john martin song that's a lovely question john martin wrote a song called may you never and he [Music] goes [Music] um [Music] oh you know that song oh such a good one so that's my favorite john martin song and no i don't know the words i don't know the words to any songs i just know i because i listen to the music i i mean i know that's a silly thing to say but honestly i spend so much time um being conscious of the musical elements that i sometimes just completely forget to listen to words like period i just i just forget to so uh so yeah so yeah so that's the thing uh favorite chord on the piano you know one chord i like on the piano not that i want the piano right now but one chord i really like on the piano is like um it's like d uh um what is it like d b c sharp f sharp that's a good chord that's a really good chord you know why because if the d goes up d sharp then it gets real beautiful and if the d goes down to c sharp then it's like resolved you know i i know you know so don't even try it don't even try it don't even try it i really like that chord a lot um i used that chord i've used that chord before i used that chord in the song called in the real early morning which i wrote and uh it's my favorite moment of the whole song because it takes you from b flat major to like f sharp major or g you can say g flat if you want um yeah oh as it goes really good it's a really really good chord um yeah yeah it's true it's absolutely true everything you're saying is absolutely true completely do you recommend going to music school i'm worried it won't make me a better artist i don't think you need to go to music school i don't think you need to go it's completely up to you i think that learning is something that you do for yourself and as yourself and i think that education is something that other people do to you and both have to exist at different points in your life um i i i'm very grateful for certain teachers in my life uh who came into my life at different times but a lot of my best teachers were people who were either friends of mine or people i was listening to like whose albums i was listening to um i think that so musical education can provide a pretty risky and dangerous set of values where there's like right and wrong and this is the way you do it this is the way you don't do it and and this is you know this is technique and if you don't have the technique then you're not the right then you're not good enough and you're not blah blah blah and and the thing about the rules is that all the rules are arbitrary and i think that people get tricked into thinking that the rules are not arbitrary and they're actually they're they're real um by by the psychology of music being taught or ingrained through an educational program or process so in my opinion i think that like learning happens on on your own terms and that you can absolutely learn on your own terms within an educational system but but you don't need to do that at all and i yeah i've always had a bit of a push-pull relationship with education because i you know i i really didn't like sort of musical theory and and um and any of that stuff until like really quite late on when i was maybe like so 18 or 19 i got like probably interested in it because up until then i was just like oh theory you know because i wanted to play music that made me feel really good and music that i i liked and i was also a little bit impatient as a boy you know i wanted to to create um with my materials i didn't want to stop collecting materials to like try and understand this theoretical thing but i think what i realized is that there came a point where i wanted i wanted a high resolution understanding or higher resolution understanding of music and my my my ideas uh and in order to do that i kind of found myself falling in love with like chords and wanting to define them a little bit and and time wanting to define time and how you put how you place things in time and how people can talk about time and and in my communications with people that i really respected i ended up sort of accidentally loving some of the some of the theoretical ideas and i think that's amazing and you know you definitely don't need any of that knowledge to be meaningful or be good and i think that sometimes the wisest musicians are the musicians who know the least about what they're doing but i also think it's a myth that if you go to education it will make you worse at being intuitive i think that's not true i think that if you have a vision or any kind of momentum or just an interest then you can you can absolutely maintain a sense of self within the education system but you might have to be a bit stubborn at times because there will be people who say this is how you do it and if you do it a different way then you're wrong or i'm right and do it the way i think is right and i'm the master and anyone who ever tells you that they know all the answers it has simply stopped learning um so you should do whatever you want to do i don't think you need to do anything but that's just me and i am very grateful that i had a little bit of education because it solidified certain things that i was interested in at different times so yeah uh if you're just joining um what i'm doing sorry if you have said this already but i'm i'm signing posters and the posters of me looking very moody and broody and around the poster are sort of um lyrics of mine that i've written that i i like and um they're just posters that i i made in celebration of the grammys this year and of jesse volume 3 and of just life and so if you want to buy a poster that i'm currently signing then you can absolutely do that and basically you just have to go on my website and onto my merch store i think they're on the uk merch store and you can go and you can get one it's completely up to you um yeah that's the end of the um story canopy and someone says canna beans yeah cannabis i had a can of beans earlier today on toast beans on toast it's a meal that i enjoy to make and i'm very capable of making it as a brit um oh i'm just i'm just reading the reading some of the questions keep questions coming guys any um questions you may have lowest note you can sing well today i can't go too low i think because i did a thing earlier on a little gig earlier on so i have been singing a bit but it's not particularly like an e e e oh e flat fine um yeah thoughts about thundercats harmonies grand grandiose i like thundercat i think he's a super musician um and his harmonies are no exception uh so yeah so that's that that is the situation um would i like to work with any new choirs soon absolutely um sure definitely 100 have you got any ideas um if you could be an animal what animal would you be uh i've always had a real affinity with ring-tailed lemurs don't ask me why but i just i just love them i think they're really lovely animals and i also really like madagascar uh and i've i've never been to madagascar but i've been to reunion island laguna which is off the east coast of madagascar and that's a separate point but i just i really like green toad lemurs and i think you do i think you do as well don't you yeah that's what i thought um what do i think of beck i don't know why that made me sit up straight back is really cool um he has made lots of really good music and some of the music that he has made uh changed my life there's an album called guerrero i don't know if you've heard this album guerrero uh um it's really good and there's another album called um what's called back mutations is it called i don't know you say it might cause something something mutations or something anyway becca's really really good and that album aguero is just sonically sound design wise production-wise it's incr incredible um yeah really really really special really good um so yeah thank you back if you're watching uh yeah yes yes indeed jacqueline's here what's up it is mutations okay i'm glad i'm not going crazy i'm glad i'm not going crazy um erin yeah do you have a dog question mark exclamation mark um so yeah i'm not gonna answer that question do you know the real group i actually do know the real group um they're fantastic they're really grouped um any questions any questions any other questions excited for silk sonic you bet i am i'm very excited i understand bruno come on what could possibly go wrong those guys are the best the absolute best um what shows are you watching right now just finished queen's gambit i know a lot of you've seen queen's gambit but it's really good actually you can't it's just really good it's really good ever play with uh ever play with esperanza sporting um i have actually never i've well i've met esperanza but i've never made music with esperanza she's extraordinarily good she's really really good um and her 12 little spells album i don't know if you guys know that but the 12 little spells album is it's beautiful i was just listening to her again today and it really works she like puts you in your body it's fantastic well done esperanza and yeah a really really really special musician very so brave and and um timeless and uh infinite and very giving and very open which i really like these qualities i like uh favorite keith jarrett album i assume you mean jarrett with two r's and two t's and my favorite keith jarrett album is actually called facing you and it's a solo piano album he made in 1972 and i always talk about it because it completely changed my life it inspired me to play the piano like keith jarrett did it was like before he did comb concert and um you know just and defined himself and you know you know what you know you know it's a little bit like a like revolver i don't know if some of you maybe were around earlier on but i said that my favorite beatles album was revolver because they were they were thirsty and they wanted to do the thing that they would then go on and do and with jarrod they're facing you he was thirsty to do stuff and then concert was the quenching but like facing you was the question he posed and that's really special and i really really love it so check out facing you is it cool facing you yeah it is yes sorry yeah so there you go that is it yes yes indeed yes absolutely 100 yes truthfully favorite stevie wonder album so now you got me um i really love talking book and i also really love well it's funny i grew up on i grew up listening to hotter than july um hotter than july is is actually not hugely uh well i mean it's well known but it's not like one of the absolute classics it was from 1980 so like five years after something came like um yeah there's some killing tunes on that one as if you read my mind cash in your face come on really really good stuff uh but talking book again talking book was like his thirstiest album for me it was like whoa okay he's like mapping out his universe and like you can feel it well something's crazy is about to happen so yeah i really really like that um yeah oh yeah uh oh um there's some some good questions coming through just just just keep coming just keep them coming who is your hat dealer i can't tell you that oh i'm not gonna say i can't tell you can't tell you that um favorite michael jackson album well i mean well i mean probably off the wall because he's thirstier than thriller what is it about thirsty people oh my legs are hurting oh what is about 30 people off the wall he was just about to do thriller but it wasn't thriller so it was really it was really energetic and charged um music that's what it was it was energetic and charred don't mind me i was stretching out my legs oh the view account went up 100 because i stretched my legs out oh okay now i'm going to put the back put them back inside um yes how to get better at actually feeling what you're playing and to understand what you're feeling you put into a musical context hmm sing the notes and the chords you play sing sing the notes sing the notes in the chords you play sing if you sing then you you you emote it's like an instantaneous it's like an instantaneous thing um that help that really helped me a lot and i i so loved singing in the chords i was playing i started to sing the chords i was playing and then i and then i started doing lots of voices stuff yeah i'd recommend i'd recommend do that and obviously experimentation just experiment with a with a with a feeling for example if you are the piano like me and you play and you play and you play this right actually let's put that down here right if i go and then i go [Music] and then i go and i go [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] uh etc you um you feel your way through it because you're seeing because you're singing you feel your way through it it's like geography it's like you you you feel your way through the chords so um for me yeah for me like when i started to experiment with cause with singing then i then i started to uh understand each of the notes of the chords slightly more strongly and after i did after i'd done that it was uh it was easier to identify with each note and therefore with the motion of each note and the stronger the motion of each note between the chords are the the more um sensitive and nuanced and high resolution your narratives can be you know what i mean i don't know that makes much sense um but yeah but yeah that that's the thing that is it um yeah absolutely welcome back to my floor and uh and to my poster signings which is what we're doing right now we're signing posters and well i'm starting posters and you are if you want to you're buying the posters i'm signing just so you can have them and you again you know you don't have to but but that's what i'm doing here i'm doing these posters for you and if you would like to get one then you can they're on my on my website and i'll put an instagram story later as well so you can you can do a swipe up uh yeah that's what you can do so um yeah and so any questions any other questions let me know uh i'll do this i'll i'll stay on for a little bit longer and and hang with you guys and then i might have some food but uh this is really nice are you actually it says ry going to sell bear hat yeah actually the answer is yeah i am going to sell bear hats but i can't tell you about that just yet but they're coming they're they're really coming for sure do i do my own mixes i i do i do my own mixes oh blake say what's up blake blake's asking chords that sound good with voices and not on i'm not pianos um well i mean the most obvious answer would be chords that aren't true into equal temperament but that's too predictable an answer so i would say well i would say most chords sound more interesting with voices than on the piano uh blake uh blake who's in the chat here is in a is in a called watches eight and um you are an amazing amazing bunch of musicians and human beings and blake and i have had discussions about f major in the past and black i don't know what your your take on it was but um i can't remember you liked it or you loved it i hated it but i quite like f major and i think that if you sing f major was it that we decided i can't remember what it was something like if you sing f major it's more interesting than if you play on the piano or maybe it was vice versa or maybe we decided that f major is a little bland with voices i can't remember what it was anyway i do like f major jason's here oh it's a whole fam talk about singers jason max ferdinand's in the house who is the conductor of the area the aeolians of oakland university and additionally the jace max ferdinand singer and he is he's a magical man he really is uh it's good to see you it's good to see you um thoughts on john batiste oh john matisse well first of all he's the homie he's the absolute homie and he's one of my favorite people ever his energy is madly contagious uh and um and there's this film that just came out called soul which maybe some of you guys have seen i don't know if you've seen this film seoul but um soul is a film oh yeah we're gonna stay there soul is a film um uh about well it's about souls and and death and jazz and it's beautiful and john did the music for he did the piano playing for it and it was brilliant and i really loved that so much much cuter to john is he's the man he's also a kid he's just a killing pianist and we've had many a fun night uh in uh in montreux switzerland listening to keith jarrett together and geeking out and transposing his jar up one and a half semitones and getting excited you know that's that's what friends are for that is what that's what friends are for um so yeah there you go that's the uh that's the answer to the question any other any other things to say and any other things to say um let me know [Music] favorite polyrhythm well if you insist i will um demonstrate my favorite polyrhythm on this poster that i'm signing for you if you yeah i hope my favorite polyrhythm is two against three against four against five again six which i will now demonstrate on the fingers of my left hand ready go all right now i'm gonna say them one two three four five six one two three four five one two three four one two three one two one yeah okay that's my favorite polyrhythm now uh if you're if you want your mind to be uh blown then check this out that polyrhythm two against three against 456. you know you know what that is that is a major chord slowed down and i know i don't get like that i know it's a big deal uh it's a major slowed down uh because ratios because harmonic ratios i don't know if you knew this but the ratio of of two of two to three right if you go you know two three really fast then it's a it's a fifth perfect fifth right it's just what it is and um four to five right that's a major third that's the major theorem so the way that the harmonic series works i mean here we go we're getting into the nerdy stuff the way the harmonic series works is by a series of ratios so one to two is an octave two to three is a fear three to four is a fourth four to five is the third five to six is a minor third and then they get smaller and smaller and smaller and if you go you hear this little baby harmonics within every note in your own mouth those harmonics are a set of ratios of freak of frequency ratios and it's a crazy crazy thing but basically and i i don't have enough time to explain this right now but but properly but if you if you take a polyrhythm so something like you know three against five so one of my favorites right and you speed that up a lot like 100 times you hear an interval a musical interval that's actually a sixth if you speed that up but um but yeah a major chord is basically four against five against six that's what it is that's that's the ratios of a of of a major chord and um mind-blowing stuff so when i do this three gets four against one two three four five get six other things in one hand which is a little thing i just uh cooked up on my brain uh i'm playing a major chord in slow motion and it's really that's really crazy i have this idea once that what that would be really crazy which is that if you if you did that if you had like that being a something rhythmic in a song and and it suddenly had sped up like slowly sped up and for then it could become a chord in the song and then you could do it again whoa um ever heard of shepherd s-h-a sorry s-h-e-p-i s-h-e-p-a-r-d shepherd um if you haven't heard of shepherd check him out and you may have heard of shepherd tones uh shepherd tones are ridiculous but basically a shepherd tone is an audio illusion where a note never stops going up and it's basically it's basically like this like but the the dynamics are really carefully done so no goes and then comes in really quietly and goes um actually you only have three notes and this one's fading out this one's pointing in and this one's going up and it's just constantly moving and sheppartons are insane um there's lots of crazy uses of shepherds like in film scoring for example like in the films called dunkirk there was an insane shephertone moon if i'm not mistaken but i've always been really interested in shepherd grooves and like a groove that a group that never stopped speeding up and i made one i'll play it to you if i can if my computer is going to turn on let's see i made a shepherd groove and you may you may be interested to hear it uh just uh just wait a second i'm just going to load it up shepard groove ready [Music] do [Music] all right [Music] so the way it works is um pretty simple it's basically that uh within the groove you've got hot the groove at half speed it's also playing that's a bad example if i try and sing it or speak it but but yeah that's the vibe a shepherd groove that never stops speeding up and here's the catch i once did this live and it was crazy and i didn't i did it live with the audience clapping and stumping the rhythm themselves the audience themselves made this rhythm and uh and it was and i've tried it a few times and there's only it's only actually worked a couple of times but but basically you get if you get a room of people going you get people doing this right and then they speed up everyone wants to speed up ah yeah let's do it right then all you have to do is make one louder than the other and then you fade out the quiet one right and then and it works as a room it's so fun and and um if you ever have the chance to do that it's the kind of stuff that i get a kick out of but but yeah yeah you can you can do it it's possible to do it and and because because of group psychology everyone listens to the people nearest them and responds to the to their like average time and so i mean yeah when i'm on stage i i like to do um yeah i like to do things like that i like to to mess around with um the audience and get them to achieve impossible stuff and i do with singing too you know get the audience to sing uh three notes and i'll move the notes up and down with my fingers and and it's it's it's an interesting thing it's a lot of it's just about sort of being quite confident about it and saying this is what we're gonna do now and not waiting to see if it's gonna work just like trying it out and uh yeah i i have this inexhaustible um sort of curiosity for things like this so anyway if you just missed it then um i'm sorry but i just played everyone a shepherd groove i made which is a groove that never stops speeding up and uh yeah shepard is a real person and he makes what he he initiated i assume shepard tones which are notes that never stop going up like like audio illusions so that's the vibe um thanks for nerding out with me all right it's been fun uh i'm gonna do one more i'm gonna do one more little session of this and then um then i might leave you two but basically what we've been doing is this is my room um hello and what i've been doing on the floor just now is signing um these posters for you and if you want a poster then you can then you can get one if i'm going to put the link in the comments so that you so links to the if you want to buy a poster then that's where you go that's what we're doing i'm just i'm just signing some posters and then yeah completely up to you if you want to but if you but if you want to then you can you can go buy them at that link so okay any questions tell me what the vibes are what are your what are your curiosities what have you been up to today where in the world are you um what is the temperature of the music room 1000 degrees that's the temperature uh you know yeah that's the um that's that's the temperature um anything else you buy tickets for amsterdam next year so excited that's great news i'm really i'm happy you did that i think both amsterdam shows have sold out now so you are you are um you're wonderful you're you're really great uh yeah yes yes yes yes indeed bailey's with vanilla ice cream you know yeah indisputably rarely you know yes best part thoughts on confidence thoughts on thoughts on confidence um that's a difficult one i think uh i think i think i feel the most confident when i feel the least need to change which is something you have to guard because a lot of people tell you to change in your life to be more reasonable and so i think i feel my most sort of courageous and and grounded when i let myself because really you're the only one who can stop you doing anything actually but uh and i've stopped myself doing loads of stuff but but yeah if i let myself be jacob then i tend to feel the most confident so i think confidence comes in permission and people who give you permission and and ultimately you giving yourself permission to be not what you want yourself to be but what you are i think that's where i think that's where i think that's that's where confidence comes from i mean that's it's a it's a longer it's a longer answer really ultimately sorry about all this crinking and crunching uh yeah yeah totally natalie um thanks for being kind you're welcome you're you're you're welcome um best tea before a gig it's a great question so here's the thing about tea right i'm british and so tea i have a very high standard tea but i love as i think some of you may know i really love licorice tea licorice tea is a vibe and camouflage is good too and i have t often i have tea on stage when i'm playing my gigs i'll have t look up on stage and i'll bring it out with me and and commonwealth tea is good on stage and throat coat t has got on stage and mint tea is going to stage other kinds of other kinds of tea too and so yeah uh that's that's a good question um favorite sound right now because that's always my favorite sound uh you know see you in brussels i can't wait to see you in brussels that'll be fantastic can't wait i'm coming then coming the next next year throat coat do you represent all right cool fantastic um yes uh can i sample that sound you may have i tried mint and licorice tea what a compound come on that's absolutely where it's at mint licorice tea by t pigs am i right come on that's really that's that's fantastic um how are triplets possible if we can't divide evenly by three uh well we can divide evenly by three but it's more interesting when we don't right like gennawa music from morocco which i often talk about does this lilty thing with threes where instead it's a similar thing you like great british folk music funny you should ask but like but then people like grids and there's this myth that like the grid is correct but actually actually it's not and triplets can be really flexible and dynamic and interesting if you let them be free from the grid uh yeah so so that's that's the five that's the vibe um if you're if you're just joining this is the last time i said if you're just joining and we're signing posters i'm signing posters here for you uh with my own signature and if you would like to buy one then please click on the link that i've pinned in the comments uh because yeah because that's the because that's the way [Music] earth wind and fire earth wind and fire um let's see uh thoughts on tiga and harmacion yeah i do like tigran hamasian i think together is awesome i really like his track his song vodava fedora it's one of my favorites it really is do i listen to heidi's coyote boy do i um napalm is a is a genius totally totally a genius a completely raw spirit of brilliance and and guidance and light [Music] you know yeah earth wind or fire fire okay let's see this is jade rin renee rene rin he's not asking she or he actually don't know is asking for a room tour so that's what we're gonna do right now okay so we're gonna do welcome to my room this is the door and this is my realtor real player and if i turn around the room camera then this is it this is my room well this is what i see when every morning when i walk in um so i've got some guitars on the wall and some more over there and the floor is quite messy but anyway here i am then this is my computer over there and that's my nice that's my window this room is about 120 years old it was built in 1906. uh so it's it's nice and old these are the posters i'm signing for you if you would like one then go to the link in the comment penny thingy um and then let's see my drums are here and my arpeggi is tucked away back there harley hull um these are the guitars i was most recently using my mojave microphones my u87 microphone my room camera up here which i like to do some live streams from from time to time the piano which i adore my blue wurlitzer which i also adore bottle of vodka which is disguised as a violin you wouldn't know but it's vodka and then a few different miscellaneous instruments dotted around there's my window to the real world my banjo up there and yeah that's kind of um that's kind of it and then under here is just the most ridiculous amount of cable scrot that you've ever seen in your whole life um so yeah that's my uh that's my little that's my room tour of the day that's my room tour of the day um i'm going to someone says where's the fifth grammy it's not here yet grammys take a while to arrive there's sometimes like over two months to to arrive uh it's um yeah it's one of those things that sometimes you have to sometimes you have to wait for uh hugs from argentina oh i love argentina so much i really really do it's it's good to it's good to have you here it's good to have you here banjo exclamation marks yeah i completely agree with that um yeah can i do an a flat five yeah [Music] how do i do this this is such a stupid way of doing this chord no it's not working bobby mcferrin can do this like you do two notes with your voice [Music] [Laughter] i give up thank you so much for coming to my ted talk that is the end of my um that's the end of the story all right that is not that was not you know uh so yeah um i um i'm we're nearing the end of this q a because i i need to go and have some food that's what i'm going to do and also you additionally you look very hungry and i i think you need to go for a little walk because you've been sitting still for a long time now and i think you need to stand up and just have a good stretch out you know just you can do it right now just don't have a good stretch out and then go and get a nice glass of water right and have a nice glass of water and then maybe have a little snack if you want to because you know snacks are good and then you can do whatever you want and that's what i'm going to do in in just a minute as well but i was just just giving you a little bit of a little bit of advice you know uh so yeah um someone says he saw my concert with st kia steven carson so a few years ago and that's super cool steven custon is one of the coolest musicians ever and i hope we can make music together again very soon yes what's up you guys um yeah if you're um if you're tuning in now you're tuning in at the wrong moment because uh you know i'm about to go uh but um it's been so nice to see you all it's been it's been great to see you all and uh yeah and if yeah once again if you if you want why i've been doing them for the last hour signing these posters here and if you want one of the posters then just go on the link in my in my comment in the comment on in the the comment of the on my um but hey look in the meantime just like thank you for being here and it's really nice to spend some time with you and thanks for hanging around in my life and um you know yeah it's it's great it's great to see you and have a wonderful rest of your day and uh i will i'll catch you all real soon okay okay okay then i'll see you soon then okay bye then bye

Channel: Jay Adams

Views: 20,354

Keywords: jacob collier, instagram, live, q&a, jay adams, livestream

Id: pqcFk8l8b3U

Length: 79min 49sec (4789 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 16 2021