Keep It Simple. Keep Pushing Yourself To Learn

what's up everyone sorry that my hair is blended into the whiteboard here I just noticed that look at that good try and turn like this here so my title keep it simple dude that's a thing I used to say when I was producing and people would come in with their songs and they'd have all these weird sections you know you'd have yep 90 of a tune we do pre-production on the first day and and they'd have they'd have nine sections to their tunes and I was like keep it simple dude or as I used to say when I was uh when I played jazz as far as like playing behind somebody I used to say play simply so that others may simply play and I think a lot of people get hung up on this idea that things have to be complex for them to be good or that when it comes to things like practicing for example everybody's trying to you know oh I'm going to learn four notes per string I'm gonna do three notes per string I'm gonna do you know I'm gonna I'm gonna learn this and that and I always will tell people man if you can't hear it you can't play it um that's really the that's really the essence of all music you know it's like if you can't hear it then then you can't improvise it you can't imagine it because all of this is about about being able to to you know get your ideas out from from creatively you hear something in your head and like well can you actually get it out on your instrument and there's there's actually a lot of things that kind of keep you from doing that right either you don't have the ear you don't have the facility to know what you don't really know what you hear you kind of have this idea in your head and you have to you have to hunt around and do things or even things like you know when it comes to practicing like practicing is is a big thing I was having this discussion earlier today with a friend of mine which you know there's the old saying is if better to practice six hours one day one day a week or one hour six days a week well the answer is really it's better to practice six hours seven days a week right that's that's the that's the real answer to that question and but one of the things that I find with people I know so many people that get hung up on learning you know to play things on their instrument that you know that the on the guitar for example learning their scales and all these what I call open positions open hand positions or having to learn things to force yourself into playing a particular way for example if you do what they call economy picking where you have to do you'll do either a couple down strokes in a row because that's the way it comes naturally if you play an odd number of notes on a string guys like frank gambali did that do that then they are able to sweep from one string to the next and the and it can be economical but it doesn't mean that it's going to be the most melodic thing that you can play because because of that you end up getting hung up and playing things that actually fall into your fingers as opposed to playing things that you're actually hearing that might be more melodic to play okay so that comes right back to the thing if you can't hear it you can't play it so many people that I was listening I you know I used to listen to tracks all the time every day I do pre-production with a band with a new project every time a new new project would come in I'd have people you know they come in I say okay what do you got now they'd send me songs beforehand but typically I would they'd come in the first a say I want to hear everything you have I heard the songs you sent to me what else do you have is there anything is there anything that you have sitting around that maybe it's not even done or some some some ideas unfinished ideas and many times so things ended up being the best things that were on the records I produced were things that were just incomplete ideas if people didn't know where to go or you know or people that that self that they always would be a lot of artists or like this and this is why producers have can make a living is like most of people I would work with would think whatever the last thing that they wrote was no matter what style of music was was always the best thing that they wrote and not having any perspective on on their own music and I said that well that's reason I actually have a job as a producer is is that that people are really bad at managing their time they're bad at being being honest about their own music they're bad about being they're honest about their own playing even which is really why things like recording yourself is so important okay if you most people have no sense of what their time sounds like they have no sense of what their phrasing is like they have no sense of their feel they don't know if they were if they have a good melody or not so I think that in order to it's very very difficult to be honest about your own playing and the whole thing about keeping it simple I'm gonna I'll give you I'm gonna give you some simple concepts here for things like practicing for example one of the concepts is that if you play things if you try and always conform thing things to to how they fit in your hand for example no matter what instrument if I'm playing the piano if I'm playing the guitar people either play things that that are what we call grips like the this idea of the Caged system on the guitar for example if you start limiting yourself to playing on one string for example on one string is very difficult to do on the guitar okay or playing soloing with your left hand and the piano is very difficult to do okay which is why you should do it which comes to my biggest point about learning which is don't practice what you know practice what you don't know okay that is really when it comes to ear training when it comes to practicing and your instrument don't go over things that you've done a million times if you've practiced these scales these arpeggios move on to something else that's why it's really really important to keep a log of what you're doing okay that's why Beethoven had notebooks he had notebooks so that he knew what he was doing he had notebooks to know if he's have I used that idea before or this is something that I want to develop in the future which is why you're either keeping a journal or you're taking you have your recorder and your phone ready to record ideas it's really important by the way before I forget because I always forget if you're interested in the Beato book you don't get that I actually printed this off for myself but 20% off today through my store at Rick piano calm but here it is it's everything that you need to know about music is in there and supports my channel also you can join the Beato Club too which is another way that you can you can be a patron to the channel here so this idea of practicing what you don't know it's actually not my idea that's actually something I heard Pat Metheny say one time and I thought wow and luckily I heard this when I was you know 20 years old or 19 years old I heard that I heard that saying and I was like whoa huh and then I was on a quest to learn as much as I could about everything whatever it was and when I learned it I remembered it and then I moved on to the next thing if it wasn't you know if it was jazz guitar if it was classical bass you know in when I was a classical bass major there's a repertoire of bass pieces that you need to know that all professional bass players need to know that there are certain pieces that you need to - that you need to audition for orchestras or for colleges or whatever it might be if you're a jazz musician there are certain Tunes that you need to know there there's you know probably maybe 300 standards to know and that seems like a lap once you know them and you can play them in every key you know then you move on to new learning new things and you study film scores and you study you work on ear training you work on ear training until everything becomes second nature and you know your intervals and then you know all your chords and you can recognize is oh this is a major chord that's a dominant chord that's a minor 7 flat 5 chord you know so this is a developing strategies for practice and and for being honest about what you really know I mean do you really know these topics I mean this is this is the the mastery of all these things whether it's music production when I when I went into music production I did it from a level of knowing nothing and I was 37 years old I knew nothing I knew what a 5th sm57 was because we had him in our practice basis and you'd sing on them live at gigs but that was that even though I've been in studios I was always in the studio I never paid attention to what people are doing because I wasn't interested I didn't realize how important it was to know this stuff so when I started studying studying it I was I said to myself ok well how do you actually master something like this how do you master how do you master songwriting how do you master how do you master write writing a melody how do you master according a drum set and you know all these ideas are things that I've brought to life through this channel okay if I were to say okay let's let's take some simple concepts just on the guitar a lot of people that I know have difficulty improvising over particular chord changes okay and part of the ability to do that is that they are part of the reason I think that they that they have difficulty is that they have everything that they practice they always practice things the same way and they always practice you know okay I'm gonna do G major scale here and I'm just gonna [Music] and they'll always play it that way every time it's always gonna be the three you know it's frustrating instead of saying okay do I know this thing in the entire on the entire neck do I know it here do I know here yes I played that do I know their notes up here [Music] okay I know I'm there do I know you do I know that one string [Music] do I know it on two strings do I know it on three strings four strings five strings right do I know my pentatonic scales those of you that are rock players do you really know these scales right can you say okay I know a major or if it's f-sharp minor [Music] what's the next position okay I know that the next position [Music] next next I got this John Petrucci guitar here man it's uh it's it's so small it's it's kind of hard to uh it actually feels great okay so that's a major well but how do you get around between the difference between the different positions because ultimately to have the freedom to improvise [Music] because having the freedom to improvises be able to move positions being able to move from one position to the next being able to to move up one string up two strings and knowing where all those notes are so I have this thing that I've been trying to do on my Instagram channel which is to do a and just an improvised piece I'm sure I try to do it every day I don't I don't always get the time to do it and some of them may be simple right and and and it might be just using major chords and just some main just some simple ideas of you know simple progression simple melodies and [Music] but try and come up with things that that are complete ideas in one minute you have one minute on Instagram which I love because the discipline of having one minute to do something is the limiting factor that is actually it actually opens up your playing because because those limitations are what I think will help you you know if you put a time constraint on something you say okay I need to say what I need to say in one minute am I gonna use the entire minute I'm gonna use 50 seconds of it maybe I need to only say maybe it's only 30 seconds I need to say what I'm gonna say and sometimes it's just a couple sometimes it's just a couple ideas that I want to say you know maybe I'm just thinking and I am maybe it's just you know you know [Music] and maybe that's it okay or maybe I need to say something that's you know more complex if you know it could be anything right but you want to try to go to places that you haven't been before same thing goes with practicing right if I'm playing over a chord let's say I'm working on something and I'm playing of a chord that I don't normally play over let's say it's this okay this is a liddie and augmented chord [Music] and I'm thinking like okay [Music] and I'm like hmm okay I know that area right there then I got here here and I say okay well this area of the guitar and I'm gonna work out that area [Music] [Applause] [Music] that's a wrong note there okay that's right I got that [Music] and I'm up here and it would have been a heat warning where am I here though [Music] okay so I'm like okay I think I know that pretty well this area the guitar was kind of weird okay I know that then I like okay well would it I see that shape in there then I'm like okay so I know that scale what's enough what's a scale that I don't know well I've practiced that I've got that I make it I write it down okay I practice that a flat Lydian augmented skill what else is that scale well mmmm are there any other scales that are related to that that I can actually use that same knowledge of practicing that well I'll tell you the old Jimi Hendrix chord there East seven sharp nine same notes [Music] I made a mistake [Music] now there's that spot again okay I got that there okay so wow that scale works on that core - that's interesting and then I've made that connection like well what other chords is that working what if I play this chord F minor major seven [Music] the pedal I'm using is called a a it's a electro harmonix freeze pedal I'm using for this I've got two different pedals but this is cool it's actually great for practicing because it gives you a it gives you something to play over to play music with I did a video the other day where I did I did an improv I did it with my other pedal I have another sustain pedal that's that's a really good one but I did this thing where I was playing something like Oh [Music] that's the own thing about these these guitars I I had this guitar tuned down about two steps before I came on and it's there we go it's really really warm in here so uh by the way Beato book on sale 20% off I'll say it again I don't ever say it on here not the not that it's the PDF version not this version I printed this for myself because it's good to practice out of but if you want to learn everything that you need to know about everything right there so um what I was saying about this pedal here though is that it's good for it's good for practice because we you want to have things to play over because you need to be inspired so if I'm practicing if I say okay I want to practice the Lydian scale and you know and I want to use you know let's say let's say okay and I'm play a chord I'm going to play as a six nine I'm gonna play G six nine chords [Music] okay so that is a that's a G Lydian skill [Music] ah so I'm like okay well their area is kind of weird [Music] so I'm working out that area [Music] okay so the thing I did up here [Music] Oh that's where I got stuck [Music] okay so there okay that look so that G Lydian scale okay I feel like I'm I that I've got something with that and I'm gonna move on from it then Bach oh yeah because I'm using those I was playing that pedal point idea hard to finger actually these things and what you wanted is you want to make it sound as legato as possible I probably would finger it that way I think that's probably smart er that's harder to do right there that's where you'd actually have to change the fingering so right there I call that a pedal point idea there that would sound good over that time develop the idea [Music] walk little seven no pattern there that's kind of a cool thing to develop but to go down and move that through the scale would be really tricky and I have to really [Music] right there those two positions are hard here's the pattern one octave but I asked you to uh No that's hard so I tried again [Music] hard [Music] right there though that is really a hard idea [Music] Oh [Music] okay so that is something there I would take that idea and I would work that out through all different positions on the inner strings of the guitar I take those top four strings that I'm playing it on go through and see if I can and see if I can play that perfectly all the way up and down the neck and develop that idea I mean that's the things like use your improvisation is use your improvising to come up with ideas that you wouldn't normally play and then when you hit one of those don't move on from it find things that are difficult and see if you can sequence that throughout the entire pattern take that pattern throughout the entire scale okay so that Lydian thing yeah this is easy to play here in this position it's easy because it's all in closed positions it's within a four frets pan [Music] but when I go down here I moved it into a five position and then down here uh yeah so here it's really hard then down you hear it's easier and as I'm going to this position I'm starting to think okay what do I do here [Music] okay that's that's hard cuz it because there's there's a position shift there between those two fingers of a tritone [Music] whoo that's hard [Music] that's cool but up here anyways okay questions questions by the way before I go on to this oh my what makes a son great series I have a lot of really cool songs that I've wanted to do that I cannot do i I've gotten a lot more recently a lot of people have been sending me stuff I got I got a lot of beetles today more than I ever had was songs that I didn't have like something or nowhere man Norwegian Wood and I'm gonna figure out a way to talk about these things I'm gonna figure out a way to to thank you for putting the discount code on there everybody rb8 1/5 that's the discount code for today I'm gonna figure out a way to where I can actually do any songs there I mean there is a way I tried on the Adele video that I did I tried an experiment with one of you I I don't know who did it cuz they didn't put their name on the email who sent it to me they did they had an address but it wasn't a name and they said if you play only 10 seconds or under 10 seconds they won't catch it and the algorithm kept caught it I mean didn't demonetized it immediately and everything but there is a way to do this for there there is a way there is a way to do this I and it's I another person wrote to me that worked for a major record label the other day and he told me that one of his jobs was doing Content ID for YouTube and I'm trying to bring this to everybody I'm trying to bring it to you guys I want to do these songs because it's incredibly instructive these the thing about doing these what makes us some great videos is that it teaches you to listen into the mix and it's all about listening it's it's it's developing your ear it's about playing you the things for example when I listen to something today to the multitrack of it I heard it and I was like I never heard that organ part there was a b3 part in there I was like who knew I didn't hear that before I mean I kind of thought I heard it but I wasn't sure and I was like man and then I listened to the solo guitar part with with Harrison's guitar solo which is one of my favorite solos ever it's just an absolutely beautiful guitar solo and um and the feel of it is so natural and it's one take it's totally one take that he plays on it and I was listening to the you know I my other channel the other day on my second channel I played the sound of silence by Simon & Garfunkel which I want to do a video of this one of my favorite tunes ever and I'm listening to it I have the tracks for it and I'm Paul Simon's playing the acoustic guitar and singing at the same time and and it makes you realize how great that is about how what how incredible it is that they're doing these incredibly complex harmonies Simon and Garfunkel and then you hear and then there's a guitar right you hear that guitar part or is it that's it hello darkness I'll friend I mean it's really really amazing you solo those parts and you realize wow wow this is incredible and it's it's I think it teaches you it teaches you so much it teaches you about orchestration about arranging about listening about knowing what you hear it's it's not just about the parts it's about you know that's why I include things for people that can read music I include the notation a lot of these videos when I'm when I'm doing a video on tool for example I think it's important to see the the time signatures go by because that's an integral part when I did the tune schism that's a very important part of that tune is knowing the time signature whereas on the Adel video it's not that important because the melody is all you know pretty much D minor blues scale right so that's not it wasn't important to notate that but sometimes when I'm doing kids Charlamagne it's important to notate Chuck Rainey's bass part or you know or Bernard Purdy's shuffle that he does in that because it's really original and a drummer if they want to learn how to play it I think it's important to have these things these these tools available but always learning to listen into these things use your ear and recognize know what you're hearing all the time this is really the that that's that that is the key for all this as a musician you have to know what you're hearing and it's not about this whole analysis paralysis kind of thing you know I had somebody wrote I feel bad for you because you you can't enjoy music well that's actually totally not true I enjoy music just because I happen to know what I'm hearing does not make it unenjoyable as a matter of fact it makes it more enjoyable you know why because I can go pick up an instrument and play the parts and that's what it makes and and because it doesn't take any effort for me now it did it took a lot of effort I laugh i watch one of my favorite youtube videos ever and I always recommend any be watching this go watch dick cavett we used to be a 70s talk-show host interviewing Oscar Peterson and you you can't even imagine this was on network TV in the United States and Dick Cavett asked the most amazingly great questions and Oscar Peterson gives a masterclass in piano on this he says the two-handed actives you know like playing double double handed melodies basically two octaves apart improvising he doesn't on Sweet Georgia Brown and then he then he's talked about Earl got he talks about how to reharmonization people used to be interested in these things and and knowing what you're hearing is Liberty it is Liberty that's why when you hear something you don't know or play something that you're not sure of and you have to work it out work out the fingerings it's so important it is so important and it's liberating to know what you're hearing it's not sad because I'm not analyzing it I just happen to know when I thought it was the sound of silence I was like I said mmm what does that sound start at and I just reordered and I remember that sadi sus2 cord and I read that when I first heard it back in the you know when I was a little kid I didn't know what that was I just knew I liked the sound of it I didn't know what it was until I was you know 15 years old and I was able to figure out simon and garfunkel read songs by myself you know I developed to the you know to where I could figure these things out and how did I figure him out well it's kind of like I was thinking about the Dick Cavett thing an infant idea he says that Oscar Peterson was this ever hard for you Oscar's playing this insane stuff could you just always do that he said no no I couldn't do that and if you go watch this little documentary on Oscar that was made in the 70s he talked about his dad used to give him assignments he would go away for the week to on work and he make him and his brother and his sisters practice you know three active G major scale and this arpeggio and you have to sign a book and do all this stuff and Oscar laughs he said if he didn't practice that his mother would say Oh Oscar signed the book but he only practiced 30 minutes I think and his dad would give him the strap and Oscar laughs about that that his dad you know that his dad gave him the strap because he lied about practicing and it's hilarious but you know that's why i asked her got to be that good with my dad it was a different thing my dad was like my dad said you know said bought me this joe pass where he said if you ever I was playing Jimmy Page I he'd come in and me and my brother would be playing you know on a hundred DBS we'd be playing you know steroid Evan and and my dad would just walk in he just kind of shake it said he'd never say anything he wouldn't say I'll turn that stuff down my dad was totally cool but he gave me this Joe pass record create one of the greatest jazz guitar plays ever for Christmas one year and he's like if you ever learned how to play guitar like this you've accomplished something with your life and this is so nothing nothing like my dad would ever say and I didn't open the record for three months or so and when I opened it I was like okay come on what it what is this I started playing it and and I and I heard night and day was the first song on there and uh and I was like okay and then the next sign was like I don't know around midnight or something and then it came then and went to Holly then went to all the things you are and heard all the things yard and he starts out and he's like you know so I heard that and I said you know what I think I can figure that out so I started figuring it out and after about eight hours my dad comes home from work it was the summertime I'm sitting in front of the stereo with a vinyl dropping the needle on it I said he's like what are you doing Rick and I said the practice I want to play you something so I played this all the things you are for my dad the single notes all this bebop stuff and my dad was like you figured it out yourself and I said yeah so how did you do that and I said I just listened to it until I could learn it I found them where the notes were and every chord was like you know or it's like I knew it there and then I said since he's playing it there so I went and I found each individual I went like that and I found each individual no and this is that's how I learned to play it and the key is not learning it the key is learning it and then remembering it because that is everything that is everything that noise down that was your dad I like it so that is and and my dad never said oh that's amazing Rick he's like hmm but I knew from my dad that that was I thought wow my dad respects that like he said if you if you ever learned to play like that you've done something with your life you never said Rick you're a great musician you're a great player my mom would say that stuff my dad would never say that but my dad would sit there and listen to me practice in the summertime when I was not in school and I practiced for ten hours my dad would sit in a rocking chair right next to me and he just listened he never say a word he just listened and he listened me practice and be so bored I would be practicing doing the stuff that I was doing earlier all over the guitar doing all this stuff and my dad would never say anything but he would sit there and listen and I knew that he was he was I knew it was important to him and he was an incredible incredible person credible human being the most incredible human being both of my parents and you know and I think my dad's respect that was important to me it was important to kids back then you know and and even if it was nonverbal that he respected me as a musician and he respected my work ethic I think more than anything he respected my work ethic and-and-and that's the thing here I'm here for you for all of you I'm here everyday if you're here I'm here I'm here doing it and that's the you know that's the thing about my channel you're not gonna hear me complaining about I can't make any more videos or I can't do this no I'm here I'm here every day or every time I can I can be you know and and and that means something and it means something to me that you're here for it but I know that I gotta be on my game all the time and I gotta every day I gotta be I got to be teaching showing everything you know everything there's no secrets that's the thing there's no secrets ever right nothing should be secret you know if I teach you something that doesn't mean that I that you know it and then and I'm any less for it no well I have to learn more there are no mysteries you know and there are note there should be no secrets in learning I don't like people to keep secrets about recording about anything but I might be out of book twenty percent off RB eight one five today's date the saw make a living for my family honestly it's not from YouTube views I was watching a video today I subscribed to the Christian Henson who owns a Spitfire audio he's got a he does a vlog it's a great vlog and and he puts out a couple videos a week and a few any of you know spit for our audio they make really great sample libraries orchestral sample libraries the best ones I think that are out and I out of the blue he mentioned my name in his video today he said he was talking about YouTube and he just monetized he just hit 10,000 subscribers just monetize his channel and then he said and then their channels like Rick Beto you know pronounce my name wrong but he said that my channel is a unicorn or something that you know it's unusual to have nearly half a million subscribers and and it was funny and he was asking questions in the in the thing about about people and YouTube and and he's fascinated by because he make they make a lot of videos demonstration videos for their Spitfire audio and I recommend anybody go check out some of their demo videos for their plugins cuz they make really great orchestral plugins and I'm not sponsored by them or anything I don't know the guy or anything but he's fat fascinated by YouTube and about how people that are in film scoring can connect with people through YouTube and and with teaching stuff and and I told him I I put it in the comments I said you know I've been a follower of your channel since the beginning of it your your vlog because I think he makes really go there very very well done they look great and I said that you know here's my email feel free to contact me I can answer any of the questions that you asked in there about YouTube or about social media and and he seems generally genuinely interested in figuring out how he can help composers get their music out there and and use social media to become to actually get work for themselves which is a great idea and you know it helps his helps his business it helps everything I think it's I think it's really really it's very very cool so anyways okay I'm done with this I wanted to come on and do a little bit of a motivational talk here I think that it's that there's I think it's always good to hear some motivation from people about it's it's tough to do you know it's tough to be a musician it is it's hard it's hard to it's hard to make a living it's hard it's hard to stay inspired I mean that's one of the that's one of the biggest things is staying inspired and that's what I'm trying to do and I hope that I inspire you you know I know that everybody doesn't like every one of my videos because my the range of my topics are all over the place and I know some of you hated Adele even though she's one of the greatest singers ever but you love tool you know but you'll put up with my Adele videos once in a while as long as I do tool and Allison chains or you love film scoring but you really don't care for jazz even though you should but anyways you guys are the best you get my be ATO book 20% off today like I said this is how I make my living I don't make it off views I make almost no money because all my videos that I views on our Aldi monetized I don't care I don't do it I don't make the vid I don't make those videos to make money on what makes this song great or anything that's not you know it's to teach things like production because these are these are tools that were never available before that I you know who could ever get their hands on the multi-tracks of all these things right and actually put them out there and I didn't even know I could do that when I started making these I was like well I don't know if I can do that I'm just gonna do it I don't care if I can't do it so anyways join the Beato Club to you that's another way you can support my channel you can go to my website and check it now I hit the B Auto Club it'll show you there's four different levels it's like patreon but better you guys are amazing and thanks for being here for me and I'm here for you so there you go

Channel: Rick Beato

Views: 271,460

Keywords: Rick Beato, Everything Music, Music Theory, How To Practice, how to practice arpeggios, rick beato what makes this song great, motivational video, motivational, how to practice guitar, rick beato live, live stream music, music analysis, music tutorial, How To Practice Modes

Id: 7VNlBHWOjY8

Length: 47min 12sec (2832 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 15 2018