Special Guest, Anita Houser

Dr. Bob Lawrence  0:32  
Welcome to jazz piano skills. I'm Dr. Bob Lawrence. It's time to discover, learn and play jazz piano. We have been busy in the month of June every night, we have explored various jazz improvisation exercises designed to help develop proper fingerings and articulation needed for playing jazz. We apply these exercises to the primary sounds of D flat, major dominant minor, half diminished and diminished, along with the altered D flat dominant sounds, sharp 11, flat 13, flat nine flat 13 and the fully altered flat nine sharp nine, flat five sharp five. And on top of all that, we devoted some additional time and energy to dissecting Charlie Parker's are provided. So, so before moving on and jumping into G flat, I thought I would give you all some additional time to digest those musical skills. I hear a collective sigh So I have a huge treat for you today. I am thrilled and honored to introduce y'all to a Anita Houser, professional pianist, vocalist, educator, wife, mother and early adopter of jazz piano skills. I've had the pleasure of knowing and Anita for several years now and she is a joy. Her musical journey began as a child singing in her churches music ministry, and continued through Spelman College in Atlanta, where she earned a piano performance degree currently in NIDA maintains an active online private music education studio in South Carolina, and most recently was invited to perform as a pianist with the Lake Murray Symphony Orchestra and the Palmetto Chamber Orchestra. She also recently sang an original composition, God dwells within you with the Columbia County orchestra. Her current project is Jam, which stands for jazz awakening mind Jam, which is a monthly spiritual gathering led by musicians featuring jazz music. Wow. Such an inspiration for us all. So without further delay, enjoy my conversation with a Nita Hauser and Anita Hauser. Just, Oh, my goodness, I am so thrilled to finally, this is long overdue. This is long overdue to finally have you on jazz piano skills. Because you know, you've been, you were one of the first adopters of jazz piano skills way back when I started. And you had reached out to me, and we've had a great friendship since then. And we've been have had an opportunity to kind of share with each other, your journey, my journey. And and, and it's fascinating. And I've always wanted to get you on jazz piano scale, so we can actually share this story. But beyond just you and me talking. So I cannot thank you enough for carving time out of your day today to come on jazz PM.

Anita Houser  4:12  
It's my pleasure, my honor. So thank you so much.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  4:15  
Oh, my goodness. Yes. So so many listeners are going to love your story. Love your journey in music. Because the reality is you're you're a professional musician you perform and you play at a very high level. And, and you've had this amazing journey and searching for ways to improve your musicianship, especially within the realm of jazz. So we're gonna get to all of that. But before we get to all of that, I want to turn the microphone over to you and I want you to share because I I don't know a whole lot about your childhood and family life and how you got into got into music. So I want to step back, give you the microphone, and share with us your beginnings here. family life, how you got into music siblings and all that kind of stuff. So I needed the microphone is yours.

Anita Houser  5:04  
All right? Well, I was born and raised in Georgetown, South Carolina, the low country. So little seaport town between Myrtle Beach and Charleston. And music was always just a part of life. And a big part of that was church growing up in Baptist Church, and my grand uncle was the minister. My grandparents sang in a gospel group, and they traveled around South Carolina, called the Hallelujah chorus. And my parents sang in the choir. They weren't professional musicians, none of them, but they all loved music and had a lot of soul and a lot of commitment. So I really began to sing in church and play the piano. And it was just a great training ground and lots of love. They're saying, baby, play baby.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  5:56  
Yep. All right, you can do it. You can do

Anita Houser  5:59  
lots of encouragement and didn't start formal piano lessons until maybe eight or nine, there was a piano in the house. My sister Andrea, seven years older started lessons with our first cousin, they both got pianos, but they have that kind of old school teacher that would tap their wrist. And that was very short lived.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  6:25  
As it always is, as it always is, right.

Anita Houser  6:27  
So that panel set in the house and I began to tinkle on it in hindsight, oh, I want to say classes, but can we find a different teacher? So she found me a new teacher, and I loved it. And I just love learning, soaking it up and had a couple of different teachers, my first teacher moved away. And so it was just a lot of love learning and titles.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  6:53  
But these Yeah, these lessons when you started, I'm assuming or just your traditional kind of classical piano lessons, right?

Anita Houser  7:01  
method books, and you're learning some classical, right? Yeah, yeah. Right. Right. Nothing.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  7:08  
So but that's, that was your first that was your first step into like formal education really getting formal training up until up until then, it's just you're just you're doing your natural skills, natural talents, singing in church being encouraged. And now here you are studying piano. So where's it go from there?

Anita Houser  7:26  
So continuing on, I was in chorus and all of that and, and when it came time for college, I it was a question, what do you want to do? And I didn't know anything other than music. So I didn't think about what the career would look like. I just thought I love music. So let's do that.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  7:44  
That's how most of us do it. Right. We never, we don't think too far down the road. We just go like, hey, music. That sounds fun. Yeah.

Anita Houser  7:50  
So I went to Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. Oh, good. Yeah. And I was a piano major and took a little voice. But I honestly was kind of shy with singing. Yes, to sing more full out. But honestly, I think a lot changed for me in my childhood. My father died very mysteriously very tragically, when I was nine. And I had a lot of freedom in my expression. Prior to that afterwards, I had to kind of gain it back over the years. All right, so but I really dug in as a piano major, took a little voice lessons, but the cool thing is a lot of the voice majors would pull me in to play for them. I ended up sort of coaching them on parts and things like that, but was in so even

Dr. Bob Lawrence  8:38  
your so even your piano lessons in college, it's it's a classical piano performance degree is what you were what you were studying, right? Yeah.

Anita Houser  8:44  
And I felt like a lot of ketchup as well as I thought I was doing when I got to college. Right? I really gotta get to work here.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  8:53  
Right, which is, you know, which is the case for most people, right? Most people, you know, they've gone through high school, and they perform in their high school ensembles. And they think, Hey, I'm pretty good at music, and then they get to college. And they find out well, I got a lot of catch up to do.

Anita Houser  9:09  
Yeah. So I was in the Glee Club, and I love that, but then I heard about the Jazz Ensemble, and it was like, whoo, I want to do that. Because growing up one of the things that I loved of memory of my father was he had these recordings you know, he'd have his soul records, some gospel but he also had a jazz collection. And I just love those recordings. It to me it just symbolizes like class and sophistication. And I love the freedom of expression. Yeah, so I gotta let Jazz Ensemble and that just really opened some doors for me.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  9:45  
Wow. So what did you I'm curious. So here you are, you know you have everything has been kind of a classical training classical background. Now you're in college, majoring in music as a piano performance major and And this jazz band thing intrigues you because you've grown up with great jazz in the house and great music around you. Now you go to your, your jazz first jazz band ensemble practice and experience. So talk about that a little bit. What was what was what was the awakening there?

Anita Houser  10:17  
It's not green. It was exciting, but it was sort of like, okay, what are we doing? There's nothing to just straight up breathe, you know? Or

Dr. Bob Lawrence  10:33  
just play that you're looking at what play what there's stuff that

Anita Houser  10:37  
improvised improvise. Okay, great. Sounds great. How do we do that?

Dr. Bob Lawrence  10:43  
Yeah, yeah. Oh, my gosh. So it hits you very quickly. Right? Well, this is this is a whole different world. This is a whole different musical world. Yeah. So what did you do? You stepped into this whole world of, you know, improvisation chord changes that there aren't that's on the page. Okay, so what the heck, what did you do that was like

Anita Houser  11:05  
getting a crash course. And our director, Joseph Jennings, he really took me under his wing, and he would work with us as a group, we had singers and I played keyboards, you know, Drum Bass, they had different players, but he would pull me to the side and show me chords and voicings and okay, go work on this. And this will help you with this song. And I'm like, okay, so we just see what I just learned as I went, it wasn't like a private lesson. But you know, he did what he could to train me.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  11:34  
Yeah. And I would assume that, I would assume that it was kind of the learning was always in relationship to maybe the repertoire you're playing, right. So here's what you need to do on this song. Here's what you need to do on this song. So the learning was really kind of song specific. Right?

Anita Houser  11:50  
Very sure. Yeah.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  11:52  
Yeah. Yeah. So okay, so did you graduate them with you graduated with a piano performance?

Anita Houser  12:00  
Yes. Yeah.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  12:03  
Okay, so. So now you walk across the stage. You got your piano performance degree. Now, now

Anita Houser  12:12  
what zone my family my parents were educators. My mom was an elementary school teacher. My father was a guidance counselor. So the whole encouragement was go into education. They didn't have an education degree at Spelman. So I don't know what I thought I was going to do. Right. I totally shifted gears and think I just wanted to take a break. And I became a flight attendant.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  12:43  
Makes makes perfect sense. Right. graduate with piano performance degree flight attendant, here I come.

Anita Houser  12:52  
Yeah, totally left field and my mom was like, what you're gonna do what? I think it was kind of good for me for a while, because it gave me a chance to kind of get out of my shell and see the world a little and a little bit here and there during that time, and I would meet some amazing people on the plane and right, yeah, so.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  13:19  
So are you do you? Do you still do flight? No,

Anita Houser  13:22  
that was four years. I always say that was my four year degree and people skills.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  13:27  
People there you go. Yeah.

Anita Houser  13:29  
But no, that's

Dr. Bob Lawrence  13:31  
so. So I'm curious. So what did you do during that four years as a flight attendant? You know, you don't write what you know, once you get bitten by the music bug, you're you're bitten by the music bug. You're in the music forever. You can't you can't get rid it doesn't heal right that that that will never heal. Right. So, here you are. Professional music you have a degree in music professional degree, professional musician you go off now you're a flight attendant for four years. I know music was tugging at your heartstrings always

Anita Houser  14:03  
took a time I could never get away from it. I actually try for a while because I felt a little conflicted. Okay. I thought it had to be one thing or the other like I had to do all teaching. Right? We're all right. Didn't really didn't have a mentor at the time to say you can do you could actually do both if you wanted to. Yeah. So but I took some lessons, some classical lessons for a while and then also jazz lessons here in there. But with my schedule was just a lot going on. But I always played us. I had a I got a piano. That was one of the first things I did with some of my first checks is get a nice piano.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  14:43  
Sure. Of course. Yeah. Awesome. So okay, so then after you left after four years of flight attending, you know, you said okay, I'm done with this is that when you kind of shifted back into the music room, or what happened actually not

Anita Houser  14:59  
now Oh, yeah.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  15:05  
I didn't know any of this. I didn't know any of

Anita Houser  15:06  
this. Yeah. So no, like I ended up I worked for a travel club. I worked for an insurance company, I was really trying to just do something else, all the while music was calling me. And then life or being where I had to just, I had started a family got married, started a family. And I needed to be at home just with my pregnancy high risk. And it was at that time, it was like, Okay, what are you doing? And what do you really want to do? It so I just started raised. I have two sons. They're 27 and 24. Now, it's amazing. Wow, yeah. And so when I was home with them, I was playing and we would sing together, and I would show them things on the piano. But I still thought I really couldn't have a Korean music. That's just how either resistant stubborn or just didn't have enough confidence in what I was doing to think that I could do something with it. And I think because my parents were educators, honestly, I fought teaching tooth and nail. But ironically, I'm a very natural educator, I look back even as a teen, I was always showing friends things. And I had an old friend say, oh, remember when used to teach me piano and I just didn't even remember, but she was like, I still remember some of the things that you taught me. So it was so it was a few years of just doing other things, but always music was they're always there.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  16:44  
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Right. Musics always there, you discover that teaching is in your DNA. Right? You know? And then you also, haven't you found this to be the case and through your teaching. Wow. We learned so much right? ourselves. We benefit so much musically through showing and teaching and helping somebody else. We end up benefiting just as much. There's no question about

Anita Houser  17:10  
that. Definitely. Yeah,

Dr. Bob Lawrence  17:12  
yeah. So okay, so you had your boys and your boys play right? Aren't they musician?

Anita Houser  17:19  
Well, one of the younger one is Benjamin he he plays drums. And he was in the marching band in college

Dr. Bob Lawrence  17:23  
and plays cello. Yeah. Yeah. Right. That's right.

Anita Houser  17:27  
And we even had the opportunity to play in a couple of markets just together this past year. So that was really awesome.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  17:34  
Yeah. And does your husband play Michael? A musician loves

Anita Houser  17:37  
music, and he's got a very discerning ear for music too.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  17:42  
Nobody does. Right. So okay, so now you've discovered that you're an educator. Yeah. That you enjoy teaching. Yeah. Music continues to tug at your heartstrings. So what happens?

Anita Houser  17:59  
Okay, so where are we on the timeline? Yeah, marriage. I took care of my mom for four years. And during that time, I and I taught a little prior to that. But I opened a music teaching studio teaching piano and voice. I was also music director at a church when I lived in Augusta, Georgia. And so that was really the start of me really starting to move forward in music consistently. No more starts and stops. So I'm really grateful for that experience. And when I opened up the studio, suddenly it was like, okay, these kids are depending on me. So let's just show up and really get into this. So yeah, it was church music teaching. And I also for a period of time was in a r&b band. So that was great. singing and playing. And I started taking jazz piano lessons in Augusta.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  18:56  
Yeah. Okay, so let's, let's kind of start there. Now that we got your background. Now you finally come full circle. You're a music educator. You have a professional studio set up you're teaching piano you're teaching voice. And now you're starting to and you're performing and now you're wanting to dip your toe into jazz even the bathwater of jazz even more so now so. So let's start there. Let's talk about how you how you pursued getting in the jazz the study of jazz ups and downs and we'll take it from there. How did all this happen?

Anita Houser  19:33  
Great Teacher in Augusta Donald may see he I met him through the music teachers association him and his daughter Rob no one okay. Yeah. Taught me private lessons. And then he had a class of three me his daughter and another student Hiroko. We would meet weekly for a class so very intimate class and we just, it was great. You know, he used materials of Al and spleen. I don't know if you've heard of balancing but Sure, great ways of learning. And it was all new to me. I was soaking it in, it wasn't totally new. But in terms of like, training, that was new, right, whereas I was trying to learn on the go or learn everything from a book without a teacher, things like that. All right, right. Right. poured a lot into us. And I, you know, it gave me something to work towards each week. So yeah, it was really helpful.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  20:30  
So give us a little example of what what were some of the things that he had had y'all doing in those in those lessons that that that was beneficial?

Anita Houser  20:41  
So I know what the Allen Swain mutters one book was improvised It was founded on using scat rhythms so that we can get this emotional connection to the musical we're playing. So that was,

Dr. Bob Lawrence  20:55  
which would totally Yeah, which would totally resonate with you as as a vocalist, right? Yeah.

Anita Houser  20:59  
Yeah, I did finally get into the singing more and got certified to teach. And that gave me a lot of confidence with Grant and in the performing. So we would do that. And he would have certain musical concepts about articulation, and developing one measure and to measure ideas. So he would have us work on certain skills. And then he had different blues songs throughout the book that we would apply them to. So that was, that was cool. And

Dr. Bob Lawrence  21:31  
so did you get Did y'all spend a lot of time working on, you know, obviously, chord changes, voicings, you know, improvisation then obviously, yeah. Was that? Is that really the core of the core of the study?

Anita Houser  21:46  
Yes. And I don't, I got a lot of the harmony in the private lessons using the other set of Allen Swain books. So it's called, like the four way keyboard system, learning things orally, tactile, intellectually, and I'm missing one. But just, you know, learning it on these different levels. Yeah, that's

Dr. Bob Lawrence  22:11  
right. Right. So

Anita Houser  22:13  
I would, so everything was root position, but there was like, open position, close position. But it got me understanding those four sounds of music and how to start building chords in a way that sounded good on the piano. And he had a certain parameters of, you know, how low to go and all of that. Now, what I do know how to do at the time was how to do rootless voicings. So that when I played with a bass player, I wasn't stepping on the toes. But my understanding was, you have the basics. So now you can build from

Dr. Bob Lawrence  22:52  
there. Yeah, right. Right. Does he still teach?

Anita Houser  22:56  
He does? Yeah.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  22:57  
Oh, that's fantastic. Yeah, that's wonderful. So okay, so did you transfer that knowledge then from pianos? I'm curious because he, you know, approached it from scat, scat rhythms and vocal rhythms. Did you did you actually think, Oh, wait, wait, man, I'm actually not only working on materials that are great from a piano perspective, but I can actually use this this material vocal wise as well. Yeah.

Anita Houser  23:23  
Yeah. And he really encouraged me to sing and play. So that was kind of putting them together. I always like to say there's singing, and then there's playing. And then there's the second hand flame singing and so we were working on things, and he was really encouraging me to put together like a showcase. That didn't happen. But he and his daughter, his daughter, and I were working on an all Gershwin show together. So what's cool as you know, with Gershwin, it's jazz, like, you know, a lot of the rides. And we did a wonderful dress rehearsal. And then the pandemic hit, and everything shut down. And the world changed for all of us. But that was a great project that I was working on. And even though that didn't happen, or the dress rehearsal did, it inspired me to keep going and to Yeah,

Dr. Bob Lawrence  24:22  
yeah. You know, I want to back up a second because I want to go back to the whole concept of playing and singing, right? I think this is one of the big challenges that students have jazz piano students have is when the when they finally are instructed, or the revelation finally settles in that they have to sing in order to play. You know that in other words, the musical ideas are coming from somewhere, they're not coming from the hands. They're just not coming from the hands. They're coming from somewhere deep inside. And of course, the voice the human voice. This is the most unnatural instrument that we have. But I think the big challenge for piano students is that when we as soon as we say singing, right? US non singers like myself immediately go to like Pavarotti, and we go like, wait a minute, I ain't gonna sing because I don't sing like Pavarotti. But we're not talking necessarily about that kind of singing when we're talking about singing and playing jazz. As jazz pianists, right? We hear great jazz piano players kind of mumbling or groaning, you know, in their throat, you know, when they're playing or you can hear, you know, the crowd, like everyone Gardner, you know, in what they're doing is singer. They're singing, right. And so this is a huge, this is a for you, it probably came very naturally, because you were a vocalist, and you have been singing since you were a little girl. Right? But this is, this is a big hurdle for a lot of folks studying jazz piano, when they realize they're going to have to start kind of singing and at least internally to create melodic ideas or to be able to improvise. And I would just say that don't make the mistake that I made in thinking that immediately go into Pavarotti, because that's not the kind of singing we're talking. Right. Correct. Correct?

Anita Houser  26:14  
Definitely. Yeah.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  26:17  
Yeah. So, so important. So, so Okay, so now, you know, you. Here you are, now you got your professional studio going. You've played gigs, you've jumped into the jazz world, educationally. I mean, in terms of studying it yourself to get better. And then like the pandemic hits. Okay, so then what happens?

Anita Houser  26:42  
So my entire studio went online. And where I lived in Augusta was a military area. So a lot of people ended up moving. It's kind of interesting, but because it was online, some could continue with me. And then I ended up moving a couple years later, back to Columbia, which is where we are now. And I still teach, but it's exclusively online, and the studios thinned out. So I've got this really comfortable number for me about 10 students. Fantastic. Half and Half piano and voice. And I love it, because I'm still enjoying teaching, and I get to get out there and play the game as far as doing a little performing. And I feel like it inspires me actually more for teaching.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  27:32  
Yeah, having so are you. Are you teaching some jazz? Are you teaching some jazz piano to some?

Anita Houser  27:38  
Well, that's something that I have been dipping my toe into. So yes, good and adult student. Good. Yeah. And she loves it. She loves learning because she sings very well and wants to get more proficient with her skills. And she would love to be able to accompany herself and just know about his music.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  27:57  
Yeah. That's fantastic. So okay, so now let's talk jazz piano we got your background we got the whole scoop on a needed now and and now we know we got the big picture here and understand what's going on. So now here you are, you are an avid lover of jazz, I can attest for that. And you are, you know, you study jazz, you love the study of jazz. So talk to us a little bit about that journey. And some of the, you know, frustrations, I guess I could say or or hurdles, I guess better, maybe a better word hurdles that you've that you've been jumping and, and and some of the challenges in jumping those hurdles as a as a jazz students as jazz panel students? Yeah. Are you open with sharing, sharing some of that with us?

Anita Houser  28:45  
Definitely. So I think it comes down to what to focus on? How do I break this down? I'm getting this great training, I'm taking it home. But it was always a question of, okay, how do I practice this in a way that it's going to really stick and make a difference? So that was the biggest thing. So I was always asking questions, like, how do you do this? And how do you? How do you break this down?

Dr. Bob Lawrence  29:13  
So smart. I need to because, you know, if you don't ask the question, how, right then jazz information. I the the big complaint that I have about the jazz education world is that it seems to be I used the expression seems to be very wide and very shallow. In other words, there's a lot of information out there spread out all over the place, but it doesn't go very deep. It doesn't get into a lot of the how, right? We get a lot of what we get a lot of what you know, you need to do that you can do that. You need to do that. You need to do that and so on and so on. We get pointed in a million directions, right? So we get a lot of what occasionally we get. Occasionally we get somewhere Wise, which I think are important, wise are important, you know? But very rarely, it seems like very rarely. We get how, yeah. And the jazz student is left with a lot of what? Very little wise. And very few have any house, would you agree?

Anita Houser  30:20  
Totally. Yeah. Yeah. It just felt like this big batch of information that I was, yeah. My best to boil down, but I didn't know how to boil it down.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  30:36  
Right. And you can attest to that. Right? If, if you don't ask those questions, you know, you know how, the why and how, then you're constantly kind of like a dog chasing its tail, you're, you end up kind of running in circles, creating a lot of commotion. But feeling like there's very little forward motion. I mean, it's kind of like this big whirlwind that just keeps going around and around and around.

Anita Houser  31:03  
Yeah, right. Probably a big challenge was I was learning tunes or so I thought, and I did, it seemed for a while. But I really learn from the beginning, like the DNA, like you talk about learning the harmony, learning the chord progressions, like really, really knowing, right, so I would lose them. Or I'd have to depend on the lead sheets. And

Dr. Bob Lawrence  31:29  
which, which again, right, which is again, remains very, it's very shallow in right, it doesn't dig deep. That's why it doesn't stick. So that's why I'm always saying tune, practice, playing tunes won't get you there. playing tunes are important. It's fun, but playing tunes alone, just is not going to get the job done. It takes it takes shallow information and keeps it shallow.

Anita Houser  31:54  
And you're really the first person to say that, and when I heard it, it was just like ding, ding, ding. Okay, that makes total sense.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  32:04  
Right? So yeah, we need we need, we need a lot of the the why and how so. So talk to us about some of your wise and house, you've got a lot of information. So how are you? How are you practicing? How are you structuring jazz data? If you will? Right, how do you how are you structuring structuring the data to maximize your your, the benefits of your practice time? Yeah, talk to us about

Anita Houser  32:30  
so what I'm doing now, it's even shifted from when I first started working with you through your materials, I think because I was just getting acclimated to this whole new way of learning, I had to even assimilate that and get an understanding, like, I don't have to conquer the world, I just need to focus on some things. So what I'm doing now is you have questions, your great podcast, each week comes out. I'm challenging myself to focus there. And really literally going through every skill set approaching it like, Okay, this is my assignment. And, yes, if I don't complete it, I don't complete it. But I'm trying to focus to get that done, because I know that I'm building skills. And then when I come to your class, I'm trying to take away one thing from the class that I can create as an assignment for myself. So it's like, I'm creating this outside of your materials to do lists, and I started a card file. And that's been really helpful, actually, a mentor of mine suggested that, because I'm taking some lessons with him now, because I'm learning to write songs. And he's helping me with music theory, but a car file where I have it by category, the different things, you know, chords, improv exercises. And so this helps me focus so that I'm not trying to do a million things. It's just like, Okay, I'm gonna do this.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  33:58  
Yes, that's right. That's right. You know, I've said for a long time, right, that every single practice session should have a single practice objective. Yeah. Right. Single practice session, single practice objective. So the mindset of thinking which this is very common, right, and I mean, we're all we all fall into this trap at some time. Is that okay? I'm going to sit down for an hour to practice. And I'm gonna do A, B, C, D, E, F and G in this hour, and that is just talk about overload that that's setting ourselves up for complete total

Anita Houser  34:44  
failure. Yeah, just too much is too much.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  34:48  
Right? And we all try to do that. So then what happens is, as the student we become what overwhelmed with all this information that we're trying to cram into an hour Yeah, Which seems like a lot on the surface, I got an hour to practice, right? But an hour of jumping from one bucket to another bucket to another bucket to another bucket is fatiguing. Right? So, so happy to hear that you have this card catalog that you're keeping track of things you have these buckets that you're putting information into, and then drawing, pulling that from that specific bucket when you sit down the practice that that only makes sense, right? Because you've heard me say this before that if music isn't organized, and clean, and easy here conceptually upstairs, then you have no shot down here at the at the keys. I mean, I mean, we're just kidding ourselves to think that something's going to happen. But if you're organized, like what you're suggesting what you're talking about, like what you're what you're implemented into your own routine, what happens everything starts to become organized and structured and clear here. So now I need you have a shot here, right? Yeah, I'm imagining that you're imagining that you've seen a lot of growth in your own plane because of that.

Anita Houser  36:07  
Yeah. It allows me to stay on something long enough to actually make progress instead of jumping here jumping there. But yet you still keep us moving forward. I like that. So that's why I've taken the podcast as my it's like I'm taking a weekly lesson with you. It's how it feels.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  36:24  
Yeah, yeah. Oh, that's awesome. Well, you use the really important word, right, that moving forward. I'm a constant believer that we have to generate forward motion. In our practicing, there's always has to be a forward movement. So that's why I'm saying like, when we break when we move, like from one key to another key to another key, and I make the comment like, well, if you don't have everything down in the key of F, well, too bad. Because we're moving the beef, we're moving on the B flat, don't don't worry, we'll pick up the loose ends when we come back around. Right. And I think that kind of mentality, what you just said there that word forward, moving forward is is so vitally important for our continued motivation and development growth in our in our plane.

Anita Houser  37:12  
Yeah. So I even had to grow in that. I'd say maybe a year ago, I was like, oh, no, I wanted to stay on something even when you move forward, but I learned like, No, that's impossible. So I just challenged myself now do the best I can in that week. And then move

Dr. Bob Lawrence  37:28  
on. That's right. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's right. I give an example. Student I still teach. And his name happens to be Bob as well. And he's, he's an engineer, and I think you've heard me tell this story where he comes in and he says to me, I have a game plan. I said, Man, I love game plans. What's your game plan? He said, My game plan is I'm going to stay in the KFC till I have everything perfect KFC that I'm moving on. I said, and I said to us, Bob, I got some really bad news for you, bro. I said, you're gonna be in the KFC for like, ever. Forever. Yeah. I said bad game plan. Bad game plan. We're moving on now. So that's, that's, that's awesome. So okay, so let's talk about some of your buckets, then, you know, Harmony when you're talking about harmonic development? What kind of things are you working on for harmonic development?

Anita Houser  38:21  
So I've worked on just working on the voicings? Yes, very honestly, a lot of it is just following the podcast, I find that I'm really getting a lot of forward motion just following the plan and trusting and then letting go when it's time when something new comes out on Tuesday. I'm like, Okay, that's enough of that. Let's see what's next. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, but just

Dr. Bob Lawrence  38:45  
Yeah, because, yeah, because everything really right. When I tried to do with the podcast episodes in the lessons, there's a connectivity there to all of it, right? I mean, it's not like, it's not like, all of a sudden, not next Tuesday, you know, we've been, we've been going right? And then all of a sudden, next Tuesday, there's a huge left turn that goes a whole different direction. You're like, what the heck? Where did where did that come from? I mean, you you see the continuity of it. All right, how it all just kind of looks like a snowball rolling downhill just keeps getting, it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Everything keeps building on it on top of each other.

Anita Houser  39:18  
Yeah. So like, even if I'm working on like, you had this improv exercise, you know, with the chunks, shapes and sounds. Now even in my card file, so that as I'm doing the different sounds, I can check off the ones I've done, and kind of improvising in the right hand using those chunks, shapes and sounds. I'm reviewing the voicings in the left hand. So that helps that so I'm starting to see I remember you said this in the beginning, it seemed like all of this information and then now it's coming together.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  39:55  
That's right. Yeah, you know, that's, that's a really interesting point. Because at What you just said there? Right is, and I will tell you that you're absolutely right on track, right? Because you've heard me say this before, too, right? That I know how somebody's progressing by the questions that they asked and the statements that they make, I can tell how they're doing it just have to listen to the what questions they asked him what statements they make. And when you make a statement like that, it tells me that you are so spot on, and that you're moving down the road, the right direction, because everything should everything should all this information should start to actually the walls of all this information should actually start to feel like the walls shrink, but like they're coming in, they're coming inward, it's not like we want to think of, we will always want to think of education as the process of pushing the walls outward. Right? Right, that more and more information Bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger. But the reality of it is, we should as teachers, and you get this as a teacher, we should dump everything out on the kitchen table as quickly as possible, the big picture, right, the big picture all the components of everything that's needed in order to play jazz piano. And then the process of education should be to take that big picture and then move those walls inward, that that the connectivity is illuminated, and everything becomes a smaller and smaller, that world becomes smaller and smaller, because everything is just so connected together. So the fact that you're making that statement, and you guys say, hey, congratulations. That's, that's awesome. Because that's, that's what should be, that's what you should be experienced. Yeah.

Anita Houser  41:35  
And one thing I noticed, like the current file, there's not a lot in it. It's very well defined. Now. And I'm really honest with you at first, when you have, you know, you have your illustrations and lead sheets, I suppose I think, Oh, my goodness, oh, this I'm printing, but I'm happy to print it now. Because that's what I have a lot of the handouts, and I'm using them for that week. And then I'm moving forward. But it really keeps me focused. And the other thing that I'm challenging myself to do is I'm using the lead sheets as a reference. But then I'm looking away and really looking at my hands and doing my best to embody what it is that's written. So I'm not just Yeah. Yeah.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  42:25  
So how is your approach to improvisation changed over the last, you know, five years? I mean, how has it evolved for you, right? Because improvisation is like, it's like, the the pinnacle. It's what everybody strives for jazz, study jazz, the ability to sit down, play changes, and improvise. So how is that evolved for you?

Anita Houser  42:48  
Yeah, so the, I'd say the biggest difference is, I used to just try to jump right into a tune and improvise, I don't do that anymore. I have to first work on the skill, just working on the sound, working on the rhythm working on the articulation. So using those chunks, shapes and sounds. So I'm not even touching the tune at first and I am starting to learn your tunes. But just really looking at it from a skill standpoint. Not looking at it, like I'm doing this for the tune.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  43:22  
So smart, right? Because when you look at it from a skill standpoint, what you start to realize that all these tunes draw upon the same skill. Yeah. Right. So therefore, therefore, you get to a point. I had a mentor in my life that when when I asked him, How do you know so many songs, he said, What are you talking about? They're all the same. And I used to think, man, that's the goofiest comment I've ever heard in my entire life. And now 40 years later, I look back on that statement. That statement haunts me, because it was so confusing at the time. And now I realize how profound it is. Because the depth of his understanding of music was as a skill base level, right? Every all these skills, harmonic movement, harmonic structures, chord scale relationships, you know, major and minor thirds and how those thirds are constructed to create sound from the root of all this stuff. All this stuff was utilized in all these terms. Yeah. And so now he can make that comment that What What are you talking about? They're all they're all the same? Right? Again, this these are the walls doing what? Right? The walls coming in. So if you if if you can get to the point to where when you're playing music, every song that you play is the same. How close are those walls? Yeah. I mean, I think those walls are probably then collided and now they're one. Yeah, right. So again, the statement that you're making that the way you're approaching your practicing of attune the very improvisation the way you approach it is spot on. Right So, so you've had great, great results with that,

Anita Houser  45:03  
obviously. Yes. So sometimes I might even look to see, well, what are some of the progressions in the songs that I'm going to be working on? Right? And what are some of the chords and I'll before I'm even approaching that I'm just working on working with those sounds. May be putting a couple, you know, two, five ones together, or whatnot. And then when I do go to the song, I love using band in the box. I do have that. And oh, good. Good. We're starting slow turning that tempo down and just taking my time and working through. Yep. And grunting Yep, he's singing those ideas as I play.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  45:41  
Oh, that's fantastic. Yeah, I'm glad you got like band in the box. Because what it allows you to do is take those skills and place them into a musical context into a musical setting. So you actually hear that, wow, these skills are music. Yes. Yeah. Right. They are. They are music. They are the essence of music. Right. So well, that's fantastic. So, voicings, you know, when you were studying jazz, somewhere along the journey, I, somewhere along the journey, right, you had to be thinking, voicings are confusing. How do you voice chords, I mean, at least maybe, maybe I'm putting words in your mouth if I am. But But I have found that with every piano student, I remember I used to voicings to me, used to be so absolutely. baffling to me. In fact, to the point that I remember, I went into the practice room in college one day, and I took a staff of took a stack of paper, and I said, I'm gonna go into this practice room, and I'm going to write out every single possible way to voice a C major chord. And when it's got every, I'm not going to leave any stone unturned. I'm going to find out, I'm going to write out every way to voice this chord. And I went, I left with a stack of paper with all these voicings that were just crazy. It was craziness, right? It was just craziness. And I actually gave it to a professional jazz pianist. I said, you know, with my chest pumped out, I said, you know, check this out. And he and he looks at it very confused. very confused. By the way, this is the same guy that said, All Songs are the same. He looks at it very, very confused. And he says to me, what am I what am I looking at here as he's, he's turning the pages. He's looking at all these weird voicings, you know? And he says, What am I looking at here? And I said, What are you looking at? I said, you're looking at every conceivable way to play C major. So

Dr. Bob Lawrence  47:56  
here's another comment that haunts me. He says, Well, you know, we only use a few. They said, huh, What? What? What do you mean? We only use a few. Yeah. And then you started showing me how to voice right. So all of that to say to you, voicing was always confusing for me. Very baffling. How have you how have you approached your voicing study? And, and I think I know how you have because we've talked about this, but but but talk to me about how you've come in that area of playing jazz.

Anita Houser  48:30  
Yeah. So after I went through those Alan Swain books, and two of them went completely through them, I had a good understanding, only root position, then I was confronted with okay, then what else? And how do I have rootless voicing? So then I was introduced to like this huge book. And it was it just felt like too much. Okay, there's got to be an easier way. I looked at a forfeit, tried to make sense out of it. And I just gave up. I was like it's right, of course, of course. So I just kind of reverted back to what I knew. So I just appreciate the voicings that you shared. And what I'm seeing is, at first, it felt like trying to understand a formula but now the more I use them and work with them, the more sense it made and how it's just there's a very great options. And it's not like I threw away everything else I learned it correct. It was added to what I know and so now correct. It's a combination of things just how you talk about how the voices can be interchange, same thing with everything else. Everything is serving, right. So when I do play, like I have some sense of where to go with the voice.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  49:53  
Yeah, it comes back to shapes again. It comes back to like what are the shapes What are these sounds so these are these are, this shape here could be a minor sound, this shape could be a major sound based on how I'm looking at it and so forth. And so it's really being kind of locked in from a perspective of really locking into shapes those shapes and sounds as opposed to like you said, it's kind of a formulaic, you may have to use a formulaic approach, at first to analytically kind of think through it. But after you kind of get through the analytical side of things, you want to just kind of shift gears and focus on the shape and associate the shape with the sound. And leave it at that.

Anita Houser  50:32  
Right, exactly. And that's what happened. And then I started seeing how one shape really had different sounds that could be it could be used for different sounds, and that was awesome. I was like, Oh, this is this is great.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  50:49  
Yeah, yeah. You know, I had a teacher one time, I need to say to me, you know, Bob, if you ask a teacher a question, and that teacher doesn't answer your question in two or less senses, find a new teacher. Wow. Wow. Right. He said, he said, they need to give you the answer. Now they can expound upon it. But the answer should be immediate. Yeah. When you ask a musical question, the answer should be immediate. And then there could be, you know, expound on it a little further, but but the answer should be immediate. So the reason I bring that up is because for anybody listening, if you go to any music store, or online store, and you're looking at a book on cords, and it's that thick, that's more than two sentences. Very true. That's more than two sentences. And the fact that it's that thick should lead us to a thought of, wait a minute, are you telling me that every jazz piano player has that? That thickness in their head? I'm not sure I buy that? Because I'm not sure. Anybody's capable of having that much data. Here. Yeah. Right. Which goes back to the gentleman when he said to me, you know, we only use a few. Ah, well, now that makes sense. That makes really good sense. I'm, in fact, that makes me feel good. I think I can learn that. Right. So that's just just a little friendly tip. If you're looking to book that thick, full of information on one topic, are you kidding me? That's way too complicated.

Anita Houser  52:31  
took me forever to learn that stuff.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  52:33  
Correct? Right, it tells you that the explanation is skewed. It's it's it's way too. It's, it's, it's like trying to treat. It's like trying to treat, treat a chord in root first, second, third and fourth inversion as four different chords, right? That's bad teaching. Right? That's just, it's too scattered. So okay, so what is what? What are your goals as a developing jazz pianist? Ultimately, what ultimately, what is it that you're wanting to do with it all?

Anita Houser  53:09  
Well, wanting to share music, wanting to be just having this comfort level of walking into any musical situation that I'm inspired to be a part of, and being able to contribute and to enjoy it.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  53:27  
Well, and you're doing that, because I just heard a recording of you not too long ago that you shared with me with a performance that you had vocal performance and piano performance with a solo and it was fabulous.

Anita Houser  53:40  
That was our you get community orchestra. And most of that music was arranged by a good friend of mine, David Zell, and he's been a great mentor I'm taking he's the one I'm taking the music theory.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  53:53  
Oh, fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, your playing is, is fabulous, you know, and your singing is out of this world. Yeah, you could do it anyway, you can do it.

Anita Houser  54:06  
I'm really believing that now. And it doesn't Yeah, we tend to believe in myself and me to teach and performing performing everyone's pathway. So I feel like I'm starting to really find my place. So what are some things I would like to do? I'd like to do some performing locally. I don't know how that works. But as far as the regular typical jazz scene, how one gets into that, and maybe I have thoughts about smokey clubs, but there probably aren't smokey clubs. I'm just not sure kind of where I fit. But one thing I can tell you, my friend David Zell and I have started we haven't begun it yet, but we're going to do a monthly kind of ensemble, a monthly get together, where we do jazz just once a month, and it's kind of a combination of a concert slash, devotional service, if you will, for lack of a better word. So it's sort of like a spiritual community. Because jazz, for me has always been the symbol of freedom. And I have this deep desire to be close to God, and to know the truth of what I am. So for me, the music is very spiritual. And so we've kind of created our own way of expressing, and I'm open to other things as well. So

Dr. Bob Lawrence  55:37  
that's it. It's fantastic. So, so as an ED, the educator in you now, I want you to talk as the, from the educator side of you. What, what words of encouragement, inspiration, would you share with the listeners, you know, folks that are beginning that journey and Jazz Jazz Piano? What would you what would you say to them to help them remain motivated in their pursuit?

Anita Houser  56:07  
You can do it, you just need to get with someone who can really break things down like Dr. Bob and give you a clear and concise pathway. And, for me, I, as far as skills have a requirement of myself at least 30 minutes a day, the ideal would be an hour, that doesn't always happen. But just making this commitment, like I'm going to work on my skills daily, like make it important, and know that you can give yourself that. And I use timers. So I before I do anything, I'm very clear about what I'm about to work on. And then I decide how much time I'm gonna spend on that thing. And I set a timer. And I don't know, for some people, that may be a lot, but for me, that really helped me focus. And so it's a great sense of accomplishment when that timer rings, it's like, okay, pencils down. Let's wrap it up, move on. And it's such a great feeling of accomplishment, and I get up going okay, I put the time in.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  57:10  
Yeah, that's fantastic. That's, that's awesome. And and Would you not agree? If it's only 15 minutes within do 15 Min?

Anita Houser  57:17  
Yes. Because every day is different. That's exactly what I tell my students, you know, is that we just do what we can. So if you can't do 30, do 15. Shoot, do 10? Do some do 10? distantly.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  57:30  
That's exactly right. That's exactly I talked to students all the time about stealing practice time, steal it, right. So if it's five minutes here, five minutes there, five minutes over there, steal a little five minutes. So those little minutes add up. So don't fall into the trap of thinking that you have to have, like we talked about earlier, like an hour set aside, to try to sit down and practice you know, if you do fantastic, but but if you steal time, you can be very productive. Very

Anita Houser  57:58  
true. Yeah.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  58:01  
Very good. So are you doing I know you were you mentioned that you were wanting to get out and do some gigs? I'm sure that will come like small ensemble stuff is what you're talking about, like trios jazz trio. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think that will happen for you. So we'll talk about we'll talk about more about that approach is for me, yeah, that's great. So I need I gotta tell you, it's been a joy having you today on on jazz piano skills. And I just want to take a moment to tell you just personally, it's been a thrill to get to know you over these last few years because of jazz piano skills. And, and a dear teacher, a mentor of mine, our friends. And, and I say this, you know, all the time when I meet folks like yourself that he used to say the greatest thing about music is the people that you meet through it really, and, and meeting you has been an enormous blessing for me. And I have to tell you, I think you're one of the kindest, sweetest and most genuine person that I've ever met. And I'm thrilled that I'm thrilled to have you in my life and thrilled to have you as part of jazz piano skills. It's just been a huge, gigantic blessing.

Anita Houser  59:20  
Thank you so much. That is so beautiful. I really appreciate that. And I don't know if you remember this, but when I met you, one of the things I said was, you are like an answer to my prayer, because I just knew that I was kind of missing something in this whole how to study jazz thing, and when I saw your website and started getting your emails, I said, this is what I've been looking for. I have not stopped and even though you know we've moved and you know, sometimes I can't get to class. I'm always working on it. And I'm just so like,

Dr. Bob Lawrence  59:54  
Oh, I know you are Yeah, I know you are and and you're always asking great. Questions and great insights and great statements. So I'm so proud of you and I'm so proud of your journey and, and the accomplishments that you've have made musically and outside of music as well as as a as a wife and as a mother. And a family I think is beautiful. And just so happy for you all.

Anita Houser  1:00:18  
Thank you so much.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  1:00:21  
Great. All right, Anita, this was long overdue. And just I just have one more question for you and I want you to if you're comfortable doing so I want you to promise that you will come back when jazz piano skills in the future

Anita Houser  1:00:34  
I would love that we can do an update

Dr. Bob Lawrence  1:00:37  
I would bet your I'm gonna hold you to all right and Anita thank you so much for again, carving out time out of your day and sharing your your life your story with all the jazz panel skills listeners so much so very much appreciate.

Anita Houser  1:00:51  
Oh, you're very welcome. And thank you.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  1:00:54  
Well, I hope you have found my interview with special guest Anita Hauser to be insightful, entertaining and of course beneficial. One of my mentors and teachers, our friends and used to say to me after every lesson never forget, Bob, the greatest thing about music is the people you meet through it. And the privilege of meeting and getting to know a nito over these past few years. simply confirms our sentiment 100% Don't forget if you are a jazz panel skills ensemble member I will see you online Thursday evening at the jazz panel skills masterclass, which is going to be held at 8pm Central time to discuss this podcast episode featuring Anita Hauser in greater detail, and of course to answer any questions that you may have about the study of jazz in general. As always, you can reach me by phone through the Dallas School of Music 972-380-8050 My office extension is 211 Or if you prefer to email me, Dr. Lawrence, drlawrence@jazzpianoskills.com. Or you can send me a SpeakPipe message using a nifty little widget found on every page of the jazz panel Skills website. Well, there's my cue. That's it for now. And until next week, enjoy my interview with a Anita Hauser enjoy the journey. And most of all, have fun as you discover, learn and play jazz piano