Lean Musician: Recent Episodes
Jack Vaughan
Lean Musician is the platform that helps serious musicians create, practice & produce their work more effectively. The Lean Musician Podcast, hosted by Jack Vaughan, features interviews with top level performers, creators and educators, across the whole spectrum of music practice, performance, music composition and audio production.
Learn more at → https://jackvaughan.com
Yann’s Website → https://yannglt.com
Yann-Edern is a software designer and maker based in Paris, focused on developer experience. He’s currently working at Linear and most recently contributed to the new UI of the desktop app. He previously worked at Specify, where he contributed to creating a Design API and its design token format.
On the side, he loves to create tools for designers and engineers, interconnecting tools and providing ways to adopt the same language. He’s the creator of Styles to Variables in Figma, some Raycast extensions, and he teased another plugin he’s currently working on for Framer.
We talked about a bunch of topics, including his award-winning personal website and playground where he’s experimenting a lot with different technologies, most recently with React and Rive.
Topics Covered:
- Design System Changes: Insights on Linear's recent design update, focusing on a more cohesive, timeless, neutral aesthetic.
- Inspirations and Admired Products: Discussing the brands and products that influence Linear’s design philosophy.
- Linear’s Impact: Exploring how Linear has become a trendsetter in the design community.
- Yann-Edern’s Experiments and Projects: His journey and contributions, including key projects and design decisions.
- Small Team Dynamics: The dynamics and benefits of small, focused teams in a design-centric company.
- Design Systems and Specify: The importance of robust design systems.
- Tool Building: Yann-Edern’s approach to creating tools and plugins that streamline design workflows.
- Core Design Philosophy: Yann-Edern’s philosophical approach to design and creativity.
- AI in Design: The hype versus reality of AI in design and its implications for the future.
- AI Design Tools: Comparing sketch-based AI design tools to prompt-based ones.
- Admired Tools: Tools admired by Yann-Edern and others at Linear.
- Yann’s Main Quest: A discussion about Yann-Edern’s ‘North Star’
- Yann-Edern’s Side Quests: Yann-Edern’s work outside of Linear, including personal projects and experimentation.
- Work with Framer & Raycast: His ongoing work with Framer and developing new plugins.
- Using Copilot: How Yann-Edern leverages Copilot to enhance his workflow.
- Physicality and Tactility: The importance of incorporating physical elements into a digital work environment.
- Routines and Habits: Yann-Edern’s daily routines and habits that support his creative process.
- Starting with Passion Projects: The value of beginning the day with exciting or educational activities.
- Personal Workspace: Designing a productive and inspiring personal work environment.
- Award-Winning Website: Yann-Edern’s personal website as a creative playground and its recognition.
- Creativity and Constraints: The role of constraints in fostering creativity.
- Animation Tools: Exploring tools like Rive, Cinema 4D, and After Effects in his work
Today I’m bringing you Tristan L’Abbé, a product designer and head of design at Glide. We talk about design tools, paradigms, the evolution of web & native, Tristan’s background in design & engineering, the role of constraint in creativity, the way your tools impact your work and thinking process, and a look at the process and craft of product design.
Please reach out on X if you have comments, questions or feedback. And as always, thanks for listening. @jackmsvaughan
In this episode I speak with Andy Claremont, who's head of community and ecosystem at Glide. We talk about the early days of discovering online communities in our youth and his journey from community member to community professional. We also talk about the state of no code, its relation to AI and where the space is going.
Kyle Hamrick is a creative and technical director, motion designer, video editor, and Adobe Certified educator.
Despite its youth, motion design is a vast and continually expanding field. I was eager to restart this podcast with an overview of it from Kyle's perspective. Show notes at: https://jackvaughan.com/posts/008-kyle-hamrick
Sophie Alloway is a fantastic UK drummer that tours internationally with a ton of artists. She’s in one of my favorite bands - the Lydian Collective.
In this episode we look hear about:
- Her work with different artists
- Her work with Lydian Collective
- Latest album adventure
- Her process for learning a new track
- Some interesting analysis of her tracks
- How to think about groove as a band leader
- How she approaches developing and maintaining her chops
- Her ‘Desert Island Disks’
Links * Terri Lyne Carrington episode * Peter Erskine Artist Works * Dave Weckls Drum School * The Jazz Podcast with Sophie * Capitol Orchestra with Lydian Collective * Chihiro Yamanaka
Definitely check out their tours and music over at https://www.lydiancollective.com/
Show notes at: leanmusician.com/podcast
In this episode we look at a preview of a talk I'm giving at a music school soon, all based around the composer's writing process.
Often the writing process can be overwhelming and confusing, but with a framework or process that we can go through we can get unstuck and back into flow.
In this episode we look at the following stages:
- Stage 1: Research & Inspiration
- Stage 2: Build a Soundboard
- Stage 3: Sketch & Generating Material
- Stage 4: Setup & Plan
- Stage 5: Writing & Editing
In Part 2 we will look at
- Stage 6: Producing, Arranging or Rehearsing (all big topics!)
- Stage 7: Getting Feedback
- Other general points
If you enjoy the show, please consider subscribing on Spotify, iTunes or wherever you listen to podcasts and if you're feeling particularly generous you could leave a review, which massively helps the program and the work I do with Lean Musician education. Happy composing!
Show notes at: https://www.leanmusician.com/podcast/terri-lyne-carrington
When the first musician you ever sit in with is Rahsaan Roland Kirk, your first gig is when your 10 and names like Max Roach, Clark Terry, Dizzy Gillespie, Roy Haynes, Alan Dawson and Jack Dejohnette are really interested in your development... you know you're off to a good start.
Terri Lyne-Carrington is a GRAMMY® award-winning drummer, composer and bandleader with decades of experience.
Over the course of her career, she's played with the likes of Herbie Hancock, Quincy Jones, Wayne Shorter, Esperanza Spalding, Dianne Reeves, Dee Dee Bridgewater, John Schofield, Lizz Wright, Terence Blanchard and the list of her amazing musical collaborations goes on and on... During this interview we get into talking about how this all came about. We talk about the different styles of band leaders she's worked with & how she herself works with others.
It was a true honour to speak to Terri - she's a really great person - very real and super chilled. On the day that we spoke Terri was actually doing numerous other interview for names like Jazzwise Magazine - so I'm really grateful for the time she took to speak to us.
Show notes at: https://www.leanmusician.com/podcast/terri-lyne-carrington
https://leanmusician.com/podcast
Barry Green is a writer, performer and teacher. He was principal bassist for the Cincinnati symphony for 28 years. He’s coached hundreds and hundreds of people on their performance, not just the practical but the inner game. He’s an endlessly fascinated and inspiring musician who’s been on a lifelong quest and exploration of musical mastery. He’s the perfect guest for us to have on.
In this episode we discuss, among other things:
Barry's 3 books: Mastery of Music, Bringing Music to Life and The Inner Game of Music How Barry became involved in the Inner Game and then how he applied it to music The principles of the Inner Game How Barry has worked with these principles in other professions as well as music The principle of ‘relaxed concentration’ that creates optimal performance How to practice using inner game principles How to deal with distraction and increase your focus The importance of detail and paying attention
and more...
https://leanmusician.com
For the last three decades, Dave has been the main bass man for Jools Holland. In this interview we hear about how Dave started out, we hear about his journey to becoming a well rounded musician, his early years with Jools, all the experiences with the band & we talk a load about education.
Above all, there’s one quote or message that I took away from the podcast & it’s directly hinted at the excerpt at the beginning of the podcast. Often the study of music - whether through education or not - can all too easily become an academic affair - in other words, our effort to study and intellectualise music can actually work against us. In this brilliant interview, Dave reminds us how important it is to “go to the source” with music - in other words, don’t study things around music, or books etc… but listen, transcribe, assimilate - and then go do your own thing. It’s amazing and deceptively simple advice.
Chris Donnelly, a Juno-nominated pianist and composer from Toronto Canada came on the show to discuss how to practice, the importance of play, finding flow with computers, chip tunes and much more.
Show notes & links at: https://leanmusician.com/podcast/chris-donnelly
https://leanmusician.com/podcast/david-reed
In this episode of the Lean Musician podcast I have David Reed on for a chat. David is the founder of Improvise for Real - a methodology and library of materials that allow anyone to start and improve their improvising in a unique and natural way.
This interview was really great and I know you’re going to enjoy it.
What you’re going to learn in this episode
- How David’s worked on building out a simple and progressive approach to modern harmony so that students can actually enjoy the process of going through it. - How to naturally engage in the learning process by savouring and enjoying music, rather than forcing anything. - The difference between playing music and feeling the music - How valuable it is to have your own fascination and connection with music before or above the ‘rules’ and ‘advice’ of teachers.
And much more!
Show notes and transcript at: https://www.leanmusician.com/podcast/william-westney
William is a concert pianist, professor at the University of Texas & the author of ‘The Perfect Wrong Note’ a book about - as the subtitle says - ‘rediscovering your musical self’. He’s a perfect guest for episode number one & of course that’s no accident.
During the episode we discuss his life’s work in education, as well as his deep exploration of practice & performance. At first glance, the concepts that William explores here are non-traditional, but as you will hear - they are from a tradition and musical wisdome that has been around for a long time.