Comprehensive Analysis: Kenny Werner’s Master Class in Jazz Performance and Creativity
A multi-dimensional analysis of the core ideas, methodologies, and philosophical frameworks presented in this masterclass.
Table of Contents
- Core Performance Philosophy
- Practicing Methodology
- Mind Mastery and Mental Control
- Honest Self-Assessment and Growth
- Transformation and Teaching
- Authenticity and Success
- Synthesis and Key Takeaways
1. Core Performance Philosophy
The Concept of “The Zone”
Kenny Werner defines the zone as a state of carte blanche acceptance—a mental space where music flows without interference from the critical mind. It is characterized by the absence of self-judgment during performance.
“The zone is created by not criticizing yourself in performance. You cannot afford to criticize yourself in performance—that breaks the zone, that breaks the groove.”
The zone is not something you do—it’s what happens when you stop doing certain things, particularly self-criticism and evaluation.
How to Achieve the Zone
Werner outlines a systematic practice approach:
- Learn to touch the instrument without thought - “That way, you stand a better chance of not thinking on the gig.”
- Practice non-reaction - “It’s your reaction that gets in the way of the groove.”
- Aggressively love every sound - “Before you have a chance to think, go: ‘Ah! That’s the most beautiful sound I ever heard!’”
- Program the response - “Eventually, you set up a program in your mind where to touch your instrument is to let go.”
The Paradox of Caring
This is Werner’s most counterintuitive insight:
“Think about a time that you really needed to sound good—because of who was there, what you wanted to show them, or a jury. How did you play? Was that your best performance, or was it your worst?”
“When you so wanted to play well, you didn’t. When you don’t care so much, it all flows.”
His solution: “I adopted a philosophy about 30 years ago of not caring. And it’s going well.”
“Carnegie Hall, Carnegie Deli—doesn’t matter.”
The reconciliation: “Of course you care—you wouldn’t be in this school if you didn’t care. But it doesn’t help you to be aware of your caring when you play.”
Care deeply off-stage. Be indifferent on-stage.
Personal Acceptance Creates Musical Beauty
“You affirm that what you’re playing is beautiful, and it becomes beautiful, because as you accept it, it starts to glow with your own acceptance.”
The Monk example: “Monk simply didn’t have any discretionary powers when he played. He didn’t block anything. The personal power of the musician makes those notes right.”
2. Practicing Methodology
The Distinction Between Practicing and Playing
Werner draws a sharp line between these two activities:
Practicing:
“Practicing is the study of that which you do not know, or that which you haven’t gotten control of yet. That’s it.”
Playing:
“The flow of playing is the carte blanche acceptance of everything that’s coming through you.”
Left Brain vs. Right Brain
| Left Brain (Practicing) | Right Brain (Playing) |
|---|---|
| Analytical, business-like | Acceptance, flow |
| Diagnose weaknesses | “Yes, yes, yes!” |
| Target specific problems | No judgment |
| “Taking care of business” | “Do it to me!” |
“When I get on stage, it’s all right brain… Then I walk off the stage as if it never happened—because I don’t want to be attached to that performance.”
The 20 Variations Method
“If there’s two or three chords in a chord progression you don’t play well, go right to those chords. Don’t play the tune over and over again.”
“On those chords, don’t find one way of playing through them—find perhaps 20 ways, 20 good ways.”
Completion criterion: “When are you done practicing those changes? The next time you play the tune and there was no more thought in your mind at that point than at any other point—then you’re done.”
The Toothbrush Analogy
“If you could practice with the detachment and consistency that you brush your teeth… You don’t brush your teeth and say: ‘Wow, we’re really getting somewhere here!’ You don’t think of it progressively. You just do it.”
“If you thought of your practicing like that, you could attain anything you want. It doesn’t take talent to upgrade your playing—it takes patience.”
3. Mind Mastery and Mental Control
How the Mind Sabotages Performance
The mind constantly generates criticisms during performance:
- “You should be playing more burning”
- “It should be more modern”
- “It should be more authentic traditional”
“When you try to respond to those criticisms, you actually move out of your comfort zone into unfamiliar territory.”
Two different flows are disrupted:
- Flow of Playing - requires acceptance; broken by self-judgment
- Flow of Practicing - broken by “How am I doing?” and “Why haven’t I learned this yet?”
The Ego’s Role in Limitation
“The ego wants you to go for things that you haven’t practiced and shouldn’t be there anyway.”
The disease state of mind in education: “Anything you play easily can’t be worth much. People are so busy trying to learn new things that the stuff you already own—‘oh, that’s nothing.’”
The unhealthy linkage: “On a day that you play very badly, you don’t feel as worthy that day as you do the day that you really played great.”
Managing Daily Life Distractions
“It’s true you have to pay the phone bill, but do you have to think about paying the phone bill if you’re about to practice? No.”
The five-minute solution:
“If you say ‘I’m going to practice for two hours,’ you don’t practice at all—because you’re waiting for two hours to come up. If you say ‘I’m going to practice for five minutes,’ you’ll practice a lot.”
“Five minutes is always your way in.”
Recommendations for Mind Control
- Find a mode of study (meditation, running, mountain climbing, Zen)
- Practice brainwashing yourself to love every sound
- Don’t ask questions that don’t have answers today
- The power of groups: “There is strength in numbers”
“How do you feel good right now, in this body, in this moment? It’s the absence of thoughts that instantly feels good.”
4. Honest Self-Assessment and Growth
Separating Self-Worth from Musical Ability
Spiritual reason:
“Your value as a human being is not to be tied into how good you play… To devalue yourself that much is very ungodly.”
Practical reason:
“If you are going to go up and down with how good you play, then it’s going to become very important that you never go down. There’s pressure on you.”
Honest Assessment Without Emotional Damage
The key distinction is inventory vs. weakness:
“If it hurts you to admit something you can’t do—rather than seeing it as an inventory which will help you figure out what to practice—you look at it as a weakness.”
Werner’s radical honesty:
“Whatever my worst gig is—that’s how I play.”
“If you mess up the form, it’s because you haven’t mastered form. If you lose time, it’s because you haven’t mastered meter.”
False Limiting Beliefs
"‘I can’t swing—I’m Danish.’ ‘I’m a woman; I can’t really…’ These thoughts are limiting, and more importantly, they’re totally false."
“Every limitation in our life is from these presumptions that aren’t true.”
Foundational Skills for Improvisers
Three non-negotiable foundations:
- Rhythm
- Time
- Linear manifestations of chord changes
“If that all comes easy, then just throw the music in front of the person and they’re just going to play it.”
5. Transformation and Teaching
Process vs. Instantaneous Transformation
The answer is both:
“Breaking into that consciousness can be instantaneous. Learning to hold it—to be able to choose to go into it—that is the process.”
Why Peak Experiences Don’t Last
“The reason we can’t hold it is because we get excited about it. As soon as you get excited about it, it’s gone.”
“When you start to play well, that becomes your new attachment.”
The solution:
“I don’t really notice how I sound. I notice how it feels.”
From Thinking to Feeling to Sensuality
“From not judging myself emotionally, I have connected with the world of sensuality—what it feels like to play the instrument.”
“The greatest singers are reveling in the sensuality of how their throat makes sound.”
Teaching Philosophy for Young Students
Werner critiques traditional music education:
“The first thing a person learns when they play an instrument is a drag… For a kid, playing music feels like homework that they don’t get graded on.”
His transformative high school example: A trombone player who had never closed his eyes and played before opened them and said, “It was the greatest experience of his life.”
“Establish the joy of playing first.”
“Freedom To” vs. “Freedom From”
“The problem with the 60s was everybody wanted freedom from, not freedom to.”
“You want to be free by mastering the form and learning that on that level, you can do no wrong.”
The Teacher’s Role
“Let your love of the music shine through. That may be the most important thing.”
“I could teach any class and within a short time they would share my excitement for the subject—more important than teaching them anything.”
6. Authenticity and Success
Deep Familiarity with Material
“Performance is always about playing well within that comfort zone. You want what you play to resonate, and it won’t resonate if you’re not in control of the information.”
“Your voice won’t come out on material you’re not familiar with.”
Phrasing as Personal Identity
“If you grew up listening to pop music and started playing jazz at 19, if you ignored the pop music, you would be not playing to your strength. You’d be trying to be somebody else.”
“Your strength is in what’s really happening with you, not who you’d like to be.”
The Strategy of Going Deeper
Werner’s personal journey:
“I always noticed that Brazilian percussionists were thought of as such high, free spirits… and that a guy from Long Island shouldn’t expect of himself the poetry of life.”
“Then I realized: everybody’s got everything inside them. I became special in my own way for being from Long Island. What I had to do is continually go deeper and deeper into what that is.”
The Secret of Great Spirits
“The secret of these spirits is how deeply they love what they’re doing. That’s a strategy.”
Recording What You Know
“It would be a mistake to record the things you’re working on. Record the things you know.”
“We don’t want to know what you’re working on. We want to be enlightened, enlivened, charmed, lifted up.”
The Presence of Carmen McRae
“As soon as she got up on stage, you were already… This woman was so in her body, so in the moment, and in such control of the material, that her presence was a concert.”
“These are the higher goals of concerts—not to show people what you can do or what you’re working on.”
7. Synthesis and Key Takeaways
The Two Modes Framework
| Performance Mode (Right Brain) | Practice Mode (Left Brain) |
|---|---|
| Complete acceptance of all sounds | Honest diagnosis of weaknesses |
| No criticism whatsoever | Targeted identification of gaps |
| “Carte blanche acceptance” | “Taking care of business” |
| Love every sound you make | Study what you don’t know |
| Notice how it feels, not how it sounds | Detached, patient work |
Core Philosophical Principles
| Principle | Elaboration |
|---|---|
| Performance is about not being careful | Your safety net is internal, not external |
| The toothbrush analogy | Practice with detachment and consistency |
| Two separate flows | Playing (acceptance) vs. Practicing (business) |
| Freedom to, not freedom from | Master the form to transcend it |
| Five minutes is your way in | Small consistent practice beats none |
| Don’t ask questions without answers | Preserve mental energy for present action |
The Path to Mastery
- Separate self-worth from playing ability
- Develop honest self-assessment without emotional pain
- Practice targeted exercises (20 variations method)
- Maintain toothbrush-like consistency
- Program the mind so touching the instrument triggers letting go
- Focus on feeling, not sound evaluation
- Go deeper into who you already are
- Love everything you play aggressively
- Walk off stage as if it never happened
The Ultimate Insight
“That is the closest thing to Enlightenment in music—loving absolutely every sound you make, no matter where it is.”
“New theory is made by free souls who play the music by not having too much respect for the present theory.”
Werner’s philosophy ultimately points toward freedom through mastery rather than freedom from discipline. The universal resides within the particular—by going deeper into who you specifically are, you access the same depths that any “free spirit” from any background has accessed.
The path is:
- Thinking → Feeling → Sensuality
- Criticism → Acceptance → Love
- Effort → Effortlessness → Presence
And the foundation is always: consistent, detached, loving engagement with the practice—day after day, like brushing your teeth.