The Bourbon Friday Show

The Bourbon Friday Show with Peter Martin from Open Studio

On this episode of the Bourbon Friday Show we had the opportunity to talk with Peter Martin, Founder and CEO of Open Studio, about their platform where aspiring musicians can learn to play jazz music.

Jazz Lessons from Jazz Legends

University City native Peter Martin began playing jazz music from a young age. Born into a musical family—his father playing for the St. Louis Symphony for over 30 years—it’s no surprise that this talented St. Louisian went on to win a Grammy as a jazz pianist in 2016.

After winning a Grammy, Martin spent some time teaching and reflecting on growing up learning music. The idea for Open Studio didn’t strike him until one day, when he went to upload a class video to the early YouTube platform, and boom there it was:

People beyond the classroom were finding his videos and using them to learn instrumental jazz music—and that is when Open Studio was born.

Open Studio is an online platform with access to jazz legends from around the globe who offer both courses and specialized training. “It’s a little behind the scenes, a little bit of tricks of the trade, you know, tips that you can only get from us,” says Martin.

These courses are designed for adult learners who are looking to get into, or back into, playing jazz. Users can purchase individual courses or they can get a membership subscription. The content ranges from beginner to intermediate—all of which are designed to be taken during the user’s free time.

If users practice consistently, Martin says that they could go from aspiring to functional jazz musician within a few months.

“It takes time to learn this, you know. You can get it, say if you practice 30 minutes a day on this, after a couple of months you’ll be playing a little bit of jazz and have some fun.”

To learn more about Open Studio and the courses they offer go to https://www.openstudionetwork.com/.

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Bourbon Innovation

As always, the Bourbon Friday team does their best to choose a fitting drink for the occasion.

The bottle this week was Heaven’s Door Tennessee Bourbon. Created by another Grammy award-winning artist, Bob Dylan, in partnership with Angel’s Envy co-founder, Marc Bushala. What makes this product unique is that instead of having one master distiller, Heaven’s Door has many master distillers and blenders give input on products, giving those products interesting interplay and improvisations similar to jazz music.

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