Janek Gwizdala Podcast

The Three Pillars of My Musicianship
This feels like a great way to end an era of the podcast.
We’re moving this weekend, the studio is being packed up, and this is the final time I’m sitting down in front of the camera here before everything moves to the new house and a completely new studio.
It felt appropriate that this episode ended up being about something pretty fundamental: the three pillars that have underpinned almost everything I’ve done as a musician for the past 30 years.
But I only really started thinking about them this way quite recently.
While signing and packing copies of How to Transcribe this week, I noticed how many people had bought it alongside Bass Player’s Guide to Sight Reading. Sitting next to those was The Bassist’s Book of Scales and Arpeggios, and suddenly this very obvious connection appeared.
Technique. Reading. Transcription.
Those three things have been with me throughout my entire career.
Technique
Scales, arpeggios, harmony, theory and the physical facility to actually execute the ideas I hear.
I’m not practicing technique because I simply want to play fast. Even after more than 30 years of playing, there are still enormous areas of my technique and musicianship I want to improve that have nothing to do with speed or trying to impress anyone.
Reading
Reading gives me faster access to music.
And despite having done it professionally for decades, it’s not some innate ability that appeared fully formed when I pick up the bass. It’s a skill I’ve worked incredibly hard on and one I still have to maintain.
So for this episode I decided to test it.
I pulled out two exercises from Bass Player’s Guide to Sight Reading that I haven’t played in years, spun up the play-alongs and took a shot at reading them cold while I was filming.
I also break down what’s actually going through my head while I’m reading: scanning ahead, anticipating fingerings, deciding where on the instrument to play something, thinking about tone, remembering mistakes that might need fixing after the take and — hopefully — getting comfortable enough with the notes that I can stop thinking exclusively about reading and start thinking about music.
Transcription
This might be the deepest pillar of all.
Almost all of the vocabulary you hear when I play comes from decades of listening, transcribing, absorbing and repeating music.
Transcription isn’t just about writing somebody else’s solo on a piece of paper. It’s about immersion. It’s how I’ve learned languages within music, developed vocabulary and continually found new inspiration.
It’s also probably the pillar I’ve neglected the most recently, and one I want to spend more time with again.
The Work Never Ends
One of the things I love most about the greatest musicians I’ve been fortunate enough to know is that none of them seem to think they’ve arrived.
The people whose playing seems almost impossibly developed still have lists of things they want to practice, sounds they want to explore and areas of their musicianship they want to improve.
Those lists make up several lifetimes worth of work, and the common thread I’ve noticed among so many of my musical heroes isn’t simply their ability.
They love the work.
In This Episode
* The three pillars that have shaped my musicianship
* Why technique isn’t about simply playing faster
* What reading music actually gives you
* Why sight-reading is a skill I still actively maintain
* Attempting to sight-read my own exercises years after writing them
* Testing myself on a piece in 7/4
* What I’m thinking about during a professional reading session
* Why one or two takes matter in the studio
* Thinking about sound and phrasing while reading
* How transcription develops musical vocabulary
* What I want to work on next
* Why great musicians never run out of things to practice
* Why loving the work might be the most important part of all
The Complete Bass Mastery Bundle
I’ve also bundled the three books that inspired this episode together for the first time:
The Bassist’s Book of Scales and ArpeggiosBass Player’s Guide to Sight ReadingHow to Transcribe
Together, they represent these three different but interconnected areas of musicianship: technique, reading and transcription.

Each book also includes its accompanying video masterclasses and play-along materials, so this is really much closer to a complete course than simply a collection of three ebooks.
And with that, it’s goodbye to this studio.
Thank you to everyone who has watched and listened to the podcast from this room for the past two years. The next time you see me, hopefully within the next week or two, it’ll be from the new space.
More soon,
Janek


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After more than thirty years of playing, practicing, recording, and touring, I still catch myself making this one annoying mistake when it comes to my practice time.
The encouraging part is that when I do catch myself doing it, it often leads to the biggest breakthroughs, or at least some semblance of direction to take my process in that feels positive.
In this week’s episode I talk about a pattern I noticed in my own playing: I naturally tend to create lines and harmonic movement that descend. Not always, but often enough that it has become one of those unconscious habits that bums me out when I realize I’m doing it.
For the coffee drinkers there, you’ll know I’ve been spending the past couple of years exploring Neo-Riemannian triad transformation theory, a frighteningly academic name for an incredibly elegant way of thinking about major and minor triads. Rather than feeling like I’m forcing the issue when it comes to creating a harmonic landscape to make music in, I’ve found myself becoming fascinated by how much emotion and movement can come from moving just one or two notes at a time.
In this episode I work through that process in real time.
There isn’t a polished lesson plan or a finished composition waiting at the end. Instead, you’ll hear exactly how I experiment, where I get stuck, how I solve problems, and how a simple practice idea gradually starts becoming music.
Along the way I also talk about:
* Why listening back to your own playing is one of the most valuable practice tools available.
* The creative freedom that comes from recognizing repetitive habits before they become limitations.
* Performing recently with Peter Erskine, John Beasley, and Bob Sheppard, and how preparation creates the confidence to truly listen on stage.
* My ongoing effort to simplify my studio, part ways with hundreds of pedals, and create an environment that encourages making music instead of collecting gear.
As always, thank you for spending part of your week with me. I appreciate every listen, every comment, and every thoughtful conversation these episodes continue to create.
More soon, Janek
P.S. With the launch of “How to Transcribe” last week, we’ve created a new digital bundle that I think serves as a comprehensive path to truly mastering the fundamentals of music and musicianship: Ear Training, Reading and Technique.



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This week I’m delivering on a promise from the last episode: a complete walkthrough of my new stereo pedalboard.
After years of touring with much larger setups, I’ve downsized to a rig that gives me incredible flexibility while still producing the huge ambient sounds I’ve been chasing for years. I break down the entire signal chain, explain why each pedal earned its place, and demonstrate how I build everything from subtle harmonic textures to massive cinematic soundscapes.
Along the way I also talk about:
* Why I changed from my previous touring rig
* The advantages of running a stereo setup
* Boutique pedals versus multi-effects units
* Creating ambient loops and evolving textures
* Using effects as creative tools rather than distractions
* Why expensive gear isn’t always necessary to make inspiring music
I also share a quick update on my new book, How to Transcribe, the recent release of Quiet Places, and the excitement (and chaos!) of preparing for a house move while getting ready for upcoming performances.
Whether you’re a bassist, guitarist, producer, or simply fascinated by creative music technology, I hope this episode gives you some ideas for your own musical journey.
As always, if you have questions about anything I missed, leave a comment and I’ll cover them in a future episode.
More soon,
Janek



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Bass players, coffee drinkers, ladies and gentlemen, the podcast is back!
Full disclosure: I used chat gpt to generate the description of the podcast below based on a transcript of the episode. I’m still not sure how I feel about the whole AI thing in general, but I realized it saved me a ton of legwork today with something I’m not particularly good at (writing descriptions of things), and provides some information that might help you better understand what the episode is about and bring a little more value to you without accusing me of selling my soul to Sam Altman.
I want to make it very clear that I have never used AI in the creation of music or of any of my books, and never will. That, to me, is a very clear line that should never be crossed.
I would like your honest feedback on this, and to know whether youtube descriptions are a tolerable use-case for the technology since it allows me way more time to focus on practicing, playing and recording real music and video lessons to share with you all.
Here goes…

In this episode I catch you up on everything that's been happening, from touring with Steve Smith's Vital Information, to moving house here in Southern California, finishing my brand-new book How to Transcribe, and preparing for the release of my new live trio album Quiet Places.I also spend a good portion of the episode exploring one of the most inspiring harmonic concepts I've encountered in years: Neo-Riemannian triadic transformations. It's a simple idea built around major and minor triads, but it's completely changed the way I'm thinking about harmony, improvisation, voice leading, and creating melodic movement in my bass lines.We also talk about:• Why transcription is really about ear training• How immersion and repetition accelerate musical growth• Touring with a minimalist pedalboard setup• The Walrus Audio Mantle in real-world situations• Preparing mentally for performances with musical heroes• Building freedom through harmony instead of memorized licksIf you're interested in becoming a more musical improviser (not just learning more scales) this episode is for you.If you'd like to see a full rundown of my current touring pedalboard, leave a comment below. If enough people ask, I'll make a dedicated video.
Thoughts?
More soon,
Janek


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After years of building one of the most extensive bass pedal collections imaginable, I’ve made a big decision… I’m letting almost all of it go.
In this episode, I talk through why I’m selling over 200 pedals, what triggered the shift, and how simplifying my setup is already changing the way I make music.
This isn’t just about gear, it’s about creativity, focus, and letting go of the “collector mindset” in favor of something much more intentional.
Owning more gear doesn’t necessarily make you more creative. In fact, it can do the opposite. I reference the Generation Loss Mkii as a key component of the process. It’s about removing friction, reclaiming focus, and getting more out of less.
More soon,
Janek


Get full access to Janek's Newsletter at janekgwizdala.substack.com/subscribe