ART OF COMPOSING

The Universal Mind of Bill

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Evans: A Valuable Guide For 
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Learning Musical
Composition
M A RC H 4 , 2 0 1 6 By Jon Brantingham (https://www.artofcomposing.com/author/jonbrantingham)
Jazz musicians can teach composers a thing or two.
Especially highly accomplished jazz musicians, such as Bill
Evans. In this article, we take a deep dive into the universal
mind of Bill Evans. We’ll learn how he thinks about
creating, mastery, and teaching.

Bill Evans has always been one of my favorite jazz pianists. One of the
CDs I bought back in my younger days was a CD called “This is Jazz 8:
Miles Davis Acoustic”. This CD had a compilation of a bunch of Miles
Davis tunes from all sorts of albums. But one of my favorites was Stella
by Starlight. The reason, I would have to give it to Bill Evan’s solo.
Something about it, so simple, so pure. Especially the last line he plays,
leading out of his solo back to the head. Just take a moment to listen.

Miles Davis Quintet - Stella by Starlight

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So, when I found out there is a small documentary called The Universal 
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Mind of Bill Evans, I knew I had to watch it. I am always on the search
for people that can give clarity to what I do – create music. Creation in
all elds seems to have more similarities than differences. Whether a
composer, a jazz musician, a painter, a military leader, a general

contractor – the faculties you call upon are similar. I can say this with
relative certainty as I am or have been each of those at some point in
my life.
Click here for the TL;DR version.

The Universal Musical Mind

The crux of Evan’s viewpoint is the Universal Musical Mind. It is
something that is hard to pin down, but it seems to me, to be a pure,
joyful act of creation and understanding. Making something that you
know is good and true, and not attempting to create something that is
“great” or groundbreaking.

The word kitsch comes to mind. You are not making something that is
like something else on the surface – and calling it that other thing.
Instead, you are getting inside the truth of the creative act, and creating
something that you deeply feel and understand. It is this that unites the
universal mind in both the listener and the composer.

This isn’t to say you can’t imitate for the purposes of learning. Bill Evans
has something to say about this, which we’ll look at in a minute.

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“ I believe that all people are in possession of what
might be called a Universal Musical Mind. Any true 
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music speaks with this Universal mind, to the

universal mind in all people.

The Creative Development of Bill

Evans
 “ It’s obvious now that jazz is the most central and
important thing in my life, yet I never knew that. I
was involved with Jazz, but you know I went to
college – I got a teachers degree, because I thought I
might teach. But when the moment came, bang I
went out to jazz. … () It revealed itself as the most
important thing in my life.

Bill Evans’ development is interesting, and in the video, I found I related

a lot to his story. In particular, how he gradually realized that jazz was
the most important thing in his life. I had a similar kind of realization
with composition while in the Army. It wasn’t until I reached certain,
non-aligning goals (the equivalent of Bill getting his teaching degree),
that I gured out the thing I really wanted to do was compose.

Bill started with classical lessons, and found that he could play written
masterpieces, but was unable to play a simple tune without the notes.

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At some point, he joined a dance band, and would play the stock
arrangements exactly as written.
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“ Well one night, I got real adventurous on tuxedo

junction, and I put in a little, "Bwang", you know,
that was written, and this was such an experience, to
 make music that wasn’t indicated.

This got him excited, and more importantly, got him into learning about
how the songs were made.

The take away: Try to approach with an adventurous naiveté. Put in a

little “bwang” here or there, but know what you’re doing.

On Jazz
I have been into jazz ever since I had to play a few “jazzy” pieces in the
Kwa-Zulu Natal Youth Wind Band. We would play “In the Mood”,
“American Patrol”, some ragtime stuff… nothing crazy. But I got bit by
the bug. I started with a Glenn Miller CD, and shortly moved onto Sonny
Rollins, Miles Davis, Cannonball Adderley, and many more.

What I nd interesting about jazz is not necessarily the freedom that

you think it has. I think I actually like the constraints more. You see, jazz

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is “more of a revival of what went on in classical music before.” Yes you
improvise, but you do it within a very strict set of criteria.
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Jazz has resurrected the “Jazz Process.” Jazz is not so much a style as it is
a process of making music. A very intense, active process. It’s about
making 1 minute of music in 1 minute of time, versus 1 minute of music

in 3 months time.

Chopin, Bach, Mozart, were in a sense, playing Jazz when they

improvised. And highly informed their written compositions.
improvised. And highly informed their written compositions.

“ The art of music is the art of speaking with this

spontaneous quality.

You cannot go back and erase in jazz.

Your Own Development as a

Composer
Learning to master a craft, such as composition or improvisation takes a
long time and a lot of hard work. But it also requires an honesty and
humility. You must admit to yourself what you are actually capable of,
and work from that point.

This is why I am not a fan of tackling major works, such as Symphonies

or Concertos, before you have a lot of experience with shorter or

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simpler works.

Bill Evans has something to say for people who reach to far to early: 
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“ They tend to approximate the product, rather than

attacking it in a realistic, true way, at any
elementary level – regardless of how elementary –
 but it must be entirely true, and entirely real, and
entirely accurate. They would rather approximate
the entire problem, than to take a small part of it
and be real and true about it.

You must be satis ed to be very clear, and very real,

and to be very analytical at any level. You can’t take
the whole thing; and to approximate the whole
thing in a vague way, gives one a feeling that they …
() more or less touched the thing, but in this way you
lead yourself more or less toward confusion.

You have to realize “the problem is large,” and you have enjoy the step
by step procedure.

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“ No matter how far I might diverge or nd freedom

in this format, that it only is free in so far that it has
reference to the strictness of the original form, and
 that’s what gives it its strength. In other words,
there is no freedom without being in reference to
something.

When I’m playing – I’m playing everything I play

against the strict squareness of the original form.

This falls right in line with what Hepokoski and Darcy, authors of
“Sonata Theory” call dialogic form. When we compose in traditional
forms, we are in dialogue with every other composer that used the same
forms. This is the reason why I love traditional classical forms such as
sonata form, concerto form, or minuet/trio.

Identifying the Creative Problems

to Be Solved

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“ Now the whole process of learning the facility to

play jazz, is to take these problems from the outer
level in, one by one, and to stay with it at a very
 intense conscience concentration level, until that
process becomes secondary and subconscious. Now,
when that becomes subconscious, then you can
begin concentrating on that next problem, which
will allow you to do a little bit more, and so on, and
so on.

Bill seems to have quite a bit of humility about his own development
though. He started playing professionally at the age of 13, and played a
lot after that, 4-5 nights a week. But he didn’t begin to feel a “degree of
expressive ability, the ability to now let out my feelings, freely through
some sort of a craft, and this was in the simple area of a popular idiom.”

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“ You just learn to throw that switch, and as a matter

of fact, there is plenty of times, that you just feel like,
"I could possibly play", but as soon as you get up
 there, and the moment comes, you have that
discipline. And there is a professional level of
creativity that I can depend on and which is
satisfactory for public performance. … () But those
other high levels, which happen just occasionally are
really thrilling, you don’t know when heck they’re
going to come.

He found his lack of natural talent an advantage. Because he didn’t have

a great facility immediately, he had to be more analytical.

“ It forced me to build something.

The Problems of
Composition
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When you get down to it, composition is just like any other creative and 
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practical endeavor. We must learn to identify what the problems are,

and conquer those problems. The trick is identifying the problems.
Conquering them is just work.

I still feel like, at this point in my development, I am still trying to

identify the real problems. Certainly there are the typical categories of
melody, harmony, form, counterpoint, orchestration, and so on. But I
think in order to really attack a problem, it needs to be much more
think in order to really attack a problem, it needs to be much more
speci c.

Almost mathematical in its clarity.

This may cause warning alarms to go off in many minds. Alert, Alert: He
is talking about composition like its mechanical and mathematical!

Well, yes I am, because… it is. But the mathematical part is the problem,
and we as composers should not just solve problems, but solve them
with a beautiful equation.

We aren’t just looking for a chalkboard full of numbers and symbols, we

are looking for our own E=mc2. A simple, beautiful equation, that sums
up years of thinking and problem solving.

“ All I must do, is take care of the music, even if I do it

in a closet, and if I really do that, somebody is gonna
come and open the door of the closet and say, "Hey,
we’re looking for you."

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The Education of the Jazz Musician

Bill talks about teaching jazz students (wouldn’t you like to have been
in his class). He says that he had a class of 11 piano students, and about
8 of them didn’t want to learn about what anyone had done before
them because they didn’t want to be imitators.
them because they didn’t want to be imitators.

“ This is pretty naive, and an attempt to circumvent

the great problems in music. But never the less, it
does bring to light, the fact that if you’re going to try
to teach jazz, you must try to teach principles which
are separate from style. You must abstract the
principles of music which have nothing to do with
style, and this is exceedingly di cult. It ends up that
if the jazz player – if he is going to be a serious jazz
player, teaches himself, but the thing is, a jazz
player I think ultimately must select and discard
according to his own self.

I can vouch, that trying to come up with principles that are abstract and
separate from style is exceedingly dif cult, but very rewarding.

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Watch the Whole Series
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I recommend taking the time to watch the whole video series on
youtube. You won’t regret it.

Part 1:

Universal Mind Bill Evans 1

Part 2:

Universal Mind Bill Evans 2

Part 3:

Universal Mind Bill Evans 3

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Part 4:
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Universal Mind Bill Evans 4

Part 5:

https://youtu.be/orEH\_Us\_vuM

Random Great Quote

“ I do not agree that the laymens opinion is less of a

valid judgement of music than that of the
professional musician. In fact I would often rely
more on the judgement of a sensitive laymen, than
that of a professional, since the professional because
of his constant involvement with the mechanics of
music must ght to preserve the naivete that the
laymen already possesses.

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TL;DR Version 
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Bill Evans has a fascinating mind, and we can all learn some amazing
things from him.

1. The take away: Try to approach with an adventurous naiveté. Put in

a little “bwang” here or there, but know what you’re doing.
2. When deciding what to compose, don’t jump too far ahead of your
current abilities. It may seem enticing to compose that 1st
 current abilities. It may seem enticing to compose that 1st
Symphony, but you need to really understand the compositional
problems rst, or you’ll end up just approximating a symphony –
never touching the real thing.
3. Identify compositional problems, and stay with them at very
intense and conscience concentration levels, until the process of
overcoming them becomes secondary and subconscious.
4. The trick is identifying the problems. Conquering them is just work.
5. A lack of natural talent can be an advantage. Bill Evans didn’t have
great abilities early on, so he had to be more analytical.

About Jon Brantingham

I am a lm composer, and lover of music theory. I have spent

many years guring out the tools and techniques that actually
work for composers, and now I want to teach them to you.

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Comments

B O B D O N AC H I E
( H T T P : / / WWW. DA L L A S J AZZ P I A N O S O C I E TY @ WO R D P R E S S . CO M )
June 28, 2018 at 4:14 pm (https://www.artofcomposing.com/the-universal-
mind-of-bill-evans-a-valuable-guide-for-learning-musical-composition-
2#comment-21928)

It’s better to work on one tune for 24 hours than 24 tunes for one hour

R E P LY

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Sonia Chan 

November 24, 2016 at 11:30 pm (https://www.artofcomposing.com/the-
universal-mind-of-bill-evans-a-valuable-guide-for-learning-musical-
composition-2#comment-18653)

Hi Jon, Thank you so much for pouring one stream of your multi-faceted
creativity into building this website. Everything I’ve read here has expanded
my mind and will no doubt enrich my composing life (and its fruits!)
R E P LY

J O N B RA N T I N G H A M ( H T T P : / / WWW. A RTO F CO M PO S I N G . CO M )
November 25, 2016 at 10:36 am (https://www.artofcomposing.com/the-
universal-mind-of-bill-evans-a-valuable-guide-for-learning-musical-
composition-2#comment-18658)

Thanks.

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Michał Sternik
June 22, 2016 at 1:48 pm (https://www.artofcomposing.com/the-universal-
mind-of-bill-evans-a-valuable-guide-for-learning-musical-composition-
2#comment-17042)

I just bumped onto this site. It’s very cool, It already helped me to get
something right, even though I’ve been here not more than ten minutes –

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Thanks for your work!

R E P LY
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Nico N

April 18, 2016 at 1:35 pm (https://www.artofcomposing.com/the-universal-

mind-of-bill-evans-a-valuable-guide-for-learning-musical-composition-
2#comment-16006)
Jon, thanks so much for posting this gem. It always seems to be that the
greatest lessons in music aren’t always learned on the instrument itself.

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J O N B RA N T I N G H A M ( H T T P : / / WWW. A RTO F CO M PO S I N G . CO M )
April 18, 2016 at 8:49 pm (https://www.artofcomposing.com/the-
universal-mind-of-bill-evans-a-valuable-guide-for-learning-musical-
composition-2#comment-16012)

My pleasure. Bill Evans is awesome.

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Jacob
April 17, 2016 at 5:38 pm (https://www.artofcomposing.com/the-universal-
mind-of-bill-evans-a-valuable-guide-for-learning-musical-composition-
2#comment-16002)

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At risk of missing the entire point of your article, I have an idea for a
musical E=mc^2. Came up with this while bored:
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Form = ((Melody/Harmony) * Counterpoint) ^ Orchestration
1. When you think about it, Form is usually the sum of these parts.
2. Just as numbers can be divided into groups, melody can be broken up
into groups based on their chords, thus Melody/Harmony; the result of M/H
can be desirable or undesirable.

3. * Counterpoint because the overall sonority and complexity of the work is

greatly improved by effective counterpoint.
4. ^ Orchestration because the array of tone colors, parts, and textures can
increase the emotional impact and intellectual depth of the work
exponentially.
exponentially.

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J O N B RA N T I N G H A M ( H T T P : / / WWW. A RTO F CO M PO S I N G . CO M )
April 17, 2016 at 7:28 pm (https://www.artofcomposing.com/the-
universal-mind-of-bill-evans-a-valuable-guide-for-learning-musical-
composition-2#comment-16003)

I wish it were that elegant, but I think sometimes it’s a little messier
than that. I would equate music more to Quantum theory… no body
really understands how it works… it just works. I like idea though.

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Boot H
March 27, 2016 at 1:30 pm (https://www.artofcomposing.com/the-universal-
mind-of-bill-evans-a-valuable-guide-for-learning-musical-composition-
2#comment-15804)

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As a long-time ‘Bwanger’, this makes no sense –
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“… I put in a little, “Bwang”, you know, that was written, and this was such
an experience, to make music that wasn’t indicated.”

Shouldn’t this rather be – “… you know, that was NOT written…. such an
experience, to make music that wasn’t indicated.”

I’ve just signed up – looks like a treasure trove of inspiration; thanks.

R E P LY

J O N B RA N T I N G H A M ( H T T P : / / WWW. A RTO F CO M PO S I N G . CO M )
March 29, 2016 at 9:21 am (https://www.artofcomposing.com/the-
universal-mind-of-bill-evans-a-valuable-guide-for-learning-musical-
composition-2#comment-15843)

I was transcribing from the video, so I may have mistyped it.

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aaron aragon
March 12, 2016 at 9:24 pm (https://www.artofcomposing.com/the-
universal-mind-of-bill-evans-a-valuable-guide-for-learning-musical-
composition-2#comment-15563)

Interesting, on several points for me. I grew up with Steve Allen in the

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waning stages of his career in the 70s and 80s. He was a man so talented
that he was not only one of the most proli c composers in history, but he
was a multi-instrumentalist; actor, writer, and host for the Tonight Show.
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Bill Evan’s insight into his own theory of the Universal Mind is intriguing;
however, I think Steve Allen could have picked Evan’s brain more than Bill’s
brother who seemed awed and subdued in the presence of his talented
sibling.

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 J O N B RA N T I N G H A M ( H T T P : / / WWW. A RTO F CO M PO S I N G . CO M )
March 19, 2016 at 8:08 am (https://www.artofcomposing.com/the-
universal-mind-of-bill-evans-a-valuable-guide-for-learning-musical-
composition-2#comment-15666)

I’ll have to look more into Steve Allen then.

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Danny Webb
March 4, 2016 at 3:28 pm (https://www.artofcomposing.com/the-universal-
mind-of-bill-evans-a-valuable-guide-for-learning-musical-composition-
2#comment-15456)

Thanks for this, Jon. It is very encouraging. When listening to B.E., he seems
so natural, it is hard to imagine he worked so hard.
I am not sore of what you are meaning with “very intense and conscience
level”. Please elaborate.
Thanks,
/Danny W

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R E P LY

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J O N B RA N T I N G H A M ( H T T P : / / WWW. A RTO F CO M PO S I N G . CO M )
March 5, 2016 at 12:38 am (https://www.artofcomposing.com/the-
universal-mind-of-bill-evans-a-valuable-guide-for-learning-musical-

composition-2#comment-15458)

Good question Danny. I used to have a ight instructor that would

Good question Danny. I used to have a ight instructor that would
point out guys that had many thousands of hours, but he still
considered them to be mediocre pilots. His reasoning was, that even
though they appeared to have a lot of experience, the really only ew
the same hour over and over again.

The point of that little story, is that you need to always be engaged
with what you are doing. Most people will fall into a comfort zone,
repeating what they know, and doing what they’re good at – but not
developing. Maintaining a very intense and conscience level of
concentration on your compositional tasks can help alleviate this. If
you’ve written a ton of simple pieces, you’ll nd it dif cult to continue
to concentrate on writing more – which is a sign of complacency and
boredom. This means it’s time to move to more dif cult complex
compositions.

I guess it boils down to awareness what you are doing.

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Andrew LeFeve
March 6, 2016 at 3:37 pm (https://www.artofcomposing.com/the-

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universal-mind-of-bill-evans-a-valuable-guide-for-learning-
musical-composition-2#comment-15481)
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That story is very insightful. Flying the same hour over again, that’s
a great analogy. De nitely something all of us can very easily be
sucked into.

R E P LY