And welcome-- welcome to this event at Google, TalksAtGoogle.

It's really exciting to see all of you.

And everyone who's on the live stream, welcome and hello.

I'm excited about today's topic, which is

on creativity and innovation.

What is creativity?

Well, creativity is no different than what we here at Google

do every day, which is disrupt, forge new pathways,

and ultimately help our users' lives improve.

It's a constant way of being in our tech industry.

And no matter what industry you're in,

the question is, how do we stay connected

to that creative force that exists?

Well, that's what we're going to explore today.

My name is Monica Walsh.

And I'm a member of the Streams, Photos,

and Sharing team here at Google.

And one of the really cool things that I get to do here

is work with tons of creative people.

One of them is Bradley Horowitz, who happens to be my boss.

In his early career, he was an innovator himself,

starting his own startup company,

which was quite successful.

And he's a musician and also leads

a lot of innovative products here at Google.

I want to just take a minute and acknowledge and thank him

because this event was his brainchild.

So thank you Bradley for being our host today.

[APPLAUSE]

In the next couple of hours, we're

going to go on a journey, a musical journey.

We'll have discussions.

And yes, there will be music.

We're exploring the theme, unlocking creativity.

And first, we're going to hear from composer and pianist Kenny

Werner.

We'll have a brief stand and stretch

and then we'll come back for a panel discussion.

I'll talk more about the panel in a minute.

So first, Kenny.

Kenny Werner is a world-class jazz pianist and composer.

He's author of a book called "Effortless Mastery."

And the book helps artists break through plateaus

in their creative process.

He's a creative director at the Berklee School

of Music in Boston, where he teaches his effortless mastery

technique.

I've had the pleasure of watching Kenny perform lots

and lots of times.

And his aptitude for improvisation is mind-blowing.

So we're in for a big treat.

With that, let's welcome to the stage, Mr. Kenny Werner.

[APPLAUSE]

KENNY WERNER: Thanks, Monica.

MONICA WALSH: You're welcome.

[MUSIC - KENNY WERNER]

[APPLAUSE]

KENNY WERNER: Thank you.

Thank you.

I decided-- I can do these kind of things, like, for hours.

And then the problem is stopping.

But in a concise amount of the time,

I thought it might be good to be able to play and talk,

sort of like Victor Borge meets Deepak Chopra.

[PLAYING PIANO]

Actually it's kind of rare.

Most musicians can really play.

But they don't like to talk it.

And there's some people who are very

eloquent in talking about it, but maybe their playing

is not so wonderful.

And this was just a thing I found I could do.

It's almost like "Planet of the Apes," wow, he talks.

[LAUGHTER]

And what I started to talk about was

a state of mind, which I knew nothing about.

But I just read it when I was working with people.

And the basis of it is this.

When I'm working with musicians, I say think about a time

when you had to play really well and it was

really important to do well.

How did you play?

And usually they kind of look at each other nervously

and go, oh, you know, like that.

So then I said, well, now think about a time

when you were just messing around

and it didn't matter what you were doing.

Or, for you older musicians, you were playing a wedding

and nobody was listening.

How did you play then?

And they usually say better.

So I said, great.

Now, the clinic is over.

You just found out the most important piece of information.

All this time you've been trying to play well.

Now that you know when you try to play well you play worse,

you're never going to do it again, right?

From now on, you'll never try when you play.

And, of course, then they laugh a little bit.

Because we're programmed, even if they

know that in their life when they try harder, they do worse,

they still can't help it after about five bars of music.

So then we talk about it.

We talk about all the things that

come up, especially at music school,

like, boy, that kid next to me is playing better

than me or this guy, he plays better than me and he's

younger than me.

Or maybe I'm not as talented as I thought I was

or it's really important I play well

because I want the esteem of the people around me.

Whenever that is, the good news is that it's

all in the realm of thoughts.

And thoughts is where most of the problem is.

So I discuss moving out of thoughts and into what

I call "The Space."

The Space is sort of a nondenominational idea.

Every religion has its own name for it,

and in psychological circles, super-conscious mind.

But basically, everybody knows this space.

Everybody's had that experience in this space,

I'll say to a musician, did you ever

have a time you were playing and it was just happening

and you were watching?

And most musicians will say, yeah.

And I say, and that was the best you ever played, right?

And they say, yeah.

In fact, you remember where you were

and who you were playing with.

That's how different that was from all the other times.

And they go, yeah.

So the whole idea is getting out of the mind,

or the conscious mind, and into this space.

In the conscious mind, we have the problems

with the past and the future.

In The Space, you're just in the moment.

From the conscious mind, there's all sorts of criteria

that you want to meet when you play.

From The Space, every note I play

is the most beautiful sound I've ever heard.

That's sort of the musical version of enlightenment.

Every sound I play is the most beautiful sound

I've ever heard.

Now, it could be easy if it was something like this.

[PLAYING PIANO]

But if you're in that state of mind,

it doesn't matter what notes you play.

[PLAYING PIANO]

Every note I play is the most beautiful sound

I've ever heard.

And from The Space, that's where you go.

Instead of trying to make music, you

have this sense of receiving music.

And that's really great because it takes away

a lot of responsibility.

[LAUGHTER]

For example, if I play a concert and someone comes up to me

and says, wow, man that really sucked.

I could say, well, don't blame me.

It wasn't me.

Talk to him.

And I think everybody knows about this.

The question is how to employ it when it's time to perform?

And, first, can I give everybody just a little taste

of what The Space is?

It's very easy to go there.

If you would, shut your eyes.

Now, all I'd like you to do is notice that you're breathing.

You don't have to exaggerate the breathing.

It's just like noticing the traffic outside.

You were breathing already, I'm sure of it.

Just notice it.

And if you have a thought, just notice that

and you just go back to your breathing.

We're going to do this for just a little bit.

And when you're ready, you could open your eyes.

Now, imagine playing from there or working from there.

That's what we work on.

[PLAYING PIANO]

So just imagine that, doing your work from there,

from The Space.

And that's how we work with students.

Actually, I wrote this book in 1996, "Effortless Mastery."

And it was kind of a phenomenon because it

was something I didn't care about

and didn't really intend to do, which is why it probably

came out so natural.

What happens is I started teaching.

The New School, someone called the New School in New York,

someone called me and said, hey, so-and-so

didn't show up this week-- today.

Would you want to take his course?

And I said, well, I'm sorry.

I'm not a teacher.

And he goes, it pays $150.

And I said, what time?

[LAUGHTER]

I mean this is when I could use it.

So I go in there.

And it's a test.

It's a midterm.

I say, oh, great.

I just have to sit here like a homeroom

teacher for an hour and a half and then go upstairs and pick

up my $150.

So they did it.

And they were all leaving.

And then the guy that asked me to come in said,

no, no, Kenny, I want you to show them some of your stuff.

And he's asking them all back.

And I said, Arnie, if it was me, I'd want to get out of here.

I just took a test.

And he said, no, no, shown some of your stuff,

show them some of your stuff.

So I looked at the test.

And the first question was, what is the first chord

to "Body and Soul."

Do you all know that song, or some of you know that song?

It's one of the great jazz standards.

So I said, well, all right, here's the first question.

What's the first chord to "Body and Soul" One of the guy's

raised his hand, and E-flat minor.

No, it's wrong.

That happens to be right.

Another guy said, A-flat sus because you

could use a-- no, wrong.

They came at it a few ways.

Finally, they were getting kind of angry.

You know, I mean the young musicians

can be quite opinionated.

[LAUGHTER]

And they were kind of yelling at me.

And I don't know exactly where I'm going.

But I'm kind of enjoying that they're getting pissed off.

[LAUGHTER]

So I said, OK, you ready for the answer?

Any chord could be the first chord of "Body and Soul."

And they all went, oh, that stuff.

Oh, yeah.

You must be a guy from the '70s.

Yeah Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I said, well, let's try it.

A guy said C major, OK.

I went C major.

Then I went cycle of fifths.

I managed to get to the next chord.

Another guy said B major.

Whatever they said, I managed to get it

to the next chord or the cord after.

And accidentally, it was probably the best harmony

lesson they ever had

So what happened after that was I