Rehearsal Efficiencies (Part 1)

I had a conversation recently with a friend about music education in schools, where she made a really simple (yet profound) remark that equated to the idea that if you're having to spend too much time on correcting individual measures, then you're not really teaching "music" as much as you're creating a compliant workforce. In other words, what's good for one measure should translate to the rest of them (unless there's a good reason for it not to). Therefore, if you want more efficient rehearsals, teach the kinds of concepts that enable students to substantially scale their growth in your absence (making you virtually irrelevant).

Here are just a few benefits of doing so...

a) Fewer un-needed rehearsals.

b) Shorter rehearsals.

c) More productive rehearsals (i.e. the ability to focus on shaping the x-factor qualities of a performance vs the legalistic aspect of just playing all the right notes at the right time).

d) The re-allocation of time for the director to:

-Improve at their own instrument.

-Source more challenging music for their students.

-Stay on top of administrative matters and paperwork.

-Prioritize their health (i.e. more sleep, exercise, better nutrition).

e) Better cost-benefit for the director's time to earned income ratio.

f) A better self-perpetuating culture where the director won't be the only one responsible for everyone's growth; where the upper classmen also feel compelled to train the lower classmen to ensure that the flow of excellence within a program doesn't die on the vine after they graduate.

g) A developed reputation for developing students who are consistently awarded scholarships to help offset the rising cost of higher education.

The Doors: Re-contextualizing how we evaluate risks.

There was something I was reading a while ago that was related to existential flex’s in business, and how to think about navigating the risks involved. And the analogy used was that of two doors, where if one allowed you to walk back and forth through it, the other was designed with a doorknob on only one side. In other words, the first door would be a proxy for making an unlimited number of mistakes while the second would only allow you one shot. But this now begs the question of how to adequately tell the difference between the two when faced with important decisions to make.

So much of what’s required in achieving anything requires the ability to separate fact from conjecture. And the longer it takes for a person to clearly delineate the two from each other, the more fear has a chance to gain momentum by allowing our brains the time needed to create a compelling story that can justify why we’re dragging our feet. And if you’ve ever heard Mel Robbins’ talk about her “five second rule,” you’ll understand that there’s an evolutionary reason for why fear is amplified the longer you pause, which you can view here.

Story time…

Given that the name Marine has a connotation of water, means that you can’t become one unless you know how to swim. So when my platoon in basic training got to the swim qualification portion, the first test we had to pass was jumping off of a high dive into the deepest end of our swimming pool (probably about 14 feet deep), and with a bunch of our gear on (helmet, rubber M16, large backpack, and boots). And I remember thinking that there was no way I’d be able to swim back to the top with all that on. But what got me over the fear was being able to quickly realize that the worst-case scenario was probably the least likely case scenario, as the pool had plenty of instructors in it. And even if I did pass out from taking on too much water, they’d simply revive me on the side of the pool. So the question then became, “am I willing to pay this price of discomfort to become a Marine?” And once I told myself yes, I was able to move forward. So this was clearly a door #1 scenario.

Another example was when I was about to leave the Marines at age 22, and I had the choice to either try my luck with the unknowns of the NYC area or simply return home to the familiar surrounding of Portland, OR. And while the second option would have been 100 times more convenient, I knew that I’d always kick myself for not trying my luck out East. So again, because I was willing to pay the price of discomfort for an opportunity that I felt had way more upside than going back home, this too became a door #1 scenario. Was it nerve wracking? Yes! Was it worth it? Hell yeah!! And if I had to do it all over again, I absolutely would.

The funny thing is that as I’ve gotten older, I have found myself at times plagued with confusion as to whether or not certain opportunities were actually a door #1 or #2. But what continues to help re-center my perspective is when I remember that the only things in this world that actually constitute a #2 is the loss of life and limb. So in reality, any hesitation outside of that is really a response to the feeling that one might not have the physical stamina to go the distance to fight for what they say they want. That said, I’m sympathetic to why people can’t tell the difference between these two doors. Meaning, if we’re already fighting daily battles within our respective arenas, the thought of not having enough energy for those things—let alone the extra needed to stretch towards something more—can lead us to falsely project that something might be a #2 when it really isn’t.

Suggested Takeaway’s…

a) Outside of the loss of life or limb, everything is actually a door #1 scenario. But if it feels like a #2, then it’s only because you don’t have enough minds around you who are capable of seeing variables and strategies that you can’t currently see.

b) Everything we do requires energy. Therefore, the greater your physical capacity for discomfort, the greater your mental capacity will be for tolerating discomfort, as the mind will always tap out before the body does. So this is why physical exercise is such an incredible value add in our lives, and in more ways than any of us will ever fully comprehend.  

c) A lot of our risk assessments are predicated upon our conception of reasonability, which is nothing more than an issue of comparison. Case in point, the 4-minute mile.  

The Value of Culture

Everything we invest our time, energy, and resources into is driven by the value we expect to receive on the back end of said investments. And like the age-old adage of “price is what you pay, value is what you get,” just means that we value what we think is valuable. Therefore, since common sense tells us that music, just like fashion, will always function as a medium for amplifying the sensibilities and visibility of the cultures they come from, means that when we embrace a style of music, what we’re really embracing are certain cultural tenants that undergird that music.

With that said, the direction that I want to take this post has to do with the idea of the unsung heroes that have contributed mightily to the health of certain cultural activities, because when you look at the history of various art forms, and the artists that have received high praise from their culture for serving as an exemplary model for that culture, it’s important to also give credit to the lesser-known benefactors that have played critical roles within the sustainment of the cultural ecosystems that produce the art that we consume. And personally, I’d rather see these people and institutions recognized well within their lifetime. So I want to start by highlighting three important benefactors within the greater Portland, OR area that have served as important linchpins within the various efforts that have been made since the start of the 2020 shutdown to preserve the cache of Jazz music here. Which, as we know, was undoubtedly the most challenging year that the world has seen within any of our lifetimes.

The first person I want to highlight is Kent Lewis, owner of Tavern on Kruse in Lake Oswego, OR. And like the other two names that I’ll highlight, he understands the value of cultural support, because when you improve the standards of culture, behavior is soon to follow. And as such, the entrepreneurial spirit that permeates the life that he has built with his equally talented wife Joelle, is continuously inspiring him to intentionally look for new ways of supporting great cultural initiatives wherever they are. Which of course was made evident two months into the initial shutdown when he found a clever way to lean into the artistic culture that he subscribes to as a way to help stabilize his business amidst all of the economic uncertainty that surrounded him. After all, if culture is what built his business, it would be culture that he’d have to lean into to keep it afloat. And sure enough, his bet paid off. By hosting Jazz seven days a week, he found himself having quickly cornered the market on live Jazz in less than two weeks, due to the serendipitous nature of the physical layout of his business. And with the world craving connection, he was able to scratch that itch and ride that wave better than probably anyone else in the entire state of Oregon.

Second on this list is Amalfi’s in N.E. Portland. Amalfi’s is a legacy restaurant in the sense that it has been serving the area that it resides since 1959, which coincidentally is considered one of the most important years within the history of Jazz, as several seminal recordings between Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Ornette Coleman came out that year—one of which was Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue,” which is still the highest purchased Jazz recording of all times. Owner Kiauna Floyd is someone who also cares deeply about the power of culture, and what good can come of it when you harness it for all of the right reasons. And as such, she too recognized that she was in a unique position to capitalize on the tremendous amount of space that she had to provide culture with high quality live Jazz three days a week, which in turn allowed her to virtually corner the market on live music here on the East side of Portland. Also, given the great marketing work that her husband Rashad does within the world of professional sports, it has helped this dynamic duo to further solidify their reputations as well-known and highly respected people who so desperately want to help push the culture of Portland forward with a new and improved narrative.

And last but not least, The 1905 responded by hosting livestreamed events out of their space. And while the owner Aaron Barnes recognized that his space could not meet the safety requirements needed to continue hosting live Jazz shows, while still making the revenue needed to keep his doors open, he was quick to respond by setting up virtual performances instead, which has allowed him to expand his brand awareness globally while simultaneously reducing his entertainment costs, which really came in handy throughout the winter months when it was too cold for anyone to perform outside. And as such, his live streamed events were able to fill the cultural entertainment gap until the weather could finally break. And now as we move closer to summer, he’s able to satisfy both an in-person audience while simultaneously offering a livestreamed option for people to partake in, no matter where they are in the world. Also, it’s worth noting that as of October 2018, his venue sits on the list of the top 100 venues world-wide to hear live Jazz via the famed Downbeat Magazine.

Suggested Takeways…

a) The invisible hand of the market that shapes the world we live in is driven by the way businesses react to the ebbing and flowing of culture. And if you don’t lean into culture to know how to communicate with it, then you’re going to find yourself always reacting clumsily when market shifts occur, as opposed to already having the insight needed to get in front of those shifts when they happen.

b) Music preferences are one of the most reliable indicators for how and when cultural shifts will happen.

c) The world of music owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to all of the lesser known individual and organizational benefactors that have never received their rightful due. And as such, they should be exalted whenever possible.  

Using music to re-contextualize reading and comprehension.

A common troupe that we’ve all heard is that people (especially millennials) have lost the skill to communicate effectively, now that we’re firmly entrenched into the tech dominated landscape of the 21st century. However, people such as a Gary Vee will tell you that people are actually communicating more than ever before. It just doesn’t look like it used to in the past. Well, I’m also compelled now to push back on the notion that people tend to read less after they leave the compulsory learning environment of school as well. I think they’re reading just as much if not more so after they leave school. The difference, however, is the substance of what they’re reading. And to go one step further, an even more compelling argument may be to say that the rate at which people read is of lesser concern than their ability to comprehend and contextualize the importance of what they’re reading.

As a music educator, one of the hardest things to do is to get young students to REALLY listen to a song before sitting down to read it. Their assumption is that if they’ve given a song a few cursory passes, that should be sufficient, as the sheet music “should” fill in the rest of their blind spots. But that assumes that any sheet of music could ever adequately articulate everything that needs to be indicated, and in a way that NO ONE could ever misunderstand. But the reality is that if someone were to adequately write out a chart that could compensate for a musician who has chosen not to listen to how it goes, it would be the most cluttered thing you’d never want to look at, as oftentimes it’s counterproductive to attempt to notate certain things with standard notation—case in point, think about how insufficient it will always be to fully articulate a feeling into a text or email message without it being misinterpreted on some level. Therefore, without an aural component to fully counterbalance written content, it can create something as small as a one-degree misfire that can exponentially grow out of proportion before you know it. So the fact of the matter is that reading is actually a form of “hearing.” Meaning that when you’re reading, you’re hearing the words being said in your head, because if you were to read a foreign language that you had no experience with, you’d just be starring at a bunch of squiggly lines that mean nothing to you. That said, it’s also important to remember that the “faintest ink is more powerful than the strongest memory.” Meaning that the value of writing things down is so it can reduce our cognitive load for keeping the main things “the main things.”

Suggested Takeaways…

a) Words don’t write themselves. People write them. Therefore, a book is a substitute for a conversation with the author. *Hint: Reading is actually “hearing” without the sound. So listen to the people whose writing you consume, and as often as you can, as it’ll increase the speed and absorption rate of your reading.

b) Don’t be so quick to claim ownership of your comprehension of a subject until it has been balanced extensively enough through at least two of your senses (i.e. eyes and ears).  

c) Listening requires patience. So if you’re an impatient person, your mind might not sit still long enough to absorb the most pertinent parts of a story or music. Which, depending on what you’re doing, could present a set of liabilities that may be hard to bounce back from.

Growth & Goals

Given how common it is to hear people bemoan where they are in life or their careers, you’d think that conversations about growth and goals would be more commonplace. So my hope is that by the end of this post you’ll either develop a new interest in this subject matter, or at least leave with yet another way to think about it.

In the macro sense, the goals we choose to embrace represent visible and evolutionary mile-markers within our lives. And at the micro level, they represent experiments that we conduct to test the theories we have on anything that’s important to us. So since one of my greatest goals has always been to sound as great as my musical heroes, it means that I’m going to have to learn how to think like them—which is a growth issue—in order to play like them, which is a goal issue. And like I like to say these days, “the quality of our doing will always be a lagging measure of the quality of our being.”

Recently I came up with a simple iceberg concept that’s great for explaining why great musicians sound the way they do. And the gist of the concept is that if the visible part of their playing represents feelings, and the part just below the water’s surface represents moments, then the bottom of the iceberg represents function. In other words, if the potency of a listener’s feelings is reflective of the number and quality of memorable moments, then the solidity of a bands musical foundation is what makes it possible to create those moments. Now by this logic, it clearly says that the more moments you make, the more potent the feelings should be for the listener. However, there’s an important caveat to this perspective that can invalidate this theory if it’s not pointed out. Which I honestly believe separates the good from the great.

Story time…

A few years ago, bassist Chuck Israels said something to me that I’ll never forget. He said that back in his day everyone learned to play the same songs a million different ways, whereas today people learn to play a million songs the exact same way. And he’s absolutely correct! But the reason why is because in his youth he had more opportunities to learn how to maintain the attention of a typical non-music playing and paying audience, which tends to be the bulk of the attendees at most music events. And like the military, we musicians should be training for the types of battlefields we’re inevitably going to have to encounter. But when musicians aren’t put in enough of these environments to learn how to play for an everchanging audience—unlike the same faces they encounter among their peers in perhaps a scholastic environment— many important lessons go unlearned.

As mentioned earlier, moments create feelings. But if embraced at face value, this statement can derail even the most well-intentioned of musicians. Meaning that like the reciting of a script, it’s not hard to play an idea without regard to how it affects anyone else. But when it comes to the rhythmic timing/placement of an idea, it can only be understood within the context of how it affects the feeling of a groove for everyone else. So as you can see one is me focused whereas the other is we focused. And when I learned to place a higher premium on the integrity of a groove for the benefit of others, it suddenly became the musical differentiator that I was missing for how to make a song sound unique, and not like a million other songs that I know how to play. But to sustain this type of focus required me to become the kind of person that could see the value in caring more about what I could do for others than what I could do for the sole benefit of myself. And that perspective is one of the most quintessential hallmarks of personal growth, as in this scenario the quality of my being needed to be what it needed to become in order to improve the quality of my performances.  

So again, while goals are great for helping us to focus our energy on a productive set of purposes—so as to prevent ourselves from spinning aimlessly in life without direction—remember that the true value of our goals is that they reflect back to us the extent to which we’ve matured in life. And the extent to which we mature is the extent to which we travel inward to learn more about how to improve our outlook on life, so as to ultimately improve the way we show up in the world.

Suggested Takeaways…

a) Goals are temporary, growth is forever.

b) Good musicians rely on formulaic moments to drive the end feeling, whereas great musicians rely on the contextual feeling of a song to dictate the substance of the moments that can drive the end feeling.    

c) The goals we choose to embrace represent visible and evolutionary mile-markers within our lives. And like a mirror, they reflect back to us where we are along the continuous spectrum of our internal growth. 

Passion & Purpose: What are they and why do they matter?

I’ve always been interested in the contrasting lifestyles that people lead. And wondering what objective conclusions can be made about those that get to live the lives they live, versus those who feel they have to live the lives they live, has been one of my greatest curiosities. But now that I’ve read the book Atomic Habits by James Clear, it has become clear to me that the answer lies in knowing the difference between passion and purpose.

  If you objectively think about what our purpose is here on earth, we can conclude that it is to simply perpetuate the continued existence of our species. After all, every plan we make for tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year, is because we expect to still exist at all of those future points in time. And since our collective existence is a team sport in which we’re all on the same team, means that our purpose is to help other people survive and hopefully thrive. Which, by the way, if we focus on thriving as opposed to simply surviving, the former will automatically address the latter (but more on that in a future post). As for passion, it is an energetic feeling that we apply to any activity that we feel can give us the fuel and focus needed to go the distance towards fulfilling our earthly purpose.

  When you think about why certain people can’t lose weight, it’s not because it’s impossible for them to do so. It’s because they’re not emotionally up to the task, seeing as how the calculous is very simple: move more, eat less. This isn’t a moral issue, it’s a physics issue. Therefore, when it comes to those who are confused as to if they should be following their passion(s) or their purpose (let alone knowing the difference between the two), it’s because they have yet to figure out if they’re emotionally up to the task of learning how to passionately embrace the kinds of activities (even if it’s not their original passion) for helping them to fulfill their purpose of helping others as stated above. And this my friends is where the rubber really meets the road.

Logic says to pick a target, reverse engineer a process for hitting said target within a specified amount of time, and then stick to a work habit for executing on that process. However, if your current passions don’t seem to fit anywhere within such a scheme after you’ve drawn it out, this is where the emotional reluctance occurs towards letting go of your beliefs about yourself. And the best analogy I can give is the feeling of doubt one might have towards their abilities to find another person who can make them feel as good as the last person they were with before that relationship dissolved. In other words, a person might have a hard time believing that it’s actually possible for anything else in this world to energetically satisfy them like the passion(s) they currently hold. But the irony of it all is that none of us came into this world with ANY of the passions we currently hold. Those passions were developed over time. So if we could do it once, we could do it again by learning to develop other passions that may be more appropriate towards this mechanical purpose we all share (i.e. showing others how to thrive in all areas of life). But it all starts with defining what we want that purpose/vision to look like, and in great detail (think the specificity of MLK’s Dream speech) if we’re to know that we’re actually hitting our target. And THAT’s the part that most of us fail to do! So in paraphrasing Robert Kiyosaki, you have to really dig into the “numbers” when you need to make an unemotional decision about matters that matter the most.

Suggested Takeaways…

a) Leading a life by passion alone is like allowing yourself to be in a boat in the middle of the ocean without a sail, simply because you have a profound preference for the boat you currently have.

b) Passion(s) is for self, purpose is for everyone else.

c) Doing the math (i.e. the “numbers”) means being clear on exactly how you want the look and feel of your purpose to play out. From there, pick a date, plot a course, and become relentless about finding some aspect of the course you can become passionate about. *Hint: If your current passion(s) don’t fit easily into the picture, find as many aspects of the process where you can integrate your current passion(s) so that you won’t be so energetically reluctant to do the work.

Myths & Philosophies: The Birthing of a Constitution

When people say that they’re not rule followers, that’s not to be taken literally. What they’re really saying is that the only rules they see fit to adhere to are their own, as we’re all following a framework of some kind. That said, when two or more musical frameworks/philosophies are at odds with each other, friction on the bandstand becomes the most visible. Therefore, the only way to reach a sense of equilibrium is to balance enough perspectives against as many objective truths as possible.

Like the framing of our constitution, our sense of reality is representative of philosophies that were once distilled from a set of “tribal myths.” So until I can fully explore the myths and subsequent philosophies of another musician, I’m compelled to suspend my judgement of their capacity until I have this important information. In fact, a perfect illustration of this idea gone awry can be summed up by the 1984 decision by the Portland Trailblazers to draft Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan. The philosophy that all centers should be over a certain height was driven by the myth that if they are tall, it increases the chances that they’ll be able to make and block shots easier when closer to a basket, in addition to grabbing rebounds easier. In other words, the idea that the success of a team should hinge around the position of a center is the myth. But clearly this concept isn’t an exact science, as MJ would go on to dominate the sport from the position of a guard. So because their philosophical calculations didn’t allow them the flexibility to identify other useful key performance indicators (KPI) for MJ’s growth potential, the Trailblazers passed on one of the greatest basketball players ever in exchange for a guy who would be riddled with a number of injuries.

In bringing this back to music, my experiences over the years have taught me to be cautious of being overly certain about the growth potential of others, as there have been a few people that have really surprised me with what they’ve been able to bring to the table over time, which I could have never predicted if my philosophy on permanence was too ridged. And in each of those surprising instances, my decision to keep them close always came after I had gained more clarity behind the myths of their philosophies. Which in turn gave me an idea as to how open their mindset was to entertaining other philosophies. So to paraphrase a quote by the great saxophonist Kenny Garrett, “I don’t need someone who’s at my level. I just need someone who’s trying to go where I want to go. I can teach them the rest of what they need to know along the way.” And as we know, it’s not uncommon to hear of a student eventually surpassing the abilities of their teacher.

Suggested Takeaways…

a) Our sense of reality will always be representative of philosophies that have been distilled from a series of “tribal myths” from somewhere. So without the knowledge of the “myths” of another, our ability to comprehend and communicate effectively will always fall short to some degree.

b) Everyone is a rule follower, even if it is one’s own rules that are being followed. However, unlike our nation’s constitution, our internal constitutions haven’t exactly undergone the same level of scrutiny by the minds of as many critical thinkers. Not to mention, our personal constitutions aren’t accessibly on display for all the world to understand us better either. So if we can’t imagine there not being a well-defined constitution to help guide the culture of all organizations, why not apply this idea to our personal lives?

c) To have an expanded view of all key performance indicators helps to hedge against any bias we may hold towards one’s growth potential if at first they don’t appear to comfortably fit the framework of our wisdom (i.e. Michael Jordan).

Communication: Seeds and Soil

Over the past two weeks I’ve been learning a lot about myself and the world around me. And one of the simple things I’ve been reminded of is how perspective shifts are re-interpretations of reality. Therefore, it’s important that we stay in pursuit of as many objectifiable truths as we can about how the universe works so that we can improve upon the way in which we engage with everything and everyone. So as always, the purpose of this blog post is to draw some compelling lines between the subject matter, music, and the human condition.

If you’re a farmer, there are a number of things and tests that have to be done to a plot of land before the process of planting seeds begins. And even after seeds have been planted there’s still a process of maintenance that must occur so as to ensure the healthy growth of the crops that are meant to be harvested. Which, as you can imagine, is no different than the process of preparing for a child and the subsequent raising of that child from inception to adulthood. So if we take this same farming concept to the way in which we engage in communicating with one another, what specifically might this look like?

When strangers meet for the first time, it’s almost like watching two prize fighters square off as they size each other up physically and intellectually through small talk. And perhaps that’s one of those constants that we might see throughout the animal kingdom where two animals have to establish if the other will be friendly or adversarial before they allow themselves to put their safety guard down. But regardless as to if I’m right or not about this, it still occurs to me that this process of evaluating each other can be a good analogy for how we evaluate plots of land for harvesting. Therefore, since all of the ways in which we communicate verbally and non-verbally are like seeds that we’re constantly spreading around, both intentionally and unintentionally, the question becomes whether or not we’re aware of what the quality is of the seeds we’re sowing. After all, to not know the substance of the seeds you’re planting in people would be like a band leader who allows someone to create and post a gig flier all over town for an upcoming show without proofing the flyer before it gets deployed. It could be fine, but they’ll never know for sure.

Now regarding the planting of seeds where you know what the substance of those seeds are, can allow you to stay in the driver’s seat of how you navigate the opportunities that will present themselves to you along your journey in life. That said, it’s also important to remember that just because you want to plant seeds somewhere, it doesn’t mean that you can if the soil isn’t conducive for you to do so. So just like in business, timing is important. So to be successful you’d want to start by surveying the substance of the soil to determine if what you intend to plant will be supported by that environment before you start determining the kinds of tools you’ll need to help prep the land for what you intend to grow. And again, there’s still a process of constant care that needs to be applied towards the final harvesting of your crops. But the better you prep on the front end, the easier it should be to maintain the integrity of your crops once they start to bloom.

Suggested Takeaways…

a) We are constantly broadcasting thoughts about ourselves and others in both verbal and non-verbal ways. So if a broadcast station has to be mindful of all the direct and indirect messaging that comes from their station, then it’s a good idea for us to be just as mindful of all the messages we’re broadcasting as well.

b) Before you begin the intentional practice of sowing good seeds into people, it’s helpful to know what the substance of their mind is, because to continue planting a certain type of seed in the field of someone’s mind that’s not ready for it can emotionally burn you out if you fail to survey the “land” before you begin.

c) Just like with construction, the more work you put in on the front end to prep a parcel of land, the faster the growth process will go. So to quote my man John C. Maxwell “you can either pay now and play later, or play now and pay later.” Either way, you have to pay. The difference, however, is that when you pay on the back end, you’ll always pay with interest.

Foundation: We are what we eat!

If you find yourself in a hurricane, tornado, or earthquake, your mission is to take cover under whatever set of surfaces are sturdy enough to help you weather said storm. So when you find yourself stuck in the middle of an economic, health, or social storm, your only recourse is to identify a set of reliable principles that can support your well-being until (and after) the ground settles. And I can’t think of a more intuitive path towards the embodiment of success principles than through the body, as this is where all knowledge begins. After all, just think about the developmental process of babies. All of their intellectual knowledge happens after they’ve learned to control their limbs and their mouths. So if you don’t value the insights that are to be gleaned from how the human body works, then I think you’re missing out on a valuable opportunity to realize that you already have the tools to change your life. Meaning that if your future successes are predicated upon your daily habits, then there’s no better place to test the efficacy of this idea than to observe what can happen to your body when you change your physical and dietary habits. So here’s a quick story to explain what I mean.

When I was living back in New Brunswick, NJ. my best friend Owen had moved himself and his family 45 min away to Easton, PA. So since he was further away, I knew that I’d have to really make the most of my time with him whenever I made the trek out to his house. That said, I remember spending the night at his place one winter, where the following day we went outside in his back yard to toss his football around. And since he’s also my Sifu within Ving Tsun Kung Fu, I didn’t want to leave without some kind of gold-nugget takeaway that I could internalize to make the trip feel that much more worth it. And as soon as I had this thought, the answer appeared. Meaning, whenever I’d throw the ball to him, he’d catch it with little negative impact. But when he’d throw it to me, my fingers would sting because we were outside in the snow without gloves on. So the simple lesson I took from this interaction was that unlike myself, Owen was more comfortable putting himself in vulnerable positions to gain the insight needed to react to situations appropriately. Therefore, since how we do anything is roughly how we do everything, I thought to see where there might be a connection between this idea about vulnerability and music. And what I realized was that not only did my drum solo’s make little sense back then, but the way I spoke to people also wasn’t much different. So since my thinking was the problem, I thought to fix it by writing. I’d think of a question and then defend my answer through numerous rounds of editing until my argument was what I’d consider to be air-tight. Ironically enough, this process of having to clarify my thoughts like this improved my soloing without ever touching an instrument first. And to be more specific, it was because I suddenly became hypersensitive to the value of developing singular narratives as opposed to being all over the place.

Suggested Takeaway’s…

a) It’s tough to be an effective “human doing” before you can become an effective “human being.” And as such, nothing will ever be more foundational to our learning than physical experiences.

b) All building blocks to self-awareness start with the relationships we have with our bodies. So learn what the building blocks are for the body that support its basic functioning.

c) Above ALL else, our most important asset in life will always be the health of our bodies, because even if we fall on hard times, we’ll still have the strength, flexibility, and stamina to re-org so we can live to fight another day. But without these attributes, our capacity to be of service to our fellow man/woman will be greatly limited.

Improvising and leadership: You Can't Have One Without the Other.

To paraphrase a funny quote by John C. Maxwell, “if you call yourself a leader, and no one is following, you’re not leading, you’re just taking a walk.” And I make mention of this because it’s important for musicians to see the correlation between soloing and leadership. Meaning that leaders have to be able to project clear visions in order to elicit buy-in from those in their charge. And the clearer the steps are for how to accomplish a mission, the easier it’ll also be for others to offer up relevant ideas that may be even better than what the leader has proposed.

Now I bring this up because if you want to accomplish anything big, you’ll need the help of a team. And a good example of this would be the difference between a great solo that’s performed to a metronome click as opposed to the same solo being performed with a world-class band behind them. You’ll only get so far on your own. And to quote Maxwell once again, “if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with a group.” So in the case of music, the downside of not moving in lockstep with your band is that if when you’re soloing you don’t know how to communicate the direction you’re trying to go, the other musicians might either dig in their heels by offering minimal amounts of support, or worse, attempt to sabotage you by temporarily refusing to play behind you, or by playing tricky ideas to disorient you as a way to express their frustration. So now let’s look at the hidden mechanisms behind what actually makes a quality solo.   

When we talk about quality within any area of music, the yard stick is always clarity. As in clarity of intent, both rhythmically and harmonically. So just because a soloist thinks to play an idea, it doesn’t mean that its execution will always translate as clear to the listener as it was perceived in the mind of the performer. A clear example of this is the way your voice occurs to you when you hear it on a recording. For many people, the rhythm and tone of their voice tends to not match the memory they have of themselves speaking into the recorded device. That said, while clarity of rhythm is merely an issue of sound-separation, harmonic clarity involves a few more layers of insight.

Over the years I’ve concluded that there are three harmonic levels to soloing. And to be aware of these levels allows you to use them like manual gears on a bike or in a vehicle, so that you can shift to the gear you need when the terrain dictates it.

Gear #1 (diatonic/horizontal playing): This means that the notes you use will either be scales that belong to the chord you’re addressing (i.e. diatonic = belonging to), or you’re going to assemble the chord tones of each chord in such a way that it creates the illusion of a domino effect where each one sounds like they’re falling into the next, much like reading words horizontally in a book from left to right.

Gear #2 (diatonic/vertical playing): This combines diatonic playing with chord stacking. Therefore, you can either arpeggiate the notes of only one chord or superimpose another chord on top of the chord you’re supposed to be playing to make another chord. And this works best when chords ring out long enough for the listener to figure out that you want them to focus on how well you can go up and down harmonically as opposed to going across horizontally. This would be analogous to a gymnast who wants you to marvel at how well they can do a series of back handsprings in one spot (vertical), as opposed to across a floor (horizontal) where your hands and feet have to be positioned in such a way to propel yourself.

Gear #3: This is just like gear #1. However, you get to superimpose the outlining of whatever chord progression you want, so long as it resolves back into the fray of the song’s original chord progression. This would be analogous to a 007 scene where Bond is chasing a bad guy across the top of a train but is too far away to easily catch him. So instead, he gets the good fortune of being picked up by a helicopter and then sat back down on the train just a little closer to the person he’s chasing. So again, it matters less about where you start your chord substitutions, and more about how you resolve them back into the original harmonic structure of a song.

What’s great about this idea is that it gives your solo structure. Too many times I’ve either heard people solo where it sounded like their solo ended too early or too late. And since these three gears follow an order of least to most tension, it makes sense to know where you want to start so that you know what direction to go in.

Suggested Takeaways…  

a) The difference between horizontal and vertical playing is the difference between a series of back handsprings across a floor as opposed to in one spot.

b) The utilitarian goal of soloing is to guide the listener along a logical sounding harmonic path, with the aid of clearly articulated rhythms and harmony.

c) To understand the three harmonic gears allows a soloist to not only take more ownership over when they choose to shift gears, but also allows them to know which appropriate gear to shift to when they need to. So the longer the solo, the more gears it helps to have. The shorter, you’re better off choosing a gear and making the most of it.

Improvisation: Redefining the process.

When you take the word Improvisation and split it down the middle, you get the word Improve minus the letter E. And what’s in need of improving is the melody, as it’s always played before you’re free to “improve” upon it. Now logic says that if you want to learn to do something, simply find a good model to emulate. However, it should also go without saying that your comprehension of what you hear is of greater importance than simply the sound itself. Therefore, what you listen for matters more than what you listen to. So before getting to the crux of this post, I want to point out that the best improvisers always embody the three elements, which as you’ll see, will play an important role in how this post concludes.

a) They have a myopic concern for self-expression.

b) They have a concern for their fellow musicians’ ability to adequately support them within the functional areas of time, intonation, and harmony.

c) They have a concern for their band’s collective effort in servicing the emotional integrity of the music they’re playing.

As mentioned, what we listen for is more important than what we listen to. And when I listen to many of the ideas that people reference, it sounds like they simply focused on the sound of those ideas at the expense of questioning why those ideas were ever played in the first place. And because texture and function are the only two reasons why we play anything, the unfortunate trend these days (especially within the education system) has been that people have become more bullish in their investment towards self-serving ideas (i.e. texture) as opposed to unifying ones (i.e. function). And just to be clear, this has less to do with character defects as it has to do with flaws in how they were taught to think about improvisation. But here’s the irony. When we listen to the agreed upon masters, especially in their later years, they all tend to express themselves in a way where they can satisfy both the issue of texture and function at the same time. Therefore, this leads me to believe that if you can focus on being functional in a way that also allows you to express yourself with the textures you like, you’ll finally become free to shrink your circle of concern down to just one thread of thought. Which, when accomplished, can greatly decrease the amount of incessant mind chatter that keeps many musicians confused about what to play, and how to play it. So here’s my remedy for this.

If practicing is a form of situational preparedness, and the ideas you hear on a record are simply tactics for negotiating those particular situations, then the goal is to simply decide if you want to adopt those same tactics for similar situations. And once you’ve listened to, and have learned to emulate a number of these tactics, it’ll reduce the chances that you’ll be caught off guard as to what to play in any given situation. Therefore, once a melody has been played and the real improvisation starts, it’ll increase the chances that your ideas will be framed through the lens of wanting to help everyone else’s performance, despite you being the soloist (think Miles Davis)! So once you can develop the faith that a focus on others can still yield extreme satisfaction for yourself, it’ll not only revolutionize your growth potential as a musician, but as a citizen of society as well.

Suggested Takeaway’s…

a) While the quality of what we listen to matters, what we focus on when we’re listening matters more.

b) There are two types of ideas: self-serving and functional. Self-serving are textures that satisfy only the soloist, while more functional ideas are specifically meant to help others. Therefore, to satisfy yourself through the aid of others means you “win.”

c) Oftentimes we listen to the improvisations of our heroes as if their ideas sprang up from out of nowhere. But we always forget to ask the critical question of how this concept of improvising even started in the first place. And the answer is that in the beginning, success meant being able to play a well worked-out arrangement, which had much less to do with how we think about soloing today. Therefore, through the knowledge of the many tactical ways in which the masters thought to negotiate an arrangement, is where you’ll find the raw materials needed for you to play through all other arrangements, as well as when it’s time for you to improvise.  

Sort by Price: The Value of Artistic Expression

An inability to assess the real value of something leaves us with no other recourse but to evaluate it against something more familiar. And in a world where speed is a virtue, the idea of stopping to smell the roses (long enough to assess value) sounds more like a cliché than a practical habit. Therefore, when you can’t ascertain the value of one thing over another, a race to the bottom where the lowest price wins ends up being the deciding factor.

One of the realities of freelancers is that we don’t scale, as only we can do the work that we do. Therefore, we must either trade a ton of time servicing lots of clients/customers, or we must work to obtain a smaller number of better clients/customers who have more income and a palette for the work we do. And the most tried and true way to cross this chasm has always been to market what you do for the smallest viable audience you can, as they’ll distribute all the heavy lifting among themselves to connect you to others that share their aesthetic. What’s great about this is that you don’t have to over commit both your time and resources to mass marketing strategies, as that would negate the idea of reaching the smallest viable audience. So once you determine who your audience is (i.e. people who share your beliefs), then you go all-in on talking to these people about what you do, and why they might care. Now I’d be remiss if I didn’t highlight this one extra perspective, as I think it’s one that’s often overlooked.

When you think about the popularity of sports over the arts, it’s because there are a number of media outlets where practitioners of a sport have been allowed to control the narrative of their sport. And even if someone has never played a sport, they can still learn to interpret the game in a way that connects them in an authentic way to the tribes of people who actually play those sports, due to their understanding having been informed by credible sources. But when it comes to something like music, most people’s understanding of it is informed by people whose insights aren’t as well developed as that of a professional athlete giving commentary on the sport that they play. So when you compound the obscurity of this type of analysis towards music, coupled with the lack of exposure that people have to watching and hearing world-class musicians (which isn’t always synonymous with being world famous), there should be no wonder as to why there’s such a giant discrepancy between our collective imagination of what it even means to be a professional athlete versus a professional musician. So again, without the requisite understanding of what makes high level music what it is, why would the public have any other reason but to apply a sort-by-price metric to the music they choose to consume?

Suggested Takeaways…

a) It’s arguable that throughout the history of the world, all great civilizations have been weighed more by their artistic contributions as opposed to the strength of their military or GDP. So to increase the premium on our focus for high level forms of artistic expression could really shift the way we all connect to one another across cultural, political, and religious isles.

b) Developing a personal relationship with the smallest viable audience you can for your product and/or service, presupposes that that audience will tell others like themselves about you and what you do so that it gives them yet another reason to deepen their relationships to one another (i.e. tribalism).

c) If you don’t control your narrative, someone else will.

The Rhythm of Life: Rhythmic sensitivity in music, life, and business.

When I was a student at Rutgers University in the early 2000’s, my drum instructor was the great Ralph Peterson Jr. And in one of our lessons he said to me that the art of playing perfectly in time had less to do with playing perfect quantized time, and more to do with being sensitive enough to catch when the tempo starts to slip and adjusting accordingly. And from that one simple statement, I was liberated from years of having felt handcuffed by the thought of what I’d have to do if and when I ever find myself in a situation where I suddenly couldn’t trust my internal alert system to keep me on the straight and narrow. So allow me to explain how I not only solved this problem for myself, but what the larger implications can be when we extrapolate this idea into the realm of life and leadership.

The act of being sensitive enough to catch shifts in anything has to do with our familiarity of the thing we’re observing. So when I started observing how my body and mind felt about the steadiness of my ideas when practicing them in two bpm increments, I learned to identify the subtle differentiating signs of what it feels like to play tempos that are really close together. So when I take the metronome away, all I’m doing is approximating my memory of what it feels like to play ideas at a given tempo. Therefore, like any relationship, there will always be an uneasy period of having to reestablish rapport with your internal alert system (for tempo stability) when your relationship to a metronome has become estranged.

Now the life lesson here has to do with the value of consistency and measurement of progress. As they say, “winners are trackers.” For example, a friend of mine told me that his dad circumvented a major heart attack not too long ago when he admitted himself into the hospital after noticing that his body felt different on a run that he normally does. And because his routines in life were pretty consistent, he deduced that what he felt was worth investigating. And to his surprise it certainly was! For had he not done so, my buddy might be without a father today. And as for a leadership perspective, the question becomes “how familiar are you with the routines of your organization?” Are their tasks all over the place, or are they pretty streamlined to where everyone is basically handling tasks that are in line with their job/task description and strength zone? After all, the hallmark of any good leader is one where they’re able to feel the micro shifts in efficiency and morale before the people in their charge, so as to adjust accordingly.  

Suggested Takeaways…

a) When practicing with a metronome, focus on assessing your ability to detect micro shifts in your rhythmic timing as opposed to proving that you can play an idea in time. Now granted, this might sound like double talk, but the benefits of shifting your focus like this is WAY more useful.

b) The value of being sensitive to anything is that it allows you to predict how a butterfly effect might play out before anyone else.

c) Everything we do communicates something about us. And the majority of what we use to filter the messages that come our way are related to rhythmic timing (i.e. investing, cooking/baking, sex, speech patterns, crawling/walking/running, submission of deadlines, etc.)

Balancing Act: How to Establish Good Priorities.

The contents of this blog might be one of the most important set of ideas that I’ll ever put forth into the world. And after having spent an inordinate amount of time wrestling with these thoughts, I now feel comfortable enough to stand behind them…starting with the notion that now is the time to audit our blueprints for survival and success, so as to assess how well they really served us in the past, and how well they’ll serve us in the future.

As I’ve mentioned in several other blog posts, this idea of mission and terrain really helps to simplify our thinking, as they ask “what needs to be done,” and “where does it need to be done at, and what are the obstacles that need to be addressed?” So here’s what I think is the magic syllabus that we’ve all been looking for this whole time.

Mission

• To sustain human existence.

Terrain

• Where does it need to be done: Global Market Economy (unless you live off the grid)

• Obstacles to overcome: Create a great relationship with yourself, friends, family, and loves ones; find a financial vehicle that supports that; teach someone else how to do these two steps.

One of the top questions on everyone’s mind always comes down to how to maintain the right work/life balance. But because balance requires at least two points, most people never develop a sense of balance because they’ve never really asked themselves “what do I want, and when do I want it.” Which, at the end of the day, is simply a pacing issue, as I don’t believe that anyone is adverse to hard work. I do, however, believe that like running a race, most people’s commitment level towards something is based upon their belief about their ability to finish on time. For example, if you bet someone that they couldn’t run across a street in under 30 seconds, anyone would take that bet. But if you bet someone to run a mile in under 6 minutes, most people would opt out after a simple physical (and sometimes ego-centric) cost-benefit analysis on whether it’s worth it. So again, this is a pacing issue, because no one wants to enter a race if they feel they can’t go the distance. But if you can see the path you need to take, and the sacrifices make sense based upon your timeline, then it makes it easier to go all in on your goals, as well as to articulate to others why your balancing act looks the way it does. Which ironically enough, might make it easier for people to then imagine how they can help you along your journey.

With the first half of the terrain issue (i.e. pacing) having now been established, the second relates to the narrative that says that our value begins at a job (i.e. “obstacles to overcome”). Don’t get me wrong, jobs are fine. However, for anyone reading this, at no point during your time in the educational system did you have the message marketed to you that the function of school was to help you to learn how to become financially independent and/or how to own a business. The message was marketed as “you need to get a good education so you can hopefully land a good job with good benefits.” More importantly, no serious discussions were ever had on how to diversify your imagination for what a sustainable lifestyle could look like in different parts of the world. Instead, what most of us learned was how to land a full-time job that’ll probably only support a part-time lifestyle. So again, because little to NO conversation is ever had about how to prepare oneself for different types of lifestyles, is why the idea of “lifestyle” is treated so tangentially to the predominate conversations around employment. Which is ironic, because the main reason why we work is to earn money to fund the type of idyllic lifestyle we think we’ll be satisfied with. So when I see people, especially in the arts, who say they love what they do, yet their strategy isn’t moving them towards their non-specific “lifestyle,” it’s like watching a wolf bleed out from the tongue after licking their wounded foot, even though it's caught in a double-sided bladed snare. They’re literally killing themselves without even knowing it, and that’s tragic.

With this new downturn in the economy, it has forced people to contend with the underlying fears that have always been there but are now on front street. And that fear is telling them “what happens to the value of your profession when the marketplace has rendered it non-essential?” Furthermore, when your value is based upon what you do, and not the lifestyle you’ve been able to create for yourself and family, that fear will lead you to believe that your intrinsic value is only as high or useful as the marketplace says you occupation is. So for us musicians, now is a perfect time to reassess the story we told ourselves years ago about why we REALLY wanted to do what we do. For many, I believe they thought that it would be a great way to make some pseudo easy money from doing what they’ve always done. But the realities are that the music business, like any business, exists to make money. So it makes sense to me that an artist learn to see themselves like a business if they want to stay in the game a while. Besides, given all the stories in history where ones artistic vision was squelched by the vision of someone else who had some kind of financial leverage over them, makes me think that it makes more sense to initially bootstrap your “business” through a job so that you can avoid “taking out loans” to get your artistic voice out there on your own terms. So if your job is your plan A, then your music career is your plan B. And if you’re still motivated after work to work on honing your skills, then it goes to show that you might have what it takes to go the distance, should you choose to eventually make your plan B your plan A.

In wrapping this up, the obstacle to overcome for a musician (but is really applicable to everyone) is simply the ability to generate the requisite amount of money needed to fund a lifestyle that affords you the ability to schedule music in your life however you see fit. So if you can get a job that pays you well enough, and allots you the free time to keep growing as a musician, then perhaps that’s a good fit for you. But again, you’ll never know which financial vehicle will serve you best for getting you to your lifestyle destination if you don’t know what that destination even looks like. Which, of course, will inform you of how long it should realistically take to get there.   

Suggested takeaways…

a) One of the best ways to know if you’re really serious about music is to get a job that pays the bills. If you do, yet you’re still anxious to practice after work, then you probably have what it takes to eventually go the distance with music full time. So again, when your basic financial needs are being met, you can be more strategic with how you invest your time, energy, and resources into music. But without a financial cushion, you may find your time stretched in more ways than you care to have it stretched, all because you can’t afford to say NO to the gigs that add little value to you, either musically or financially.

b) None of anything I’ve mentioned will mean anything unless you map out in great detail the vision you have for your lifestyle, and how much it’s going to cost you, both financially and within your typical habits and routines.

c) The legacy of every artist is predicated upon their point of view. And that POV is only as valuable as the number of people that adopt it. So when we know how we want to interact with them, it’ll also color how we think to construct our lifestyle. After all, unless you’re a hermit, what good is creating a lifestyle that you can’t share with anyone else?

Point of View: Social Media Tactics for Artists

When faced with uncertainty, everyone reaches for anything that can be construed as stable. And while we can’t control outcomes, we can control how we react to situations through our investments of time, energy, and resources.

You’ve probably heard that there are three types of people: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what just happened. You’ve also probably heard the adage of “good things come to people who wait, but better things come to those who go out and get them.” Well, it’s pretty clear that the most admirable person would be the one who makes things happen. And as you might assume, this person would be engaged in the exercise of producing more and consuming less. Therefore, if we’re to maximize the concentration of our energy towards a worthwhile outcome, then we need to be mindful of how much input is coming in versus our output. And if you think about it, the majority of our input comes from social media these days. Which, when you think about it, isn’t a bad thing in and of itself. However, the problem is that we’re generally not good at filtering what comes in. And as such, we find ourselves accidentally investing more time into the task of having to scroll through all the non-value adding posts in order to get to the value adding ones. But at this point, we may have just lost 30+ minutes in order to find something suitable that only took us 2 minutes to read through, or 30 seconds to look at.

When we consume other people’s content, we do so in order to get inspired, distract ourselves, or to evaluate our creative output to that of others. However, if you’re a true artist, your job is to create and present YOUR point of view, not other people’s point of view. So while this will sound super counter intuitive, a worthwhile practice for us artists is to actually consume less content from others, starting with the cleaning up of our social media feeds. So what this means is that you’d have to audit your entire account in the same way that you would if you owned a media company—which, ironically enough, you already do, by the virtue that your personal account serves the same function as an actual media company. So this means that you’ll need to go through and make sure that everything you’ve posted, or have allowed to occupy space on your pages, are congruent with the brand that you’re trying to amplify. And this goes for people as well, “as you shall know a company by the company it keeps.” So once you’ve audited your friends list as well, then hide everything and everyone from your news feed. Now that you’ve eliminated all distractions, allow only the people and pages that are inspiring to you to come through your feed. That said, this doesn’t mean that you should go on and stalk their pages for more inspiration as a daily practice, as that would nullify everything I’m telling you to do. You only need to check in with them when you NEED some new input from those particular sources because you need a quick boost of inspiration from a different perspective. Aside from that, just post you own content and interact with those who engage with it. After all, the purpose of what you post serves as a honing beacon for your real audience to find you. As for those other folks, who may very well be near and dear to you, simply call them or go visit them if you really want to connect. If not, hide their content as well if it’s not a source of valuable input to you. I promise you, you’ll be SHOCKED as to how many more hours throughout the day you’ll have to engage in the work that’s the most meaningful to you.

Suggested takeaways….

a) Spend over 90% of your time posting your own content and responding to those who engage with it.

b) The point of posting your own content is so it makes it easier for your potential audience to find you like a flag on a flag pole. And by doing so, it’ll prevent you from having to spam the world with your ideas. Instead, it’ll allow you to spend more time honing your craft while attracting those to you who actually care about what you’re putting out into the world. Again, this will be a huge time saver!

c) Being vulnerable enough to post your own content will get you more comfortable with accepting the responsibility for owning your truth, as opposed to merely backing someone else’s. Furthermore, in doing this exercise of marketing your point of view, it forces you to have to keep having real experiences to report a point of view about, because if you don’t, you’ll never have anything to talk about. Also, the process of engaging in real experiences creates a layer of credibility for your assertions. So even if someone doesn’t agree with your takeaway, they can never invalidate a lived point of view.

The Truth About Myths

The truth about myths are that they’re inductive arguments, and we’ve been swallowing them our entire lives. So when people begin to wrestle with a myth, two camps emerge.

a)  They’ll decide there’s not enough positive evidence to justify the continued support of the myth.

or…

b)   They’ll embrace the myth as a means of ensuring their survival in society, even if they don’t fully agree with the myth. And it’s these people that prefer the devil they can see as opposed to the one they can’t.

I bring this up because I’m becoming increasingly aware that what we’re all doing out here in this world is engaging in the trafficking of ideas, both proven and unproven. And marketing exists to monetize both. And since ideas predate action, is the reason why it’s helpful to have as much insight as possible into why and how ideas spread the way they do.

As you know we’re pack animals. And since our lizard brain exists to keep us alive, it means that when we’re put in an uncomfortable position, that brain will signal us to either flee, attack, or create an ally with the threat. But when the threat is simply an idea, the only options are to accept or attack it. But what’s rarely admitted, or even realized, is that regardless of our choice, our decisions are always made in the name of moving us towards a sense of connectedness with a pack that we believe will have our back in this world. But without a crew, we’ll possibly spend the rest of our lives contending with the fact that the volume knob on our lizard brain is stuck on 11, due to our inability to relax and trust that there’s anyone out there who’s willing to guard our six.

In the case of letter A, this person would be someone who’s brave enough to entertain a mindset that stands in contrast to the pack (i.e. parents, loved ones, friends, co-workers, teachers). In other words, they’ve calculated that it makes more sense to lean towards the arc of their new truth. And this decision will be fueled by either the encouragement of their growth minded pack, or from some other inner strength of resolve to follow their own muse despite the bond with their pack.

In the case of letter B, I believe this to be the most pitiful and common of scenarios. This is where someone who has become awakened to their unfulfilled potential begins to get restless. And as they explore new ways of thinking and being, they know they risk either being ex-communicated from the pack or stifled by it. If they allow themselves to be stifled by it, it’s because they don’t want to bring undo attention to the growth gap that secretly exists between them and the others, for fear of being a target of ridicule (myth). And as it stands, many would rather contend with predictable pain as opposed to the unpredictable kind. After all, if you can predict it, you can brace yourself. If you can’t, the fear is that the blow may be so great that it kills your will to get up to fight another day (myth). At any rate, when your crew sucks, your decision to outgrow them can create disorder in the court, as your growth will serve as an indictment for the lack of theirs. And for many, this type of cognitive dissonance is hard to reconcile because while you feel a sense of blind loyalty towards the crew that has nurtured you up until this point, you still feel compelled to lean towards the arc of your new truth, which may very well force you to walk alone in the end, until you can rebuild another pack. Thus, it’s within the loneliness of this transition from one normal to a new normal that you’ll find out if you’re just a follower or a leader who’s worth following one day.

I write this piece to help normalize the struggle that so many people experience along their journey of “becoming,” because like they say, “new levels, new devils.” So while there will always be new skill sets to acquire along the journey towards the summit of our potential, I believe our fear is really all the same. And it comes from the dilemma of either being bold enough to expose ourselves to the chance of failing so miserably that we’re compelled to accept a sense of internal defeat, or the fear of always wondering “what if” if we fail to launch ourselves into the unknown. And so I’m here to tell you that you’ll never regret the leap into the unknown if you walk into it with the right attitude/mindset, and possibly partner or team. After all, if you’re supposed to be writing your own story, what kind of worthwhile content could you possibly drum up if you idle your way through life? So don’t write a boring and uninspiring story. For god’s sake, make it worth reading!

Suggested takeaways…

a) Myth’s are all the little “truisms” that have been bequeathed to you by others and serve as the framework of your internal constitution, for better or worse. So take note of every little saying you’ve ever adopted and figure out who gave you that truth and why. Then ask whether or not it will continue to serve you well as you venture towards the next base camp in your life.

b) Accept no myth at face value. Do the math! If it doesn’t add up, be willing to stand alone if you must (even if this applies to your own family). It may be hard, but worth it in the end.

c) As you grow, know that certain people won’t be equipped to continue along your journey. So learn to be okay with this. However, if you choose your friends wisely, the real ones will always be with you, whether on the field or in the stands cheering you on.

How to Land a Gig

In paraphrasing Quincy Jones, the day I learned to draw a line in the concrete between music and the music business, it too was the beginning of the rest of my life. So while “music” is the art of creating music, the music business is the art of selling music. And if you don’t understand the terrain of the latter, then you’re DOA, as we’d say in the military.

Now like the military, you don’t win battles when you lack knowledge of the terrain you have to navigate. And as it stands, there are many aspiring music professionals whose dreams of a prosperous future are being led to the slaughterhouse because they’re not being briefed well enough on what the rules of engagement will be once they deploy their skills in the “real world.”

Within the battlefield of Jazz, regarding how musicians monetize their efforts, those battles have always been waged on three fronts: small venues, education, festivals. But in all actuality, small venues and the education system have always been the bedrock under which this music has maintained its relevance in society. But for the working musician, the battle is really fought in the small venues throughout the world. So with that said, let’s take a look at what that looks like for securing a gig as both a leader and a side musician.

Leader

The first thing you need to know is that for many small-business owners, it took them getting a loan from a bank (or several) to open their doors. And for many of them the most readily available piece of collateral they had to secure their loan with was their home. Therefore, by definition, someone’s business is in effect a second residence for them. So when you reach out to a venue owner to ask for a gig in their “house” before rapport is built, it can send a message to the owner that your relationship with them is purely conditional. Meaning that, if there’s no opportunity on the table to perform, then you’re not going to be a loyal supporter of them and their establishment. So what may feel like a sterile business interaction to you, may be taken personally by them (depending on their temperament). So if you don’t come correct, you might get put in the “friend zone” without ever knowing it. And 90% of the time they’ll never be transparent enough with you to tell you this, thus leaving you to continue scratching your head while you watch everyone else get the performance opportunities you want. So as John C. Maxwell always says, “you have to ask for a heart before you ask for a hand.”   

Side Musician

There are two ways that you can go about getting a gig with someone, and both present their advantages and disadvantages.  

Narrow: This means you’ve keyed in on one or more particular people whose band you want to join. So the way to approach this is by learning their book of music SO WELL that you leave them no logical option but to hire you; or at least open other doors for you and them to work together in another capacity. The upside is that you’ll know exactly how to invest your practicing. The downside is that you might not get hired, thus leaving you to possibly feel like all that work was for nothing. However, like exercising, there’s never really a downside from doing it.

Wide: This means that you’ve taken the time to learn as many songs as possible across a wide array of genres. The upside is that you’ll probably become employable across the widest demographic there is. The downside is that it may take longer to develop a depth of understanding within any genre of music, due to having to spread yourself so thin. And if you’re starting this process as an adult who’s trying to live off of performing, you may find yourself skimming over many important musical details in order to quickly get your name out there as someone who’s worthy of being hired.

Suggested takeaway’s….

a) Business IS personal. So when you approach someone about a gig in their venue, your approach should be to figure out how to bring more value to them and their business FIRST. After all, they have what you want, not the other way around!

b) Just like getting a gig at a venue, the best way to show that you care about a leader and their music is to show up to their gigs. By doing this, it’s a show of how committed you are to learning their music the right way. So not only do you get to hear how the songs are to be played, but you also get to develop rapport with the leader in advance.

c) If you want to develop a reputation for being a super well rounded musician, then the best way to do so is to go to as many shows around town as possible to get a sense of what constitutes a “standard” in your area. After all, what’s the point in learning a bunch of songs that you can’t play with anyone in your area. So just like learning someone’s book of music, you can apply the same concept on a regional scale.

As always, leave a comment to let me know what you agree or disagree with. So let’s talk soon!

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Until a year ago I hadn’t paid too much attention to the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion space. But now that I sit on a board called “TASTE for Equity,” as well as the Ambassador Council for Habitat for Humanity here in Portland, OR. I’ve come into contact with many awesome people in my area who have a strong desire to move the needle of fairness towards that of a more just society. That said, I’ve noticed one striking similarity between the way people talk about this kind of work and the way Jazz music is taught and talked about in schools.

“To change a narrative, sometimes you have to change the narrator.” -Lou Radja

First off, language matters! It matters because the words we use not only communicate who we are and where we’re from, but what we value at the cellular level. And given that DEI is really a round-about way of comfortably addressing the residue of slavery and women’s rights so no one gets uncomfortable enough to walk out of a room, I find that the language of Western European Classical music is also used to soften the edges around how the musical contributions of many black Jazz musicians throughout history are understood. But the reason why so many people miss the mark is because the one ingredient that’s missing is how to deal with the Blues. And the problem with it is that it predates the formulaic structures of Bebop, which are much easier to understand through the analytic gaze of a European Classical lens, as it relies less on harmonic inventiveness and more on rhythm and the brash and seductive emotive qualities associated with black culture. So when you don’t come from this culture, you risk opening an emotional Pandora’s box of insight into why we are the way we are if you get close enough to really find out. It’s one thing to sympathize with someone if you can intellectualize their situation from a safe vantage point, but another entirely if you choose to walk alongside them with your finger on their pulse. And so the “tell” in this situation will undoubtedly be your language, as the cultural fidelity of the ear is always the most reliable indicator of cultural familiarity than anything else. So when conversations around DEI are happening, I find that the narrative is usually given from the stance of how the minority and women empowerment issue can be fixed through the lens of a white gaze. But that’s like going for a 5 minute medical exam where the doctor takes one look at you, asks one or two questions, and then fills out a prescription. We’re always going to be suspect of the substance of such an analysis.

Now here’s an interesting thought. In the same way that COIVD-19 organically lowered our emission levels without a fancy government plan, the same type of top-down approaches used in addressing DEI issues in the workplace could be rendered just as unnecessary if adults learned how to suddenly play nice with one another. Remember, structural inequities are just social interactions gone awry at scale. So in the same way that it’s tough to get a group of musicians on the same sheet of paper when their understanding of a given style isn’t completely the same, it’s also just as challenging to get people to align their beliefs about the here and now when they have a different interpretation of the past that got us to where we are today.

Suggested takeaways…

a) Structural inequities within both the workplace and politics are really reflections of the stories that have been told and believed over time about certain groups of people and their perceived value.  

b) If we’re to create a real impact with the work of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, then we have to start with more than just a cursory understanding of the past several hundred years if we’re to effectively right the wrongs of our nation’s past.

c) Transformative learning happens when two or more people can access each other’s language through actual lived experiences with one another.    

Music and fitness: What distance running can teach us about success.

To be successful at anything you need to have rhythms and routines in place so you can capitalize upon the compounding effect of consistency. And if you’ve never read “The Compound Effect” by Darren Hardy, I’d highly recommend that you do so, as he does a great job of unpacking how we can all benefit from this natural phenomenon. That said, one of the routines that I’ve instituted in my life is to run every Tues, Thurs, and Saturday. Now historically speaking, I’ve never liked distance running because of the boredom factor. I’ve always been a quick burst of energy kind of guy, which is why I like tennis, basketball, football, martial arts, and weightlifting. However, it was a subtle shift in my mindset about distance running that gave me the additional insight I now have about music and success that I’d like to share with you.

Running is as much a mental exercise as it is physical. And being a retired military vet, I know how your mind can break much sooner than your body will. So a strategy I’ve come up with is that if I calibrate my physical output on a scale of 1-10, then I never run faster than 5. Why? It’s because the closer I get to 10, the more my body kicks into survival mode, which causes it to look for a way out (i.e. to stop or slow down). Not to mention, it opens a possibility of injury which will certainly sideline my progress. So if my mind is the gateway to the quality of my performance, then I have to find a way to regulate my emotions. Therefore, by running consistently throughout the week (coupled with an effective diet), then the sensation of 5 the following week would be equivalent to perhaps 5.5 or 6 from the prior week. So as you can see, the goal is to increase the capacity of my output without realizing it or overextending myself physically and mentally.

If you were to ask me how it feels to play music on a high level, I’d say it feels like flying with little to no extraneous energy to do so. And if you ask a runner what it feels like when they’re experiencing “runner’s high,” they’ll probably tell you the same thing. But it only feels that way once you find a groove. Thus, when you run for the sensation of 5, this allows you to maintain the most sustainable max-speed to energy conservation ratio while thinking clearly. But here's where the rubber meets the road (pun intended). Unless you’re a professional athlete who gets paid to run competitively, you don’t need an arbitrary benchmark like time, as the goal of running is for longevity of health, not a non-existent ribbon. But if you can take your ego out of your exercising by not judging the time it takes you to run your route, then your awareness of time can be thought of as a useful peripheral indicator of your progress. But again, time has to be an after-thought, not the main attraction. So when I practice my instruments, my goal is to do so with the least amount of energy possible while still maximizing my speed and agility. So when I’m consistent with my practicing, and am relaxed enough to tell when I’m compromising the integrity of my technique, I’m able to self-correct on the fly. Which I can’t do if my thinking isn’t clear (which tension in the body will always cloud).

Lastly, the linchpin that connects everything I’ve mentioned is breath, as a lack of it always creates tension in the body, which in turn affects the clarity of the mind. So for me, the true value of running is that it strengthens the capacity of my breath control. Which is why I believe that if you reflect on the weight of every major decision you’ve ever made, good or bad, it’s arguable that the quality of your breathing was always a supporting cast member throughout those decisions.    

The Jazz Dilemma: What is it, and why might it be worth talking about?

Back when MySpace was at the forefront of the social media race, an old college friend used to have a profile tagline that read “I’d rather be relevant than famous.” However, it could be argued that those who are famous are indeed relevant, as the energy behind and frequency within our conversations about them make them so. When we talk about them, I believe what we’re really engaged in is the exercise of either reinforcing or questioning the framework of our own values, but at a safe one-arm emotional distance. And more importantly, who our values seem to align with, and how we ultimately feel about that. Therefore, it can be argued that the sliding scale of a person’s relevance is tied to the amount in which we think we might benefit from having a conversation about them. So if you believe that relevance can be equated to usefulness, then this begs the question of “what is Jazz and why might it worth talking about?”

As we’ve already seen, and continue to see within the styles of Hip-Hop, Rock, R&B, Pop, etc., they provide the public with more obvious ways of incorporating their perceived value (for better or worse) towards their everyday lives, as it gives people content to converse with, sell stuff with, and share within the realms of fashion and speech patterns—all of which are just cultural symbols that people deploy to make it easier for other members of their “tribe” to identify them within crowds. That said, let’s take a quick look at one of the most pervasive forms of music to come about in roughly the last 40 years: Hip-Hop.

It has been said that never in a time throughout the documented history of music have large contingencies of people (especially the youth) ever chosen to identify themselves as being specific products of a musical movement like they do with Hip Hop (i.e. “I am Hip Hop,” “I live Hip Hop,” “I eat, breath, and sleep Hip Hop”). Now granted, during the formative years of Rock & Roll, and even Jazz for that matter, we find that it was also the youth who rallied behind these two movements as well, as they found that they could use certain aspects of the music as a means of validating, to varying degrees, the energy behind the types of opinions they held. However, the power of Hip Hop—which really has to do with America’s long-standing fascination with anything associated with black male youth—is that its aesthetic is now just as interwoven into the everyday fabric of our society as is Starbucks and Nike. So how does this relate to Jazz you might ask? With the way that Jazz is generally marketed and presented these days, coupled with an ever increasing audience that has no significant history of having tried their hand at playing music of any kind at a high level (unlike with sports), the public’s relationship to Jazz is generally one of indifference. However, when people do think about some Jazz that they may have liked, it may have been related to a vocalist, as this is one “instrument” that we’ve all tried practicing behind closed doors. And to further prove my point about the public’s general feeling of indifference towards Jazz, is that their point of consumption is usually within public spaces where the volume is low enough to talk over, thus further conditioning them to regard it as a piece of interior decoration that doesn’t require much of their attention. A perfect example of this would be when the Grammies had Esperanza Spaulding, of all people, performing as background music immediately following her upset over Justin Bieber for “Best New Artist” in 2011 while they made their announcements about the next artist to receive their awards. Could you imagine them having asked Jay-Z to perform while they announced the next award recipient? Clearly, the answer would be no. So as you can see, what Jazz needs is a total branding overhaul, where the public is taught how to interface with it like what has been done with the more popular genres. But in order to do so, it would need to be done in a way that still reflects the hidden values that have helped to sustain Jazz up until this point. So the first step in re-branding this music appropriately lies within an understanding of what it even is in the first place.  

            The word Jazz, like any other style of music, is merely a marketing term. No more, no less. After all, real musicians put their energy into trying to play what they hear, not what to call what they’re playing. It’s also important to remember that the word Jazz had already been in circulation before it was ever attached to a sound. So a fair etymological definition for Jazz would be that it’s a term that was used to describe popular American music at the turn of the 20th century, whose roots can be found in both the Blues and Ragtime music. And whereas the Blues is more akin to an African-American sensibility towards early “American” folk music, Ragtime is more reflective of Western European Classical music and its residual effects upon the types of early Marches that were composed by people such as John Philip Sousa. However, the important piece of connective tissue between the Blues and Ragtime is the application of the black aesthetic on both. Hence, when you combine these two styles, and run them through an early black filter, what you get is a distilled version of the type of Jazz that people such as Louis Armstrong helped champion. So while this information is all well and good, the question still remains as to what, if any, might be the usefulness of Jazz on our society and the world at large?

            The answer to the above question is that Jazz, like sports and politics, is just another structural model that can be used to evaluate the democratic nature of relationships. So when you learn how the instruments function independently and collectively, a mirror suddenly appears that allows you to gain some insight into how either you or someone else is being. This is no different than how we can use fashion, food and drink choices, speech patterns, and choice of vocabulary as a litmus for how either we or others may be thinking and feeling at any point in time. In fact, I tell people all the time that even when we talk, we’re engaged in Jazz improvisation, as the words we use have to be relevant to the conversation, because if the goal is to build upon a set of ideas, then what would be the point of using words that few people can comprehend? That’s like talking to a baby about the stock market. What’s the point? So when I’m performing, I’m just using ideas that I already have a handle on. But it’s how I string those ideas together that will either attract or repel you from the “conversation.” In short, since listening comes before comprehension, and comprehension comes before action, then just like martial arts, Jazz is the human practice of creating a continuous sequence of appropriate moment-to-moment decisions, so that when it’s all said and done, you can look back with pride for the choices you’ve made.