The Power of Sound

We’ve all heard that the reptilian part of our brain is hardwired for survival, as it seeks to establish predictable patterns that can be used to give us shortcut answers on how to best respond to these patterns for our safety. And a simple illustration of this is the skeptical nature of young babies towards strangers. Meaning that as the child becomes older, they’re able to make faster calculations on the relative safety of a stranger that’s based on more complex environmental factors. But until then, their framework is pretty primitive. So why am I bringing this up? Well, it’s to shine a light on the importance of sound and how it influences so many of the decisions we make about anything. And like the relative assessment of threat levels, how we decipher incoming information will influence how we respond to that information (for better or worse).

According to Neuroscientist Seth Horowitz, author of the book The Universal Sense: How Hearing Shapes the Mind, we hear 20 to 100 times faster than we see. That everything we perceive with our ears colors/modifies every other perception we have. Therefore, in the same way that the world has gotten a big eye-opening look at what the long term effects can be from the use of things like smoking, cocaine, mercury, bloodletting, etc., many researchers can draw pretty compelling arguments now towards the positive and negative effects that certain sounds can have on our physical and mental states. And in this case, I’m referring to the power that music and lyrics can have on the subconscious when you listen to them over and over again.

Here’s a list a popular phrases from songs that have been uttered throughout the years that make up the lexicon of American speech and subsequent thought:

“I’m black and I’m proud.” -James Brown

“YOLO (You Only Live Once).” -Drake

“I like big butts and I cannot lie.” –Sir Mix a lot

“It ain’t no fun if the homies can’t have none.” -Snoop

“Drop it like it’s hot.” -Snoop

“Shoulda put a ring on it.” -Beyonce

“I’m starting with the man in the mirror.” -Michael Jackson

“Don’t Stop Believing.” -Journey

“R-E-S-P-E-C-T.” -Aretha Franklin

“Don’t worry, be happy.” -Bobby McFerrin

“What’s love got to do with it.” -Tina Turner

“Girls just wanna have fun.” -Cyndi Lauper

“Get rich or die trying.” -50 Cent

“Straighten Up and Fly right.” -Nat King Cole

As you can see, lyrics such as these are instructive in both the literal sense and along value lines. Meaning, they can give a person a sense of direction for what to value if their values have yet to be defined. Now here’s the interesting thing. Because most of the music that has dominated our consciousness since the 1980’s has been associated with a video, it becomes almost impossible to disassociate a particular sound (whether purely instrumental or with lyrics) with a particular image in your head at this point if you’re under the age of perhaps 55. And as such, these sounds tend to get judged more by their imagined cultural associations than by the artistic merits of the song itself. In other words, if a hip-hop artist decides to do a country record, their hip hop fans might discount the merits of the recording strictly along culturally associative lines (and vice versa). The caveat, however, is that people who tend to be more open minded in this regard are usually well trained musicians (within any genre), as musicians are always on the hunt for musical ideas that they’d like to use, regardless of where they emanate—which this type of cross-cultural collaboration has been seen within the world of Jazz ever since its inception.

So the point here is that just like we should be mindful of our air quality, we should also be cognizant of the subtle triggering effects that certain sounds can have on our disposition when we immerse ourselves in them (think a combat vet every 4th of July). And there’s no demographic where the effects can be more readily observed than within adolescents, as they tend to connect more over shared music interests than anything else. And the reason being is the portability factor of it. Unlike something you have to stand still to look at on a screen, music can always be consumed, whether one is consciously focusing on it or not. And because it’s so readily accessible, music tends to serve as an efficient means of establishing clear social boundaries in the sand. Meaning, “people like me (who make me feel safe and validated), listen to things like this.” Another important notion to point out about the effect of music on the psyche is that anything that makes one feel seen, understood/heard, and validated, can greatly influence us. No different than the way we allow ourselves to be influenced by the assessments of a physician who we feel has done a thorough examination on our state of health to show that they really do see our situation for what it is and can validate why our point of view about our condition is what it is. Therefore, when you see a kid who appears to be more influenced by celebrities they don’t even have a relationship with, over the parents or guardians that they interact with daily, it’s because those celebrities are checking all three of these aforementioned boxes for them (for better or for worse).

Suggested Takeaways…

a) Music is central to the life of an adolescent because a job hasn’t become the central driving force in the structure of their day yet. Therefore, they’ll connect to one another through the shared symbolism of a genre sooner than they’ll connect over anything else, as again, the faucet of musical sound is always on, no matter where they are.    

b) Most people don’t take into account that most human learning is incidental and happens more frequently in places that are outside of dedicated spaces for learning. And much of that learning is absorbed through the innocuous and repetitive reinforcement of thoughts that are usually being inadvertently paired with certain sonic textures and visual cues.

c) When you consider how many hours our youth are listening to music on a daily and weekly basis, an argument can be made that it’s more than any other activity. Therefore, the role that it plays in their lives cannot be discounted. In fact, to know very little about the music a child listens to, and why, could suggest that you don’t know as much about that child as you’d like to think; in that it supplies them with not only a great deal of the vocabulary they connect to others with, but it also helps to alter or amplify the moods they may find themselves in. And lastly, the artist they subscribe to can also serve as significant models for how to think about attire, conduct, and social circles.

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. 

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.

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.  

Music & Sleep: What wind instruments can teach us about our sleep habits.

While sleep is crucial for the rejuvenation of our health each day, it’s obviously the quality of our rest that matters more than the length. So while the impractical notion of condensing 8 hours of sleep into 1 would be attractive for overachievers, there’s still a decent amount of wiggle room for us all to move the needle ever so slightly towards this end.

Depending upon who you are, you may not know that the sole purpose of a tuning slide on a brass instrument, or mouth piece on a wood wind instrument, is to simply get you within a range where you can comfortably blow your horn without having to overcompensate with your embouchure to keep a note in tune. However, the stronger your embouchure and air support is (think force of air against a door frame), the easier it’ll be to keep a note in tune, regardless of the number of mechanical defects a horn has. Case in point, when a friend of mine let me borrow his soprano sax years ago, I didn’t realize until I sat in on someone’s gig that the ENTIRE upper register of his horn was a ½ step flat! Luckily I figured it out quickly, and was able to adjust on the fly. But had I not had the strength of my embouchure to keep notes half way in tune, it would have turned out much worse.

Now as an advanced society, it’s clear that we’re always seeking ways to maximize our effectiveness without sacrificing sustainability. So just like a musician who has to toy around with figuring out where the sweet spot is between maximum sound and control of said sound, I also believe that we have to toy around with finding where the sweet spot is between the least number of hours we can afford to sleep without sacrificing our alertness throughout the day. Therefore, if the position of our tuning slides and mouth pieces are like the duration of our sleep, then our embouchure and air support would be analogous to the blood flow needed to function properly throughout the day. And having tested this theory on myself over the past 20 years, I have found that the results are still consistent, in that when I personally get 5 to 6 hours of sleep, coupled with my morning routine of:

1) Drink one bottle of water

2) Full body stretch (30 minutes)

3) 100 sit ups, 100 oblique crunches (both sides), 100 flutter kicks, 100 standing twists, 50 side leg raises (for lower back support), and 50 push ups.

I can still stay awake for the rest of the day, even if on a rare occasion it involves me getting as little as one hour of sleep over a 24+ hour stretch. That said, filling my nutritional gaps with supplements for the past 18 years has been critical to my ability to maintain this kind of pace. So again, while the amount of sleep you get just gets you within firing range for being functional on a given day, it’s ultimately a mixture of diet and exercise (blood flow) that will carry you through your day with the alertness you want.   

Suggested Takeaways…

a) It’s not the amount of sleep you get, it’s the quality of sleep you get. So after you’ve ruled out that your nutrition, exercise, and bed are on point, it’ll become much easier to draw a bullseye around the number of hours you can realistically afford to get by on for your body to repair itself.

b) The number of hours you sleep are to your mouth piece or tuning slide position, what adequate blood flow and nutrition is to your embouchure and air support.

c) To dial in your exercise, nutrition, sleep, and bed situation is truly a forward failing proposition. But the number of insights you’ll learn along the way about yourself and why your tendencies are what they are, will yield dividends for years to come.

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.)

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.

A New Beginning: Transitioning Towards a Post COVID-19 World

Since the “Spanish Flu” of 1918, there has never been a time in recent history where we humans have been as collectively engaged in the re-imagining of what society could look like than we are right now. And like a frustrated parent who feels compelled to get their kids’ attention by more coercive means, we’ve now been brought to a standstill and forced to consider how we’ve been operating and how we think we should operate in the future to avoid being put in our place again. Now if you know anything about history, you know that the ones who have risen to great prominence and subsequent wealth did so amidst great collapses in society, as what goes up always comes down…but then back up again. I like to think of these periods as big magical windows of opportunity that only come once in a blue moon. And right now, I’d venture to say that we’re right back to the pioneering days of the California gold rush, or the oil boom of the late 1800’s, or the creation of our modern-day cities, or even fast food restaurants. And for those that lived through those periods, and had an inspired vision for their futures, they were able to recognize the historical gravity of their situation and respond accordingly. But now that the slate has been wiped fairly clean again, the ambitious ones will no doubt rise again to roll up their sleeves to seize the opportunity to work on making a better future for themselves and those closest to them.

Due to our current situation, I’m suddenly reminded of the biblical passage that relates to the idea that the meek shall inherit the earth. And when I think about all of the people who may have acquired some level of social status through their professions, it’s ironic to see who is considered an “essential” worker right now. Meaning, whose profession can add the most value to the world. For those who are mailmen, construction workers, policemen, firemen, grocery store employee’s, gas station attendants, truck drivers, farmers, garbage men, etc., they are now looking at the value of their jobs and themselves in a very different light, as is the case with the rest of us. However, while we musicians aren’t considered essential, it’s clear that we are necessary, in that in times of uncertainty we always reach for things that can sooth our temperaments. But even within that notion, the question becomes one of substance. Meaning, what’s the substance of that thing you are reaching towards to pacify your emotions? Is it drugs and alcohol? Is it food? Is it music? And if so, what’s the quality of those things you’re consuming? But like everyone who has been a pioneer in their space, the time to increase the quality of your productivity and scope of vision is in times like these. So if you’re going to survive this ordeal and prosper through to a post COVID-19 world, you’ll need to get lean with both your schedule and finances in order to identify what your non-essential time and money expenditures are so you can allocate more of those remaining resources towards a sound investment strategy for your future (whatever that looks like for you). “But an investment into what?” Simply put, identify a problem you have, because chances are others are facing the same issue. And when you find these people, you just have to be the one who can provide them with that thing. But if you can’t produce the solution yourself, then you’ll need to partner with those that can help to execute your idea. “But how do you know if you have a worthy idea?” My answer is that if your idea doesn’t fit into a personal crusade that you’d be willing to fight someone to defend, then you’ll probably lack the energy to see that idea through when the going gets tough. But when you have a crusade that you’re on, the best way to ensure your success is to create your own lane, as you’ll have little to no one in your way to contend with. And given that we’re living through a time where we’ve just seen many of the old rules fall flat, there’s now more room for you to experiment with new ways of solving problems. Remember, the best competition is no competition.  

Portland audiences, could this be a call to step up your style game?

Within the current edition of Artslandia there's an article entitled "Dress for the Show," which essentially suggests that Portland walks to its own beat when it comes to "social-norms." Which, to be honest, has actually played to the city's advantage in regards to its recent run of national popularity. However, since this particular article is suggesting that a large number of show-goers here in Portland tend to dress a bit too casual at times, I thought that I'd share with you some of my perspective on this topic, as here at Couture of Music, I always believe that one should put their best foot forward whenever possible. Therefore, allow me to share with you just a few key concepts that I use to ensure that my desire for comfort doesn't lead me down a path that might suggest to others that I think little of notions that surround the idea of good manners  and etiquette.

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Manners:

1. the prevailing customs, ways of living, and habits of a people, class, period, etc; mores;

2. a persons outward bearing; way of speaking to and treating others

Etiquette: 

1. conventional requirements as to social behavior, properties of conduct as established in any class or community or far away occasion

I think Rachel Zoe makes an important point with the above statement, in that it also appears to me that a well groomed look speaks to the positive end of how one feels about themselves (regardless as to if they're aware of this or not). However, with the reputation that Portland has garnered over the years for its excessive rainy weather and dark grey skies, it's understandable as to how this might discourage one from taking the time to get dressed when going out. Therefore, if the constant feeling of coziness and comfort is what people from Portland gravitate towards, then lets use that as our point of departure.  So since our mood can be affected greatly by both the feel and fit of the fabrics that we choose to wear, allow me to give you some insight into how one might want to approach structuring their thoughts around the concepts of how clothes can feel and look on us.  

Fabrics:  

I feel that cashmere, flannel, fo-fur, vintage fur versus new (we have a moral dilemma when it comes to fur), knit jersey, merino wool and silk all fall under the heading of what most people would consider to be the softest materials to wear

Fit:

Choose tailored clothing for at least one of your foundation pieces, as tailoring tends to have darts and structure details that help to encourage shapes that compliment the frame of the human form. And if you choose to add additional layers onto your foundation piece, make sure that it doesn't obfuscate the importance or function of your primary piece, which of course, will be to highlight a particular portion of your body you feel great about.  

Accessories:

As you take a look at your complete outfit, decide if you're leaning more towards the side of structured or cozy? Fitted or frumpy/loose? Then consider how the materials, textures, and colors are also speaking...meaning that for whatever element(s) seem to be the most dominate,  balance it with accessories that speak to the less dominant. And when you do choose your accessories, pick ones that will stand out and distinctly speak to the best of your personality, as you'll find that these unique accessories can function as great conversation starters.

So with the help of this guideline, you'll now know how to visually speak to that sweet feeling of cozy that is so very Portland, but yet still have an element of structure. It should say comfort yet clean. Relaxed but purposeful. 

I have to say that I'm quite grateful that the folks at Artslandia Magazine decided to use me as a model for what it might look like when you try to translate the excellent qualities that are inherent within Jazz into a more physically tangible form. And while the cozy pieces that I ended up wearing aired more on the structured side, I have no doubt that with the help of both stylist Todd Everett Kinner and creative director Melanie Hernandez, that we still achieved a relaxed feeling between the loose fit in the pants, undone button near the waist of my vest (so as to leave a little room for my favorite wine and dessert after my second set at Jimmy Maks),  the cozy yet well tailored Marino wool sports jacket with playful patched pockets, bright salmon bow-tie, and fun printed pocket hanker chief to highlight my playful personality. After all, with me and my music being full of life, it only makes sense to dress like it as well!