Tuning Slide 4.41- Finding Your Voice (#2)

Weekly Reflections on Life and Music

Cover bands don’t change the world – you need to find your unique voice if you want to thrive
— Todd Henry, Accidental Creative

Last week I started a series on finding our voice and our song. I talked some about Stephen Covey’s The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness (2004). The 8th habit is “find your voice and inspire others to find theirs.” Covey says that voice is

Your power to choose the direction of your life allows you to reinvent yourself, to change your future, and to powerfully influence the rest of creation.

I looked at the cancerous behaviors that can be barriers to greatness- such as complaining, comparing, contending. But Covey also talks about those who do success and become what he calls “achievers” or those who do find their voice.

Achievers, those who manage to find their “voice”:
▪ develop their mental energy into vision
▪ develop their physical energy into discipline
▪ develop their emotional energy into passion
▪ develop their spiritual energy into conscience – their inward moral sense of what is right and wrong and their drive towards meaning and contribution.

That is quite an insight, in my opinion. He sees that we have four types of energy- mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual.

▪ He starts with the mental since as we have talked about before, a great deal of success is found in the “mental.” We have to first know where we are going. That’s vision, which comes from developing and directing our mental energy.

▪ But doing isn’t thinking. Doing takes a different energy than mental. No, will power is not what works. What we need is the actual physical energy to move ourselves in action. We know that from the need to practice, build endurance and range, and become flexible in embouchure and fingering the trumpet. But there is other physical energy involved, namely the physical ability to do the work in the first place. This is we need discipline. Physical energy becomes discipline- doing it.

▪ But these two energies, like all sources of energy can run down. The next energy he calls emotional energy which gives us a boost. I like his use of the word passion to describe the focus of emotional energy. Passion is a powerful force. It helps us focus the vision and the discipline into what excites us. Look at the definition and some synonyms for passion: an intense desire or enthusiasm for something. I.e. fervor, ardor, intensity, enthusiasm, eagerness, zeal. Adding these to our vision and discipline and we have more energy to work toward finding our voice.

▪ Finally Covey adds spiritual energy and conscience. Spiritual energy gives life to what we are doing. It grounds us in what is right and the better ways to live and work and treat others around us. It gets us in touch with powers, inspirations, and directions beyond ourselves. Conscience then gives our vision a moral and transcendent quality.

That’s what makes your voice so important- and unique. It doesn’t matter what field you are working - or playing - in. These four sources of energy help me discover me, who I am, what’s important to me, how I want my life to be lived. We don’t just imitate someone else, we are not a “cover band” for someone else’s music. This is ours.

While working on this I was listening to music. On my shuffle along comes a great Bob Dylan song- "All Along the Watchtower." But it wasn’t his version. It was the one far better known- Jimi Hendrix. Was Hendrix leading a cover band? No way! It was Dylan’s song, but this was Hendrix’s voice! The same is true, for example, in the amazing Coltrane recording, "My Favorite Things." It is, as many already know, a song from the musical/movie The Sound of Music written my Rodgers and Hammerstein. Yet Coltrane’s version is unique and definitely his own. It contains his vision, the discipline to work it out, the passion he had for music, and his own spiritual vision. It is no cover version- it is as original as the Rodgers and Hammerstein version.

That doesn’t happen often. Only those who have found their own voice will be able to move in this direction. Todd Henry, who I quoted above, has 10 questions that will help you find your voice. He posted these at Accidental Creative. He says that we may start with emulating others (being a “cover band”) but we must move beyond that to our own uniqueness. Here are his ten questions.

✓ What angers you?
✓ What makes you cry?
✓ What have you mastered?
✓ What gives you hope?
✓ As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
✓ If you had all the time and money in the world, what would you do?
✓ What would blow your mind?
✓ What platform do you own?
✓ What change would you like to see in the world?
✓ If you had one day left, how would you spend it?

◆ Spend some time in the next week thinking about these questions. Put them in a journal or diary and play around with them. I am adding nothing in the way of my explanations. I will let you do that for yourself. Then see how we can apply that to moving with our voice (your power to choose the direction of your life allows you to reinvent yourself, to change your future, and to powerfully influence the rest of creation) into your specific expressions, your song.

Why? Well, back to Todd Henry:

We need you. You are not disposable, and your contribution to the rest of us is not discretionary. Do not abdicate your contribution. If you do, you will spend the final days of your life wishing you’d treated your time here with more purpose. Today, here, now, in this moment, resolve to uncover your voice and to begin acting to effect change in this world. You may be reluctant to accept the role that you can play, but resolve to engage. Die empty.
— Todd Henry, Accidental Creative

4.21: Tuning Slide- Creativity: Beyond Mastery

Weekly Reflections on Life and Music

Passion is one great force that unleashes creativity, because if you're passionate about something, then you're more willing to take risks.
— Yo-Yo Ma

We come to the tenth and last of Barry Green’s ten pathways to music mastery from his book, Mastery of Music.

10. Creativity: The Journey Into the Soul

Green starts right out by naming the problem:

Creativity is elusive. It is hard enough to describe, and difficult if not impossible to command. And yet when people tap into it, their thoughts take on a universality that can touch all of our lives.

He goes on to say that creativity fueled by curiosity that leads to answers from within:

[T]his business of looking inside is the key to an exploration of one’s own creativity. When we learn where to listen for the answers, we may hear the answers more often.

The end, he says, is to find a path to travel “deep into the soul.”

It would be nice to think that creativity is simply “do what moves you.” While that is part of it, it is only a very small part. Creativity, as Yo-Yo Ma says, is built on passion that allows one to be willing to take risks. But I for one don’t believe a pathway into the soul is aimless, narcissistic, or chaotic. There is, as we talked about a few weeks ago, a flow to it. There is getting “into a flow” and not just some wandering with no aim or hope of resolution. (Though sometimes in the midst of creative moments it may feel like that.)

Reading through Green’s chapter on creativity I found the following four ideas as essential on which our creativity is to be built in music.

✓ Sound
The perennial starting point of music. Sound is always the most important. But in creativity it is different than pulling out the tuner to be sure the sound is “in tune” whatever that might mean. Sound is the overall picture, the image the music is presenting, the emotions and feelings.

✓ Structure
Then there is the structure. What are your ideas that your creativity is forming? Structure is the dwelling place of the sound. It sets the boundaries, the highs and lows, the extremes and the solid base on which everything is to be built. Structure is not limiting, but gives the creativity the room to grow and move. Only then can creativity reach new ideas and new directions.

✓ Harmony
After structure we get into the next basic of music- harmony. Structure may tell us the key we want to play in, but harmony tells us how the chords and keys and notes relate to each other.

✓ Rhythm
This is where “flow” begins to be felt. How does the creative flow? What is its tempo, its variations in sound, its cycles of chords in a particular order? What does the movement of the idea feel like? I have been playing around with some composing and I found myself starting with a rhythm, a particular movement of different length notes. I didn’t know what structure it would have (eventually it became a variation on 12-bars). I didn’t know when notes would ascend, descend, or strike into dissonance. In this case it was the rhythm I wanted.

Last- but always:

Don’t forget the Soul!

That’s where we move beyond just creating, or just being creative and getting content. It is time to make some decisions. It is time for the depths of our persons and ideas and experience to begin to apply to what we are creating. Recently, the blog/newsletter Brainpickings referred to writer/doctor Oliver Sacks who talked about the early stages of being creative but who then understood that

Often, creators — be they artists or scientists — content themselves with reaching a level of mastery, then remaining at that plateau for the rest of their careers, comfortably creating more of what they already know well how to create. (Brainpickings)

Then they quote Sacks and his reflections:

Why is it that of every hundred gifted young musicians who study at Juilliard or every hundred brilliant young scientists who go to work in major labs under illustrious mentors, only a handful will write memorable musical compositions or make scientific discoveries of major importance? Are the majority, despite their gifts, lacking in some further creative spark? Are they missing characteristics other than creativity that may be essential for creative achievement — such as boldness, confidence, independence of mind?

It takes a special energy, over and above one’s creative potential, a special audacity or subversiveness, to strike out in a new direction once one is settled. It is a gamble as all creative projects must be, for the new direction may not turn out to be productive at all. (Brainpickings)

Sacks is telling us that in the end the growth and movement of creativity goes beyond simple mastery of the instrument, the form, the rhythm, whatever. It can, if we are willing to go there, tap the energy of your own life. He is telling us to keep at it. Let it grow, incubate, rumble, until, when ready, be born.

Barry Green ends the chapter, in essence moving beyond mastery:

When we open ourselves and our souls, by practice and inspiration, but also by listening and letting go, music comes to us not as something we command, but as a gift. It is a gift, too, that we should pass the gift of music along.

Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out your horn.
— Charlie Parker

Tuning Slide 4.15- Mastery 5 & 6- Passion and Tolerance

Weekly Reflections on Life and Music

Real understanding does not come from what we learn in books; it comes from what we learn from love— love of nature, of music, of man. For only what is learned in that way is truly understood.
— Pablo Casals

I am looking this week at numbers 5 & 6 of the pathways for mastery of music from Barry Green’s book by the same name.

First:

Passion- The Power of Love

Apart from the other ideas, Green talks about three kinds of passion that relates to the theme:

✓ Passion for Life
Green shares the quote from Pablo Casals at the top of this post. It says it all. While it is not directly connected to music, without a passion for life, the learning from love, we don’t truly experience the passions involved in music. How does my passion for life infect and grow my music?

✓ Passion for Music
Am I “in love” with music? One of the reasons that music can often inspire others is that the musician has a passion for it. It can be an expression of our own souls. Passion compels us, moves us, helps us do what we are “passionate” about. In that we grow- and, reflecting Casals, it is how we learn best. With passion like that, music can even define who we are. There are groups of excellent musicians who play mechanically, and there are those who play passionately. When the two come together it is a moment of grace.
That may be the reason why a “live” performance sounds more alive than a recording from a studio session. It may explain why the remarkable Miles Davis album, Kind of Blue, is so alive. It was done in few takes and continues to be an expression of the passion in that studio.

✓ Passion Within the Music
Music itself touches feelings that words alone cannot. Some music is so passionate that a simple phrase or measure from the piece can cause goosebumps. Others can make us get up and move. The music triggers things that go beyond simply emotions to the heart of who we are as humans. I know my soul is grabbed and moved, even when I don’t understand why. When that happens I am participating in the music I am hearing. Green says:

As musicians we get to put our lives down, set our personalities aside, and jump into the middle…, to join with others in recreating [the] great moments in musical history. This is way beyond fun. At its best it is a spiritual experience, an act of human passion and skill that can be as beautiful as a crystal, a rainbow, or a brilliant sunset.

What an honor!

While our passion can and does come from all kinds of experiences and places, it must be alive within our imagination, says Green, when we first look at the piece. This is part of what I said last week about learning the piece before playing it. It should start, he says with imagination, not the technical. What is the best sound of the piece? Then organize it. Make it into art. He quotes a soloist who points out that you can throw a bucket of paint on the floor in a fit of anger. It will express anger, but it won’t be art. Art takes discipline along with the imagination.

In my mind that is why practice involves discovering the passion in my soul that is touched by the passion of the music.

In the end, says Green, passion is love. That, he says, is what

brought most of us into the wonderful world of music in the first place. One of the greatest challenges, whether in life, work, or relationships, is to keep that love alive.

The seventh pathway Green talks about is

Tolerance: The View from the Middle

This is the “quietist” and least self-assertive of the ten pathways. Yet it is a critical component for achieving “interpersonal and musical harmony in any ensemble.” Management needs to have this in any ensemble, and the people who exhibit it become the glue holding the orchestra, band, or ensemble together. The support they give, the work they do both within the music and the group as a whole, is what gets people to work together. You all know the “solid” group member, the musician who, while not flashy or out-front, is the one we all count on to keep the group focused and moving.

Green calls this tolerance. It is an attitude. It is not about convincing or changing others. It is about maintaining our own personal balance even in the midst of uncertainty. Tolerance comes from being comfortable in one’s own skin. It recognizes that none of us is essential to the group as individuals. No one of us can be an ensemble. Music is made in community where hostility and tension must be addressed and defused or the music will not happen. Flexibility and collaboration enter in.

We can all share a part in this. When we develop our own “tolerance” and openness to the group as a whole, we are providing a safe place for taking chances and a space for each to grow. Green says that this even includes support and tolerance even for your competitors. A musical performance is not a competition among the musicians. It is a common experience where we discover what happens when our passion is woven together with the passion of others.

Then we are an ensemble- a working, organic group, not just an assembly of individual musicians. This is more difficult than it sounds, but each musician can help make it happen. It is a quiet, but essential pathway to making better music.

Tuning Slide 3.48- To Life

Weekly Reflections on Life and Music

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.
― Douglas Adams

Most of us probably had a variety of ideas about what we wanted to do when we “grew up.” I would guess that many of those things never happened and that there are some of us who would never have dreamed of being where we are today. I started out in college as an engineering student. Nope. Not for me. I ended up as a political science major but never got into law or politics. I had an opportunity to get into the radio news field. Not that either. (No- I never wanted to be a fireman, but an astronaut was on that list.)

Somewhere along the line something happens that gets us thinking about the career we eventually followed. There was a moment in time when the idea came into our head to do this thing or another and all the other ideas fell away.

Even at that things change. I am told that there was a time when people stayed in a career for their entire lives. They thought little of changing, even if they might have wanted to. They may even have worked for the same company for an entire adult working career. That has changed over the years. With changes in the world and the world economy we may even be forced to change careers if we can’t make a living at what we started out to do.

Now the younger you are as you read this, the more likely your are right where you intended to be at this age. It is not a surprise for some of you when you get to where you are going that day to be where you planned. I am not one of them.

But I am right where I have needed to be. I am right where life has led me. Better yet, I am right where following the open doors of my life has led me. And I know I am probably not done yet.

Let’s be clear- this is not just about work and career. It is also about relationships and hobbies, avocations and out-in-left-field interests. In addition to what I do for a living, I also write and read, am an advanced amateur photographer and ethics consultant, and I am a musician. This doesn’t even begin to touch the relationships as a spouse, parent, or friend.

What does all this have to do with music and playing trumpet? For one, for those of us who do play, there is something about music that is not just a career or a fun thing to do in our spare time. There is something beyond that- even more important than that. It is passion. We do what we do because we like it and it inspires and energizes us. When you were first learning to play, would you have believed that you could enjoy practicing or playing those seemingly interminable long tones? I never remember anyone ever telling me that I would still be playing them 50+ years later. Or even that it would be important to do so.

Not in this life. I will move beyond that or perhaps get tired of the whole thing.

But if it is a passion- and more than a passing example of “falling in love”- you will end up where you need to be. That is the way life can work when we pay attention to our passions and energies. Don’t ignore or short-change that part of your life. Keep at it. Don’t let the daily grind take away the reasons you do what you do. Instead know that you are right where you need to be today. It is that simple. Then live it.

But live what?

Life is not logic. Life is not philosophy.
Life is a dance, a song, a celebration.
It is more like love and less like logic.
— Osho Rajneesh

Of course there is nothing wrong with logic and philosophy. I like a good bull session on those things from time to time. But to live only guided by those would, for me, be dull. Passion is about love and not logic unless you are a logician! It is not about philosophy, unless you are a philosopher! Even what to me may be dull, might be an endless source of energy and passion for someone else.

So you grab hold of it and move with it.

I am amazed every year at the Shell Lake Trumpet Camp by the amount of energy and passion flowing through that place. You see it in the students who get that horn out and start playing and keep on playing, who sit and listen to Mr. Baca and the other staff for hours, trying to get a bit of energy or information that might help them move to a new level. What a joy and an out-of-this-world experience for someone who thinks he has seen it all.

And the faculty! Is this where they intended to be when they decided to keep on playing trumpet for more years? We can ask them, and in some ways they might say yes. But I have a hunch that it is just the right place that they needed to be.

Life- it is a dance and a song and a celebration. It is what we are all about.

This week’s video is a celebration of life. It takes place at a wedding, but it is more than that. It is the passion of what makes life worth it.

Play your music. Inspire the passion; energize the music. Then dance!

To Life!

Tuning Slide 3.47

Weekly Reflections on Life and Music

We all have two lives. The second one starts when we realize we only have one.
— Tom Hiddleston

As many of you may know from following this blog over the past three years, I am (sort of) retired from my “day job.” For the past 4+ years I have been part-time at my “second career” as an addictions counselor. When I started out in my “first career” as a minister (at age 25) I would see “older, retired” pastors continuing to preach and take appointments at churches. I would shake my head in disbelief. “Why don’t they retire and enjoy life?” I would ask myself. “Relax. Life is too short to keep working.”

Now, forty-some years later, I am still working at my current career. Why doesn’t he just retire and enjoy life? After all, it is too short.

Several years ago I met Herb Alpert, now in his 80s, and still performing.
Last year I met Doc Severinsen, now in his 90s, and still performing.
We had a local doctor featured in a news article who is still active and working in his 90s.

Nobody is saying they should retire and enjoy life, that life is too short.

It is because they enjoy what they do! The old saying that if you love your work you will never work a day in your life may be an exaggeration, but the truth is in there! I can’t speak for the others mentioned, but I do know that is true for me. It is true when I get the opportunity to preach and it is true every day I go in to work as a counselor.

I am having fun. I love it. It is not the only thing I do with my time, either. I write, and read, and ride my bike. And I play trumpet. I am having fun. I love it!

There have been a couple times in my life when the truth of the opening quote above came home to me. I realized as a teenager when faced with family deaths that life is short and not guaranteed. I learned at mid-life when I faced some personal issues of addiction that life is precious and much too important to be unhappy. I am, of course, one of the fortunate ones who has had the means and opportunities to do what I love. Not everyone has that. But many of us do have the ability to look at life from a different angle. Many of us can choose to look at the opportunities instead of the barriers. We can make a decision to make the most of what we have and run with it.

When we truly do realize that the life is the only one we have and that it should have direction and hope and meaning, we have begun to do this life in greater fullness. That is what this Tuning Slide is all about. The interplay of life and music. If you love making music and playing it with others, you will be happy doing it. If it is a chore, work that is done simply because it’s there, you will not be making heartfelt music to the extent you are able.

We can use all kinds of words to describe this- passion, intensity, joy, wonder, awe. Yes, there are days when I say, “The hell with it. I’ll take the day off from the routine.” But I know that will not make me feel joy or wonder or passion. Maybe some guilt, or remorse that I didn’t practice when I could. Which is why I haven’t miss a day in over 14 months now. Because I have learned that when I go to my practice room and play that middle staff “G”, holding it and then moving through the long tones, my life will feel better- and be better.

Now I am not as good at this in other areas as I would like to be. I am working on it. Doing a daily or weekly exercise regimen has been harder than the music. I say that it’s because it takes more time- driving there, exercising, showering, driving home- but it is more than that. I don’t (yet) have the passion for it. I know I can do it- I do it every day with my trumpet. So I know I can do it with exercise.

Life is inherently risky. There is only one big risk you should avoid at all costs, and that is the risk of doing nothing.
— Denis Waitley

Am I willing to take the risks involved in enjoying l life and living it to its fullest? Am I willing to take the time needed? Am I willing to do the work to prepare and expand what I can do? Am I willing to make choices between things that I like and things that give me joy and are filled with my passion? Working well into the “retirement years” is one of those. So is my research and writing. And it is definitely true with my trumpet.

What is the risk? Well, I may have to make decisions- choices- that could be difficult. I may have to be better at budgeting and managing my time and daily schedule. I may have to be more intentional about not staring aimlessly at post after post on Facebook. I may have to be more responsible about my life and relationships, making sure that things happen as and when they should.

Most of the risks we face in life are of this type. They are not “dangerous” but they can be uncomfortable. They may have us discover uncomfortable things about ourselves.

For some of us taking the risk of moving beyond our musical comfort zones is huge. We have to face our insecurities and self-esteem worries. We may realize we need more work or practice. We may find that we aren’t the best musician in the band- or even the section.

Take the risk- play the music. Be you! It is the only life you have- and you are the only you there is. Live it!

Song for the week from the wonderful people at Playing for Change:

The Tuning Slide 3.35- Aim High!

Weekly Reflections on Life and Music

Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood…
Make big plans; aim high in hope and work.
– Daniel Burnham

Attitude- how you approach whatever you are doing and how you act on it. With that in mind here’s this week’s Trumpet Workshop Summary quote:

✓ Shoot high- don’t sell yourself short

Yeah, but what if I am only fooling myself when I think I can do that? What if I’m setting myself up for failure by shooting too high? Is it possible to shoot too high? In other words:

How do you know how high to aim?

I found some thoughts in a book a friend recommended to me, Making Music for the Joy of It: Enhancing Creativity, Skills and Musical Confidence by Stephanie Judy. She talks about making a self-analysis of our goals and purposes.

Begin by asking yourself hard questions like these: “What am I making music for? What part of music making gives me pleasure? What kinds of challenges do I welcome, and what kinds of challenges are pointlessly frustrating?” The purpose of such questions is to discover which musical experiences provide, for youth greatest meaning, the greatest connection, the most nourishing environment, the most direct route to your musical self. (p. 22)

Which in many ways brings us back to the question I didn’t dive too deeply into last week: Passion. How do you know what your passion is in order to go for it? In setting our goals, how high to aim and what to aim at, we go back to the questions related to passion.

Each amateur, and most of us will be advanced amateurs who are not earning a living at our music, will have different answers. Even if we plan on being “professionals” there are all kinds of different answers to them as well, jazz, classical, performance, education, etc. Actually the questions are similar in setting the goals. For example,

• What kind of music do I want to play? Classical, jazz, Americana, pop, rock?
• What kind of musical tradition do I see myself being part of? Folk, bluegrass, American jazz, Classical era?
• What kind of ensembles do I want to be part of, large or small? Concert bands or orchestras, jazz big bands, combos- jazz or classical or combinations?

With these questions we are giving ourselves a general direction. Stephanie Judy comments that what we are doing when we find these answers is finding the “welcome soil” in which we can plant our musical seeds.

So here we are, today. Each of us has gotten to today’s musical place. We are where we are, we have accomplished what we have accomplished, we have some idea of what we are able to do- today! This is where we start.

• Has the type of music I want to play changed?
• Is there something new I want to learn?
• Is there a different type of ensemble or group that I want to play in?
• Is there something I want to get better at doing?
• What are the strong points of my musicianship?
• What are the weak points of my playing?
• What are the ways I can apply the stronger points to the weaker points in order to improve?

Then aim and plan. Set the goals and do them.

We are talking about an attitude of passion AND openness in this post. The passion is what excites us and keeps us practicing even when it would appear to others to be “dull” or “boring” or when we feel that moment of boredom before picking up the instrument. (Not those long tones again!) The passion pushes us forward because it’s who we are.

The openness is the attitude that says “I don’t know if I can do that, but the only way to find out is to do it.” Stay away from “try to do it” and, to borrow a well-worn phrase- “Just do it.” Pick up the horn and play. Pick up the phone and call a teacher. Make a recording of your routine and listen for where it can be improved. Google the ideas you are thinking about and see what others have done to get there.

• I WANT to do this, it excites me, and
• I CAN do this if I am willing to work on it.

But what if I fail? What if I’m not talented enough? What if…?

Okay, what if the sky falls tomorrow or the promised warm weather goes south for the winter? See how silly that can sound. “What if?” is good, old Self One being its over-analytic and fearful self. It’s selling Self Two short. Again. Don’t let it happen.

Do it and see what happens. Not everyone can hit a double high C, no matter what some people say. But if we don’t aim at it, we won’t get up to the G a fourth below it. Not everyone can move their fingers as fast as Dizzy or Freddie, but we won’t know how fast until we do it.

And yes, “professionals” do have more specific time they spend on their work. Those of us who have other jobs spend as much time on our “professions” as “professional” musicians do. But that can still leave a great deal of time to do what we want to do with our musicianship. That does not mean we are second-class musicians. I will never be asked why I wasn’t as good as Doc or Maynard. I should be asked, “Are you as good as you can be?” The answer is, naturally, “Not yet but I’m working on it.”

One last thought on attitude. See how this might change you attitude if you are worried about that amateur-professional dichotomy. If you are an “amateur” and have no plans to become “professional” Stephanie Judy has a reminder that puts our “amateur” music-making in perspective and can change our attitude.

To be an amateur is to be, literally, a lover. An amateur pursues a thing for itself alone, not for profit, recognition, or perfection in others’ eyes, but purely as an end in itself. In many ways, there is no higher calling than that of amateur. So be proud of your amateur status. (p. 27)

The Tuning Slide 3.34- Passion and Doing What You Love

Weekly Reflections on Life and Music

Nothing is as important as passion.
No matter what you want to do with your life, be passionate.
— Jon Bon Jovi

We continue to look at the theme of attitude. Here’s this week’s quote from the summary board at last summer’s Trumpet Workshop:

✓ Love What You Do - Do What You Love

A Sidenote to start: I don’t usually like to start on a cautionary note that could bring us down. But as I was researching this week I had a strong realization that statements like this can be both helpful and harmful. I read insights that said, if you don’t love what you do in your job, quit and find out what you love to do. Without getting into sociology or politics, that is a great statement for any of us who have some place of privilege in the world. But not everyone can do that with what brings in the bread! I am one of the fortunate and privileged ones who has more freedom and opportunity than many. There are many, however, who can very well be stuck in a job that brings no pleasure. It becomes simply a way to pay the bills. This post is not about that. This post is about finding what you are passionate about no matter what you do for a living. We can all find some way of doing that even if you don’t have a job that you can love.

So, then, let’s get that quote again:

✓ Love What You Do - Do What You Love

I am not first and foremost a trumpet player. I have been fortunate enough to have “day jobs” that I loved and that allowed me the opportunities and freedoms to pursue my trumpet passion. I was also passionate about my vocations and careers. I didn’t exactly expect it to work that way and to this day I shake my head in amazement. You see forty-some years ago I would meet “retired” ministers, my profession at the time, who just couldn’t seem to let go of being pastors. “Why don’t they just retire and enjoy what they have. They’ve earned it!” was my general comment.

Now I am in the position to finally understand what they didn’t tell me- because I never asked. They loved what they did! It was not work, as such. Sure, they probably liked the extra income, but they did it as much out of the joy of doing it as anything. I call myself “semi-retired” today because I don’t work full-time. But as I turn 70 years old this year I still enjoy what I do. Over the years I have fallen in love with what I do, not because it defines me, but because it gives me joy.

In a post on Huffington Post I found a quote from our old friend Steve Jobs:

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.
-Link

Even if you can’t do it with your “day job” it is often possible for most of us to find it in our passions. Sometimes it does take courage to follow your inner voice. Why, at age 65 did I start pursuing my trumpet playing to where it has by now become something that is an integral part of me? I am passionate about it. I can’t “quit” because I’m not done loving it yet. “All that time I spend practicing and going to rehearsals and gigs- aren’t there other things you want to do, Barry?” Sure- and I am doing them. But the music, now that’s something in its own unique place.

Even practicing long tones day in and day out. At least 10 minutes every day followed by 10-15 minutes of thirds or a triplet exercise. Every day. How boring.

Not.

Because it is part of what I am passionate about. It is not in my make-up to be mediocre about something I am passionate about. That has meant several things. First it means that in my life I have minimized the time I spend doing things that bore me- that don’t raise my passion. Again, I am fortunate to be in the privileged group that can do that. But even for me there were years when I couldn’t spend the amount of time at the trumpet that I am spending now. Today I can do it- and I am loving it. Balance your time and give yourself time to explore what you are passionate about.

Second, I am not easily bored. I have cultivated that attitude for my entire life. I am intrigued by what’s around me and what I don’t know yet. I may not be expert at many of these things, but I like learning and having some knowledge. That I also bring with me to whatever I am doing. Curiosity can add to passion as we want to see what we are able to do. Curiosity is "beginner's mind" that allows the newness in today to captivate you. Playing long tones can be interesting if you don’t feel you have to rush through them and get them done as some chore. They are far more than that. They help me move beyond mediocre. Cultivate curiosity as a seed of passion.

Third, do what you need to do today to improve where you will be tomorrow. Back to Steve Jobs’ comment above, life is limited, so stay in the moment and grow from here. If we allow the regrets from the past or the fears of the future to get in the way, we are missing the only time we have- today. That doesn’t mean don’t plan or dream. That means utilize where you are today to get where you will be tomorrow. Act today to grow the dreams for tomorrow.

When you pick up your horn today, be surprised at what passion you can bring to even the most mundane part of long tones or Clarke #1. Be surprised by what a difference it can make to find that you love what you are doing and grow from there.

The Tuning Slide: In Everything You Do

Weekly Reflections on Life and Music

In one of our discussions at the trumpet workshop it was pointed out that many of us would not be making a living as a musician. As much as we love playing trumpet, that will not be our “day job.” In the different bands I play in a majority of the members are not professional musicians. Health care and computers have both been a major part of the community’s economic base. As a result there are many different health care professionals and computer engineers in the groups. Sure, there are also a sizable number of band and music teachers as well as some who make their living performing music.

As we thought about this we were reminded of something that we should not forget.

    Things you learn playing the trumpet will make you a better… surgeon, teacher, worker, friend, spouse, etc.  

We all have various skills and personalities. What we discover in playing music- the discipline, the ability to work with others- are also essential to our vocations. What music teaches us is very much what is essential in our lives.

It’s also a two way street: If you have developed into a good (fill in the blank), you can become a good musician. It takes the same commitment, discipline, and work. The things you learn in life or career will make you a better trumpet player.

This brought to mind a comment a friend made to me back in July. He was talking about some of the wisdom he has been given by others and quoted this tidbit. It boggled my mind and twisted my life like very few things do:

    The way you do anything is the way you do everything.

Looking it up on Google I found that there are a number of apparent “sources” for it. In any case, it is one of those statements that is so profound as to shift one’s world view.

    •    Do you find shortcuts at work in order to get done faster, although not necessarily more effectively? That may very well be how you do a lot of other things?
    •    Do you treat people with condescension and not really care about them? Chances are that’s how you treat your family and friends as well as strangers.
    •    Are you careless in how you take care of things you own? Are you taking care of even important things in the same way?
    •    Are you satisfied with “good enough” in projects you work on? Maybe “good enough” is all that you will ever be able to achieve.

This is not meant as a judgement but an observation. If we don’t pay attention to how we do some things, chances are we may find it hard to pay attention to other things. This has to do with style and habit as much as with a conscious attempt on our part. It has to do with what we want to get out of our day-to-day lives and how much we put into it. It does not mean suddenly becoming a Type-A workaholic. It does not mean that we change our entire way of doing things. Some of us are more intuitive and introverted while others of us are far more cautious about making sure we plan well. Some of us would die if our entire day was closely scheduled while others would die if it wasn’t. It is rather about how we utilize who we are, our personalities, skills, etc. in order to reach our goals.

Two weeks ago I was talking with this friend again and told him about how he had thrown me into a mental wrestling match. He agreed that the same had happened to him. It was then I realized that his statement along with the discussion at camp had been at work for me in this past year. For over 18 months I have been working on what it means to be retired. Yes, I am still working part-time, but I have been wandering around being retired. That has given me to be able to develop what I have called my “third-career.” While I did expand my music into a nearly full-time avocation, I knew there was more to it.

Then a year ago, the events that started this Tuning Slide blog and threw me into a completely new way of working on my music. Within a few months I went from a person who worked on whatever needed working on to a systematic trumpet player. After nine months of increased practice at a 7 out of 10 day pattern I made it to the daily practice level. Since mid-April, for example, I have missed two days of playing my trumpet- both long travel days. My trumpet playing is probably the best it’s ever been.

But the real surprise I realized two weeks ago, after a year of a whole new regimen of music practice, discipline, and growth, a number of things came together in June and July. It was a true “A-Ha” moment as it all made sense. Some of my retirement questions seemed to disappear and I found the direction I have been waiting for. In other words the way I was doing music in new ways, was the way I was now doing some new things with my retirement.

The way you do anything, is the way you do everything. It can go from the music to other things- or from other things to the music. In reality it is not an either-or idea. It is a both-and action. It doesn’t even have to be conscious. When you discover a new path, a new idea, a new discipline, a new reason for getting out of bed in the morning- that will interact with everything you have been doing.

How then do we do that? How do we work at making sure we are doing our “everything” the right way to be healthy and helpful to us? How can we aim at living a life that is consistent, starting with our musicianship?

• First is passion. What excites you? What are you willing to take extra time to accomplish?

• Second is focus. Are you ready to bear down and discover what living out that passion means? Are you honest with yourself about what that will mean- what sacrifices you will have to make, what changes you will have to work on- in order to be successful?

• Third is action. If what you say you are passionate about doesn’t move you to do, can you really say it is a passion? This takes dedication and determination. It takes a commitment to do- not just talk.

Make your list. Begin to think about some goals. Look at ways you can enhance and grow from your previous experiences and efforts.

Now, how does this apply to the every day things that you do- simple things like how you follow through with promises, how you treat your family and friends, your simple actions? Do these fall in line with what you have written- or do they show that you need to do some changing in order to get where you are going?

It takes that kind of commitment. In the Twelve-Step recovery programs there is an often used question based on  a phrase from the Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book:

If you have decided you want what we have and are willing to go to any lengths to get it….

If you have decided you want to move into the area of your passion- or even just to be better at being who you are as a person, are you willing to go to whatever lengths are needed to get there?

Don’t worry. We don’t have to do it overnight.

So get out that horn and keep working.

The way you do your music is the way you do everything.

Overheard in Recovery - Passion

One of the things people in early recovery are often told is that they need to be cautious of extreme emotions- being really UP or really DOWN. Addicts and alcoholics have craved those extremes as the reasons for drinking or what they hope to have happen as a result of their drinking. It soon reaches the point where the only emotions one can feel are the extremes, say rage instead of anger; ecstasy instead of joy.

In addition in early recovery the emotions are often bouncing all over the place. Just stopping whatever substances were being used will let things jump all over the place. This too is dangerous since we are not used to such swings.

So one evening I heard a question being asked.

With all this talk of remaining calm and not going to extremes, will I lose my passion for things?

I was struck immediately because true passion- caring deeply about things- is important. Recovery isn't about being dull or apathetic or boring. Recovery is about being "happy, joyous and free" as the Big Book says. Passion is not an extreme emotion. Passion is at the heart of enjoying life and caring for and about others.

The problem is that we have so misused and abused the idea of "passion" that it has taken on these erotic or extreme meanings. Suddenly it feels like something we need to avoid. Which of course we do if we see it as an extreme. But when we feel passionate about something or someone we are more likely to respond positively. Passion is not lust or extremism. Passion is deeply caring.

It used to be that Jesus' death was referred to as The Passion of Christ which of course is the title of the Mel Gibson film. While Gibson may have exaggerated the actions and made it more extreme in its violence and anger (or at least that's my take) Jesus' passion is not something to be avoided. It is an example of passion at its best.

Yes, I know it can be misused, too. We humans can take just about anything good and misapply and twist it to fit our human frailties. But that doesn't make it bad.

So in recovery passion- a passion for life- is one of the things we are looking for. Don't become an extremist, find balance and meaning, but don't lose passion. It's far too important.

For Love or Money- Listen to the Heart

from Michael Bungay Stanier's email newsletter, Outside the Lines, came these two quotes yesterday...

"When making a decision of minor importance, I have always found it advantageous to consider all the pros and cons. In vital matters, however, such as the choice of a mate or a profession, the decision should come from the unconscious, from somewhere within ourselves. In the important decisions of personal life, we should be governed, I think, by the deep inner needs of our nature."
-Sigmund Freud, Austrian psychiatrist

"Everyone should carefully observe which way his heart draws him, and then choose that way with all his strength."
-Hasidic Saying

Little did I know that these would have a meaning in today's top news story on all three networks' evening news shows.

Baseball and Steroids. The Mitchell Report has been released and while it is not a surprise to most baseball watchers, it is big news. If we lived in a different age this would make the "Black Sox Scandal" of the early 20th Century look like a Sunday School picnic. I think in many ways it will make or break some real issues in baseball today. Will they "scapegoat" one or two or will they come down hard and heavy? Will Major League Baseball "bite the bullet" and do what's right or will it be another hypocrisy reminiscent of their response to Pete Rose?

Bonds. Clemens. Giambi. Tejada. Vaughan. Pettite. Name after name. (USA TODAY link.) As some have said, it is an All-Star roster. Lawyers are already involved. MLB will be cautious.

And baseball will be tainted. Or at least it should be. This is NOT a pretty picture. It is one mroe example of the extreme that occurs when money and greed and our human desire to be great and to be entertained by those who are larger-than-life takes over. That's why those quotes I received yesterday are so powerful in this context (as well as others, of course.)

Freud might say that these decisions to use steroids has been spawned by our inner human nature- but not our better nature. We can be led by that inner sense in good and bad ways. Be bigger and more powerful. Or be a better human being. Make lots and lots of money or stand on the sidelines and watch.

But the heart, the true and hopeful heart is another story. The true heart is one that knows right from wrong and that in the end we are lesser people if we choose the "wrong." Whether we get caught or not, we are diminished when we hold back on our secrets, when we betray our own better nature- the heart- and follow the other ways. We lose some of our humanity- and sadly we may never even know it's gone.

I hope that this report is not just another 15-minutes of infamy and then we, the baseball loving crowd and the headline loving news and the money loving owners, go back to the way things have been. A slap on the wrist here; a nod and wink there. Bonds already has the reputation, let him be a scapegoat. Clemens is a courageous pitcher, look the other way.

It can't happen that way. The record book that baseball and its fans revere will have a new cover that is simply a question mark and an asterisk.

1776- Passion Revisited
We went to the Guthrie Theater on Thursday evening for the last of the past season's shows. It was the Tony Award winning musical, 1776. I had never seen the musical and had only a vague remembrance of the movie. The movie didn't particularly impress me, but that was a LONG time ago (35 years!) Or maybe my memory has faded - or- most likely this is one of those musicals that needs to be seen as a stage musical.

My wife and I were blown away. Wow! It may even be more relevant today than it was then. Here were a few things that struck us:

• We saw this the evening after all the hoopla with the Senate etc. Here's one of John Adams' opening lines:

I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is called a disgrace; that two are called a law firm, and that three or more become a Congress!

Hmmm!

• Two moments of spontaneous applause from the audience at the following comments:

John Adams: This is a revolution, dammit! We're going to have to offend SOMEbody!
Dr. Benjamin Franklin: Those who would give up some of their liberty in order to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

• Having read several of the books on Adams and the other Revolutionary Founding Fathers we were both amazed at how close to reality (for a musical) this was. It rightly portrayed the tough times they had.

• Nor did they cover-up the "slavery compromise" that took Jefferson's strong stand against it out of the Declaration in order to get the whole thing passed. But neither did they let the "north" off easy with the powerfully frightening song on Molasses to Rum:

  Molasses to rum to slaves, oh what a beautiful waltz
  You dance with us, we dance with you
  Molasses and rum and slaves

But perhaps what struck me the most was John Adams. Here was a true pioneer visionary who never shut up about it. He was obnoxious, challenging, loud, self-righteous- and right. He was committed to it and was more of its architect than just about anybody else. Yet he would probably have been forgotten behind Jefferson, Franklin, Hancock, and Washington had he not been elected the 2nd President.

To watch it happen, even if it was a musical, was a great event. Thanks again to the Guthrie for a truly remarkable production.