Tuning Slide 5.30- Beyond Mediocre

Weekly Reflections on Life and Music

If any of you have a desire to be mediocre,
you will probably find that you have already achieved your ambition.
― Hugh B. Brown

Fortunately, many people do not set out in their lives to become the most mediocre person that they can be. So the above quote lacks some reality. I have to admit though that I have met people who are completely satisfied with where they are at the moment and are making no plans to do anything about it. I guess that such individuals would qualify for planning for mediocrity. I guess it all depends on what amount of work you decide to put into it. The less you do, the more mediocre you become.

Another quote from the book Catch-22 is perhaps a better or a more realistic one.

Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity,
and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them.
― Joseph Heller

Mediocre can be defined as:    

• being of only ordinary or moderate quality; neither good nor bad; barely adequate. (Link)

Blah. Boring. So-so.

Unfortunately, there aren’t many of us who can be good to great at everything, which means that in some things we do we will be, by definition, mediocre. I know how to swim, but I am poor at it, I’m a mediocre swimmer. I know how to play the guitar, but, at best, I am mediocre. But that does not mean that I have to be mediocre at everything I so or in all areas of my life. Some of this also changes with age. I used to have better eyesight than I do now; today it is mediocre.

On the blog of Music Think Tank, I found a good tongue-in-cheek set of “tips for the typical musician". The author is talking to those who want to get into the music business and many of his tips are business-related. I went through and picked out some of them that might fit most of us. He introduces them this way:

For those of us who embrace shades of mediocrity, here are some tips for becoming a typical musician. (Link)

◆ Practice
⁃ Practice one hour a day. However, feel free to skip practice if there is something more interesting going on.
⁃ Play the same piece over and over again. Never try to deconstruct the music and figure out how and why it works.
⁃ Convince yourself that taking music lessons is out of the question since all your favorite musicians were self-taught.
⁃ Use only tabs and chord charts to learn new songs. Never try to figure it out by ear, it’s simply too frustrating.

◆ Gigs
⁃ Allow your instruments to decay to the ultimate state of disrepair. Only replace broken parts after you have repeatedly cut out during several shows.
⁃ Never listen to fellow musicians on stage. Stay entirely focused on yourself.

◆ Personal
⁃ If you play with others, vaguely explain why you’re the most valuable member of the group and thus most group rules shouldn’t apply to you.
⁃ Get jealous of all fellow musicians who find their way to success before you do. Make sure to complain to anyone that will listen about how much they suck.
⁃ Convince yourself that if you just keep hanging on, another few months, or another year, you will make it. Never stop to take a critical look at your music or live show to see where you are going wrong, or how it can be improved.
⁃ Close your mind to other genres of music because, quite frankly, it sucks.
⁃ Always do the bare minimum required.

I would add one more to the personal- Know that you are the least valuable member of the group and have nothing new or important to offer. Like the quote at the top, if you do that you will turn that into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

In any case, the author, Mike Venti, ends the article by getting to his obvious point.

◆ Recognizing this type of destructive behavior is one of the first steps to getting rid of it. Never settle on being typical. Only by being atypical will you command the attention you truly deserve.

A couple of examples from my own journey come to mind. First is that changing my practice routine and mindset really did make a difference in my playing. I was a mediocre trumpet player for years- even when I was good at what I was doing. I remained mediocre in that I never got better. I had no plan, no direction, no idea in any way to change what I was doing. Until I got some direction- and challenge- nothing was about to change. I even remember after one Sunday morning worship when I had played a duet with the organ, I was grateful that I hadn’t made as many mistakes as usual- and I didn’t know why I was so good at making mistakes.

Another was not taking as good a care of my trumpet as I knew I should. Once in a while, I would take it in for a chemical cleaning, but anything more on my part, well, not so much. At one of the Shell Lake Trumpet Workshops, I remember one of the instructors taking the tuning slide out and looking down the lead pipe. I don’t remember the exact words he used to describe it, but they were basically that I would never get a good (i.e. Non-mediocre) sound out of that horn. I cleaned it that evening and have tried to remain better at that. If I don’t take care of my instrument, how can I expect it to play well?

One other step toward mediocrity is to expect it to happen overnight, or at least within a reasonable time, say three weeks to a month. I am now well into the sixth year of this renewed and revitalized trumpet journey. It was only at the end of five years that Mr. Baca basically said, now you’re ready to work on some new stuff. In fairness, Bob, that isn’t what you said. It is what I heard because I knew something had changed in my playing and I was at a different level. Originally it was when I heard myself playing on a video six or so years ago, that I realized how mediocre my playing was. Hearing that I was ready for something new to work on last summer was reaffirming what I had felt- I was making progress. Maybe I wasn’t typically mediocre anymore.

Tuning Slide 5.5- Making a Commitment

Weekly Reflections on Life and Music

The most crucial ingredient by far for success in music is . . .what happens in the practice room.
—William Westney

It is Labor Day and for some school has begun while for others it will happen tomorrow. One last summer “prepare for fall” post. Naturally it is about the most important and essential ingredient of being a musician- practice. We all have heard that the way to get to Carnegie Hall is to “practice, practice, practice.” That’s where I shortchanged myself. I got to play in Carnegie Hall in college and I didn’t really practice. So I guess I thought I didn’t need to practice. It cost me many years of advanced enjoyment! As fall arrives, make a commitment to yourself AND your music:

Commit to practicing.

In light of this, here’s some thoughts from a post I found at Live About. They had eleven tips for practicing. Here are several of them with my comments in italics.

1) Aim to Practice Everyday
Even the best musicians strive to practice their instrument daily. Make practice a part of your daily routine. Determine when is the best time for you to practice. …If you skip a practice day, don't worry, but do try to make up for the missed practice session by extending your practice time for at least 5 minutes for your next session.

[See closing comments below.]

2) Practice for at least 20 Minutes Daily
Why 20 minutes? It's not too short that you get nothing done and not too long that you end up feeling bored. 20 minutes refers to the lesson proper itself. Devote 5 minutes for warm-ups and 5 minutes for cool downs, just like a regular exercise. That means you must set aside at least 30 minutes a day for practice sessions. …As your interest grows you'll find that your daily practice time will also extend.

[As I have increased my skills and endurance, I have found that it takes 20 minutes to get ready to practice.But I have also found that if I don't have more than 20 minutes at a time, that doesn't mean that I only pratice 20 minutes once a day. Three 20 minutes sessions over a day can be a great goal. I have been amazed at how my endurance has increased with just that "little" bit of practice, daily!]

3) Listen to Your Body
Sometimes musicians forget the importance of being fit not only in mind but also in body. If you're straining to read the music sheet in front of you, do have your eyes checked. If you're having trouble deciphering tones coming from your instrument, consider having an ear exam. If your back hurts every time you sit down to practice, determine if this has something to do with posture. Listen to your body; if it feels something is not quite right, schedule a check-up as soon as possible.

[Many of us may be more likely to take better care of our instrument than we do of ourselves. (See # 6 below). Not a good idea to ignore either.]

4) Make Your Practice Area Comfortable
Is your seat comfortable? Is the room well ventilated? Is there proper lighting? Make sure that your practice area is comfortable and free from distractions so you can concentrate.

[That isn't always possible, of course. The most important is that you can feel comfortable and relaxed. Make your practice room a "familiar and safe place. By the way, this also means having the right equipment and things like pencils, metronome, paper, etc. That helps keep distractions to a minumum. And we love to be distracted! Avoid it.]

5) Remember, It's Not a Race
Keep in mind that each person learns at varying speeds, some are quick learners while others take time to progress. Don't be ashamed if you feel you're progressing slower than your classmates. … The best musicians reached their level of success through determination and patience. It is not about how quickly you learned to play a music piece; it is about playing from your heart.

[Also, don’t get discouraged when you come to a plateau. That does not mean you have reaced the end of your ability- it usually means you have reached a point where your skills and endurance are about to increase! This is an almost foolproof sign for me that I am about to make a jump or even leap in my musicianship. I now get excited- and motivated- when I think I have hit a plateau. Amazing!]

6) Take Care of Your Instrument
Your musical instrument will serve as your friend and partner as you continue your studies. It isn't enough that you're a good player, you must also have an instrument that is of good quality and in top condition. Take care of your instrument; if you feel it's starting to have problems, don't wait and have it checked immediately.

[Okay, I have not always been good at this until I realized that if I don't take of my instrument, I am not taking my craft seriously. Like taking care of my body, I need to watch the care and cleaning of my horn!]

7) It's Okay to Have Fun
We all want to be good at something but for me loving what you do is more important. Never forget that despite all the hardwork you will and are facing, playing a musical instrument is enjoyable. As you improve, your love and enjoyment of music will also grow. You are …on a wondrous journey, have fun!

[Fun! It is definitely okay to have fun, even when practicing. In fact, if you aren't having fun in some way or another, you won't continue. I have to find that practicing is a goal in and of itself that will get me to greater goals in my musical ability.]

I would have never believed I could do what I am able to do today just a few years ago. But that will be in next week's post. A life in and with music is such a gift. My times of daily (!) practice give me the opportunity for daily joy and gifts of grace. Make that commitment! Do it!

Tuning Slide 5.3- Advice for a New Season

Weekly Reflections on Life and Music

Don't only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets; art deserves that, for it and knowledge can raise man to the Divine.
— Ludwig van Beethoven

Back in March, I found a post by Melissa Chu titled 25 “No-Nonsense” Lessons on Mastering Your Craft, According to Beethoven. As we all get ready for the post-summer back to basics time, I picked out and edited 7 of the 25 that seemed like good thought starters for this new year of The Tuning Slide. As usual with these types of posts, my reflections are in italics following each idea.

1. Work around your obstacles.

At age 26, Beethoven began experiencing hearing difficulties. Over time, his hearing worsened to the point that he became completely deaf. He was devastated and had suicidal thoughts, since he believed that this meant his music career was over. But later, he changed his mindset and was determined to continue producing music…. Beethoven composed some of his greatest works while he was deaf, including pieces such as Moonlight Sonata and Fur Elise. Everyone faces obstacles at points in their life. Instead of making excuses for why something won’t work, find a way to overcome your challenges.

[Many times the obstacles can actually help us by forcing us to get out of our comfort zone and find new ways to work and live. Most of us won’t be faced with anything as drastic as Beethoven’s deafness, but we can still get stalled. Don’t let that happen.]

2. You are never too good to get help.

Beethoven was acknowledged as a child prodigy by his father…. In his adult years… he was gaining popularity and success, but he still sought the instruction of others for feedback and improvement. The world’s best in any field have coaches and instructors to guide them in becoming even better.

[Find teachers at any age. I love learning and I have discovered that learning from others is one of the best ways. I have met a number of new teachers in the past few years- and the results have been astounding.]

3. Surround yourself with people who will contribute to your successes.

Beethoven moved to Vienna in the hopes of meeting Mozart. In the process, he was introduced to other important people in the process who would act as mentors and financial supporters. He surrounded himself with people who were enthusiastic about his work, enabling him to get motivational and financial support to continue his art. Your environment is one of the most important factors for your growth. By placing yourself somewhere that aligns with your goals, you can reach them much more quickly.

[But it isn’t just teachers who are around us. Don’t overlook your friends as part of your movement and growth. They don’t have to be only musicians, either. The right group of positive and supportive friends is always helpful!]

4. Be willing to wait.

Part of being strategic in releasing content is waiting for the right time. Sometimes choosing to act at a later time is wiser. Although Beethoven’s reputation as a piano virtuoso was rising, he chose to withhold works from publication until they would have a greater impact. Two years later, he had his first public performance. He decided to have his works published then, which proved to be a large financial success.

[Four years ago I thought that within a few months of intentional, regular practice I would be a truly superior trumpet player. I wanted to excel quickly. Well, that never happened. Some of the biggest and most significant changes that I worked for only happened in the past six weeks! I didn’t just sit and wait, though, which leads to the next one…]

5. Expect and plan for failures.

On the road to success, there will be a number of ups and downs. Instead of giving up or stalling, expect and plan for them. Although Beethoven was well-renowned during his life time, there were many times when his works were not well-received and his personal and family struggles made it difficult to make ends meet. Instead of becoming frustrated and giving up, he took a step back and evaluated his work so far. Doing so brought about a change in musical style as he decided to move in a different direction. His move influenced the shift in Classical music at the time.

[Failure isn’t the end. Ups and downs occur; plateaus happen. I came to realize that a plateau usually means I am about to make a move forward. My Inner Game self 2 knows that now and sees that as times of consolidation of resources to move on.]

6. Your tastes and preferences will evolve over time.

Beethoven’s work is divided into three periods: early, middle and late. In each period, he was influenced by different composers and environments. His own personal development and maturity affected his musical style as well. As we get older, our outlook on life and work changes. We might spend time being influenced by different people, or have events occur that change our approach to things.

[For me the change was in my outlook on life and how to move forward. I listened to my teachers, friends, and colleagues. The result was I discovered new things that I would never have expected to like. I continue to deepen my understandings of more contemporary jazz, for example, and have learned new understandings of mood, melody, and musicality as a result.]

7. There is always room to improve.

Even if we think we are good enough, we can always get better at something. This could mean putting in more work to improve our skills, or taking a different direction. Beethoven was quoted as saying:

“I am not satisfied with the work I have done so far. From now on I intend to take a new way.”

Midway through his music career, Beethoven had already composed a number of works. Yet, he still wanted to do even better. And if Beethoven thinks he can do better, then all of us can always strive to get better at what we do.

[That says a lot right there!]

The barriers are not erected which can say to aspiring talents and industry, 'Thus far and no farther.'
— Ludwig van Beethoven

So as I move into this fifth year of The Tuning Slide, I am as excited as I was when I began. These ideas from Beethoven will be woven in and through the posts in the year ahead. More ideas will be in the next couple of posts and then we will dig deeper. I am hoping to be a little more expansive in many posts and move beyond the specifics of the trumpet- but even when I stay with my main instrument, I plan on expanding into more general applications.

As always, if you want me to look into something, email me.

Barry[at]tuningslide[dot]net.

Tuning Slide 4.47- Being Free #3

Weekly Reflections on Life and Music

If you really want to do something, you’ll find a way.
If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse.

Jim Rohn

Two weeks ago I started a series based on a blog post at Planet of Success by Steve Mueller. It is about 10 powerful ways to free yourself if you are stuck. I took the concepts and riffed on them from my own experiences in the last 8-10 years to overcome self-defeating attitudes that kept me from changing and growing in my trumpet playing. Here are the themes of the previous two weeks:

1. Face your fears
2. Break your routine
3. Effect change, one step at a time
4. Overcome the perception of impossibilities
5. Be honest with yourself
6. Change your perspective

This week we will look at four more. And as always, my thoughts are in italics.

7. Differentiate between feeling and fact
✓ The inability to get unstuck may feel very real, but in the end, it’s just a feeling. And this very feeling creates our perception of the situation. For this reason, it’s important to remind yourself that feelings are not facts.

Try to look at your situation more objectively. Emotional responses might cloud your perception of reality.

Feelings… or facts? Most of the time we are willing to base our “facts” on “feelings”, even if we think they are really, truly, honestly, facts. Since I have been using my Memorial Day experience from high school as the basis of my “facts” it was hard to say that I was going on feelings. It was a clearly obvious “fact” that first, I am not as good a trumpet player as I like to think I am, and second, that I am bad at auditions. Just look at the visible signs of that on that Memorial Day and then when I didn’t get into the college marching band after a poor audition.

But the facts were different. I was not a less skilled trumpet player because I had problems with Taps on that holiday. It may be that I was careless, or just plain human and capable of error, but skill? No way. Blowing the audition surely showed I let things go downhill when faced with pressure. Never mind that they most likely had enough trumpets and didn’t need a freshman- I was simply not good enough I told me. The fact was I could do it, in both situations, but for the next few decades, you couldn’t have convinced me- until I found some facts and began to move forward. Unstuck.

8. Avoid blaming others
✓ It’s relatively easy to blame others when we feel stuck. While this is a great strategy to maintain peace of mind, it will contribute nothing to the solution of your problem.

Even though you’d like to find an external cause for your situation, try to seek that cause within yourself first. Try to take control over your life by not seeking the fault for your problems in others.

I didn’t face this issue in my situation with my music. I knew it was all my fault and therefore I couldn’t do it. But it is a difficult issue to face. We can always find someone else to blame. I could have blamed the tiredness of having marched to the cemetery for my error; I could have said that the person doing my audition was too intimidating; I could have said they didn’t know what they were doing. That might have prevented some of the attitudes I developed, but they would have kept me stuck because once it happens, it will happen again. The next time it will be because they did it. No matter how you look at it, getting stuck is still getting stuck.

9. Stop comparing yourself to others
✓ While we think we compare ourselves in an objective manner, quite the contrary is the case…. In most situations, we take our weakest spots and compared these with people who are above-average in this area.

If you’re feeling stuck in life, try not to measure your life’s worth based on other people’s accomplishments. Measure your life based upon your own standards. Don’t just mindlessly adopt society’s definition of success, find your very own.

You can always find someone who has different, more, or even greater skills than you do. If I always compare myself to Maynard, Miles, or Doc, I will always fall short. Therefore I am not good enough. It’s an old saying that the only person to compare yourself to is you- yesterday. Have you improved since yesterday? If you haven’t, then do something different- the whole gist of this series on getting unstuck. These ways of getting unstuck are really just ways to change our perspective and find the new ways to see what you or I have done and can do. If playing as good as Doc or Miles is the measure of success, forget it. None of us would ever be successful. But stop- what if Miles had said, I can’t be as good as Satchmo? How much poorer the music world would be.

10. Stop making excuses
✓ Excuses keep us from moving forward in life.
Don’t focus on all the different reasons that keep you stuck. Shift your attention to what needs to be done to effect positive change.

That pretty much sums it up! Make the change.

Mueller then completes the 10 steps with the call to do it yourself:

In the end, the only one that is holding you back is yourself. Do not fall prey to the mistake of focusing all your attention on lousy excuses. Look for the steps you can take that will get you out of your situation.

Get past the excuses this week. Take one more step and make a move. It’s not as hard as it feels- or we make it out to be.

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

Tuning Slide 4.35- Health is Physical and Mental

Weekly Reflections on Life and Music

A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I’ll start with a confession from last week- I didn’t get to post anything. We have been traveling on our end of the winter “vacation” and things were going in all kinds of wonderful directions in Savannah, GA, that it never happened.

Two weeks ago I started a three-part series on life lessons to take away from being a musician. In that one I riffed on a post from the website, The Odyssey Online, where Amanda Gribbin reflected on Eight Life Lessons Through Music.

This week I turn to the website, Musicnotes Now.

[From their page: Musicnotes Now – A Noteworthy Blog for Seriously Fun Musicians. Bringing music lovers the latest news, tips, and products to help nourish their love for music.
“Now” is a blog brought to you by Musicnotes – the world leader in digital sheet music.]

There I discovered a post titled:
17 Surprising Health Benefits of Playing an Instrument

In the first section they talk about possible physical benefits including improved breathing, exercise, improved immune response, hearing, and stress reduction. The one item that I have had some experience with centers on the breathing and muscle improvement. I am a whiz at your normal, everyday standard “plank” exercise. My trainer was amazed the first time I did a solid two minute plank. He commented that not too many people my age (or even younger) could do a two-minute plank. A few weeks later we were discussing it again and he said, “I wonder if part of why you can do that so well is because you are a trumpet player and need to use your core?” I don’t know if that is true or not, but it gives some truth to the physical side of playing an instrument.

Perhaps the clearest benefits, and life lessons, however, can be found in the second area mentioned on the website, the mental benefits. Here these are with the comments from the article:

✓ Mental Performance
⁃ Playing music is like doing a workout for every part of your brain. It helps improve your mental performance and memory. There’s even evidence that music can help a patient’s brain recover from a stroke, as well as slow the onset of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

✓ Coordination
⁃ Using your fingers, hands, and feet in a rhythmic manner for a sustained amount of time, while also being conscious of playing the correct tones, can be a challenge for even the most coordinated people. Over time though, playing music refines your motor skills that go beyond the hand-eye.

✓ Time Management
⁃ Learning an instrument requires practice, of course! But more specifically, it requires consistency and routine. Figuring out how to fit practice into your busy schedule and really stick to it helps you develop better time management and organization skills.

✓ Reading Skills
⁃ Reading music helps strengthen your ability to process information by creating new connections between the synapses in your brain. As a result, reading and absorbing information from other sources becomes a lot easier.

✓ Listening Skills
⁃ Learning music doesn’t just improve your ability to hear details; it also makes you better at listening. Whether you’re practicing on your own or playing with other people, you have to listen for timing, expression, and whether you’re in tune. This can make you a better listener even in everyday conversations as well.

✓ Concentration
⁃ Focus is a necessary part of learning an instrument. Improving your musical skills forces you to use all the parts of your brain involved in concentration, making you better able to concentrate in other life situations. This is another reason why music is beneficial for those with disorders like ADD (-Link)

These are not empty ideas. There is a great deal of research as well as anecdotal observation that can point in these directions. Now, one must always ask, are people who improve in these ways drawn to music because they can do that? No, I think it is more than that. Sometimes I think there are people drawn to music because they know it will benefit them.

For example, I am aware of a young person who had some significant learning concerns, possibly on the autism spectrum. They were somewhat reserved and uncertain. Somewhere around 5th or 6th grade they decided they wanted to be a trumpet player. We all know of the reputation we trumpet players have for being front and center and obnoxiously self-centered. That does not seem to be the best way to go for a person who appears just the opposite. Yet, I knew that this young person was about to do something remarkable. I was right. I saw them regularly over the next six or seven years and the change was clear and consistent. They became a trumpet player in all the best ways and expanded into other musical endeavors. It worked to change this person and help them find new and exciting ways to enter into social and school situations.

Yes, it’s an anecdote, an observation made from short and infrequent contacts. But it is not unusual as the above ideas propose.

So, for you and me- we are already musicians. We have learned how to play the instrument. Perhaps we have had to struggle with time-management or focus. Perhaps we know that we could be sharper in our mental performance- we get lazy thinking periods- or we just get lazy. Is that how we want to live? Is that going to help us move forward in music AND in all the other areas of our lives?

I have learned more from being a musician about living and thinking and development. I know that musicians (and often other arts-types) have to do a great deal of work to become more than just mediocre. We know we can do it! We have been doing it. Some of us for a few months or years, some of us for decades. We are not done yet, but we are moving.

Probably in the end, the most important life lesson we get from music is that we can succeed. It is the sense of achievement that builds confidence that helps us move to other levels of achievement and on and on.

Nike had it right, “Just do it.” Then, when we have done it, keep doing it. Why? Because you know you can do it!

Tuning Slide 4.4- It's in the Basics

Weekly Reflections on Life and Music

Success is neither magical nor mysterious.
Success is the natural consequence of consistently
applying the basic fundamentals.
—Jim Rohn

I had already decided on this week’s theme before this year’s Shell Lake Trumpet Workshop. But right from the beginning of the week I realized that this was no coincidence. I return every year to Shell Lake to be reminded and renewed in the basics of being a trumpet player, musician, and human. Success is always in the basics- and working on the basics every day.

My thinking on this started a month or so ago when I had a trumpet lesson with a local musician. I knew that he would help me in a number of areas and I knew it would be about some of the fundamentals. I just didn’t know which ones- and what to do about it. That, of course, is why we need to have a teacher and take lessons. We don’t know what we don’t know, and we can’t be entirely objective about what we are doing. It takes someone outside of my own head to hear what I am doing and what I need to do about it.

It is always about the basics. First and always and forever, it’s about the sound. It is making the best sound, the sound that resonates with myself and others, the sound that “plays well with others,” the sound that I am hearing in my head and wants to come out through the horn. As my mentors at Shell Lake emphasize over and over, the sound is what we focus on. It is learning to listen to the rich harmonics possible in any given note for each note, as they tell me, is the whole universe in and of itself.

Second, and as essential as the first, is the rhythm. How do I work on rhythm? Articulation comes to mind. So does singing the part or exercise. Catching the rhythm is basic to sight reading I am finding out.

Third, and often overlooked by most of us in practice, is patient slowness. We want to play it up to speed as soon as possible. We want to sound like Clifford Brown in one of his incredible be-bop licks or take that whole Clarke etude in one breath like it indicates. But if I haven’t discovered the sound (tone) or rhythm (articulation and phrasing) it will be just a bunch of notes with no life in them. In order to get to that point, I have to take it slow! I can’t help but think of the lyrics of one of the songs in West Side Story when I hear this:

Boy, boy, crazy boy
Stay loose, boy!
Breeze it, buzz it, easy does it
Turn off the juice, boy!

So, in my lesson, what did the teacher do? He took me back to the basics, of course. Since he, like my Shell Lake mentors, was a student of the great trumpet instructor Bill Adam at Indiana University, he had me pull out the tuning slide and just “play the tube.” Breathe and let the air vibrate. Find the center of the tube- and the sound. Listen to it. Improve it. Breathe it. I could feel my sound relax and center. I could feel the tension decrease. It’s the basics, man, just the basics.

Next, still on sound, we started on long tones and long scale tones. Because of what I was hoping for, part of it was to make the sound as soft as possible. Pianissimo. Soft. Quiet. Breathe it soft. Keep the sound centered. Keep the breath moving. (Last week one of my teachers there noticed I needed to do some work on that as well. Another piece of my puzzle added.)

Now it’s the to add some rhythm work- articulation. He had me turn to one of the basic rhythm exercises in the Arban’s book (the ultimate basics of trumpet playing!) and play them keeping the sound and notes connected. After over 56 years of playing trumpet, I had never really ever worked on this before. (Amazing what happens when your last lesson before a few years ago was when Lyndon Johnson was president!) Listen to the sound! Keep the breath moving. Keep the notes connected as I articulate.

Finally, the overall basic for this lesson- take it slow! Don’t rush through it. Do the long tones- slowly. Do the scales and chromatics- slowly. Do the rhythm and articulation exercises- slowly. Find the way to do them slowly but with purpose and energy. Slow can be dull and boring, or it can be filled with potential energy being released.

Two weeks after that lesson I went to the Brass Festival in North Carolina- and I was knocked over by the change in my sound and breath. I do not need to be convinced of the importance of the basics. I see the results in my playing. I hear and feel the results in my playing.

The basics. Now as much as ever. Perhaps even more so now. It is easy to get the feeling that one has learned all the simple stuff. That is for beginners. No. The trumpet, as many trumpet players have said, is a very unforgiving instrument. It will be putty in your hands one day and a piece of ice unwilling to bend the next. It is always in the basics that I learn to keep moving forward. If I do nothing else with my trumpet on any given day, I must always do the basics.

It is just as true in my own daily life. I can get complacent about what I am doing or what is happening around me. I can lose the center of my life, moving into the out-of-tune sections that can lead me to boredom, fear, or just plain laziness. Each day I need to work on my own basics.

• Sound- the tone of my life. Is my tone happy or sad, accepting or judging, willing to work with or working against others? That is the internal. It is my mood, my feelings, my inner reactions to what is happening around me. Mindfulness to these is basic.
• Articulation- how I show it. Do I act out my internal struggles or feelings, taking it out on others, blaming others for my stuff, ignore what is my responsibility? This is the external. How I respond to others is important for it can and will impact all my relationships.
• Patience- Stay loose and keep moving. I have to know I can’t be perfect, so don’t try to rush things in order to get past them and ignore them. Turn down the juice and keep cool.

Every day, in whatever ways I can, it is all about the basics. They are, after all, the only way to get where I want to be.

3.51- Beyond Luck

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.
— Helen Keller

Character:
1. the aggregate of features and traits that form the individual nature of some person or thing.
2. moral or ethical quality:
3. qualities of honesty, courage, or the like; integrity:
4. reputation
5. an account of the qualities or peculiarities of a person or thing.
6. a person, especially with reference to behavior or personality:

How does an individual develop “good character?” What difference does it make? How might that impact my music and my musicianship?

As I am writing this, I have some sore muscles and joints. I worked out earlier today and, while didn’t push too hard, I did have to make some effort to get in all the reps on the third set of a couple exercises. As I understand it, muscle has to be broken down a little and then rebuilt. That’s what exercise is all about. (It is probably more technical than that but that’s all I need to know.)

That usually means that when I do my workout I have to exert some energy. It would do a tiny bit of good if I just moved my muscles with no added resistance or weight, but it wouldn’t build much endurance or strength. I could also just sit and watch a TV show about exercise or read a book about it, but unless I put some pressure on the muscle, it won’t grow.

As musicians we know the truth of that. There was a time when playing for 10 minutes would tire me out- physical (lips) and mental (inability to stay focused). Today I practiced for a total of 80 minutes in two separate sessions- a daily routine of about 30 minutes and practicing for upcoming concerts for about 50 minutes. Yes, my lips were tired at the end, but it’s a far cry from getting exhausted after 10 minutes in mid-staff!

Character- who we are as a person- is the same. That’s what Helen Keller meant when she said that only through trial and suffering can character be built. It is also where we get inspired and can move toward success. We have to stretch; we have to move beyond our comfort zones; we have to be challenged. Otherwise we won’t know what we are capable of or what we stand for.

The kind of person I become is built on our past experiences- easy and difficult. It is those qualities- reputation, honesty, and courage, for example, that we also bring to our musicianship. I am sure there have been mean and dishonest musicians. There are musicians who easily ignore others who they feel less talented than they are. And, yes, they can be very successful. But they can be so difficult to deal with that they can face all kinds of other problems.

Another of the lessons from the Trumpet Workshop is that:
• The music is #1;
• Other musicians are #2;
• The audience is #3; and
• I am #4.
None of the first three are there for my benefit alone. Sure, I can definitely get something out of it, but it is the music that gets it started. Then I need the others to help me to what I want to do with the music in mind. Why? So the audience can be entertained, moved, excited, or uplifted. If I can be part of something that does that, I will be more than pleased.

I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.
— Thomas Jefferson

It isn’t luck. It isn’t even just talent. Sure we have to be in the right place at the right time and we have to be able to do what we want to do. But let’s be honest, the way to “overnight” success is years of hard work.

Tuning Slide 3.45- Success

Weekly Reflections on Life and Music

Success is not final; failure is not fatal:
It is the courage to continue that counts.
— Winston S. Churchill

Another week of looking from life to music, instead of the other way around. Lessons learned in life about life are just as applicable to playing music and being a musician of any level. When I first looked at the quote from Winston Churchill I read it wrong. I expected it to say that failure is not final. But he headed down a different path. Perhaps a more important path.

Success, just as much as failure, is not final. Think about that a moment. You have been working and planning and striving for success at some thing or another. Then, there it is. You have achieved your goal. Success is yours.

What next? Where will you venture next? What new goal will you set? Or will you just stop and say, “Well, that’s my success. I think I’ll quit now”?

I don’t think so. Many of us have had that one solo or ensemble piece that we have worked hard at. It may be something that challenges you to be a little bit better than you have ever been. So you push, and work, and “woodshed” until it is what you had hoped it would be. You get to the performance and you nail it. It comes across with all the joy and energy that you put into it. You have succeeded! You take the moment to receive the congratulations of family and friends.

You then go back to the practice room and start on the next goal.

Or you blow it. You get lost in the middle of the performance. You don’t shine like you had hoped to. Your family and friends still congratulate you on your efforts. But you are bummed. You failed at that attempt. At least that’s how you see it. You smile and walk away.

You then go back to the practice room and start on the next goal.

You can quit after either event, but what good would that do? You may decide this isn’t for you after the “failure”. You put the horn away- perhaps just as you were ready to make a leap forward. Or you decide that this success is as good as it will be and you stop. You miss the opportunity to do even more than you can imagine.

Neither success nor failure is an end. As the wonderful quote from the movie The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel says:

Everything will work out in the end. If it hasn’t worked out yet, it isn’t the end.

Which easily brings me to the second quote from one who embodies these ideals, Helen Keller.

No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.
— Helen Keller

When Keller was less than two years old she lost her ability to see or hear. Through incredible training and perseverance she succeeded and became a prolific author, political activist, and lecturer. She was the first deaf-blind person to earn a bachelor of arts degree. She knew that to be pessimistic was what could be truly fatal to one’s ability to succeed. The movie The Miracle Worker is the story of how her teacher, Anne Sullivan pushed and inspired Keller.

There are many reasons to be pessimistic. None of them will get you where you want to go, unless you want to fail, or at best, be mediocre. One reason for pessimism is to keep from being disappointed. Too many bad things could happen that will keep me from succeeding. In order to prevent those things, I can adopt pessimism. Another reason is the fear of failure- or being held accountable for what you said you would do. Set low, pessimism-based standards, and you won’t have to explain when you don’t succeed.

I tried that the other year when, at trumpet camp, my friend, Jeff, looked at one of the parts of the “routine”, pointed to the high F or G way up there above the staff, looked at me and said, “By next year you’ll be playing up in that range.”

I laughed. “Never!” I said. I can never do that. I’m not a “screamer”. Be pessimistic. Set the bar low and you don’t have to go anywhere. It was, I will admit, a cover-up of fear. I wanted to be able to play those notes. I had never been able to play that high C on any regular basis, let alone go up another third, fourth, or fifth! That’s crazy to even think about it.

Crazy good! Because I wanted to.

The next year I had to go up to Jeff and admit that I had lied to him the year earlier. I wasn’t soaring up in those notes, but I was able to play them. I have continued to work on them. No, they are not flowing easily. Not yet. They may never for any one of a number of reasons. But I am now willing to be optimistic that things will work out in the end.

The song for this week is an old number from Frank Sinatra and the movie A Hole in the Head. Fun… and a song I’ve loved for years…. High Hopes.

Tuning Slide 3.44:

Weekly Reflections on Life and Music

First, I know there wasn’t a post last week. Life caught up to me in several ways and I had to do other things. Like work and practice my trumpet. Oh, let’s not forget eat and sleep. So I figured it would be easiest to skip a week of the `. What that did give time to work out the ideas for the rest of this third year. I’m going to try things around and start with life.

Yes, the blog is subtitled “Reflections on Life and Music.” But most of the time we start with the music and move toward applying our lessons from music to life. Well, for the rest of the blog’s third year I will be going the other direction. I have found a bunch of quotes about living life from all kinds of sources. I have enough for two quotes a week through July 5, week 52 of the year’s posts. I will do my usual improvisational riffs on the quotes as they might apply not only to life, but to musicianship and music as well.

Let’s see where it takes us.

Lighten up, just enjoy life, smile more, laugh more,
and don't get so worked up about things.
— Kenneth Branagh

After the past month or so in my own life, this was the perfect way to start. Life happens and we have to get through it. The ups and downs of life also happen and we have to know what to do. Stress can be both a help and a hindrance. Stress is needed to keep us on our toes; and stress can send us into illness if it is too much. On top of that all of us have different levels of stress that we can tolerate on average, as well as in many different situations.

A secret to life is to learn how to deal with stress. Well, I guess that isn’t truly a secret. We all know that. It’s just that some of us learn to do it better than others, while some of us fall into all types of unhealthy ways of reacting. So I Googled “best ways of coping with stress” and got this from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

• Take care of yourself.
  
  • Eat healthy, well-balanced meals
  • Exercise on a regular basis
  • Get plenty of sleep
  • Give yourself a break if you feel stressed out
• Talk to others. Share your problems and how you are feeling and coping with a parent, friend, counselor, doctor, or pastor.Avoid drugs and alcohol. These may seem to
• help with the stress. But in the long run, they create additional problems and increase the stress you are already feeling.
• Take a break. If news events are causing your stress, take a break from listening or watching the news.

Nothing earth-shattering in any of those. We are simply better able to cope with stress if we do these simple things. I have a friend who did stop watching the news in the past five months. Their blood pressure dropped to a healthy level! It can really work.

Another way to say this may be learn to “go with the flow.” Here’s where music can be of great assistance. Many of us know the idea of being “in the groove”. There may be that time in the practice room when every note flowed from your horn as if it was straight from a heavenly source. Or in the midst of a gig all members of the band just clicked into place.

There can be a lot of stress that we place on ourselves in music. We want to perform well- as close to perfect as is possible. We want to push ourselves to get better. We want to make music that impacts others and leads them into the groove or the flow with us. I am convinced that in order for us to be able to do that, we need to learn to relax, deal with the stress, laugh and learn, practice with ease, lose the tension. We all know when it happens; we just have to learn how to get there. Having the attitude to

Lighten up, just enjoy life, smile more, laugh more,
and don't get so worked up about things.


That might make a huge difference. Which brings us to the second quote for this week:

To succeed in life, you need three things:
a wishbone,
a backbone, and
a funny bone.
— Reba McEntire

Simply put:

A wishbone is the desires and hopes we strive for. These are our goals and directions, the values and directions of our lives. Essential or we just drift into an aimless wandering that exhausts us- and probably those around us.

In our music this takes us back to the need to set goals; to be able to say why we are doing what we are doing; how we want life to be changed through what we are doing. Where is it you want to be in six months or a year. Make the plans. Life the direction of your dreams.

A backbone is courage to do the things we need to be doing. This encompasses the discipline it takes to move toward our dreams. It includes the willingness to say “No!” to those things which go against who we are and “Yes!” to the things that will lead us there. It means stand up for yourself and others and take the time to practice to get where you want.

Just having dreams isn’t enough. We have to find the ways to get there. And that takes work. Not just the many hours and years of practice, but the discipline to do it right. It is the courage to choose what is important and then make that a center point of your life. It will mean making some tough choices. It will mean having to sacrifice and give up some things for others. That’s where the stress stuff from the CDC above can come in. Look for help- a teacher or mentor. Go for it. With courage.

A funny bone is keeping all things in perspective. Life can be a lot of fun. There are many things to laugh at and enjoy. Look for them. Aim at them. Find the goodness and joy no matter where you are.

In the end, while these are important, the more seriously you take yourself, the more difficulty you will have moving in the right direction. Being too rigid will get in the way. Not being able to laugh at yourself will keep you from being able to relax at what you are doing. Go with the flow of your music, laugh at your mistakes - and then get back to doing the right things to move forward.

Yep, I know these sound like those platitudes that can be so sickly sweet that we get tooth decay from them. But they have stood the test of time. Remember to have fun. Life is too short not to.

Each week in this series I’ll end with a video of a song that gets to the heart of what I’m saying. No better place to start than with the Beatles.

The Tuning Slide: 2.19- As Simple As...

Weekly Reflections on Life and Music

It is one of my favorites of Mr. Baca’s insights from the Shell Lake Trumpet Workshop:

Make everything sound like "Mary Had A Little Lamb." A 3-year old can sing it without thinking about it. Put the rhythm on the board for a new player and they will struggle with it.

And we all know it’s true.

• All those black marks on the page are intimidating.
• All those sharps or flats? No way!
• Look at the tempo marking. Are they kidding?
• How am I ever going to get that down in time for the concert?

Excuses, excuses, excuses. But they work. We don’t ever learn it like we could. We don’t take the time to practice like we need to. We continue to assume that it is too hard because we think it’s too hard and therefore it remains too hard.

No, this is not another post on practicing. That’s still a few weeks away. It is another post reminding us to keep ourselves in the right balance with the right kind of goals. It is a reminder that just practicing any old thing will just get us any old someplace- or nowhere near where we want to be.

Last week in looking at planning for the new year I wrote:

• We start something by taking the necessary steps to get there.
• We have to know where we want to go.
• We then create opportunities then things happen.
• We follow our interests and take risks.

One of those places we want to go is to make everything as natural as "Mary Had a Little Lamb" (or "Twinkle, Twinkle.") No matter what the piece is that we are working on, it is the feel of the natural that we want. I used to joke when I heard a trumpet player do something extraordinary that “those notes aren’t in my trumpet.” I was trying to be funny. But I was also trying to make a feeble excuse for myself. If they aren’t in my trumpet then I don’t have to work on them or learn to play them. Simple? Yes. But also self-defeating. It ’s almost like saying:

“My goal is to be as mediocre as I feel I am. I want to continue to suck at being a trumpet player.”

The website, Cyber PR posted last year on ideas for setting musical goals. They suggested a few steps:

• Find your focus areas (You are creating a sense of order)
• Write the goals down. (Journals, paper or virtual, are a great idea.
  
  • Start with an easy goal and do it on a timeline
  • Keep moving by keeping lists for each goal
  • Look at the goals daily
  • Look for people to help you achieve the goals- your “team”
  • Plan for the time to do what you want

So, after writing that I came up with my focus list for musicians to consider. I wrote them in the first person since they are my way of finding some focus.

• Listen to the kind of music I want to know or play better, which is (or should be) basically all music
• Take time to sing
• Find my weak spots
• Develop a plan to improve the weak spots.
• Try some memory work
• Write some licks, choruses or songs

Here’s one thing that came out of that:

• A week or so ago I was listening to a folk version of the song the Beach Boys interpreted in Sloop John B. I noticed that it had a different feel from the Beach Boys’ version. I also noticed that I liked the way the arrangement fell into place with the different voices. [This is the first item above. I love to listen to music, but as a musician I am also trying to listen differently than I used to. Hence I noticed things about the song that intrigued me. Yes, I sang along!]
• It might be fun to learn the song on my trumpet. [This helps me address a couple of my growth areas- playing by ear, memorizing a song, expanding my musical vocabulary.]
• I then thought that it also might be a fun piece to work into a number for the brass quintet, maybe even trying to put different sections into different styles allowing the different voices of the different instruments to stand out individually. [I now move into the area of taking what I hear and discover into writing it down- and adding other parts that also require a closer listening and more learning by ear. It will also help me understand a little more music theory, chord, melody structure, etc. An important area for my own growth!]
• I have a couple months coming up when I will have more time than usual to do the learning and writing. [A timeline- by the end of March to have a first draft ready for the quintet to play.]

Hence I have come up with a goal and a plan to address some of my own joys and areas for evolution.

Right now that all looks and feels a lot like a full score of Les Mis printed on one page. But with my goals set down for you (and me) to see, I have a plan to turn it into "Mary Had a Little Lamb." It of course is one of several goals in my focus for the next couple months, but this is a new and challenging area for me. I expect it will also have impacts on my other areas of advancement.

To learn to do this in music is a great way of learning to do it in other areas. I have already learned ways of doing this kind of planning and focus in my career and personal life. I bring it to my musical life, improve the process, and take it on to other things as well. This is the cross-fertilization that naturally occurs in our daily living. We are internally interconnected. Allow each to nourish the others. You will keep your life in tune.

What is your plan for the next three months?
Where do you need to focus?
Who can help you develop it?
What’s keeping you from doing it?
Go and do it.

The Tuning Slide: Crazy Great! Preparing for Tomorrow

Weekly Reflections on Life and Music

Learning isn’t a way of reaching one’s potential 

but rather a way of developing it.”

― Anders Ericsson,  

A recently published book has been making some waves. In Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise by Anders Ericsson (psychologist) and Robert Pool (science writer)...

skillfully examine the eternal debate of nature vs. nurture with this thoughtful treatise supporting the latter. The authors posit that deliberate, focused practice is the key to learning and mastering any new skill, whether or not an underlying natural talent is present. “Generally the solution is not ‘try harder,’ but ‘try differently,’”
-Publishers Weekly

Success in today's world, expertise, requires a focus on practical performance, not just the accumulation of information.

 I thought this would be an appropriate way to end this first year of the Tuning Slide. It gets back to the general themes we have looked at in these posts since last September. It deals with intention, practice, passion, having mentors, paying attention. Anders and Pool comment that they

..can report with confidence that I have never found a convincing case for anyone developing extraordinary abilities without intense, extended practice.

The students of Bill Adam's instruction (and their students!) who have so influenced me this past year would agree. They have challenged me, and through me, you to look more closely at what we do in practice. Take it seriously. Find the time if you want to find the skills. Over this past year, as I have shared with you my journey at age 67 to become a much more proficient trumpet player this has been my constant awareness.  Each month I found myself practicing more days- because I wanted to and made it happen. Each month I also practiced longer each day- again because I wanted to and had the increased ability to do so. There are now days when I finish my routine and practice and can't believe what I have managed. Old dogs- new tricks. Yep!

But, as Anders and Pool tell us:

Doing the same thing over and over again in exactly the same way is not a recipe for improvement; it is a recipe for stagnation and gradual decline.

If I keep doing what I have always done I will keep getting what I have always gotten. Sure, I may have more endurance, but I won't have gained much else. One thing I know I want to work on, for example, is my high-note ability. I have a hunch I have been working on that the way I have always worked on it. Yes, I am more able to hit the high "C" than I used to be, but it is not solid or clear. My experience tells me I am not finding new ways to work on it to get me past my plateau. One of my goals this summer at adult Big Band Camp is to find one of the instructors who can help me figure that out.

Well, fleshing all this out will be one of the themes for next year. Which brings me to answer the question

• What's coming on The Tuning Slide?

First, I'm not posting anything for the next two weeks. I will be at the adult Big Band Camp at Shell Lake taking my next step into jazz and improv. I will be taking notes and developing the next series of 8 posts here on the Tuning Slide- all about jazz and improv and how they apply to life and what we can learn from Jazz about living. I will try to keep it broadly about jazz and not narrow it down to trumpets. This has been a passion of mine for many, many years and now I will take some time to write about it. Watch for that beginning Wednesday, July 6.

I will also be at the Trumpet Camp at Shell Lake the first week of August, taking notes and talking to people, including you, Mr. Baca. My goal will be to develop and expand the thoughts and ideas for year 2. Year 2 posts will begin on Wednesday, August 31.

Let me know if you have any topics you want me to research or riff on. Much of what I do here is my own written version of improvising, which is not, as some people think, simply flying by the seat of one's pants. Send me thoughts, quotes, or questions. Add them to the comments on the blog and I will work on them.

So, have a good two weeks while I regroup and move this blog into the next phase. Hope to have you back in a few weeks.

Meanwhile, don't stop practicing and growing. It is easy in the summer to become distracted. If you want to continue to grow toward your expertise, keep at it.

Let me conclude with two paragraphs from the website, Create Yourself Today about the Anders and Pool book. This is her takeaway from it

It’s not what you are born with or not, that makes you great at anything, makes your performance peak. And it’s not your environment either, at least not the one you were born into.

Your performance at any given field is all about your intent, your readiness, your desire to get great. Exceptionally great.
-Link

Maybe even

Crazy great!

The Power of Personality- Or More?

This past week was The Roosevelt Week- the 14 hour documentary on Theodore, Franklin, and Eleanor Roosevelt, arguably three people who did more to change the American way of life than just about anybody in the 20th Century. I sat through the whole series shaking my head in awe, mouth open in amazement or just plain dumbstruck. First, of course, by the remarkable film making of Ken Burns and the writing of Geoffrey Ward. They have developed such a remarkable style over these past 30+ years that their work engages, teaches, and entertains you. There were pictures and films that have probably not seen the light of day in decades.

Just as amazing was also the three "stars" of the show and their story. As a fan of American history I devoured all these newly revealed facts and stories as well as all the old familiar ones since now they had a new twist- we could watch them and put them into historical perspective. Several things stood out as part of the secret of their incredible success in what they did.

In one of the segments, Geoff Ward described the impact that FDR had on people. Ward talked about the fact that a number of people said that Franklin Roosevelt would stand to greet them when they entered the Oval Office. In reality, he never rose to greet anyone. Ever. As we all know, FDR was paralyzed by polio at age 39 and never stood on his own again. It was impossible for him to stand and greet anyone at any time. Yet, Ward explained, it was the force of his personality that people imagined him able to do more than he could. His presence was so real and so large.

The same was said of Teddy Roosevelt. One person described being in the room with TR and then feeling like he had to "wring the personality from his clothes" since it was so overwhelming. Eleanor, considering her role as a woman in a very male-dominated world, may have been even more powerful than the two of them. She won over generals in the south Pacific war zone by her presence and dedication when she went on an exploratory visit.

Some of their personality strength came from the families they grew up in. But that is one of those correlation or causation questions. Other members of their families were far less able to overcome the demons they were afflicted by. Alcoholism ran through the whole Roosevelt clan. (Eleanor was TR's niece and FDR was a 5th cousin to TR.) Illness and depression plagued them, including the three of them as well. They all had complicated relationships with parents as well as their own children. They were, in spite of their much-larger-than-life personalities, very human.

Somehow we also want to make something of the fact that all three, as well as many other people of big egos, ambitions and personalities, had to overcome some significant issue. TR was plagued by asthma as a child, yet became this incredible outdoorsman, pushing everyone around him to greater acts of strength and (sometimes foolish) bravery. His first wife and mother both died on the same day. FDR was stricken by polio and all his future seemed lost. I never thought about how devastating polio was. My generation was the first to get the polio vaccines that have conquered what was a dreadful disease. Yet FDR campaigned as tirelessly as any candidate ever has- or will. Eleanor was looking for unconditional live and acceptance lost from her own parents. FDR was unfaithful to her- and she knew some of it. Yet she chaired the newly formed United Nations first committee that wrote the International Declaration of Human Rights- and became the only individual ever to receive a standing ovation from the UN General Assembly when it passed.

Yes, it may very well be that the ability to overcome such incredible obstacles and adversity played a big part on who they became and what they were able to accomplish. Yet others faced with similar or even lesser problems fail to thrive. What is it then that allows some to excel under such circumstances and others to fail? Why does one person who loses love and support crawl into their own oblivion and fail to thrive while another member of the family becomes president? The great Viktor Frankl wrote following World War II that a sense of meaning and purpose of one's life is what helped many prisoners of Nazi concentration camps survive. His Man's Search for Meaning is still one of the most important books in the field over 60 years later. He has a number of quotes that resonante:

• When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.
• Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.
• A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the "why" for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any "how".

But these, too, beg the question, why do some people, or how do some people, manage to maintain that sense of meaning or hope, purpose or love when everything around seems to be taking all that away? Frankl, and others, will here point to a sense of spirituality or the spiritual. Yet there are many who don't have that sense or are unable to experience whatever it may be.

Perhaps, then, all that we can do as individuals, family members, colleagues, friends,  therapists or fellow human beings, is hold up the possibilities for meaning and purpose. Perhaps what our tasks are is to be there when people face the adversity of their situation and be present with them, non-judgmentally, compassionately, and with a sense that there may be something greater than ourselves that will get us through.

Seems kind of weak and hopeless, I know. How can such stand up to things like the Holocaust, war, racism, debilitating illness? I don't know the answer to the "How?" but people like the Roosevelts and Frankl remind me that it isn't impossible.

Just Say "No"

An important insight into time- and self-management by Seth Godin.

If you've got talent, people want more of you. They ask you for this or that or the other thing. They ask nicely. They will benefit from the insight you can give them.

The choice: You can dissipate your gift by making the people with the loudest requests temporarily happy, or you can change the world by saying 'no' often.

You can say no with respect, you can say no promptly and you can say no with a lead to someone who might say yes. But just saying yes because you can't bear the short-term pain of saying no is not going to help you do the work.

Saying no to loud people gives you the resources to say yes to important opportunities.

This is simply another more gentle way of saying that the squeaky wheel gets the oil. We all know it's true. If we are in a helping profession there are always lots of people who are clamoring for a piece of our time. How do we decide who to say yes to?

• The person with the loudest cry?
• The person with the most clout?
• The person who arrived first?
• The person with the greatest need?
• The person we are most likely able to help?

Too often we do dissipate our energies and gifts by thinking we should be able to help everyone. It's just not true and we will discover that we are far more effective when we are willing to admit that. The paradox then is that we will help, truly help, more people than we thought we would be able to.