And now for a little elaboration on the previous post (because I can never leave well enough alone)…

I AM NOT TALENTED

I’ve never considered myself particularly talented. I didn’t come from a musical family; I wasn’t raised around musicians; my interest wasn’t the result of a neighbor or friend taking me under his wing. Instead, I just really enjoyed it and couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Once I did start start to play an instrument, I was no prodigy. I was, however, completely hooked. I would spend countless hours toiling away and came to a point where you just about couldn’t separate me. Did I sound good right from the start? Heck no! I sounded awful, just like everyone else does at the beginning! In fact, several of my friends were way better than me. But not for long, due entirely to the sheer number of hours I was spending playing music every single day.

WHAT MADE THE DIFFERENCE?

What was the magic? What was my mojo? It was that somehow, from day one, I figured that if I simply hung in there I would eventually improve. Imagine that. Guess someone forgot to tell me to “check for talent” first.

From my observation, a lot of people have a “let’s stand back and see how this goes” mentality about getting good at something (artistically, academically, athletically). This approach says “if it happens to come together from the start, then success was meant to be. If not, we’ll have to try something else (and quickly before self-esteem suffers).”

HOW FAST YOU GET IT IS NO PROJECTION OF HOW FAR YOU’LL GO WITH IT

Big achievements don’t happen by chance, and no one has ever become a virtuoso on talent alone. At best, talent is a head start in the race, but it’s not the finish line. I think we confuse the issue when we use the word talent to refer to an advanced level of skill (i.e. “So and so is such a talented musician”). “Talent” and “skill development,” though related, are two entirely different subjects. One is “having a knack for” or “taking quickly to” something; while the other is the labor and toil involved in making that something into a highly significant something.

There’s no argument that someone who picks up quickly has an advantage. But by no means do they have a free ride. There will be work outside the parameters of the training or lessons or team practice, during which the intense process of skill development takes place. Granted, that extracurricular time may be more enjoyable when “talent” is present, but it’s still work.

Indeed, DETERMINATION, not gifted-ness, is the deciding factor in achievement. What takes place beyond the lesson, outside the classroom, and in addition to the training, is what makes or breaks one’s chances for long-term success.

Countless are the stories of people who get excellent grades with very little effort but then go on to do very little, if anything, with higher education, eventually settling for lives and careers far below their true potential. Fortunately, just as countless are the stories of people who struggled desperately just to get a C- but then go on to become great artists, inventors, doctors, CEO’s, hugely successful in their chosen field.

I DON’T DENY TALENT, I JUST SAY “FUGGETABOUTIT”

If you have some, fine… count your blessings! But then get back to the real work of developing whatever skill it is you are pursuing. Don’t lie down like the proverbial hare and start napping.

And if you feel you have zero talent, oh well! All it would get you is a little advanced placement on the starting line anyway. You can more than make up for it in sheer determination and tenacity. Go for it!

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You may learn quick,

You may learn slow;

But it’s how hard you’re willing to WORK

That determines how far you’ll go.

(Enough said?)

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This past Sunday night (October 12, 2008) I had the privilege of judging a battle of the bands hosted by the Rockford Public Library at Memorial Hall in downtown Rockford. The bands were all made up of young people and included 7th Street Saints, Britches and Hose, Empty Logik, Hope Despite, Loftland, The Minority, Serianna and Village Idiot. They were able to do covers but were required to do at least one original. I was impressed with how many original songs actually showed up. In fact, a lot of the bands did all originals. Great job to all the bands who rocked Memorial Hall, and my hat is off to Lauren, Emily and all the RPL staff that pulled together such a great event.

As a judge, one of my roles was to give constructive criticism at the end of each band performance. It’s a tough call deciding what is worth pointing out and what may be considered nit picking. Also, there just isn’t enough time to address everyone in the band, so you kind of have to pick and choose from act to act.

In my opinion, every musician brought a great deal of skill and personal energy to the stage and they all deserve praise for their courage and effort. Success in any field is always more a matter of audacity than talent. So, I hope that with all the talent observed last night, each one will add to it buckets of hard work and genuine effort (as well as a positive attitude) in order to really succeed at their craft and their potential career.

TOP 3 TIPS FOR BAND SUCCESS

As I watched the bands last night and reflected on the individuals and bands I have coached (and do currently) I thought of a quick list of tips that could help any band, especially in their early stages, to constantly work on and improve their live show. Here are those thoughts…

1. Pick three to four model bands. Watch them perform as much as possible (live, video, YouTube, whatever). Make note of the things they do that entertain you, and try to incorporate it into your own routine. Your live show will improve as you become a blend of these successful models and some of your own elements begin to emerge.

2. Video your own band as much as possible and watch your show. If you enjoy what you see and hear, others are more likely to as well. On the flip side of that, if you don’t see energy and excitement, probably no one else will either, but at least you will know that you still need work.

3. Develop confidence in every way you can. Take private lessons, sign up for a drama or speech class in school, ask for advice, listen to your mentors and how they have overcome struggles with stage confidence, hire a band coach (a little shameless self-promotion there!). Confidence is what enables you to take risks with your music and be innovative and entertaining with your stage show.

As a band, half of your career may be your music, but the other half is how you present that music to your audience in the form of a live show. (Actually, the “other” other half would be business/marketing, but that would make three halves, AND that’s another subject entirely!) Your stage show can’t be an afterthought or something that just happens however it happens. You must have a game plan, be intentional, and be ever-improving.

When I talk about modeling after other bands, I would certainly recommend bands in the same genre as you, but not exclusively. You want several different sources of input so you don’t just become an obvious copycat of one band. The point is to “learn from the masters.” This modeling technique is used in every field from music to writing to sharpshooting to engineering to carpentry. It’s your way of becoming an apprentice of the success stories of your choosing.

When I talk about videoing your band, I mean do it every opportunity you get: the rehearsal, the talent show, the battle of the bands, the birthday party. Even if it’s on a cheap camera, the goal is to capture those images and study them, looking for what you liked, disliked, what you want to keep and what you want to change. Learn to listen to others’ comments (the good, the bad and the ugly) and use the videos to help decipher the beneficial from the bs. When observing yourself, you may pick up on the things that you thought looked one way but actually come across another. If what you thought looked like a rifleman’s pose actually turned out looking like someone doing a granny shot, then at least you’ll stop doing that and can make whatever adjustments are necessary.

And when I talk about confidence, realize that this is the one area that causes the most problems for both individual and group efforts to succeed in music (well, really in anything for that matter). Confidence breeds courage, and courage defined is “the ability to accept feelings of doubt, fear and insecurity and press forward with our goals despite them.” If your confidence produces this kind of attitude, you will be truly unstoppable in every pursuit.

WHY SO MANY “QUITTERS?”

As a music coach , I’ve heard hundreds of people tell me practically the same thing about their experience with music as a kid. It goes something like “Yeah I USED to play sax in high school” or “Oh I USED to play trumpet when I was a kid” or not too long ago I heard “I played violin for 11 years but COULDN’T WAIT TO PUT IT DOWN once I was too old for my parents to make me continue.”

What happened? Why did they quit? Why did they disconnect?

To me, it’s kind of like saying “I used to eat chocolate when my parents made me, but now that I don’t have to I’ve stopped.” What!? How could you stop doing something you love? I guess it sounds that way to me because I love it so much–music, that is (well, okay, chocolate too).

The dilemma, therefore, is whether or not someone feels connected to and finds relevance in the pursuit of making music–whether they have fallen in love with it or not.

MAYBE THERE’S TOO MUCH “WHAT” AND NOT ENOUGH “WHY”

Typically, music education emphasizes the understanding of theory, the application of proper technique and a repertoire of classic songs (in which most young people have no immediate interest). Where it falls short is that it does little to invoke in students the internal motivations necessary to capture and hold their attention.

While I am not meaning to sound critical toward teachers working in the trenches day in and day out, I am insisting that way too many people start out in music than actually end up sticking with it. And I for one don’t buy the argument that “it’s just not for everyone.” Okay, maybe it’s not for every single person, but the ratio of those beginning to those hanging in there is definitely reason for concern.

To be clear, it’s not that I don’t believe in theory, technique and repertoire; quite the opposite. These are the essentials of our craft. You really can’t get anywhere in music without some degree of study in them. A love of something in and of itself does not make you good at it; but without that love, without a stonrg, compelling reason why you’re doing it, you don’t stand a chance.

MAYBE IT’S ALSO A QUESTION OF “HOW MUCH” AND “WHEN”

My point has to do with the degree to which we push the academics at the beginning of a would-be muscian’s journey.

How much theory is really needed to play your first chord on the guitar, or your first beat on the drums? Must a student agonize over perfect technique before they play their first song? Must we ignore all the most recent music, the music that inspired the student to begin with, and only learn classical or folk songs at the start?

Think about it, we allow children to order the mac & cheese at the nice restaurant while we eat the more “adultish” foods. We put training wheels on their bikes when they start out. We buy them velcro shoes at first.

So why can’t a child who likes Jonas Brothers or Miley Cyrus begin with those songs, or a teenager who likes Nirvana, Greenday or 3 Days Grace begin with those? Who am I to say “that’s not good music; THIS is good music!” Do I tell my 8-year-old “Grilled cheese is bogus! Try this artichoke & spinach dip!” In terms of language, no baby knows the difference between a vowel and a consonant before we’re having them repeat “ma-ma” and “da-da?” and we certainly don’t correct the toddler’s spelling when they write “I luv yoo” on a Mother’s Day card.

I think we presume that just because we the music professionals understand all this theory and science and history that everyone else should too. In fact, it would seem that many of us can’t imagine how anyone could fully appreciate music without such knowledge. But must everyone appreciate it to the extent that we do in order to simply enjoy it and fall in love with it?

The last time I ate out, I had a beautifully seasoned steak cooked perfectly to my tastes. Now, some time before that I went to a place in Janesville, WI where a grill sits in the middle of the restaurant and customers cook their own meat. If you compare the two, mine wasn’t near as perfect as the other. But guess what: I still enjoyed it. The fact that I made it myself was part of the whole pleasure. I don’t know all about seasoning and cooking temperatures and I don’t really know the difference between a center cut sirloin and T-bone (other than one has a bone in it). But must I know as much as a chef before I can prepare my own food and like the experience?

Okay, so I must know a little. I mean, I don’t want to contract an illness because I’ve undercooked something or couldn’t tell the meat was bad to begin with. But, require me to attend food preparation classes before letting me near the kitchen and I’m likely to say “forget it.”

Why does page one of every guitar method book on the market start them on reading an E note on the treble clef? Page one is never “here’s how to play your first song, and here’s a couple of things to know to help make it sound good.” Furthermore, by the time books or classes do get to the first song, it’s never a song the student has heard of, much less would actually enjoy.

Why can’t a new student come into lessons and just start learning to make sounds and play riffs and be “spoon fed” some simple songs in order to just enjoy the process?

Call it a “training wheels” approach, but to me, this is the best way to make the connection, to help them find the relevance, and to encourage “falling in love” with the process before expecting them to take the leap into the heavier stuff required to go further.

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For some of us, the struggle to reach goals is not one of “how to start” but of “how to stick with it once it’s started.” Do you remember what your new year’s resolution was? Exactly.

Why does that happen? The goal was obviously important at one point, but then something changed. What? I know of several things that, for me, can affect stick-to-it-iveness. Maybe you can relate…

1. EVENTS DIDN’T FALL INTO PLACE LIKE I IMAGINED THEY WOULD. I’m a very creative thinker and can vividly imagine what pursuing something will be like and what the end result will be like once I get there. The only problem is that my imagination can run wild and lead me to expect things that may or may not be realistic. Then, I get the goal and my imagination of the goal confused. And then, when my imagination is not being fulfilled, my perception is that I’m failing at the goal and it must be that I’m doing something wrong or that the goal is just beyond my reach. That’s when frustration sets in and I begin avoiding the goal all together because it’s creating too much self-doubt.

I see this in students often. For example, a young man picks up the guitar and thinks after just a few lessons he’ll be playing songs and riffs and having a blast. He might have even known someone who “appeared” to have done that. But then it doesn’t happen. Four, five, six lessons into it he’s STILL struggling with just the first few chords and the strumming pattern thing doesn’t make sense at all. What does this mean? I’ll tell you what it means: it means he hasn’t got it yet. That’s all. It doesn’t mean he CANNOT or WILL NOT get it; he just hasn’t got it YET. The only sure way to guarantee that he (or you or me) cannot get something is to give up entirely.

Giving up should be inconceivable because playing an instrument is largely a mechanical function of the body. That is to say that if you learned to walk, talk and feed yourself (as most everyone has) then I guarentee that you can learn to play an instrument. Take drums for example. If you can walk, you have a very basic grasp on rhythm which you may not even be aware of. I’ve heard people say “I have no rhythm” and yet their heart beats normal, they breath normal, they talk normal and they can walk at a steady pace. Rhythm is present in each of those processes! Unconscious though it may be, it is still there and anyone can tap into it, even though some people may take longer to get there than others. But just because it doesn’t happen as fast as we imagined or in the manner in which we imagined we cannot give up.

When the creative side of your mind is not liking the progress toward something, just remind yourself that you don’t have the ability to know the future. There is no way you could have accurately predicted the course of events leading up to success. Setbacks are NOT evidence of impossibility, so the fact that the predictions you made in your imagination are not coming true has NO bearing on whether or not you can or will reach your goal. Don’t quit sticking with it just because things aren’t going as you thought they would.

2. CIRCUMSTANCES CHANGE MAKING MY GOAL MORE DIFFICULT. I have a goal to get some music into the public, either by way of writing and recording something or writing something that another artist would record. But in order for that to happen I have to spend time composing, recording, trying stuff out, and pitching it to the right people. But in order for THAT to happen I have to have some serious alone time with my creative muse. And there’s the rub. Believe it or not, since I started my own music lesson studio I often have less desire to play music at the end of each day than I did when I was a loan officer at a bank. That shouldn’t sound all that strange. Think about it: working at the bank left my creative side largly unfulfilled so that at the end of the day I went home itching to pick up my instruments and let loose. But now I’m playing play just enough throughout the day so that I don’t have that itch when I finally get some personal time. It’s like the difference between starving because I haven’t eaten all day versus having no appetite because I’ve been snacking all day.

So, that goal of mine to get some music out there actually feels further away to me now than it did a year ago. It’s become more difficult. In fact, I’ll go days and not even think about it, much less work toward it. Now what? I’ve realized it’s time for a new strategy. Just recently I opened up the conversation to some friends that may be able to help me reach the goal. That should create a little more accountability. I’m going to have to find some creative reserves somewhere to make it happen and they may not be abundant as before. Then again, I expect eventually I’ll find an entirely new creative well that I never thought of.

Either way, I can’t let a little hard work scare me from carrying on. I have to keep reminding myself of the goal and AVOID saying “oh well, I guess that’s gonna be one more unfulfilled dream.”

3. CIRCUMSTANCES CHANGE RENDERING MY GOAL IRRELEVANT OR MOOT. Okay, now this is where reality has to be allowed into my creative thinking from time to time in order to keep me from wasting my time. It’s about good ol’ lets-be-honest-here reasoning. For example, you don’t wake up at 35 and decide you’re finally going to pursue that dream of making the NBA. However, there may be other things you CAN do that will still bring you close to the original plan. Ask yourself “what was at the core of the original dream?” Perhaps it was that you just love the game. Well, there are a lot of ways you can get close to the game without actally being a player on the court. And is it that you love the NBA or just the game of basketball in general? Would working with a local team be just as satisfying? How about coaching a league of young people? In other words, there are always other things that orbit the atmosphere of the things we enjoy, and those “peripheral” activities can often be just as fulfilling to us. In fact, sometimes we may discover aspects of a career we didn’t even know existed and find that we actually enjoy them even more. Sweet serendipity.

In music, I have found that I don’t necessarily have the same passion for playing on stage in front of people that I do for understanding the mechanics of a great song, from the lyrics to the melody to the instrumentation to the final perfection of it. I do love playing on stage and get to do it every week, but it can get old. But coming up with a new rhythm, a more interesting melody, a richer harmony–that journey never ends.

And that’s the really cool thing about music. It’s never too late and you’re never too old to make and enjoy music. Someone recently asked me if I was willing to work with him at age 46 even though he’s never done anything with music. To be honest, I was as surprised at the question as he probably was when I said “well of course I’m willing.” Maybe being the next big arena hair band is no longer a possibility (sorry if I just burst your bubble) but if playing hair rock in a band decked out in neon colors was your dream, consider being in a cover band.

And now for a completely weird ending: speaking of cover bands and 80’s hair rock, my son Daylen gave me a great name for a bluegrass band that could cover the original and best hair band of them all… BanJovi!

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