THE "PASSION" THING

Do you want to be a good, even great musician?  Well, do you want it bad enough?  Read on about this “passion” thing that, more often than not, is really what separates the Bach’s and the Beck’s from the ... Yach’s and the Yeck’s.  Enjoy!


Many of us are fortunate to have someone in our lives to teach us how to do — whatever we do — with passion. For me, this person was my grandfather. An engraver by profession, a gardener and fisherman by hobby, Grandpa Joe performed these and other roles with as much fire, energy, and joy as a man possibly could. Even the stories he used to tell me of old fishing adventures were told and retold with as much passion as with which they were lived.

This is an interesting way of living for an old man to have. Passion is usually what we experience as children when, for example, we take up music because we really want to play, and not because we want to earn money or impress others. My grandfather’s life taught me that it is possible to keep on doing what we love for our entire lifetime because, above all else, we love it.

I’ve had my share of working with musicians who simply play — with about as much enthusiasm as a mill worker — satisfied that their music is correct and nothing more. “The thrill is gone,” their faces say. “I’ve been doing this too long ... just give me my check and let me go home.” To them, music has become drudgery — a chore and nothing more — because they let it.

I’m also privileged to have played beside musicians who just ooze passion. It’s on their faces and in their notes. They move their audience and they inspire their colleagues with genuine, infectious enthusiasm. Even in rehearsal and in their own practice the passion is there. They play with the joy of a child and with the artistry of someone who truly loves what they do.

Passion is a great thing to bring to a performance for the benefit of everyone in the room. But don’t let it stop there. Even the most uninspiring warm-up exercises will sound better when you’re fully into them and not just doing them because you think you should. Don’t wait for inspiration to come your way courtesy of your favorite songs. Inspire yourself. Then, even warm ups will become a joy to play. And you’ll play them better than ever.

Getting “into it” may not always be easy but it beats being bored.

Playing our music with passion serves one other purpose besides enriching the lives of those who hear it and improving how well we play it in the first place. It is the means by which we get through the difficult days of our musical lives. When you’re hit with a slump, which all musicians are from time to time (see Chapter 87: Slumps Happen), hurtful criticism, or any other obstacle, it is this “passion thing” that will get you through to the other side. No other form of motivation — money, discipline, fame, or whatever — is likely to keep you going when things are at their worst.

Do it for all these reasons. Play with passion for your technique, your fulfillment, your joy, and for the joy of your audience. And do it for your grandkids, for the day when they ask you for stories.

“If there is no passion in your life, then have you really lived? Find your passion, whatever it may be. Become it, and let it become you and you will find great things happen FOR you, TO you and BECAUSE of you.”

T. Alan Armstrong

If you enjoyed this post, please get a copy of my book "GETTING GOOD, GETTING GREAT: What the Best Players Know" for many, many more informative and inspiring kernels of musicianly wisdom.

CLICK HERE

TOUGH LOVE

Greetings, music-dudes & music-dudettes! From my experience as an educator, I’ve come to understand that some people simply respond better to a more “hardline” approach when it comes to whipping their self-confidence into shape. So, for any readers who may have been hoping for something comparable from me, I offer you this drill-sergeant approach to beating performer’s anxiety and stage-jitters. Enjoy!


All right! So, you’re afraid to go up there, are you? Afraid of those big, mean audience members? Afraid they might boo or yawn at you?

Aw, ain’t that too bad! Did it ever occur to you that maybe they have every right to boo? If your music is so poorly prepared that booing is the only appropriate response, maybe your audience isn’t being mean at all. Maybe they’re being honest. Maybe booing is their way of saying that you should have practiced more, instead of watching “Seinfeld” reruns or cruising the mall.

Maybe they feel you should have cared a little more about your music. And them.

But, hey, if you are prepared, you have absolutely nothing to be afraid of! Audiences don’t walk out on or shun musicians who are well-prepared.

Quit whining about how tough it is to go out there and play in front of a few fellow human beings. You’re not storming the beaches at Normandy. You’re not undergoing open-heart surgery. You’re playing music, that’s all. Your life is not on the line. Even if your last performance did turn out to be the worst thing since that all redhead punk group you saw at your school talent show last spring, whoopee. Feel bad for a day and do a better job next time.

In any case, stop being such a wimp! You have a job to do? Then you go out there and do your job. You have an audience that wants to hear some tunes? Start thinking of them instead of your own fears and anxieties.

Stop thinking of yourself!

Okay, fine, you’re a performer. And performers are prone to being just a tad self-absorbed. Save it for Grammy night. As for right now, you craft that music the best you can, be a big boy or girl, and just go out there and share it with your audience. They come first. They deserve to hear you play, and not to have to watch you drowning in your own sweat or shuddering like a misaligned front wheel.

You owe them your best. Give it to them.

And when you’re done thinking about your audience, think about the others who deserve your attention more than yourself:

1. Your fellow musicians. They worked hard, too. They deserve to have you deliver the goods with them. Don’t you dare make them look bad. Be ready.

2. Your music. Think about it a lot. Get into it. Never mind your miserable stage fright.

3. Your family. Did they have to put up with listening to you rehearse the same tunes for weeks on end? If so, you owe them, pal. Big time. Think of them for a change.

4. Me. That’s right. The guy who wrote this article for you and who feels pretty darned out-of-character doing it. You owe me by getting your act together pronto.

You get what I’m saying here? You get your mind off yourself or your jitters and onto your music. You craft it to the 110% best of your ability. You shake off those self-manufactured shakes, go out there the big person, and do your job. That’s the bottom line. Do - your - job. That’s all you need to think about.

Frankly, you don’t have time to be thinking about the possibility of a few un-earth-shattering slip-ups or how awful you might feel afterwards. That’s trivia.

Music. Audience. That’s where you direct your thoughts. Your music, your audience. They matter immensely, a whole lot more than your own worries, woes, shivers, shakes, quivers, and quakes.

That is all. You’re dismissed. Now go practice!

"When you are tough on yourself, life is going to be infinitely easier on you."

Zig Ziglar

IF YOU CAN'T PLAY IT RIGHT YET ...

Welcome Music Makers!  Here’s a piece on the subject of patience ... a quality that can literally make or break your success as a musician, depending on whether you exude it or not.  Enjoy!

You’ve tried, you’ve really tried to play it right, but it’s just not happening. Your first reaction is to blame yourself; your lack of experience or your lack of talent. That’s not a good habit to have if you are trying to maintain any degree of confidence in yourself or your ability! Furthermore, knocking yourself down is not going to help you learn the part any better.

That’s a lose-lose situation; you feel bad and you still can’t play it right yet. The worst part is that it’s not even your lack of experience or talent that’s causing all this in the first place. It’s your lack of patience.

If you can’t play it right it means you haven’t played it enough times yet.That’s it. You simply have not played it enough times yet.

This may sound obvious, but it is a notoriously overlooked truth. There is a specific number of times that a musician must play something before it is mastered. 
Of course, no one can tell you what that number is. It will be different for every musician and situation. But you will know when you get there because it will be right! If you’ve played it twenty-five times and it’s still wrong, maybe the number is thirty, or thirty-five, or forty. Keep going. You’ll find it.

Some passages may be so difficult that the number will be very high. That’s not unusual. In fact, it’s fairly common for even the best players to repeat a single passage hundreds of times, sometimes over a period of days, before they get it. Great musicians are notoriously tenacious; they don’t give up on something until it’s finished no matter how long it takes.

Just think how empowering it is to know that your success with a piece of music really is in your hands. It’s not a question of if you can get it. It’s a question of whether or not you can muster the patience to get it.

Of course, I’m not suggesting that you actually count the number of times you play your pieces! You don’t need to know the number, you simply have to keep going until you reach it. It’s like taking a cross-country car trip. You don’t have to know how many miles you need to drive to get from New York to California. You just keep heading west until you see the Welcome To California sign. Then you’ll know you’re there.

Another reason musicians give up on a piece is because they feel they shouldn’t have to play it so many times; that if they do there must be something wrong with them.

Actually, playing something many, many times is not an indication of lack of ability. It is simply how it’s done. In fact, it is how the greats get that way.

The next time you are stumped by a nasty part, don’t blame your lack of talent. Blame your lack of patience. Then ignore it and seek to discover the magic number.

“Patience is waiting. Not passively waiting. That is laziness. But to keep going when the going is hard and slow. That is patience.”

Anonymous

GUITARISTS ...
(and caring friends of guitarists!) 

Get your FREE copy of my "CHORD-A-DAY CALENDAR" 
April 4, 5, 6 only! 

Includes 100s of chord fingerings, celebrity guitarist birthdays, tips, quotes, and practice secrets. As always, reviews are HUGELY APPRECIATED. 

   CLICK HERE   

Remember you don't need a Kindle e reader to enjoy Kindle books. You can download a free Kindle app for your computer or mobile device.

Please share with any guitarist you know with success on the brain!

Many thanks and enjoy!

Happy strumming,

Stan

EXCUSES, EXCUSES!

Welcome music-maker! Here’s a piece on the single biggest determining factor in your success as a musician: Perseverance. Enjoy!

You’ve heard it a thousand times: Practicing every day is how a musician gets good. But if you’re like most musicians, you’ve probably come up with plenty of excuses for not practicing as much as you should.

- Perhaps you have uninspiring books or an inadequate instrument.

- Maybe you’re “not in the mood.”

- Sometimes you’re too tired. Or you simply forget.

- You think you don’t have enough self-discipline.

- Every so often you may become so discouraged by a tough passage or song that you loose all enthusiasm or confidence to continue. I mean, who enjoys playing songs they’re terrible at?

To these and any other excuses you may have for cheating yourself out of your goals and dreams, let me say this:

Tough.

No excuse is acceptable. Not one. Do not accept a single excuse from yourself. This way, you won’t have to decide which excuses are allowable and which ones are not. It’s simple — none of them are.

You see, the problem with excuses is that, after you allow yourself one, it gets easier and easier to allow yourself another, then another, and still another. It soon becomes a way of life to skip practice; you can always find an excuse if you look hard enough — a good, rational excuse.

And there go your dreams.

Let us not forget that every excuse in the book, every conflict and every obstacle, has been overcome by many musicians facing the same challenges, feeling the same lack of enthusiasm, or experiencing the same “lack” of self-discipline to sit down every day and play. But for them, the very idea of excusing oneself from practice did not exist, or was quickly snuffed out.

Many of us, pros included, play on second-rate instruments. Most of us lack the gift of genius or a perfect set of fingers. And we’ve all been stumped by songs we thought were impossible. How do we overcome these challenges? 

We sit down and play.

Too tired? Not in the mood? Just sit down and play.

Bad day at work? Just sit down and play. Playing music is the ultimate stress reliever!

Don’t even give yourself the time to come up with yet another rationalization to justify the excuse. Start to play before you manage to talk yourself out of it. Just do it.

There is always a way. If you habitually forget, leave sticky-note reminders all over the place. If you need encouragement or a push, ask a family member, friend, or your spouse to help you. Reward yourself every so often for sticking with it. Schedule practice time into your appointment book. If you just can’t seem to muster the energy to practice, at least play some of your old favorites; it’s better than not practicing at all. Just don’t let this last one become a habit or you will never learn anything new.

One of the best ways to stick to a practice schedule is to have a practice schedule. Practice at the same time every daiy. If 7:00 p.m. works for you, then say, “7:00 p.m. is my practice time.” Call it “practice time”; make it official. Very soon it will become an unconscious habit. And not long after you will find yourself scheduling other activities around your practice time rather than vice-versa.

Do whatever it takes to get yourself to sit down and play. You will save yourself a whole future of regret.

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” 

Thomas Edison