JJ Johnson: Monday YouTube Fix

This interview clip is only 90 seconds long, but the very end of this interview with JJ Johnson gets right to the heart of the matter: "I wish that somebody, someday, would find a shortcut and I wish they'd tell me about it." One of the best instrumentalists of all-time talking about the secret to his success.

Enjoy!

Self-Assessment and the Necessity of Action

"Self-assessment leads to action, and lacks meaning without it." -Peter Drucker

Mr. Drucker, the father of modern management, nails the essence of improving as a musician with this quote.  And he was not in any way discussing music.

Without self-assessment there can be no real improvement on any task.  But equally important, once you gain the knowledge that self-assessment offers, if you don't take action, you might as well have skipped the assessment in the first place.

Are there any weaknesses in your playing that you've acknowledged yet failed to take action to resolve? If so, what are you waiting for?

Making Progress

(Spotted by Sean Reusch)

Change: Better Too Early Than Too Late

“Change almost never fails because it's too early. It almost always fails because it's too late.”― Seth Godin

This is true in music.  This is true in business.  This is true in life.

Change is uncomfortable.  Change is scary.  But rarely do we accomplish things beyond our wildest dreams without taking that leap into the unknown.

What aspect of your playing, teaching, career path or overall focus needs to be changed before it's too late?

Dr. Tim Lautzenheiser Master Class Quotes (Part 2 of 2)

The fantastic master class I attended summer by the one and only Dr. Tim Lautzenheiser had so many good quotes I needed to split them up into two posts.  It was a class for band directors but there are great lessons for all of us in these.  Here is the second installment. (And click here for Part 1 if you missed it.)

• "Band has to be challenging."
   
• "We have to put people in an atmosphere with courage."
   
• "If you want to win a trophy, go buy one.  It’s easier and you don’t have to rely on someone else’s subjectiveness."
   
• "Positives come and go.  Negatives accumulate."
   
• "When we put the attention on others, they will follow us anywhere."
   
• "How Do We Motivate: 1. Competition 2. Cooperation 3. Creation - Of those three, the highest level of motivation is creation."
   
• "Create what isn’t."
   
• "Happiness isn’t getting what you want, it’s wanting what you get."
   
• "This is our lives.  This is not a dress rehearsal.  This is it.  The cameras are rolling."
   
• "Pessimists see the challenge in every opportunity.  Optimists see the opportunity in every challenge."
   
• "If it come between being right and being kind, be kind.  Because you can always go back and be right."
   
• "At every moment we are either appreciating or depreciating the environment."
   
• "Leadership isn’t something you do but something you are."
   
• "Criticize in private, not in public."
   
• "When we change the way we look at things, we change the things we look at."
   
• "Communication is the key to all problem solving."
   
• "Whatever we want is what we should give away."

The Power of Showing Up

"Eighty percent of success is showing up." - Woody Allen

The close of a calendar year is always a great time to reflect on any aspects of our career where we failed to show up in the previous year.  If you planned to learn to improvise, did you start? If you hoped to start a new recruitment initiative for your band, did you get past the brainstorming phase?

Showing up is the key to improvement and innovation.  And constant improvement and innovation are the keys to the music business and all business.

Where do you need to show up in 2014?

Phil Smith Sums Up Playing Music

"Music is not just the black dots on the white paper - it's what happens when those black dots on the white paper go into your heart, and come out again." - Phil Smith  (Principal Trumpet, New York Philharmonic)

Thankfully this is true.  If not, he would be the only orchestral trumpet player working today.  Sam Pilafian would be the only employed brass quintet tuba player.  Renée Fleming would be the only working soprano.

Playing all of the right notes and right rhythms is very important, but conveying your opinions and your emotions through those notes and rhythms is what will get you and keep you employed.  Everyone has their own life experiences which is why there is always room for another great storyteller, no matter what the instrument, in the music business.

No one in your audience was there for your happiest moment, your saddest moment or your scariest moment.  These experiences are what we rely on when those black dots on the white paper go into and out of our hearts and into the ears of our audience.

Are You Ready for the Call?

Today I was a member of a panel discussion with fellow faculty members from George Mason as part of a workshop in Prince William County, Virginia.  It was great for me to get to know the stories of some of my colleagues a little better.  There was one anecdote in particular that left a lasting impression. Dr. Lorrie Berkshire Brown is our Woodwind Area Coordinator and Oboe Professor at Mason.  I have played with her in the American Festival Pops Orchestra and instantly noticed her fantastic playing.  Until today I didn't realize she subbed with the New York Philharmonic for seven years before fully committing to the DC area as a member of The United States Army Band, “Pershing’s Own.”  The story of how she got to play with the Philharmonic the first time is not atypical but still a great reminder for us all.

One afternoon in 1988, Lorrie got a phone call at 4:00 pm asking if she was available to play with the New York Philharmonic that night.  They needed a second oboe for the Dvorak Cello Concerto, which she described as "the mother of all second oboe parts." She not only said yes, but it obviously went very well since she played with them for another seven years.

While it took a little bit of being in the right place at the right time (she was home and took the call), the important thing is that she was ready for the call.  She not only took the call but was ready with basically no warning whatsoever to go and nail one of the difficult parts in the orchestral oboe repertoire.  She got an opportunity and made the most of it.

Are you ready for the call?

Boston Symphony Orchestra Plays a Chilling Tribute to JFK the Afternoon of his Assassination

Music is more powerful than any of us could ever put into words.  When trying to either convey my own emotions or understand someone else's, I always turn to music. I will never forget seeing the Boston Symphony Orchestra play Mahler's 2nd Symphony in tribute to Leonard Bernstein on the opening night at Tanglewood the summer after he passed away.  There were people crying in the audience and players holding back tears on stage.  That performance expressed what could not be expressed in words, exactly how much Bernstein had meant to the Boston Symphony, to Tanglewood and to American music.

This clip is one of the most chilling I've ever heard.  It is from an afternoon concert of the Boston Symphony on November 22, 1963, one of the most infamous days in American history.  Long before every concertgoer had the internet in their pockets, news was not dispersed to people out and about.  You were either next to a TV, a radio or a wired phone.  As a result, the audience at Symphony Hall that afternoon did not know that President Kennedy had died from gunshot wounds suffered in Dallas.

Music director Erich Leinsdorf addresses the crowd at the beginning of the concert and breaks the news to them.  The audible gasps of panic, confusion and sadness are haunting.  They then play possibly the most passionate performance of the funeral march from Beethoven 3 that's ever been played.

But words do this clip justice.  You need to hear it for yourself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVNKNz-lc6k

Also, be sure to check out this story from Time Magazine which includes comments from the librarian that day.  He has not been able to bring himself to listen to the above performance even once in the last 50 years.  Incredible stuff.

Finding Time vs. Making Time

I taught a young guy from New York City who plays the bass, Ray Cetta, a lesson on tuba today. He's started to get a lot of calls to play Sousaphone on gigs and wanted to take his first ever lesson on the instrument. I was immediately impressed when he told me he had no car (typical New Yorker) but was willing to take the train all the way to DC with his Sousaphone! It was a really great experience for me. He is exactly the kind of student that we all enjoy teaching. He grasped concepts immediately and was eager to learn. One remark he made in response to something I said really jumped out at me.

He asked me about playing really softly with control. I showed him a number of exercises to work on that, then told him the obvious: to work on the extremes of playing the most important aspect is doing it every single day. Much more important than the total amount of time spent on practicing a skill like pianissimo playing is the regularity of the practicing. I told him I knew that was a pain, especially on a secondary instrument. His response was right on the money:

"I will find time ..... no, I will make time for it. I needed to do it on a gig once and that's enough times for me to need to make time to do it."

This is from a 23 year old kid who is about to release an album, is a band leader, has a very active freelance career, and has more irons in the fire than most of us. The difference between finding time and making time for essential work is what separates those who make it and those who don't. I learned something during his lesson today as well.