Derek Sivers - "Why You Need to Fail": Monday YouTube Fix

Every once in a while you stumble on a video that makes you reevaluate something you do on a daily basis.  This video by Derek Sivers did just that for me. In a departure from the norm around here, this is the first Monday YouTube Fix that is not a musical performance.  In fact, this video isn't even specifically about performing music, although as you'll see it is referenced and couldn't be more relevant to that pursuit.

"Why You Need To Fail" is a 15 minute look into why failure, whether it be in the practice room or the board room, is essential to all human growth.  This video made me do so real soul searching about my own practicing and I already feel a refreshed approach to my craft.  I can not possibly recommend this more to ANY musician (performer, teacher, conductor, composer, ANYONE.)

Prepare to have your eyes opened...

Enjoy!

(A tip of the hat to my friend Syd Schwartz who is currently serving as Music Business Entrepreneur-In-Residence at NYU for bringing this video to my attention via his twitter feed.)

Jeff Nelsen Master Class Quotes from George Mason University

Jeff Nelsen is simply put one of the most inspirational people I’ve ever been around in my life.  His always positive attitude is both genuine and predictable.  And he is an absolutely phenomenal horn player.  His website, jeffnelsen.com, is a wonderful resource for any musician.  We were honored to have Jeff play one of the horn books for the Boston Brass recording of the Stan Kenton Christmas Carols.  He is a very special player, teacher, and person. Jeff was just in Washington DC playing 2nd horn to his dear friend and mentor Marty Hackleman in the National Symphony Orchestra.  I believe my good friend Tom Cupples, 2nd trumpet in the NSO, summed up Jeff the best after a performance of Ein Heldenleben: “Jeff is amazing. Just being in the same room as him makes me a better musician.”

We were very fortunate to have Jeff come to George Mason and give a master class about performance and life in general.  I learned a ton from the class and have used many of the quotes below in my lessons already.  As usual, I have highlighted the ones that really speak to me the most.  I will admit to having a difficult time not highlighting them all.

I hope you enjoy these as much as I do!

PS Jeff is working on a book documenting his entire Fearless approach.  Keep your eyes on his website for details.
 

• "Success not only comes to those who want it the most but those who want it the most often."
   
• "There is a difference between simple and easy."
   
• "Simplify things as much as possible and then work on them."
   
• "You are engaged in performance when what you are doing matters."
   
• "Fearless performance is not necessarily the lack of fear but the realization there are things more important than fear."
   
• "(Shows picture of 16 month old) Have any of you ever been his age? When we are young we are afraid of good things like hot pots and traffic but we develop the rest along the way."
   
• "You have to become a master variable controller."
   
• "It's about isolating variables, changing one thing, and asking was that better?"
   
• "The only physical difference between practice and performance is the actual walk on stage."
   
• "The first mental difference is choosing 'this time means more.'”
   
• His teacher: "There are no bad days. There are only days where to takes greater effort to play your best."
   
• "If you approach every performance with your best, you don't leave room to try better."
   
• "Most people don't aim too high and miss. Most people aim to low and hit."
   
• "We can practice walking onstage."
   
• "Saying 'On stage you must play your best' - problem is that making sure implies you might not."
   
• "You can't control perception, you can only control presentation."
   
• "In the sacred arena of the performance place, get over it. It's too late to control it."
   
• "We're responsible any time we get nervous."
   
• "No one can make me feel anything without my consent."
   
• "We learn fear."
   
• "If we can learn fear, we can learn love-full performance."
   
• "Our level of nerves is inversely proportionate to our level of preparation."
   
• "Make what you are doing the only thing that matters."
   
• "There are three things that your audience and an audition panel are looking for: mastery, meaning, and autonomy."
   
• "An audition committee is checking to see if your rhythm is autonomous."
   
• "TV is getting great. We have to give the audience an experience."
   
• "Don't call it a warm up. Make a great routine that touches what you need to do and the bonus is that you're warmed up."
   
• "Musician is product. Technician is process."
   
• "We're really trying to learn how to transcend the technician."
   
• "I've missed 100% of the notes I've told myself not to miss."
   
• "Make it about the solution. It's not about what not to do."
   
• "Assign yourself practicing work for the next day."
   
• "If you can't sleep, get up and write down what you can't sleep about."
   
• "Tell your story to your audience."
   
• "On a scale of 1-10 how much music did you just make with a 1 being regurgitating all the ink on the page? If it's a 6...OK, out of that 6 out of 10 how much of that did you get to the audience?"
   
• "You should listen to your performance through the ears of your audience."
   
• "Don't ask. Tell."
   
• "The great performers of the world walk on stage and say 'I think this.'”
   
• "Walk on stage to be seen."
   
• “You are far too smart to be the only thing standing in your way.” - Jennifer Freeman
   
• "In the 10 second walk on stage there's not much of a chance to make things better but there are lots of chances to make things worse."
   
• "Every phrase is the only phrase."
   
• His Mom: "If you're listening and the audience is listening, who's singing? - Critique later."
   
• "Phil Meyers says that he went into his first few auditions trying to hide his weaknesses and it didn't work out. Then he tried to show them his strengths."
   
• Phil: “I don't go out there trying to sound my best. I go out there trying to sound like me.”
   
• "100% positive means taking the 'I liked' out of 'I liked how I played bar 6 well.'"
   
• "Must be 100% responsible for how you play as well."
   
• "If you make excuses, you make the performance space safe for failure."
   
• "Everything, unless it hits you in the head, can not affect you unless you let it."
   
• "You're right. There are people judging you and there are things to lose. You're right. Unless you want to do your best. Then you are wrong."
   
• "Competing lowers your goal. Just try to be the absolute best you can be."
   
• “If you do not have a website, you are invisible.” - David Cutler
   
• "Choosing to doubt and choosing to fear will get in your way. And it is a choice."
   
• "The word execute is a big part of performance."
   
• "I'm happy because I think I am."

Great Collection of Arnold Jacobs Master Class Notes

Yesterday while surfing the web in search of brass knowledge I came across a great find.  Julia Rose's website, Julia's Horn Page, is a great resource for horn players and brass players in general.  One of her posts is a wonderful collection of quotes from some Arnold Jacobs master classes she attended in 1993.  You have to read all of them yourself for sure.  You can find them here. Below are a few of the notes that really jumped out at me.  That being said, you really want to read all of them on Julia's site.  The more Arnold Jacobs the better in my books!

• You can’t use the sensory system primarily when embarking on a motor activity.
   
• Be a storyteller of sound.
   
• The horn in the hand must be a mirror of your thoughts.
   
• Accuracy comes from the brain, not the chops.
   
• 15% of thought on respiration, 85% on music.
   
• Don’t fight old habits, replace them with new ones.
   
• Whether long or short tones, always play with the same quality of tone.
   
• It’s the buzz that plays the horn, not the air.
   
• Match tone qualities when slurring octaves.
   
• High notes are nothing but a fast vibration.  Low notes are nothing but a slow vibration.
   
• Take music you know and put it in the high register.  It will take a little time, but it will develop with more practice.
   
• Song and wind are very simplifying concepts.  The only challenge in playing is musical.

Did I mention that you should read all of the notes? You can find all of the quotes on Julia's website here.  The quotes above are less than 5% of the notes she has in her post.  Like I said before, you can't have too much Arnold Jacobs!

Joe Alessi Master Class Quotes (Part 3 of 3)

This is the final installment of quotes from the trombone master class that Joe Alessi gave at Towson University two weeks ago today.  He covered many different subjects from trombone playing to breathing to musicianship.  It was a wonderful class and a lot of the knowledge I took away with me has already integrated itself into my playing and teaching.  That's how you know it's good material! In case you missed them, please be sure to check out Part 1 and Part 2.

• "Have you ever recorded yourself and slowed it down to half speed?"
   

• "In detached playing you should move the slide immediately after the 1st (of 2) notes.  In legato playing, you should move the slide right before the 2nd note."
   

• To a student: "When you articulate, your tongue is very active and your air is very inactive.  Practice with no tongue.  See what you can learn by getting the air involved."
   

• "The only reason I use a mirror is to cut out the extraneous movements.  When you look at that mirror try to keep everything still."
   

• "We have to recalibrate the mixture (of tongue and air) and when things happen."
   

• "Your practicing is incorrect if you can't hold the tempo.  You have to calm yourself down and practice very adamantly and slowly."
   

• "Enjoy that you practice slowly and you'll get something out of playing slowly."
   

• "If we don't know rhythm and pitch it's like an electrician that doesn't know positive and negative."
   

• "If you can't sing everything you play, how can you shape something?"
   

• "One of the hardest things to do on the trombone is to play legato and have your air completely separate from your slide."
   

• "Your mantra is to keep your air absolutely steady."
   

• "Think more globally about being expressive.  You're trying to be expressive on every note.  Think more of an arc."
   

• "When you want to make a great release on a note, you have to get rid of the vibrato at the end and end up with just straight tone."
   

• To a student with a bad release: "You're a painter.  If you're painting a branch you have to finish it."
   

• "The more experience you get any time you can put yourself under the gun the better."
   

• "Develop your own routine.  It can be a collection from your colleagues."
   

• "You're not going to get anywhere if you start practicing at 1pm."
   

• "I practiced 6 hours today." Well who cares? How did you practice?"
   

• "You pay your dues with basics."
   

• "I don't have my students play excerpts right away.  I want to see that they can play a melody correctly.  The right pitch.  The right rhythm."

Joe Alessi Master Class Quotes (Part 2 of 3)

Here is the second installment of quotes from Joe Alessi's wonderful master class at Towson University last week.  If you missed it, you can read the first part here.

• "A lot of young players see a crescendo and just play loud.  Let's hold back and be very gradual."
   

• "I want you to play every note with more tone."
   

• "A new term I use is "constipation of air".  We can take the air in but we can't get it out."
   

• "There's a thing called being relentless about practicing."
   

• "I like to stay on the top 50% of my air supply."
   

• "It takes a really intelligent person to practice really slowly and say 'this is what's good for me.'"
   

• "If you have to take a breath in an awkward place like that you should always relax the note before it."
   

• "The further away your hand gets from your brain, the more difficult (the trombone) gets."
   

• "That's a really rich sound.  Now you have to figure out what to do with it."
   

• "With the trombone, you have to make more variations with your style and attacks.  You're not being creative with different ways to say things."
   

• "You have to be careful with a trombone because it can resemble a car horn.  You have to give your sound some flexibility.  Rather than laying on the horn you have to give it some beauty.  It's all might right now."
   

• "Your articulation is almost too good.  You're really tonguing the pants off of it.  You have to have a little more sensitivity in your style."
   

• "You have to have more fun with it.....do something unusual."
   

• "With my teacher growing up, if you didn't have a good release, you'd have to sit there and think about it for a while."
   

• "When you play fast try to lighten up.  Playing heavy while playing fast is like driving a Cadillac fast on a windy road.  You want to drive something smaller."
   

• "Do it again.  You're being too careful.  Just have fun."
   

• "Spend a lot of time getting into a passage so you know every square inch of it."
   

• "On a word in the music: Always go with the adjectives that you are supposed to do.  It's like a clue."
   

• "Anything that involves 5th position is hard.  The problem with 5th position is that people don't trust that it has to go out that far."
   

• "There are two types of playing: detached and non-detached."

Joe Alessi Master Class Quotes (Part 1 of 3)

Last week the principal trombonist of the New York Philharmonic, Joe Alessi, gave a fantastic master class at Towson University.  He is easily one of the best musicians I have ever had the privilege of working with and I learn something every time I hear him either perform or speak about music.

Check out this Joe Alessi interview I did with Lance LaDuke for The Brass Junkies.

I knew that I was going to get a lot of great material from a two and a half hour master class but the amount of information that I left with exceeded my very high expectations.  Joe is a rare person who is so highly accomplished on both the playing and teaching sides of our industry.

A special thank you to Craig Mulcahy for giving me the heads up about the class the day of and to the two students at George Mason who rescheduled their lessons so that I could make the trip up to Maryland.  I am very happy that I made it!

I was able to get so many great quotes from this class that I will post them in three parts over the course of the week.  I attempted to write them down verbatim but did not record the class so there unintentionally might be some slight variations to his wordings.  If there are any discrepancies it is his own fault because he kept making great points! I hope you enjoy these as much as I did.

Be sure to also check out Part 2 and Part 3.

• "I'm always trying to find new ways to do something."
   

• "Sometimes you revisit old concepts and change them slightly."
   

• "To play a brass instrument well is a very simple process.  To play one badly is very complicated."
   

• "Try to find a good model breath that has nothing to do with playing and instrument, like a sigh."
   

• "Take a breathing event that relaxes you and model your playing after that."
   

• "People often ask me for a quick fix on how to get better.  Here's one: anytime you pick up your instrument during the day, which should hopefully be 7 or 8 times a day, play one note that's the most beautiful note you can.  And not just a quarter note but three or four beats.  Then just clone it over and over."
   

• "The first 10 minutes you play in a day is how you play the rest of the day."
   

• "The more I play the more quickly I have discoveries about my playing."
   

• "A lot of practicing can be done away from the instrument."
   

• "You gotta be able to sing it and conduct it.  When you know how something is supposed to go, when you pick up your instrument, you can make that happen."
   

• "In high school I was a practice nut about fundamentals."
   

• "If something is simple and slow, I try to find something interesting about it."
   

• "When listening to entrance exams at Juilliard and the New York Phil I look for even playing and consist tone.  Consistent pitch and consistent rhythm."
   

• "Consistency is what you practice when you are in the practice room."
   

• "When playing orchestrally there is a certain way you have to play and that's to have an immediate attack."
   

• "An accent looks like a small diminuendo.  What you're playing is a reverse diminuendo."
   

• "You need to record everything you do."
   

• "You need to document everything you do and you need to listen to it.  I don't care if it's three notes.  Record it.  No, I'm serious."
   

• "If you play a jury, record it.  If you take an audition, ask the people if you can record it."

3 Great Master Classes Quotes I've Heard Recently

Every time I attend a master class I always have my laptop with me to take notes. I find that note taking is by far the best way for me to retain the information and retention is the first step in implementing it into my playing and teaching. I also attend as many master classes as I possibly can.  As with all of the people who I idolize in the music business, I try to never stop learning.  Hearing another professional's perspective on how they approach both the physical and mental aspects of music for an hour gives me a surge in productivity every single time without fail.

It also seems that every time I attend a class there is always one quote that sticks out above the rest a few months later.  That is the quote that has done the best job of daily working its way into my playing and teaching.  Here are three such quotes that I literally think about on a daily basis:

Joe Alessi: "You have to worry about the right sides of the notes just as much as the left sides."

The next time you hear Joe play, either live or on a recording, check out the care with which he ends every single note.  Then proceed to pick your jaw up off of the floor.

Carol Jantsch: "When slurring up to a note focus on the end of the first note rather than the second note."

Try this yourself.  I always found it intuitive to focus on having a clean start to the note I was slurring up to.  Now that I have taken Carol's approach instead my slurring improved immediately.  As in immediately.  It's a great trick.  This is one of the many things she does to make her playing sound so effortless.

Marty Hackleman: "Even if you can play your ass off, try to make it easier."

If you watch Marty play the horn, there is no wasted energy of any kind.  It is pure efficiency.  This is why he has the endurance of horn gladiator even though he is approaching 60.

Hopefully you will find these quotes as helpful as I have.  Not a day goes by that I don't think about all three of them in my teaching and playing.  Is there a great quote that you've heard in a master class recently? Help us all out and leave it in the comments.

Marty Hackleman Quotes from 2011 Master Class at George Mason University

Last night, Professor Marty Hackleman gave an amazing master class at George Mason University.  Marty is the principal horn of the National Symphony and a former member of both the Empire Brass and the Canadian Brass.  In my opinion, he is one of the premier teachers and performers that the brass world has ever known. I have put a few of the quotes that really spoke loudly to me in bold.  What quotes jump out at you? Please comment with your favorite quote and how it relates to your playing.

Here are the highlights from the class:

• "It's not that you work, it's how you work."
   

• "How simple can you make the problem?  How simple can you make the solution?"
   

• "We don't see the causes.  We see the symptoms."
   

• "All that you want to do is make it slightly better than yesterday but not as good as tomorrow.  And you enjoy the chase."
   

• "When you do a daily routine, don't sit in front of the TV wasting your time."
   

• "Think of your routine as a physical brass mediation.  Enjoy the time alone."
   

• "The routine is a question of how you play and not what you play."
   

• "A lot of times when you have a problem with your playing and you think you know the solution try the exact opposite.  85% of the time it will work.  And that comes from personal experience."
   

• "I only breathe as much as I need when I'm warming up and I focus on quality over quantity.  But if you're playing a different instrument, like the tuba, it may be different."
   

• "It is more important to practice efficiently than a lot of inefficient practicing.  If you don't feel like it, stop.  Get a cup of coffee and then come back.  Then suck it up and make yourself feel like it for even 15 minutes."
   

• "Even if you can play your ass off, try to make it easier."
   

• "Make it as simple, natural and easy as you can."
   

• "Don't save the high notes until the end of your routine.  They shouldn't be that precious.  They should be a natural extension of everything else."
   

• "I failed first.  Everybody failed first.  But do you stop at failure?"
   

• "You'll be surprised that if you ask yourself to do something regularly, you'll find a solution."
   

• "If tension is creeping into your playing, your routine is where you find that out, not in rehearsal or in performance."
   

• "Support isn't caused by air.  They are separate things."
   

• "You want to use your routine to make yourself better, not just make yourself functional."
   

• "I know (my routine) works because at almost 60 years old I believe I can play better than I've ever played in my life.  And it's not luck.  I promise you."
   

• "First thing is you have to make sure that your horn sounds like what's in your head."
   

• "You have to be more responsible about being a musician and not just a horn player."
   

• "We make crescendos and we don't come all the way back.  If you come all the way back you have somewhere to go again."

Thank you Marty for such an insightful class! Everyone is welcome to attend his next class, free of charge, on Monday April 4th at 7:30pm at George Mason University.

Marty Hackleman Quotes from George Mason Master Class

On Monday evening fellow George Mason teacher Marty Hackleman, principal hornist of the National Symphony, gave a wonderful master class to all of the brass students.  In my opinion, Marty is probably my favorite horn player to either listen to or perform with in the world.  I have had the privilege of attending a number of his master classes throughout the years and every time I walk away with more information than I could have dreamed of obtaining in one session.  Marty truly is the (sadly) rare combination of master performer and master teacher.

As I did with the wonderful Carol Jantsch master class earlier this summer I’ve collected a number of great quotes from Marty’s class that I believe any musician will find insightful.  I couldn’t possibly get to all of the quotes but these were the highlights.  He gave the audience and the students who performed a lot to digest in a very easy to understand manner.  It was a great experience for everyone.

• "You’ve got to start thinking outside the box.  When you have a problem (with your playing), really admit it and address it.  You have to be honest about it.  You are only as strong as the weakest link in your playing."
   
• "We all have to be fearless.  You can’t ask a brass instrument.  You have to tell it.  It’s like a dog.  You have to be consistent and it will love you."
   
• "Do something more.  There’s no right or wrong…just be convincing.  You’re still apologizing for playing the trumpet."
   
• "As brass players, we see a long note and think 'I’m home free…I’ve just got to hit the beginning of it.'  Don’t let it sit."
   
• "Playing a valve instrument it is very important to worry about timing the articulations and the sound between the notes.   Sometimes you have to tongue when the valve goes down and sometimes when the valve comes up."
   
• "On a trill, you have to finesse the sound in between the notes."
   
• "Are you completely in love with your tonguing? I don’t think so.  You’re just used to it."
   
• "Don’t just glide through it.  With a little bit of care you can make it sound beautiful."
   
• "How simple can you make it?"
   
• "On brass instruments, we want to bring our instruments up to the level of the music and not the music down to the level of our instruments."
   
• "I think there are a lot of musical ideas in there but your trombone is not letting them out."
   
• "I won’t bite and if I do, you won’t get much of a mark."

Quotes from Carol Jantsch Master Class

Yesterday I had the privilege of meeting Carol Jantsch, the tuba player for the Philadelphia Orchestra, for the first time.  She conducted a master class at the annual summer camp of the Monumental Brass in Fulton, MD.  It was an impressive presentation from start to finish that everyone who attended will remember for a long time.

She began the class by playing Patrick Sheridan’s arrangement of the Carnival of Venice with piano accompaniment.  Her performance was effortless and had an elegance that is rarely found in a solo performance by a tuba player.

Next she played the title track from her solo CD, Cascades.  This is an unaccompanied trumpet solo written by Allen Vizzutti which was fantastic.  She certainly got the attention of everyone with her performance.

She spent the remainder of the two hours answering questions and coaching four different students.  The following is a collection of quotes from the class that I found extremely helpful.

• “When we’re breathing we try to minimize tension.  Tension is the enemy.”
   

• “Trick your brain into thinking you have more time to breathe than you do.  Don’t think of it as having only one beat and panicking.”
   

• “Use the entire 16th to breathe.  Tell yourself it is a lot of time.”
   

• “As low brass players we should be used to taking in more air than we need.”
   

• When asked what it takes to win a tuba job with a major symphony orchestra: “A lot of luck.” (Then mentioned hard work and talent.)
   

• Concerning how long it took her to memorize her solos: “Not long since I learned them the right way.  I played them slowly, then a little less slowly, then a little less slowly than that, over and over.”
   

• “You’re letting the higher notes scare you.  Just relax and blow.”
   

• Speaking specifically to female brass players: “Playing a brass instrument takes a lot of air.  But if you end up trying to save air you get fuzzy attacks and missed slurs.”
   

• “Did you notice that this section is louder because of the breathing scheme we came up with for the section before?”
   

• “When learning double tonguing practice slowly and really emphasize the ka.”
   

• Addressing a student working on slurs: “Focus only on the ends of the notes.”
   

• “The warm-up/routine part of your practicing should address the weaknesses in your playing daily.”
   

• On what she thinks about when playing the first entrance of the Gregson Tuba Concerto: “You’re a very arrogant person and you step into a room and command attention.”
   

• When having a kid sing his part: “Use your operatic voice so the people in the back can hear you.  I don’t care about pitch as much as musical inflection.”
   

• “When you’re playing, about 10% of what you think is coming out so you have to exaggerate everything.”
   

• “If you’re afraid of missing a note you just need to go for it.  Blow through it, throw yourself in there, and there’s a good chance you’ll hit it.”
   

• “It’s good to vocalize because it can be hard to get something in your ear without hearing it outside of your body.”
   

• “If you’re having trouble with an interval play up to the note and then sing it.  That’s a good way to know if you have it in your ear.”
   

• “I play with the metronome on the offbeats because a lot of people ignore it if it’s on the beat.  It turns on your inner metronome.”
   

• “When playing legato etudes down an octave you want to go for as relaxed and smooth a sound as possible.”