Lose Yourself

How can an artistic personality bring an attitude of abandon to his work?

• Lose track of time. Set up your schedule so you have some blocks of time to just hang out with your work. Find an afternoon or evening where you don’t have to think about the next thing coming up in an hour. Even better, set up a regular time. “Every Saturday night I stay up late with my sculpture work.”
• Lose yourself in space. Find a comfortable place where you feel good doing your work. That place might be a typical work area, such as a library or home studio. It might be an unusual place, such as sitting in your car in the park, or on the steps leading up to the attic. Find a place where you can get lost in your work without interruption, even if that means negotiating some spatial boundaries with others in your home.
• Lose yourself in the work. Produce without worrying about marketability. You can decide which finished pieces you will send out into the public later. First things first–just work and forget everything else. Your imagination has enough material most of the time. It only needs you to struggle through the hard work of choosing, creating, revising, and finishing.

Play games

Give your imagination some freedom, let it run off its leash for a while.

• A poet who is stuck might try to write the worst poem possible, or she might try writing a love poem to an earthworm.
• A musician struggling with an intense piece of music could try playing a few lines backward or in a silly rhythm, just for some comic relief.
• An actor might parody himself, or imitate his cat performing Shakespeare.
• A novelist could imagine a plot where a large rock is elected prime minister of Canada, and how that would bring about world peace. Or perhaps a story where scientists discover that the number eighty-two doesn’t really exist.
• An artist could draw cartoons of giant forks and spoons having a dance in the kitchen.

Though these are silly suggestions, there is a serious side to the attitude of abandon. Sometimes the intensity of artistic work makes a soul miserable. Sometimes a creative person holds to tightly to her project. She tries to hard, worries too much about outcomes, and suddenly the joy of the work turns into resentment and harsh self-criticism.

For the artistic personality that feels discouraged or stuck, letting go with the attitude of abandon can help break up the ice around the imagination. What are some things you can do to grow the attitude of abandon in your creative endeavors?

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This post, The Attitude Of Abandon, originally appeared on New Trail Coaching, Scott Malyszka on February 20, 2012. Tweet This Post!

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This rule is not just another case of “because you should” or some similar vague guilt trip. I’m not a big fan of the imaginary mom who stands in your brain ready to evaluate what you are doing, just because.

No, this rule is very practical. If you focus on criticisms and negative parts of another person, then you walk away with nothing to add to yourself. “she talked too much about herself.” “He came across as a salesperson more than a musician.” and what do you gain for yourself?

But when you focus on finding some positive stuff from another performer, you then have a little reminder of what you can add to your own work.

• “She talked too much, but her arrangements were very interesting. I need to get better at arranging my songs”
• “His sales pitch was annoying, but his lyrics were clever and provocative. I want to spend more time polishing up the lyrics on my new batch of songs.”

I’m talking about musicians learning from other performers here in these examples, but You can pick up ideas for yourself from areas other than your own.

• A novelist is listening to a rock band, and she is inspired by the dramatic shifts from loud to soft. She tries to employ some dramatic changes in tone while working on her next chapter.
• a songwriter is really digging the characters in a spy novel. He tries doing some character and plot in his next batch of songs, making a deliberate move from abstract symbolism toward a narrative style.

Focus on what you like, and take something for yourself from the other guys.

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This post, Take Something Good From The Other guys, originally appeared on New Trail Coaching, Scott Malyszka on January 6, 2012. Tweet This Post!

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Note the key sentence in this article that perfectly describes the goal of mind-focusing practices:

Meditation, suggests Brewer, appears to be “perfect practice” in the skills that make undistracted work a possibility: the ability to detect the first signs of mind-wandering, to recognize and essentially forgive the impulse, and then gently to draw the mind back to the task at hand.

In creative work, a habit of resistance can build up to the point where you lose the ability to work on your art. You want to do your work, but you don’t want to do it. The resistance comes from a long history of negative feedback about you and your interests and your abilities. meditation exercises, as this article points out, can be a huge step toward rewriting your thought patterns and breaking down the resistance.

some folks like meditation for its own sake. It is an escape or a relaxation–a way to let go of stress and feel renewed. I’m in favor of all those things, but this article brings out an extra emphasis. meditation helps one control the thoughts and stay focused. When we go beyond meditation for its own sake, we can see practical benefits. It’s like building up your mental muscles so you have the strength and stamina to keep your focus.

Read my post on centering for one example of a thought exercise to help build stronger mental focus.

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This post, Meditation Helps The Wandering Mind, originally appeared on New Trail Coaching, Scott Malyszka on December 27, 2011. Tweet This Post!

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Music is not about being cool. In his post, “Are jealousy and Sour Grapes Killing Your Music Career” at the CD Baby DIY Musicians blog, Chris R. posits that there is no such thing as cool. I have to agree with him on that–taste varies so much, it really is hard to see how the goal of music is to get you into the cool crowd.

Music is not about putting in a little bit of work in order to become the center of attention at gigs. It isn’t about having a bunch of people tell you how pleased they are. It isn’t about having everyone listen to you, where usually you spend your life stuck listening to what others have to say without getting your say in.

What is music about? It is about playing, that’s all. Like little kids playing a game simply for the fun of it. There’s a saying that baseball legend Willie Stargell used to say, and it is probably older than him, “They don’t call it ‘working’ baseball. They call it ‘playing’ baseball.” Baseball players are playing a game, no matter how much money and how many TV cameras are involved. It’s still the same game that little kids play in their back yards.

And music is still just music. It’s little kids banging on pots and skillets. It’s five little kids honking on little harmonicas all in different keys, making noise and having a laugh. Read about Mozart’s life, and you will learn that he had dirty jokes and an impish side to his personality, though he wrote such elegant, transcendent music.

After all the workshops on how to market yourself, how to record your demos, how to book your regional tour, how to promote your gigs, how to sell CDs once you’re at the gig, and how to follow up with your fans after the gig–after all the self-management and self-promotion and self-franchising, it’s just music. You’re still a little kid banging on a toy piano, just for the fun of it. That’s the only way your music will mean anything to you and your fans.

Stephen Nachmanovitch’s book ,Free Play, is an inspiring read for musicians and other artistic people who need to foster their improvising impish side. He writes about losing yourself in the music and regaining a child’s playfulness. Give this book a look if you feel that your artistic side has become too serious or too depressing for you. You will fine it a big help in getting back to the simple playfulness of your creative pursuits.

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This post, Music Is About Nothing Except Music, originally appeared on New Trail Coaching, Scott Malyszka on December 10, 2011. Tweet This Post!

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First, she gave the keynote address at the northeast Regional Folk alliance in New York. She talked about the recent deaths of Bill morrissey and Jack hardy, who were her friends and supporters during her early years as a performer. These two helped her build her peer network, get out to play in more places, and held her to a high standard for her music.

Second, I attended a songwriters workshop by Vega in Washington DC. The workshop was set up to have three DC-area songwriters each present a song to the group, and then Vega would discuss the work with the writer. I expected her to be tough, critical, and encouraging. She was critical, and she was tough on one songwriter in particular who really didn’t appear to be ready for such a public grilling. But I was impressed with Vega’s warmth and genuine interest. She seemed to like the songs a lot more than I did, and she showed no sign of a “rock star” attitude.

Vega described how a good song is an idea that you can’t get rid of, something that sticks in your head and keeps bugging you until you have to finish it. that’s very different from my process, which is to capture lots of ideas so that I don’t lose them. she seemed to say that a writer could just lose a lot of ideas, because the really great ones would force themselves to stick in your brain. I can see both sides–take down all your ideas and inspirations, and review them later to find the few gems. But don’t tie yourself entirely to those notebooks and computer files, because a really good song will write itself over time.

One person at the DC workshop asked how he could become more comfortable and free as a performer. “Rehearse, rehearse, and rehearse,” was Vega’s answer. Another great reminder that practice is the number one ingredient for good music. How hard and how smart you work at your rehearsing determines how good you perform.

Vega pointed the audience at one of these events to Jack hardy’s songwriting manifesto. Here is a brief version of this set of ideals and instructions, well worth your pondering. Write a song every week. Get into the good stuff that other people are doing. Melody is half the song, so write melodies that stand without your guitar or piano. Spend some time reading and thinking about Hardy’s ideas, and you’ll learn how hard and how rewarding it is to be a songwriter.

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This post, Suzanne Vega: The Standards Of A Songwriter, originally appeared on New Trail Coaching, Scott Malyszka on December 2, 2011. Tweet This Post!

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My good friend Dr. Ruthie is a sex and relationship educator. She sees a similar let-down in the conferences in her field of work. She and many others use the term “con drop” to describe the low energy state after an intense, inspiring event. Check out her blog post on “Symptoms and Solutions For Con Drop.”

Music people can experience the same let-down after a big event, especially festivals and conferences where you get to hear so much great sound and meet so many people. I’ve just returned home from a super weekend at the Northeast Regional Folk Alliance, and my sluggish days afterward reminded me of Ruthie’s post. Allow me to borrow a bit from her and put my own spin on the aftermath of a big music event.

Be Your Own Best Secretary

Once you get home, you’ll want to remember and follow through on all the great conversations and experiences. There’s no way your brain will remember all the people you talked to, all the insights and inspirations you gained, and all the follow-up you want to do. You need to act like a secretary for a terribly busy big shot–keeping all the contacts and appointments organized.

When you are organized, you won’t be bumming and regretting afterward that you slept through some great stuff or got sick by not eating for a day and a half.

• Take exhaustive notes. When you get a few minutes between sets and conversations, write down everything. Keep a journal describing everyone you talked to, all the acts you saw, and all of your impressions. It’s the only way you will retain those rapid fire impressions and details. The information will keep coming at you faster and faster, and your brain’s buffers will throw away lots of good stuff because they just can’t hold it all. Writing down all of your experiences will give you a chance later to sort and sift through things. You’ll have business cards, CDs, emails, flyers, and scribbles all over the place, so plan your strategy for organizing all those names, faces, times, and places.
• Set a good schedule for your basic necessities. Make sure you have the meals figured out so you aren’t short-circuiting yourself by under-eating. Keep up with your hygiene. I keep hearing people complain about how stinky some folks get at festivals and conferences. Smelling bad makes for bad networking, no matter how pretty your business card, no mattter how good you sound. And make sure you have a good plan for sleep. That might mean napping at 3 pm so that you have the energy for 3 am jamming. But that 3pm nap might not happen if you don’t intentionally put a spot in your schedule for it.

Keep It Real With The networking

There are musicians and music-biz people who are all about selling themselves. The old maxim for musicians is, “Promote yourself, promote yourself, promote yourself.” You can act like a slimy used-car salesperson or a greedy preacher, willing to go to any length to make a deal. Or you can find a natural, authentic, and friendly way to connect with others.

there is a big difference that is easy to see when you are looking for it. Some performers are making a presentation, and others are engaged in two-way conversation. There’s a time to pitch yourself, sure. You got to get airplay and gigs. But there’s also a vibe of openness and community that some people have. They’re the ones who join into the jam session to jam and have fun, rather than to show what they got and to brag about who they jammed with later. They’re the musicians who listen to other musicians and become sincere fans, rather than simply sizing up the competition.

When you have the community approach to your networking, then you’ll have some new friends and contacts after the big event. When the let-down hits you, you’ll have a few nice emails coming in over the next few days that will help brighten the mood. Otherwise, you’ll be sitting at home wondering why plastering your thousands of flyers all ove the place didn’t really pan out.

Finding The Gaps

If you watch closely, you’ll see trends. The same two or three vocal licks or stylings being used, the sexy instrument of the season–it’s been the ubiquitous ukulele for the past few years. And you will see some gaps, some glaring absences. I saw two or three of these at NERFA, and I’m considering them as secret weapons. Of course there’s nothing automatic about doing something different from everyone else, but you might find that you have a unique aspect to your music that will be a breath of fresh air. That’s how fads and trends start–a lot of people start saying, “Wow, yeah, haven’t heard anything like that for a while!”

And no, I’m not going to give away my secrets. You’ll have to figure out your own secret weapons, or catch up with me some time next year.

What Are Your Experiences?

It’s not just for music festivals or conferences. The big let-down can ambush you after any event with intense emotions and energy. I wonder how many honeymoons have been derailed by day-after-huge-wedding drop. I don’t know for myself–both of my wedding ceremonies were very small, and I have never experienced a regular “honeymoon” at the all-inclusive resort, or whatever the kiddos go for nowadays.

What are your bummer hours or days like after a big event such as a huge concert or conference? Leave a comment and let us all know your experiences.

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This post, The Big Let-Down: What Happens After Festivals And Conferences, originally appeared on New Trail Coaching, Scott Malyszka on November 19, 2011. Tweet This Post!

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Point #1: don’t count on linear progression in your efforts to improve. The writer describes how a piece can make intonation and other technical issues come to the fore. I see this with my Appalachian music buddies. We’ll take a simple tune and try it out, and it seems ready to go within a few tries. then after playing it at gigs for a while, suddenly the tune seems to lose its groove, and we have to really practice hard on it to tighten it up. Now you have it, and suddenly you lost it and struggle to find it again.

I see this in my private practice on the fiddle. I’ll work on tone exercises for a few months, and suddenly my timing seems off. I work on timing, and my intonation slips. then I work on intonation, and circle around and around. Music is like other parts of life: You keep learning the same lessons over and over.

Point #2: Don’t assume that your subjective experience of playing a piece corresponds exactly to the objective experience of hearing it. In the Bach blog post, the student feels like she is losing ground while the teacher hears progress. I see this dispute between subjective and objective in myself and in other musicians fairly regularly. “did that sound OK?” “I didn’t play very well.” “You sounded great. Why do you act like you didn’t play so well?”

It helps to give less than one hundred percent credence to your subjective experience of playing. Listen to the subjective, but then ask others for their input and feedback to balance things out.

Point #3: Perfection? What is that? I appreciate the idea of holding oneself to very high standards. but perfection means playing in tune, playing in exact rhythm, all the technical and mechanical parts of music. What about emotion and personality? What about smiling at the audience, or playing with sadness, or vulnerability? for my appalachian fiddle music, it’s about making people tap their feet and getting up to dance. If I skip a few notes but have a strong pulse and drive, that’s a successful performance.

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This post, Some Wisdom Borrowed From a Bach violin Lesson, originally appeared on New Trail Coaching, Scott Malyszka on November 5, 2011. Tweet This Post!

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The show was great. The band played tight and rowdy, and the music was so sweet. When the band did put out the live album, I was eager and curious. Eager to hear that great music again, and curious to see how the tiny audience sounded during the applause and cheers.

The music on the live album is rocking, capturing the great sounds I had enjoyed in person. Apparently the entire show made it on the album since there wasn’t a flub the whole night. As for the audience sound, a little engineering helped put in some artificial audience applause to make things sound a little more substantial at the end of each track. The album sounds great.

I admire musicians who don’t short-change a small audience and who play the same show whether it’s for ten, a hundred, or a thousand. Of course career and business matters are going to work out OK sometimes, and sometimes not. This band took care of the music and the audience, even though their plans to record the show might not have worked out.

This reminds me of U2′s great album “Under A Blood Red Sky” from the early 1980s. It’s one of the best live rock albums ever, but the actual concert was a mess with a huge rain storm and less than half the audience that was expected. It’s another example of how to play live: Take care of the music and the audience you have, and the other business stuff will usually work out OK.

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This post, How To Record A Live Album, originally appeared on New Trail Coaching, Scott Malyszka on October 26, 2011. Tweet This Post!

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“Breath focus” is an exercise to help you focus on the present. Most meditation practices use breath as a central theme or core activity. Breath focus is an easy tool that is based on many of these meditation traditions and practices.

To do breath focus, you simply pay attention to your breathing. You don’t need to try to breathe in a certain way. Just breathe, and watch all the little steps involved. Feel the air entering your nostrils. Focus on the air passing down your windpipe. Listen to see if your nose, mouth, or voice box is making any sound as you breathe. Feel how slowly or rapidly you are breathing in and out. Feel how far the air goes down into your body. Perhaps your breath is shallow right now, and the air is going a little way into your chest. Maybe you are breathing more deeply, and the air is filling your lungs and pushing down to your abdomen. Look down and see how your chest or abdomen moves with your breath.

Focusing on your breath can engage the senses of feeling, hearing, seeing, and smelling. Practice the exercise for a minute or two at home when things are quiet. You should find that your thoughts calm down a little as you put your attention on your breathing in the present moment. When you are comfortable doing this exercise at home, then you can try it out when stressful or nervous situations arise.

You can expand the exercise to other activities besides breathing. Try focusing all five senses as you pour and drink a glass of juice. Listen to the sound of the juice leaving the bottle. Feel the coldness of the bottle. Think about smell, taste, color, sound, shape, motion, and temperature as you raise the glass to your mouth and drink the juice.

A few moments focusing on the present can help your mind when it is stuck worrying or fretting. Doing an exercise like breath focus can strengthen your ability to quiet and control your thoughts when worry and nervousness are stealing the show. Try the exercise for a few days, and leave a comment to let folks know how it worked for you.

Check out the “Mood Surfing” tele-class recording on my resources page for a demonstration of breath focus and other exercises for calming the mind.

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This post, Breath Focus: An Exercise For Staying In The Present, originally appeared on New Trail Coaching, Scott Malyszka on October 13, 2011. Tweet This Post!

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Here is a simple exercise called “centering” that you might find helpful for quieting your mind. This exercise is my stripped-down version of a practice known as “centering prayer.” I have removed the spiritual and religious parts to make a simpler exercise. If you are curious about the more complex Christian practice of centering prayer, check out books by Fr. Thomas Keating.

Here are the steps:

• Start by sitting in a relaxed position. Slow down your breathing, and try to relax your body.

• Think of a simple word to focus your attention on. I like using words such as “quiet,” “calm,” “relax,” “peace,” or “sleep.”

• Say the word silently in your mind and wait. As a thought, image, or feeling enters your mind, you will do two things: Do not resist, and do not retain.

• “Do not resist” means you will allow the thought or feeling to arrive. Think of it as something floating along down the stream of your thoughts. Even if it is an unpleasant feeling or thought, allow it to enter.

• “Do not retain” means that you will let the thought float away down the stream. You will let go of it and wave good-bye.

• After letting go of the thought or image, return to your word. Say it again silently and wait.

• As more thoughts arise, repeat the same steps. Do not resist, and do not retain. Return to your word and speak it silently.

This exercise will help you strengthen your ability to let go of persistent impulses and inner chatter that trouble your mind. Try doing it for a few minutes at a time when you feel calm and comfortable, to get used to quieting yourself. If you practice it every day, you will become better at quieting your thoughts when you are in an emotionally charged situation.

My Resources page has a recording of my “Mood Surfing” tele-class where I demonstrate several thought and breath exercises for calming the mind.

Was this centering exercise helpful for you? Leave a comment to let me know your experience after trying it once or twice.

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This post, Centering: A Simple Exercise To Tame Your Monkey Mind, originally appeared on New Trail Coaching, Scott Malyszka on October 6, 2011. Tweet This Post!

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