Air and Percussive Sounds for the Flute: Explained!

http://musikfabrik-blog.eu/2011/06/21/air-percussive-sounds-for-the-flute/

Dear Flutists,

I just came upon this terrific new resource by Helen Bledsoe. Great explanations worth checking out.

Greetings from the Music11 New Music Festival

I am writing from Blonay, Switzerland where I am taking part in a fantastic collaborative festival for performers and composers with eighth blackbird in residency. You can follow what is happening at the festival at the Music11 blog:
http://musicxfestival.blogspot.com/

Noteworthy things thus far is hearing talks and masterclasses from composer Matthias Pinscher,having the opportunity to premiere new works being coached and playing with members of eighth blackbird, and enjoying the beautiful Swiss countryside. Check out the blog to read more!

Do What You Suck At

One of my mottos for awhile now has been “You are only as strong as your weakest link”. This picture exemplifies the idea perfectly. When I was in Army Basic Training, that was one of the things they told us almost constantly. We had to do everything as a team, and if one person was wrong, you were all wrong. If one person wanted to keep the Kevlar helmet on instead of taking it off, we all had to keep it on. If one person got punished…well, that didn’t happen, we all got punished.

The point was that you HAD to learn to do everything as a unit, as a team, and that each person was as important as the next. You are being taught to pay attention to detail and you realize very quickly that even if YOU excel in one area, your Battle Buddy probably doesn’t, and to work together as a team, everyone has to come together to support and encourage and work on their “weakest link” before you can excel as a team.

Your body works as a team as well and if you don’t address your weakest link, you are shortchanging yourself. As a musician, you know that if you don’t work on your weak spots, you’ll never reach your full potential because being a musician is made of several “links” – scales, intervals, tone, technique, body awareness, attitude, work ethic, etc.

As for my title…

You’ll have to pardon the hanging participle and bad grammar….but it got your attention, didn’t it?

Here’s the point if you do what you’re good at, you’ll never get any better. Makes sense, doesn’t it? Sure, but what do we do? We do the things at which we already accel. Why? Because we like doing well, we like feeling that good feeling that comes with doing well, and when you do something well, it’s, well…..easy.

Another way to say “do what you suck at” is to say “work on your weaknesses”. Now, honestly if I had put that as the title, you wouldn’t have stopped by to read, would you? Not nearly as interesting. But the truth is there in both statements. When you take a good look at the areas in which you lack and you go forth and WORK on those weaknesses what happens?

Well, it’s hard.
It’s generally not much fun.
You might fail….a lot.
But in the end, you end up succeeding and ultimately not only gaining a greater sense of achievement due to the feeling of overcoming something at which you used to not do well, but it gets easier from there for you to get better at it.

Two examples: music and fitness, of course 🙂

Fitness

Take your pick: squat, pushup or pullup.

Sure, there are other hard exercises like deadlifting and benching and rowing but in all honesty, these are tough for me and most women. Most people do a HORRIBLE job of squatting with good form. They either

• don’t go low enough
• elevate their heels and squat on their toes
• have their knees cave in
• point their toes way out

It’s sad really, because what should be easy to do (we did it as 2-year olds without another thought) becomes so much more difficult as we age.

Side note:
This is why I suggest EVERYONE get some training in Alexander Technique. It’s not just for musicians and you will relearn how to use your body the way God intended and the way you used to, as aforementioned 2-year old but with better motor skills 🙂

Walk into almost any gym in the country and undoubtedly you will see a lot of the same things: the treadmills, ellipticals and bikes will be mostly full (sadly, mostly with women), lots of people using machines, and in the free weight section, the few people you see will be mostly men, mostly doing chest and bicep exercises. Occassionally you’ll see a man doing a squat….probably only going half-way down with too much weight (because it’s always better to improve your ego by using too much weight with bad form than to use no weight with good form, right?) and even more rarely, you’ll see a lady in there, doing “toning” exercises with the pink dumbbells. She’s doing it because she knows she needs to do something but isn’t sure what, so she sticks to what’s safe, what isn’t challenging, and pats herself on the back for venturing into the “guy’s” part of the gym. And year after year the ladies on the treadmills wonder why their bodies haven’t changed the way they “should”.

The guys do their same routines for the same reason: they work the vanity muscles using some outdated routines they found in magazines (that really only work for newbies) because they don’t know any better, it’s safe, it’s what the other guys are doing and hey, what woman looks at a guy’s legs – they look at his GUNS right? And year after year, he does the same stuff, blindly going forward, his gains decreasing every year and wondering why.

I’ll tell you why. It’s because they don’t work on their weaknesses.

Music

Where is your weakness when it comes to music? Ignoring etudes, scales and technique exercises – only focusing on working on pieces? Not really “wood shedding” the music, but just playing it over and over again? Putting off memorizing something? Not practicing much at all?

As a musician, my biggest weakness is 1) not making the time to practice and 2) not giving myself structure during practice time….which leads to feeling like I”m just wasting my time, so I end up not practicing at all! If you are one of those musicians who has been out of school for awhile, you know how easy it is to get out of the habit of daily practice, espcially when you aren’t surrounded by other musicians pushing you, endless rehearsals and recitals. If LACK of practice is your nemesis, ask yourself why? And chunk it into manageable goals: 1) I will practice every day or every other day 2) I will work on these pieces and these exercises, etc. Just write it down and give yourself structure.

If there is something specific you suck at and you’re just avoiding it, it’s time to take the bull by the horns and go after it! If you are a person who plays by ear and has a difficult time deciphering rythms on the page…..well, you need to start reading more music with difficult rhythms. If you suck at sightreading, the only way to get better at sightreading is to sightread a LOT.

See how this works? Identify your weakness, have the courage to put your ego aside and say “ok, what do I really suck at?” and then do THAT.

Take your dreaded evil and look it square in the face and say

“Today , it’s you and me and while I may not conquer you today, maybe not tomorrow, I will not fear you, and I WILL do this”.

And from there, you start with Moyse Gamme Arpegge and work your way through 🙂

So Do What You Suck At

If you are a gym “bro” who splits his workouts into “chest days’ and “arm days”: have the courage to do a full body workout,

If you are a lady who does nothing but stay on the elliptical or do curls and crunches in the “guy’s part of the gym”, have the courage to pick up some 20 pounders or hire a personal trainer and learn how to do a real deadlift…I can tell you, there’s nothing more empowering than deadlifting your bodyweight (with excellent form) in a gym full of men who are doing superflous exercises (with bad form).

If you are a musician and you’ve been putting off attacking Berio’s “Sequenza” GO FOR IT! You just might find that it’s way more fun than you ever realized.

In the end, we all have to work on our weaknesses, because there is only so far you can go in the areas you already excel.

Related Articles

• Are You Ready to Change? (fluteangel.wordpress.com)
• What Interests You? (fluteangel.wordpress.com)
• The Flutists’ Pain Points (fluteangel.wordpress.com)
• The Flutist’s Pain Points (innovativeperformanceandpedagogy.wordpress.com)
• Multitasking Move: Burning Squats (fitsugar.com)
• The Exercise You Hate Is Probably the One You Need Most (fitsugar.com)
• How I Discovered The Alexander Technique (lukeford.net)
• 3 Exercise Form Mistakes to UNLEARN Now (joshsgarage.typepad.com)

The Flutist’s Pain Points

Ask almost any flutist that has pain brought on by playing, and odds are they will mention one of these sites as giving them trouble: wrist, upper back (between shoulder blades), shoulder area or lower back. Sometimes the problem is that the pain is in ALL of these sites.

Studies have been done, but the results are inconclusive as to the results of what causes pain. A study I read recently studied the “History of Playing-related Pain in 330 University Freshman Music Students”. The interesting point is that MOST of the students had pain brought on by playing. The frustrating point was that the study was inconclusive as to the cause of the pain.

I have my own hypothesis, however, because this study did not cover my area of expertise: strength training. This is what the study found:

• More students did than did not exercise, but pain occurred in 79% of the exercisers and in only 76% of the sedentary. Data were collected though not analyzed regarding exercise type; jogging appeared to be a favorite, as was the use of a variety of exercise machines
• Most of the pain problems reported by instrumentalists are associated with the musculoskeletal system
• Several factors have played into the lack of regular exercise for musicians. First, those who start their instruments early in life…often have been warned of the potential injury that might befall especially their hands and fingers by participation in athletics. This avoidance behavior becomes habit as they grow older.
• There apppears to be an association between poor conditioning and musculoskeletal complaints, and vice versa; those who do have a regular exercise routine appear more resilient.
• When asked about “regular exercise” …our definition for inclusion here was exercise of at least two times per week for a minimum of 30 minutes. We did not differentiate between exercise modes, but just from casual scanning of the data, jogging was by far the most frequent activity, followed by some kind of machine and/or light weights and biking. A minority did heavy resistance weight training, swimming, soccer and/or basketball.

It is GLARINGLY obvious to me what could possibly be the cause of so many musician’s pain, here, but this was not covered by the researchers.

1. The type of stretching done, is probably out-dated, static stretching, which has been shown to be more detrimental than helpful
2. Jogging is a favorite activity….this does NOTHING to help weak muscles. If you play an instrument held in front of your body (aren’t they all?) then your body is forced to compensate after the primary muscles holding up the instrument fatigue. Thus leading to pain.
3. The MINORITY did heavy resistance training and soccer, swimming and basketball – sports that require a high degree of movement.

Can you see the pattern here?

So getting back to the flutists’ pain points

What are the points of chief complaint?  From what I have heard (though if you have another spot, please leave a comment below!) these are the most common

• wrist
• upper back
• shoulder
• lower back

With the exception of the wrist, the other three points are located on what we call the “posterior chain”  This is the back half of the body, responsible for a lot of pulling movements and fighting against the pushing movement of the front of the body, including keeping the body upright.  If your posterior chain muscles are weak, it causes them to stretch.

Example:

You sit all day, in rehearsals, driving, typing, practicing.  You probably slouch, meaning your chest comes forward, your abdomen caves in and your back rounds.  You are not balanced on your sit bones.  Your shoulders round forward.  Your head protrudes.

What does this lead to?

Try taking that posture for awhile and I bet the answer will be:

• my neck hurts
• my upper back hurts
• my hips hurt
• basically, everything on the back half of my body HURTS!

Can you see how this  posture, practiced day in and day out is compounded with holding a heavy instrument (or maybe your instrument isn’t heavy but after several hours of playing it becomes heavy to you) can wreak havoc on your body?

Solutions!!!!

The part you’ve been waiting for!  You can see where the problem lies, by now, I hope.  Weak posterior chain can equal pain.  What to do?  Strengthen it!  Let’s take this on a spot by spot basis.

Wrist

If your wrist hurts, there can be several causes, some of which may not have anything to do with your wrist, but  may actually be a symptom of poor upper body posture, shoulder position, etc.  Assuming you play an instrument that puts your wrist in somewhat of a contorted position (flute, guitar, violin, etc.) there are some stretches you can do.  Hold each for a count of 10, and follow with movement.  It is very important that after you do a static stretch (a stretch you hold without moving) that you follow that with a dynamic stretch (a stretch that involves movement).

                                                                             

These are stretches and of course there are exercises you can do to increase your wrist/grip strength.  However, I’m not sure that that is necessary, as my guess is that the reason the wrists hurt has more to do with being tight and needing to be stretched due to being in an awkward position for long lengths of time, rather than being weak.  However, grip strength is important when it comes to lifting weights.  Diesel Crew has a lot of information on improving grip strength.

Upper Back/Shoulder

This area could take all day to address, and I have in two posts and a guest post by Dr. Perry.  For detailed information see Shoulder Pain Part 1, Shoulder Pain Part 2 – What to Do About it, and Dr. Perry’s Post: Shoulder Pain Secret.

The chief culprits of pain are the rhomboids (the muscles in between your shoulder blades that work to pull them together), lower traps (pull shoulder blades back and down) and rotator cuff muscles.  When you lean forward with a rounded posture, or have your arms extended in front of you for a long time, these muscles that do the pulling in your upper back get stretched the opposite way and get kinda angry about it.  They are designed to pull the shoulder blades back, but if you do not strengthen these muscles, if they do not get used the way they were intended.  You get pain.

I think this is the biggest problem area among musicians and the most overlooked!

Strengthen your rhomboids and upper back by doing pulling movements and see if your pain doesn’t improve, not to mention your posture!

My favorite exercises are:

Lat Pulldowns/Pull ups, any type of rows (inverted, seated, barbell or dumbbell) and exercises for the rotator cuff: soup can pours, prone lower trap raises and wall slides.  You can see all three of the rotator cuff exercises in Shoulder Pain Part 2.

Before doing any of these exercises, however, it’s not a bad idea to stretch the muscles that are tight, before strengthening the muscles that are weak. That’s another post for another day. 🙂

Lat pull downs/Pull ups.

     Good form                       BAD FORM!!!

(Coaching cues – keep spine neutral – curve in lower back, no leaning backwards, and keep shoulder blades down)

The big thing to remember here is to that before and DURING the movement, keep your shoulder blades pulled back and down.  This will prevent you from going into full shoulder extension and increase shoulder stability.

Huh?

That means that when your arms are as far away from you as they can be, if your shoulder blades are properly retracted and depressed you will still be able to let your arms go farther away.  So, when you are reaching up for the bar, don’t let your shoulder blades float away – keep them back and down.  If you find you can still let them go a bit farther (like in the second picture), you know they are not properly retracted. Think of keeping the bottom of your shoulder blades squeezed together throughout the movement.  This may cause you to not use as much weight as you would like, but so what?  If you use more weight than you can with good form, what are you really accomplishing?  THAT’S where you get into more pain and injury.

Inverted Row

Coaching cues: keep body “straight”, keep shoulder blades back and down.

Coaching cues: keep shoulder blades back and down, keep neutral arch in back, do NOT round your back when reaching for weight or pulling forward

Lower Back

If your lower back hurts, ask yourself how much you sit.  If the answer is “a lot”, you may have found your problem.  When you sit, your hips “flex”, this means that the knees come towards the body by means of the hip flexors   The hip flexors are pictured here and I know the Alexander Technique teachers will jump all over the psoas, as they should! That’s where I first found out about this very important muscle.  You can see how it attaches to your leg AND your low back. When you sit, this muscle flexes, or shortens, which (especially if your abs are too strong – aka, don’t do situps or crunches!!!!) causes you to bend forward, this muscle pulls on your low back.  The muscles on your low back (Quadratus Lumborum and spinal erectors, etc.) get stretched, just like the upper back muscles.

Solution?

Stretch the tight muscles, strengthen the weak muscles.  In this case, stretch the hip flexors, strengthen the low back muscles  and muscles of the core.  The CORE is actually made up of your entire torso and if you want an EXCELLENT book on strengthening the core in the non-traditional way (there is not a single “ab” exercise in this book!) I HIGHLY recommend getting New Rules of Lifting for Abs. 

I’m just finishing up this book myself and not only has it improved my posture, it has improved my balance, core strength and overall body strength.  I can lift heavier weights than I have in a long time and I have better posterior chain activation as well!

There are WAY too many exercises to list here for strengthening the core and lower back, and in fact, if you want more information on that, I cannot recommend anything here safely, which is why I recommend hiring a personal trainer to help you do these exercises, because done incorrectly you can cause more pain or even injury to yourself.

As for stretching the hip flexors, I have some great ones.

You can do this standing as well.  Make sure when you do this stretch, you lean backwards with your torso until you feel a stretch in the front of your hip and SQUEEZE your put on the stretched side.  When you stretch the hip flexor, you want to activate the opposing posterior chain muscle, in this case, the glutes.

This exercise is one you can do during rehearsals, while typing, or while lying down.  It will stretch your piriformis muscle (the angry little muscle in your butt that gets stretched out when you sit for too long).  I recommend doing this lying down: take the chair out of the picture and put the person on his back.  Grab the vertical leg and pull it towards the chest.  The horizontal leg (the one that is bent across the other) will feel a stretch in that glute and hip.

A good stretch for the psoas is this stretch:

Lie on the edge of a bed, bench or table and pull one leg towards your chest.  The other leg should dangle off the edge of the table.  DO NOT do this exercise if your doctor has told you not to or you have major back pain.  Check with your doctor first if you have concerns.  When doing this stretch, you should feel a deep pulling feeling in your abdomen, that is difficult to identify.  This is your psoas.  Hold for a count of 10-30, depending, and switch sides.

You can also do this on the floor to test for hip tightness.  Lie flat on the floor just like in this picture.  If your lower back comes off the floor and rounds, it can be a sign of hip flexor tightness.

What are some exercises I need to NOT do?

As you can see in this post, training the posterior chain is of utmost importance.  Therefore, training the frontal chain, is not as important.  If you have muscular imbalances, you do not want to add any more strength to those muscles.  The opposite of the muscles covered in this post would be: chest, quads, biceps.

Exercises I do not recommend if you are in pain:

Chest presses, bench presses, cable flyes (basically any chest pushing exercise), crunches, situps, any kind of oblique twisting ab exercise,  leg extension machine.

Other GOOD exercises to include would be exercises that train the entire body:

Pushups

Deadlifts

Squats

Make sure you perform these exercises with permission from your doctor and under the supervision of a properly certified personal trainer.  If you have any kind of health condition, check with your doctor first.

Related articles

• Shoulder Pain Secret (fluteangel.wordpress.com)
• Shoulder Pain Part 1 (fluteangel.wordpress.com)
• Identifying Shoulder Pain Part 2 – What To Do About It (innovativeperformanceandpedagogy.wordpress.com)
• Identfying Shoulder Pain Part 2 – What to Do About It (fluteangel.wordpress.com)
• Identifying Shoulder Pain – Part I (innovativeperformanceandpedagogy.wordpress.com)
• De-Mystifying Support and the Diaphragm (innovativeperformanceandpedagogy.wordpress.com)
• Geoffrey Gilbert and the Use of the Body: Taking a Look at “The Gilbert Legacy” for Tips (innovativeperformanceandpedagogy.wordpress.com)
• 3 Exercises + 1 for Core Strength and Stability (innovativeperformanceandpedagogy.wordpress.com)
• What Interests You? (fluteangel.wordpress.com)

Real Flutists Interviews featuring Claire Chase and Eric Lamb of ICE, by Flutronix

Part One:

Part Two:

Bonus Footage:

Take Action: From Americans for the Arts and opposing HR 1891 NOW

June 14, 2011 Dear Friends: Last month, a piece of federal legislation named “Setting New Priorities in Education Spending Act” (HR 1891) was introduced for the purpose of terminating 43 existing federal education programs, including Arts in Education. The Arts in Education program currently funds 57 active education projects around the country, and to date has supported more than 210 competitive grants serving students in high-need schools, as well as the affiliates of the Kennedy Center and VSA arts education programs.The Arts in Education program also provides critical federal leadership in supporting a well-rounded curriculum throughout our nation’s public schools.On May 25, the House Education & Workforce Committee approved HR 1891 by a party-line vote of 23 Republicans to 16 Democrats. Americans for the Arts worked with Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) and other members of that committee who offered an amendment that sought to restore some of these education programs, including arts education, but that amendment failed to pass.The full House of Representatives may vote on HR 1891 prior to their August Congressional Recess.  The Senate education committee, however, is not expected to consider HR 1891 as Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) plans on offering a separate, more comprehensive bill to reauthorize the Elementary & Secondary Education Act. We call on arts advocates to contact their House Representative through our customizable e-alert and request that they oppose HR 1891because it seeks to terminate the critical federal support directed to arts education. Don’t let this bill narrow the curriculum of our students.Help us continue this important work by becoming an official member of the Arts Action Fund. If you are not already a member play your part by joining the Arts Action Fund today — it’s free and simple. info@artsusa.org www.AmericansForTheArts.org www.ArtsActionFund.org

1000 Vermont Avenue NW 6th Floor Washington DC . 20005 T 202.371.2830 F 202.371.0424 One East 53rd Street . 2nd Floor New York NY . 10022 T 212.223.2787 F 212.980.4857

Flute Competition Opportunities

It’s that time of year to start making plans for upcoming competitions.  Myrna Brown will post their rep in July/August, Chicago Flute Club’s is already posted with a deadline for October.  Start planning and reaching for your goals!

The following have competitions that are not as restrictive to age:

• National Flute Association (Young Artist, Orchestral, Master Class, Collegiate Flute Choir, many more)
• Chicago Flute Club Competitions 
• Flute Society of Washington Competitions
• Myrna Brown Flute Competition
• Rochester Flute Association
• Houston Flute Club’s Byron Hester Competition

These are for younger flutists:

• Southeast Michigan Flute Association (Young Artist Competition, Collegiate Artist Competition)

• Ima Hogg-Houston Symphony Young Artist Competition

• Kobe International Flute Competition

• Mid-South Flute Society Competitions

• Midland-Odessa Symphony National Young Artists Competition

• Carl Nielsen International Music Competition and Festival

• James Pappoutsakis Flute Competition

• Schubert Club Student Scholarship Competition

• Sorantin Award for Young Artists

• Springfield (MO) Symphony Orchestra Hellam Young Artist Competition

• William C. Byrd Young Artists Competition
 (Winds and Brass next in 2013)

Thanks to flutist Julie Stone for many of these links, who can be reached at julie.stone@emich.edu.  She is Professor of Flute at Eastern Michigan University.

Three-day El Sistema Training Program in Baltimore this July

BSO OrchKids host three-day training program for leaders of El Sistema-based programs throughout the U.S., July 13-15, 2011

The BSO’s El Sistema-inspired youth initiative, OrchKids, has grown significantly since it first started in Fall 2008. In keeping with El Sistema’s vision, OrchKids uses music as a vehicle for social change, transforming the lives of young people most in need. Under the leadership of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) and BSO Music Director Marin Alsop, OrchKids has become a model for orchestras in community and education programs throughout the country. In order to insure that staff, faculty and teaching artists are knowledgeable of, committed to and actively incorporating the principles of El Sistema, which include “consistency,” “intensity,” “community,” “audiation before visualization,” and ”passion over precision,” the BSO will present “Community Engagement through Music Education (CEME),” a three-day workshop from Wednesday to Friday, July 13-15, 2011 at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, Lockerman Bundy and Mary Anne Winterling Elementary Schools in Baltimore, Maryland.

ORCHkids

planting seeds for a bright future

For more info: http://www.bsomusic.org/main.taf?p=9,5,8

More on El Sistema

• An excellent introduction to El Sistema:

• The Road to an American El Sistema, by Lara Pellegrinelli:http://www.npr.org/2011/03/15/134567922/the-road-to-an-american-el-sistema

• El Sistema USA: http://elsistemausa.org/
• El Sistema:  The Movement at http://createquity.com/2011/06/el-sistema-the-movement.html
• Eric Booth’s “Open Secrets”: http://www.laphil.com/pdfs/education/essay_eric_booth.pdf
• From the League of American Orchestras: http://www.americanorchestras.org/utilities/el_sistema_resource_materials.html

• Upcoming DUDAMEL: Let the Children Play Premiere Event in Theaters, one night only (June 23, 2011) https://innovativeperformanceandpedagogy.wordpress.com/2011/06/07/dudamel-let-the-children-play-premiere-event-in-theaters/

What does it take to get really good at something?

I’m reading Daniel Coyne’s The Talent Code right now which is getting me all fired up about deliberate practice, talent, and myelin (his website is worth checking out at http://thetalentcode.com/) .   On his site one of his links is Fires in the Mind, which you can visit at http://firesinthemind.org/.  They ask “What does it take to get really good at something?”  And their answer is:  “deliberate practice.”

Elements of Deliberate Practice

What elements qualify something as deliberate practice? Many researchers into cognition and learning describe it as follows:

• Practice has an express purpose.
• Practice demands attention and focus.
• Practice involves conscious repetition or rehearsal.
• Practice is geared to the individual.
• Practice takes careful timing.
• Practice is not inherently enjoyable.
• Practice develops new skills and knowledge.
• Practice applies to new endeavors.

What is NOT Deliberate Practice

Deliberate practice is not the same as work. “When I’m fixing something on my car,” said Ruben, “I might be doing my best, but I’m not exactly practicing a technique. I’m just trying to get the car repaired.”

Deliberate practice is not the same as play. “When I sit down with my guitar just for fun, I’m not necessarily trying to improve my technique or anything,” said Marquis.

Deliberate practice is not the same as rote repetition. All practice involves repetition. But unless they care about what they are repeating and why, students are “doing it just to do it”—not to learn. “We have to memorize chemistry formulas for the test,” said Christian. “But I never remember them later if I don’t get what they’re about.”

Reprinted by permission from Fires in the Mind: What Kids Can Tell Us About Motivation and Mastery, by Kathleen Cushman and the students of What Kids Can Do. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 2008. For more information, go to www.firesinthemind.org

Prioritize, think small, create.

I’ve been thinking over the past couple of days that my to-do lists are too long. If you are an artist/musician, your lists are most likely similar to mine and include some or all of the following:

• Practicing or work in studio, prep for concerts/festivals/gigs/auditions/exhibitions, etc.
• If a private studio teacher, thinking about students and their progress
• Maintaining private studio (taxes/budget/music library organization/marketing/recitals, etc.)
• Considering collaborative or other projects of interest
• Networking, checking email, social media
• Researching grant/funding ideas for projects, writing grants
• Exercising, taking care of well-being
• Tending to household (shopping/cleaning/budgeting/paying bills/organizing)
• Taking care of family (kids/ spouse/partner/extended family/pets)
• Having a social life (staying in touch with friends)
• Being involved and/or volunteering in the community (religious/spiritual/political/social activities and organizations)
• Tending to other things as they arise that require attention

This list could continue on.  It certainly gives an idea of the different hats we wear on a daily basis as artists/musicians, balancing personal and professional sides of our lives.

This morning I was reading several posts that struck a chord with me as I was feeling over-loaded and over-whelmed with all that was on my to-do list.  I was reminded that we create our own messes, our own over-loadedness, by not prioritizing what is most important to us to do right now, or maybe sometimes we don’t have clear goals or we’re feeling a little stuck in where we are.  Looking at the big picture that is our lives, are we living what we believe?  Are we really pursuing what is important to us?  Are we living according to our values, and our strengths?  Are we reaching our goals?

PRIORITIZING

I’ve had the good fortune of discovering Astrid Baumgardner’s blog and also having the opportunity to speak with her too.  Astrid is a pianist and also a coach, and she’s spent a lot of time thinking about what makes musicians tick.  She’s helped me to see that we need to know our strengths and values and build our goals according to them.

About values, Astrid writes:

Values are the core principles that run your life.  They are the key to your authentic self. One of the best ways to create success in your life is aligning your life with your top values and making decisions that honor those values.

and

In my experience, the more your goals align with your values, the more motivated you are to pursue those goals.

And about strengths:

My message to clients is to play to your strengths.  It is one of the keys to creating success in your life. In my experience, you are more likely to reach your goals and be a success if you are doing things that you are good at. It’s much easier to play to your strengths rather than compensate for weaknesses. The more you develop your natural talents, the stronger they become.  And, the more you use your strengths, the less of a struggle life becomes.

For figuring out what your strengths are visit her post Play to your Strengths.  I’ve used both the Strengths Finder (you have to buy the book unfortunately because if you check it out of the library it doesn’t come with that special code) and the VIA assessment which is free.  They both were very useful for me.  In discovering my main strength is “Input” I understand how I enjoy sharing good ideas with others and how this also gives me strength back.

And for your values the blog Learn This has some tips.

Knowing my strengths and values more clearly has helped me set goals and consequently, prioritize more efficiently and according to what is most important to me.  I’m deciding not to do certain things that aren’t directly connected to what I’m trying to achieve.  I’m trying not to let myself be sidetracked.  And I’m setting goals today, next year, five years and also 10 years down the road, to help me get to where I need to go.  In her post How to Turn Dreams of Success into Reality,  Astrid describes a student who decided in 20 years that he would be the music director of a big name philharmonic, and so everything he does from today on is a step in that direction.

Armed with our strengths, values and goals, it’s time to prioritize.  I really like these ideas from Organize It!

They suggest dividing the to-do-list into these three areas:

• Need to do
• Should do
• Want to do

On a side note, I think we are all overloaded with too many emails, too many posts to read, too many twitters to catch up on.  I started my morning today by unsubscribing to a number of emails I just end up deleting anyway.  I don’t NEED to receive all those emails, that’s for sure. It’s some mental energy saved, I think.

THINKING SMALL

How often do we get stuck not going forward with our ideas because we think they aren’t grand enough?

David Cutler’s post Want Big Impact, Think Small is right on the money.

If you really want to make a difference—and reap the accompanying rewards—think small-scale.  Make profound connections with the handful, rather than superficial ones with the masses.  Changing fifteen lives dramatically is much more valuable than barely making an impression on 3000.  Find ways to create relationships that are personal, deep, meaningful, and ongoing.   

And from Astrid: …A musician client told me recently that he had so many ideas for his freelance career that he did not know where to start.  The result was that he did nothing because he was so overwhelmed.

So start thinking how you can make a small difference within your community with the ideas that move you and make you wake up early in the morning!

CREATING

Now we are clear so that we may create (Adam Shames has a post worth reading on this topic!)

Enjoy the process:  prioritize, think small, create! (And then…..DREAM BIG!)

A word of thanks to the following authors:

Astrid Baumgardner, JD, PCC is a professional life coach and lawyer and the founder and President of Astrid Baumgardner Coaching + Training, which is dedicated to helping musicians, lawyers and creative professionals take charge of their lives and experience authentic success.  In addition to her individual coaching practice, Astrid presents workshops at leading conservatories and law firms on topics including Career Planning, Goal-Setting, Time Management, Dynamic Communication, Conflict Management, Personal Branding and Networking.  She is the author of numerous articles on the various aspects of how to achieve and live authentic success.

David Cutler balances a varied career as a jazz and classical composer, pianist, educator, arranger, conductor, collaborator, concert producer, author, consultant, speaker and advocate. Dr. Cutler teaches at Duquesne University, where he also serves as Coordinator of Music Entrepreneurship Studies.

Adam Shames is the founder of the Kreativity Network and Adam Shames Consulting. Based in Chicago, Adam is an innovation consultant, facilitator and speaker specializing in leadership retreats, learning seminars and teambuilding events that help organizations build cultures of innovation and collaboration. His main blog, Innovation on my Mind (www.innovationonmymind.com) offers insights, tools and reflections to bring more creativity and innovation to our lives, organizations, education and culture.

Laura Lentz ©2011