What do photos of Turkey have in common with Burning Man? How do The Pledge of Allegiance and Steve Jobs relate?
This issue of Musician’s Motivator connects these dissimilar items in five musical motivations.
- Unleash Your Creativity
- Claim Your Space
- Get Focused
- Party On, Dude!
- One More Thing
Unleash Your Creativity
Open the Creativity Valve and let it flow. Allow for your creative self to explore a new path today. Have you ever turned your music upside-down and played it? Don’t think too much about this one. Just try it. That’s what happened when I opened the Creativity Valve today! Hahaha.
Claim Your Space
Personalize your practice area with inspiration. You might hang up a Sonny Rollins poster, or a photo of yourself playing in a recent band or orchestra concert.
I’ve put up a few photos from my visit to Turkey last year. The ancient ruins and wide-open scenery please me and positively affect my mood for playing music.
Get Focused
Tune out the distractions. Close the door to your practice area and… Be. Here. Now.
Or go in the opposite direction, that is, open the door and go outside!
This approached worked for student, Brian. He has played in his backyard, on camping trips and, at the beach. Brian brings his sax along wherever he goes and immerses himself in Nature, letting the beauty of the outdoors bring focus to his playing session.
Party On, Dude!
Yeh. Host a party. Not just any party. In the tradition of Burning Man, make it a non-spectator party. Everyone participates. Suggest to your guests to bring an instrument, be prepared to dance or sing, bring a sketch pad and pens. Wow! This sounds like a great idea. I’m planning one for this weekend!
One More Thing
If you’ve ever heard a presentation by Steve Jobs, then you know he’s famous for saying, “One more thing…” and then unveiling the next big, dazzling device from Apple, Inc.
To find your next big dazzling step, you may want to ask your friends and family. Some outside perspective illuminates the dark crevices of your world that you can’t see from where you’re sitting.
Yesterday, my 10-year-old nephew told me about a whole lot of memorizing he did to earn the title “Great American”, for which he received a plaque that will soon be proudly hanging at his home.
In front of his class, he recited from memory all the states and their capitals in alphabetical order, all the US presidents by full name in chronological order, the Preamble to the US Constitution, The Gettysburg Address, the Pledge of Allegiance, and he sang The Star Spangled Banner.
Wow! Impressive. It got me wondering, is there some music I could memorize, or a list of musical items to memorize. Yes. I think so. That will be my ‘One More Thing’.
What’s yours?
Take-away
Today’s Motivator take-away: Open the creativity valve and find your focus at your own personal Burning Man festival. Tell me all about it.
Thanks for reading! The next edition of Musician’s Motivator will be out on Wednesday, June 23, 2010.
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