I recently attended a classical piano recital and, while the music was performed with impeccable technique, intelligence, and wit, I sensed that something was missing in the experience.

As I looked around the hall, I noticed that most people in the audience seemed to be sitting there, passively taking in the music, but not aware of their impact on the experience of the performer or their contribution to the other people in the room.

I began to imagine what it might be like if the artist and the audience were more on the same page, engaging in a more conscious exchange, using the music as a way to create a higher degree of understanding and direct communication–maybe even intimacy.

In many modern-day musical traditions, much of the relationship between the performer, the audience, and the music goes on without any special conscious intention. Instead, rituals, conventions, and assumptions, all based on what has been done in the past, usually dictate the behavior and interaction between audience and performer in the present.

Regardless of the style or tradition of music you work with, you may find some useful insights by listening to this podcast. Click below for a fresh look at how to deepen the relationship between performers, their audiences, and the music which can unite them.

 

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The following ten premises compose the foundation of the Whole Musician Methodology.

I.    CALLING
Being an artist is not a choice. It is a Calling.

II.    MUSICAL PURPOSE
Every musician has a unique Musical Purpose. This Purpose is made up of what they have to say (their Vision) and how they say it (their Voice).  Nobody else has, has ever had, or ever will have the same Voice or Vision.

III.    MUSICAL FINGERPRINT
Each musician’s self-expression is a combination of personal style, social and historical influences, and a unique point-of-view. Together, these qualities make up a unified, authentic Musical Fingerprint. Its sounds are a reflection of the artist’s authentic Self.

IV.    ARTISTIC MISSION
The development and full expression of the Musical Fingerprint is a musician’s personal responsibility, social contribution, and Artistic Mission.

V.    MUSICAL PATH
Once a musician accepts and devotes themselves to their specific Artistic Mission, they are free to explore and discover their Musical Path, always in motion, never needing to worry about if they will succeed.

VI.    ARTISTIC AUTHORITY
One’s authentic Musical Fingerprint is the only Artistic Authority one ever has to answer to.

VII.    ALIGNMENT
The work of being a Whole Musician is a process of uncovering what is authentic expression and aligning with it by developing the knowledge, craft, and trust called for.  One’s Vision and Voice need never be forced to sound like anyone else.

VIII.    LISTENING
Musical growth is first and foremost about expanding what and how one can hear. The ultimate reference point for a musician is their ability to discern what they hear in their sonic environment, artistic imagination, and musical experience.

IX.    MUSIC/LIFE INTEGRATION
For a Whole Musician, the development of one’s music and art is no different than the development of one’s personal Self. What you learn from music applies to life and vice-versa.

X.    LIFELONG DISCOVERY
Musicians don’t retire. There is no end to musical growth—it is a lifelong process of exploration and discovery.

LATEST NEWS: THE WHOLE MUSICIAN WORKSHOP US TOUR

The Whole Musician Workshop will be traveling around the continental US.

Call (845) 430-3075 for the latest details or to book a workshop in your area.

When you are an expansive musician and a curious soul, sometimes your energy can get lost in the ether.

To maintain a whole and healthy existence as an artist of any type, one has to master the art of balancing the inspired with the mundane, the sacred and the profane, the expansive nature of the soul with the containment fields of the body and individuated, ego-self.

You can think about this balance act as the art of self-containment. (This is especially for performers and extroverts).

So what are the skills and how do you practice them?

There is no ultimate way to achieve this balance, and no single set of behaviors, but here are seven creative practices for self-containment you can try:

1. Keep your own council
2. Channel your passions
3. Relax into the decisions you make by seeing the limitless opportunities available in each moment
4. Allow fear and despair to disperse before taking action
5. Work with life around you as it is (not as you think it should be)
6. Expand and specify
7. Laugh (especially at yourself)

Listen to this SOS podcast as JP takes a look back at the past four months of his life and the lessons he has mined from his adventures.

 

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Nobody really knows what’s going on in our world…

For the artist, the confusion of this world provides endless creative opportunities to make sense of life anew.

Do you ever feel overwhelmed with information overload? Do the number of choices you face as a creative artist sometimes petrify you while at other times they inspire you?

If you ever find yourself at a loss after spending too much time trying to digest too much information, you can model innovators and artists from other eras to discover some surprising ways that the artistic spirit has turned ugliness into beauty, squeezed solutions out of problems, or laughed the fun out of failure.

Pioneering visual artist Andy Warhol and legendary writer Charles Bukowski serve as springboards for this SOS episode in which JP searches for his own music and meaning in the midst of noise and nonsense.

 

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No matter where you are, there is will always be much more unknown in your universe than there will be known.

For some people, this presents a big problem that must be solved, but for artists, this represents an endless stream of opportunity–to discover, to create, and to grow.

Just how one benefits from the abundance of the unknown depends heavily on their learning style and their individual expressive make up. Some are natural improvisers, ready to jump in and see what happens. Others embrace the unknown by carefully preparing and equipping themselves for whatever variables might arise. Still others rely on familiar forms and structures in order to embrace the mystery of the particular situations they find themselves in.

What kind of explorer are you and what tools do you need to fully draw from the wellspring of creativity in your music and life?

Learn from artists as diverse as John Cage and Sasha Baron Cohen to find the common denominators and the uncommon wisdom in this SOS episode from out on the edge…

 

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Everyone has strengths and natural tendencies–areas where things naturally come out well. Everyone also has places and activities where they simply don’t shine.

If you spend your time slugging it out in arenas where you are not aligned with your inherent strengths, you run the risk of perpetual striving and never quite succeeding.

Learning to trust that you have everything you need to succeed is a matter of filtering (provided that you are trying to succeed at the “right” things). Some examples of how to filter your way through your life experience include:

• taking the best and leaving the rest
• accepting the influences that serve your life and detaching from those that don’t
• choosing your endeavors consciously
• attuning yourself to the gut wisdom that tells you when a person, place, or activity is a “match” and when something isn’t quite right.

Listen to this SOS episode and let it guide you as you discover finer and finer details about four inescapable influences that you will need to reckon with as an artist: your generation, your cultural background, your personal style, and your musical values.

 

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How is song like speech and how is speaking like singing?

Everybody has a voice and everybody has a song to sing, whether it is an actual “song” or a personal message or mission. Style and meaning, passion and feeling…these are just a few elements that go into inspired communication, no matter what the medium (the “delivery system”) is.

So what is your song and how well are you singing it?

Listen to this special SOS podcast as JP reflects upon his trip to the inauguration concert and ceremony in Washington DC, gleaning what he can from the experience to expose what songwriters and singers can learn from speechwriters and public speakers (and vice-versa).

Note: I was impressed by the degree of artistry in President Obama’s concert speech (much more than the inauguration speech).

In this podcast, you will also hear clips of Mrs. Kelly, a Florida schoolteacher and social activist for over 45 years, who we stood next to in the middle of the immense inauguration audience.

 

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This is president-elect Barack Obama (recorded two days before the inauguration) orating live from the “We Are One Concert” in Washington, DC, in front of the Lincoln Memorial: Sunday, January 18, 2009.

 

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Change is good.

I am changing, you are changing, and the world around us is changing–FAST!

Here is a bit of my recent news:

Over the past six weeks, my family and I have packed up and stored all of our furniture, gotten rid of (donated, sold, thrown out, or gave away) two thirds of all of our possessions, relocated a piano and the Let It Out Productions recording studio, mobilized our office, and transformed most of our day-to-day routines and lifestyle. We have cleared a lot of room for new opportunities, with an eye on touring around the country and creating a new home-base over the coming year.

We have taken a total of 10 road trips, including an inspiring journey down to Washington DC to witness the historical inauguration of Barack Obama (as well as catching the “We Are One” pre-inaugural concert).

Though many friends and colleagues have commented on the courage it must have taken to embark on such a radical path, I feel that this process is actually much less scary than being stuck and resisting change, especially in such a quickly changing world.

With radical shifts and changes in the economy, society, and the political landscape, artists need to stay up to speed with their own changes. This can mean upgrading or revamping your instruments or technologies (your rig) or changing the venues or context in which you create (your gig).

Check out this SOS podcast for more examples of creative adaptability as five levels of change are examined for the impact they have on the artist’s life: personal change, cultural change, economic change, political change, and musical change.

 

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Are you getting enough fiber in your music? Is the music you listen to and/or make have enough roughage–those undigestable elements that give the music its grit and the sounds their edge?

My tough, zany Russian grandmother, Bertha Smilowitz, was obsessed with healthy bowel movements. She would ask complete strangers if they were getting enough roughage in their diet.

I always winced when she would bring up this unpleasant topic, but her dietary wisdom must have rubbed off. Years after her passing, I find myself musing on the importance of healthy musical movement and the central role that fiber plays in keeping the creative juices flowing.

In my experience, when music goes down too easily–when it doesn’t offer any challenges to the listener (or the music maker)–it fails to nourish, inspire, or touch the audience in any meaningful way. We seem to need unfamiliar sonic aspects that keep the music from lulling the listener into unconsciousness. If the music does not have these rougher qualities, the music can become an opiate, or a form of artistic propaganda.

Musical fiber can appear in any number of forms. It can be a lyric layered with multiple meanings, a complex set of overtones, fret buzzes, rhythmic tension or anything that keeps our ears pricked and our mind and heart actively involved.

Listen to this humorous podcast as the under-explored subjects of musical nutrition and roughage are exposed and examined from a Whole Musician perspective.

 

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Are you somebody’s hero? Are you ready to step up to the task of living your art in such a way that you can serve as an inspiration for others this year?

Think about your musical heroes. What makes them great? Is it just the music, or is it who they are and how they live beyond the songs they sing and the sounds they make that inspires you?

From a holistic perspective, making music is more than just an activity, a passion, or a career–it can be a way of life. Once you begin searching for the connections between your music and the rest of your life, all kinds of patterns start showing up:

* The mundane aspects of life mingle with the magical aspects
* Every situation presents a unique opportunity to express yourself
* New personal and professional relationships form around the music
* You start to feel more complete

Listen to this SOS podcast and take a journey toward greater musicality, freer self-expression, and a more integrated approach to life and music making.

 

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When you were a child, you were probably taught to say please when asking for something and thank you after receiving it.

In fact, please and thank you are such basic human expressions, that they can be applied to a wide variety of situations, both as a songwriter and as a listener:

Please and thank you can be used simply as meditations or prayers:
Try starting your day by asking for exactly what you want and ending it with a moment of gratitude for everything you received. Notice how doing so affects the flow of your creativity.

Please and thank you can serve as songwriting guidelines:
Write a quick draft of a song expressing dissatisfaction or desire (based on the emotion of please) or a song of gratitude or celebration (based on the emotion of thank you).

Please and thank you can also serve as filters through which you can get at the heart of what others are trying to say through their words or music:
Listen to random song. Is the basic emotion, underneath the specific lyrics and melody, some version of either the artist’s unfulfilled desire or their thankfulness for what they have? Can you hear how much of what is expressed through music often boils down to some form of asking for something that’s missing or celebrating what is already there?

Listen to this SOS podcast to get the skinny on slimming down your musical (and personal) communication style to the bare essentials–thereby allowing you to connect with your audience more quickly and deeply.

 

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Have you ever had one of those dreams where you need to scream, but no sound comes out?

Do you know what it’s like to be in a phase where you need to deconstruct your self-expression in order to grow and change what it is you have to say and how you say it?

Music and creativity are chock full of paradoxes and opposites:

• You need to empty yourself of preconceptions in order to be filled with fresh new ideas.
• The more silences you leave, the more the sound comes through.
• The nearer your destination the more you’re slip sliding away…

Perhaps nothing challenges an artist more than losing their voice, whether physically or metaphorically. But, truth be told, it’s important sometimes, to lose touch with who you are, what you have to say, and how you are going to say it, in order to stay fresh and in the flow of becoming the next version of yourself–to stay in the “creative pocket.”

So how do you do it and, in a world usually focused on building yourself up (in addition to your music, career, possessions…), how can you let things break down with grace and dignity?

Listen in on this podcast as JP muses upon the art of losing your voice in service of expanding your Voice.

(By the way, Joshua recorded this podcast while suffering from laryngitis–listen now to hear him literally find his voice while losing it!)

 

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Writing original music isn’t for the faint of heart. Somehow, you have to find the vulnerable parts of yourself that allow you to bare your deep feelings and thoughts while still keeping it together enough to contain the musical execution–the structure and form of the piece.

Although many artists may take this balancing act for granted, the marriage of vulnerability and strength is not a matter of luck, talent, or character. It is a skill that can be developed and expanded upon. So how do we do it and who teaches this skill?

In my years of teaching music, I have found that songwriters, performing musicians, and recording artists can model the way that actors are trained in their approach to making music. Take Al Pacino, for example. He has the ability to simultaneously express strength of character in his body while exposing tremendous vulnerability and human frailty on his face. Have you ever felt the freedom of mastering the mechanics of a song performance while surrendering to the emotional content at the same time?

Marrying personal dignity and artistic vulnerability is more than just posturing or wearing your heart on your sleeve. Embodying these two poles of the human experience involves emotional surrender and mental focus.

Listen to this SOS podcast as the craft of musical expression and execution is explored from a fresh perspective.

 

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I love music, you love music, who doesn’t love music?

But what is music? Is it sound? Is it emotion? Is it a kind of thinking without words?

We live in an age where we can dial up almost any musical experience (and
therefore almost any emotion or state of mind)–on demand…iPods, Pandora.com, iTunes, terrestrial and satellite radio–hundreds of thousands of songs are floating through the airways, at our fingertips, and in our earbuds.

It occurred to me recently–if we can invent ways to provide such wide access to songs and sounds, perhaps we can also discover ways to access any musical emotion or state of mind–with or without music–on demand as well. Perhaps we can even skip the medium (in this case, the sound), and go right to the feeling or thought that the music inspires…

John Cage invented methods of composition that result in “musical happenings”–events that invite listeners to open up their ears, take pause, and allow the sounds of each moment to penetrate their minds. He was interested in the transformative power of conscious listening–much more than the particular content of the music or sound.

In 1993, I was fortunate to spend an afternoon with Cage and asked him question after question. One particular question I remember asking was, “If all sounds, natural or artificial, have the same potential to transform people as music does, why listen to human-made music at all? In fact, why should I bother listening to your music?” I asked.

His response was elegant: “There is no reason.”

In my experience, music provides a sort of portal–leading to changes of mental, emotional, even physical states. But once we have accessed, practiced, and mastered any given musical state-of-mind, we can call it up again with or without the music that originally created it, either by imagining and feeling the music in our mind, or by just activating the feeling directly.

Listen to this unusually philosophical SOS episode and explore the relationships between sound, vibration, emotion, and thought.

 

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The concept of reverse engineering, while commonly used in fields as diverse as aeronautics, military science, business modeling, and software development, is seldom consciously applied to songwriting or music composition.

Reverse engineering is simply the process of taking something apart and then putting it back together in order to see how it is constructed. Thinking in these terms when listening to music can quickly deepen your understanding of songwriting and advance your craft.

Without being aware of it, you probably often reverse engineer already–every time you listen to a great song or recording with the focused intention of studying and learning from it.

Reverse engineering in music is the act of taking an existing song (or any other work of art, for that matter) and asking some basic questions like:

* “What do I hear?”
* “What’s going on behind what I hear?”
* “What is the method or thinking behind these details?”
* “How can I apply these methods or techniques to my own work?”

Given how many great songs and recordings already exist, reverse engineering can give you unlimited access to the brilliance and inspiration of the masters in your field and can prompt you to expand your own creative process. All you need is an open set of ears and an open and focused mind.

Listen to this SOS episode as JP explores reverse engineering as it applies to seven core parameters in songwriting: lyrics, melody, form, harmonic language, groove, point-of-view, and production quality.

 

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Where does great music come from and why are some artists quite good while others are undeniably great?

When I think of some of the great musicians of our time, Ray Charles often comes to mind. I remember listening to Brother Ray being interviewed on the radio when I was a kid, probably around the age of eleven. He said “I never wanted to be famous, I just wanted to be great.”

To be honest, I didn’t really know what he meant, but I started saying it myself just for fun and to test out how my parents, friends, and relatives might react…”I don’t want to be famous, I just want to be great…”

A few decades later, I have found myself wondering…what is greatness and how does one move from being good (in whatever their chosen field) to being truly great? How do you leave behind what is familiar and step into what is fantastic?

If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, then an artist’s greatness must ultimately be in the ears of their audience. Conversely, to recognize greatness in another is to awaken it in yourself.

So what does being great mean to you? What does it sound like? Look like? Feel like? How might attaining greatness in one area of your life influence all of the others?

Listen to this SOS episode as JP explores musical, personal, and professional greatness and outlines three ways to cultivate the extraordinary in your own process:

1. Play to your strengths
2. Get specific in everything you do, and
3. Clarify the purpose behind every decision

 

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Have you ever heard that pianists should keep their fingers curved?

While it might be true that good piano technique sometimes involves curved fingers, keeping anything in an absolutely fixed position while music is trying to move through you is a recipe for tension and eventual breakdown.

Supported relaxation, on the other hand, involves a dynamic interplay between tension and release. When you simultaneously chill out AND focus your attention, intention, and action, there is a natural support system that holds the music together all by itself without any control on your part.

The idea of “letting things be” is common enough, but the practice can be challenging when you find yourself in high pressure situations. The instinct to stress out is both natural and, in a true crisis, helpful. But what about the rest of the time?

How does fight or flight show up in your music? What techniques and practices can you cultivate to bring greater relaxation and flow to your musical expression?

Join JP as he explores three creative approaches to chilling out: emptiness, information clustering, and pulse/trance.

 

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When in deep water, learn to be a diver…

When you are committed to life-long growth, there is no such thing as failure, only lessons on the way.

When you are committed to success, there is no such thing as rejection, only clarification about where you are headed.

When you are committed to making great music, there are no accidents, just constant adjustment and refinements to make as you follow the Muse.

Just as every misstep is an opportunity to come in to greater alignment with your true path, so every unexpected professional or musical flub can be an invitation to seize the moment and integrate the “mistake” into the business plan, the composition or the improvisation.

When you can let go of the need for everything to go “right,” you open up to the possibilities of everything going well. This is equally true when writing a song, crafting a career path, or growing into a personal relationship.

Join this uplifting episode as JP shares some of his most prized misfortunes, the hidden gifts he received from them, and some of the underlying principles of musicianship he discovered along his winding path.

 

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Do you ever jump the gun in your musical projects? Do you give the early stages of the creative process (such as fleshing out all of the subtle or hidden musical and lyric ideas bouncing around in your head) the same respect and investment that you give to the later stages (such as tracking, performing, mixing and mastering)?

If you stop to think about it, every recording or performance project has its seasons, its life cycles, its stages. Every song, performance, or record has a time of gestation, a time of development, a season of birth, and a season of harvest.

When it comes to project planning, many musicians would do well to take a cue from the way that film directors schedule their work in the early stages of making a movie. Given the complexity of putting together a film, there has to be an in-depth preproduction process. Scripts need to be read around a table, multiple rewrites have to be drafted, actors need to be cast, locations need to be scouted…

All too often, musicians skip this phase and go from rehearsal to production to performance, inadvertently shortchanging the amount of time and focus required for such steps as:

* unique sound exploration,
* crafting vivid arrangements, and
* musical “casting” (wherein the supporting musicians are chosen for the specific chemistry they bring to the music, not only if they are good players)

Listen to this SOS episode as JP takes a Whole Musician perspective on measuring twice and cutting once and celebrates the mysteries and wonders that can occur once you surrender to a thorough preproduction phase.

 

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What type of musician are you?

Do you approach your music as a COMPOSER, an IMPROVISER, an INTERPRETER, a TECHNICIAN, or perhaps some unique combination of all of them?

Which of the following best describes the ethic you bring to your art?
Are you…

…an architect who expresses musical meaning by building strong musical and lyric structures that contain intricate formal elements…with attention paid to each little detail?
(The Composer Archetype)

…a free spirit that goes with the flow, moves in rhythm with the ever-changing NOW, and allows the mood of the moment to inform the music you make? (The Improviser Archetype)

…someone who possesses a unique “take” on things, who trusts their unusual perspective and applies it to pre-existing songs or compositions, bringing the old creation to life by breathing fresh air and a fresh style into the music? (The Interpreter Archetype)

…a natural born executor who loves a good musical challenge and thrives most when working to perfect the mechanics of a difficult passage, master a complex exercise, or solve an intellectual musical puzzle? (The Technician Archetype)

Just about everybody possesses all of these characteristics to some extent, but by noticing and being mindful about which archetypes you seem to embody the most (and which others may seem alien to you), you can more fully align with your natural musicianship and your musical value system.

Join the conversation by listening to JP’s discussion about musical typologies and how applying them can help you discover and further develop your unique musical Voice.

 

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