Have you ever experienced tension between your physical experience and your mental state? How about your ideas and your reality?   

If you stop to think about it, music can be understood as an interplay between opposing, yet complimentary energies: the electrical charge that comes from the ether and the grounding support that comes from the material world. If you have ever experienced the challenges that come from trying to manage these poles of the human experience, join this SOS podcast as JP explores ways to balance the artistic with the practical, the intangible with the material, and the emotional with the physical in the arts of songwriting and performance. 

 

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Do you have something to say? Are you able to say it effectively? 

If you are a songwriter or recording artist with a unique vision or message and you want to be able to get it across more reliably and deeply, you will want to get clear on your specific message and find your distinct WAY of putting it into musical form.

Understanding the variety of options available to you in crafting your musical expression and the predictable stages that your creative work must go through can help you immensely. Integrating this information can help you to follow your calling with greater ease, align with your music more fully, and become much more prolific in the process. 

Join JP as he tackles the topic of creative callings and offers some suggestions to help you clarify your unique path.

 

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Which side of the Great Divide do you make music on? Are you a messenger or an entertainer? A timeless teller of tales or a cutting-edge groundbreaker? What can we learn from the songsmiths of the first half of the twentieth century that might be missing from the provocative musical pioneers of the second half?  

In these complex times, the need for songwriters and performers to function as messengers, as opposed to pure entertainers, is greater than ever. While a pure entertainer works to divert an audience’s attention from “everyday life” and worldly matters, a messenger works to shine a spotlight on issues of personal and social purpose and relevance. But without delivering a message through an entertaining, user-friendly format, a song’s deeper meanings may be lost. Ideally, an artist functions as both an entertaining storyteller AND a provocative truth-teller.  

Join in part two of this conversation where JP addresses the gifts and the hazards of following the traditions and trends in pre- and post-rock-and-roll popular music.

 

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Something really big and really important happened to popular songwriting between the years of 1950 and 1969. Many things, actually. And we are still reeling–socially, creatively, psychologically, and politically. Come take a journey back in time and then forward and back again as we mine the fields of recent history looking for musical gems and touchstones that can be put into immediate use in our songs, performances, and understanding of what we hear. This is part one of a two part conversation.

 

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All music carries with it the emotional purity and/or baggage of its creators. So how can you tell where a piece of music is “coming from”-what its hidden intentions and messages might be, apart from what it sounds like on the surface?  How do you listen for that?  No matter what style or form you may work in, music and art can be highly subjective. In fact, at certain stages in the creative process, plugging in to the heart of your own subjectivity can serve to ground your listening ability, deepen your expression, and awaken your musical conscience.  Encapsulated within the subtle emotional spirit of the music (underneath the surface of the sounds) lies essential information for the creative artist, whether they are listening to their own works-in-progress or learning from the music of others.  This podcast explores four specific qualities of sound that can provide clues about where the music is coming from.

 

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At a certain level, all creative endeavors share a common root structure–a well of creativity from which all are free to draw inspiration. By looking outside the language of your particular field, you may find hidden solutions to your artistic challenges and surprising breakthroughs in your ability to express yourself. Join JP as he explores how you can bring more music into your life and more life into your music by borrowing principles and practices from six other art forms, including cooking and sex, and applying them to your musical creativity.

 

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Art and self-expression, whether you are a songwriter, composer, recording artist, or performer, can be full of dark, mysterious pathways and corners. How do you know when you are headed in the right direction? How do you keep yourself “on the path.”

To start with, your destination must be clear. But unless your music is purely utilitarian, there is no map, no formula, and no single road. In fact, in some ways, you make up the road along the way.

Still, it’s good to have a compass–something that tells you when you are veering off-course and guides you to make adjustments both subtle and radical.

Listen to this podcast as JP discusses three basic paths (vision, faith, and intuition) and nine artistic tools for creating and strengthening your musical compass.

 

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Good songwriting may be based on considerations about key, tempo, harmonic progression, lyric form and structure, but somewhere along the line, you have to lay down your weapons and surrender to the unknown–the mystery of music. But does that mean it’s all up for grabs? Can you know exactly when and how to give up control and in what proportion? There are some tried and true techniques for subverting the rational mind in order to allow the pure spirit of the music to come through. Listen in as JP takes you on a brief journey into the non-rational spaces of musical creativity.

 

 SOS Episode #11: Getting Out Of Your Head: The limits Of Rationality In Songwriting and In Living (or “When To Stop Making Sense”): Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Many musicians and songwriters have two competing dreams: the dream of connecting with others by making a positive impact on their lives and the dream of hitting the big time, rising to the heights and living happily ever after in the realm of the rich and famous. To further complicate matters, we are given mixed messages about the importance of fame, being taught that it shouldn’t matter to us as artists (it should be “all about the music”) and simultaneously being told that celebrity is THE goal and that everyone deserves their chance at super-stardom (think American idol). Join JP as he shares some hard earned lessons and practical perspectives on artistic survival and alternatives to the cult of personality we call show business.

 

 SOS Episode #10: Star Struck: Spiritual Casualties On The Illusionary Path To Rock-Stardom: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Whether or not you are aware of it, you have a mode of expression that is totally unique to you. In order to find lasting musical fulfillment, an expressive artist has to go beyond identifying with traditional labels and categories into a more personal search for their unique, authentic musical expression-their musical fingerprint. This search is comprised of two, interdependent aspects: what you need to express and how you are naturally designed to express it. Join the conversation about how you can grow more deeply into your authentic musical Voice and the variety of gifts that await you as you get closer and closer to the heart of your own music.

 

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The dream of many songwriters and performers is to be able to continuously get their music “out there.” But to what end? If your songs have been written to not only be heard or get sold, but to also positively impact and touch the lives of your audience, consider the many ways and levels at which connection takes place between musician, song, and audience. From the superficial level of grabbing someone’s attention to the deeper purpose of generating inspiration and intimacy, music’s journey between artist and listener provides an ideal opportunity to not only get one’s music heard, but facilitate meaningful conversations and relationships. Listen in to hear JP’s comments on how far your artistry can touch the soul of your listener.

 

 SOS Episode #8: Soul to Soul: Connecting Through Your Music: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

When a show is filled to capacity, the marquis reads “Sold Out.” When an artist loses their authenticity in order to please a supposed market’s taste, we say that they’ve “sold out.” How can you “Sell Out” without “selling out?” Do we ever have to compromise our authenticity to achieve commercial success? How about achieving both? Listen in and discover your own answer to the important question: “Who am I making my music for?”

 

 SOS Episode #7: The Artist's Dilemma: Being Sold Out With Out Selling Out: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Every day brings new challenges. Just getting up in the morning can require faith, fortitude, and remembering your purpose. But as an artist, you have the opportunity to start again, every morning, as a new person; to reinvent yourself as you would a new piece of music. Join in the conversation about using your artistic license to refresh your identity as you continually refresh your music.

 

 SOS #6: Inventing Your Music, Reinventing Yourself: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Many musicians have graduated from the “ground school” phase of technical practice and study to be able to delve into the deeper aspects of musical knowing that one could call musical wisdom. Still, there are even more riches to be found in music’s mystery when we begin to apply principals such as rhythm, pitch, form, frequency, and dynamics to the rest of our life. Join the conversation about music, knowledge, and integrating them into a “whole-person” framework.

 

 SOS Episode #5: Tune In: Applying Musical Wisdom To Life: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

If playing determines the joy of music, hearing determines the intelligence and meaning. Check out this distinction as it relates to three very different aspect of music creation: MAKING music, PRODUCING music, and MANUFACTURING music.

 

 SOS Episode #4: Listen Up! The Art Of Hearing in Making, Producing, and Manufacturing Music: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

What if you didn’t need to aggressively promote your career and you could still build the kind of musical following you deserve? Join in the discussion about cultivating musical power without resorting to the use of force.

 

 SOS Episode #3: Music, Marketing, and Hype: Do We Really Need The Hype?: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

JP played and sang the Hunter/Garcia composition for a friend in May, 2007. Listen in on the private concert.

 

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“What kind of music do you make?” This question has been the bane of many creative artists’ careers. Duke Ellington hated to be categorized, Bob Dylan has eluded genre, and Joni Mitchell risked her audience’s loyalty many times by refusing to be pigeonholed into a style. Listen to “The Death Of Genre” and find out why there has never been a better time to be “beyond category.”

 

 SOS Episode #1: The Death of Genre: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download