Musicians: Stop Thinking The Music Industry is Win/Lose
It’s so easy to fall into the trap of thinking binary as a musician. You either have “made it” or you haven’t. You’re a winner, or a loser.
Read MoreIt’s so easy to fall into the trap of thinking binary as a musician. You either have “made it” or you haven’t. You’re a winner, or a loser.
Read MoreAs a lot of you know it’s been a busy month here (I’ll be writing a blog about it soon) and one of the things I’ve been struggling with has been feeling insecure. In the last month I’ve played with some incredible players and amazing producers, and I’ve felt a little intimidated by the talent level.
Read MoreIf you haven’t read Victor Wooten’s book “The Music Lesson”, you’re missing out. Bassist Victor Wooten goes tells a semi-allegorical tale about learning the 10 elements of music, and it’s blowing my mind right now as I read it. While I love a lot of the concepts on music, there’s quite a bit a disagree with regarding some of the eastern mystic philosophy in the book.
Read MoreA few weeks ago I was asked to be interviewed on a local Nashville TV show called “Just Men”. I stuttered, stammered, and sidetracked my way through the interview about art, creativity, and a bunch of other unrelated topics. If you want to watch the train wreck, here’s your chance.
Read MoreNative Instruments released an interesting series of musical sketches from various producers using just their Komplete bundles. It’s fascinating to see what musicians come up with really quickly using a specific set of plugins. Check it out here.
This last week I received an email from a friend asking for advice:
Read MoreOn this day of frenzied shopping, I'd like to pause to go over 10 things I'm really thankful for in my career right now (in no particular order):
10. Great friends that play music.
9. Living in Nashville.
8. Ben Jackson for helping me learn so much about music/studio building in the last year.
7. Mikei Gray for caring a bunch about me, and gigging with me.
6. Chelsea White and Philana Goodrich for helping create the music meetup group Balanced Breakfast that encourages me to create every week.
5. Sarah Barfield for being absolutely incredibly supportive of my career, and figuring out crazy financial stuff to make things happen. None of this would happen without you emotionally supporting me through the ups and downs of this industry.
4. The community at Church of the City in East Nashville for creating a beautiful space to worship, recharge, and ponder my creativity.
3. Michael Barfield for being the challenger, encourager, and instigator of so many things creatively for me. I have no one that understands my artistic side more intimately than you do.
2. Building a studio where I can focus 100% on creating beautiful art.
1. All of the amazing, wonderful, incredible mercies that happen on a regular basis, that I don't deserve but deeply appreciate. I am unbelievably blessed.
What are you thankful for this year? Leave a comment below.
If you’re a non-geek, you might have missed Apple's announcement of their new line of MacBook Pros this week. After almost two years with no updates, Apple opted for what was a marginal upgrade in most areas (minus a few notable features).
Read MoreFor the last 4 years I’ve posted at least three blog posts a week every week. I’m really proud of that. It takes a lot of effort to be consistent through the major changes that have happened in the last few years.
Today I’m breaking my streak. Starting with this blog, I’m running a one-week no-blog experiment to see whether blogging is something that I will to keep doing.
Read MoreThis is one of the best guides I've seen in years on how to relax your hands while playing keyboard. By the way, if you haven't subscribed to Keyboard Magazine, it's about a buck a month and easily the best dollar you'll spend on honing your craft as a keyboardist.
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