Here we find ourselves again; another year down, one step closer to the grave.
Let’s put some pep in that step with the annual, “BTB Year in Review!”
Here’s what worked (and what didn’t) in 2017:
A Prophesy
To begin, place yourself inside a dream.
After attending the annual “Bandwich Awards” atop a tropical mountain paradise, you’re hiking down a long staircase that descends back into the valley.
Suddenly, you realize you’ve left something behind, and telling your pals you’ll catch up with them, turn back to ascend the mountain-side.
Somehow, you eventually end up in a house, and, in the kitchen, are confronted by a mysterious eastern woman.
Among other things, she says in a slow, Confucius-like way:
“At trumpet, you must be greatest, to be truly successful.”
There is also a small, creepy boy with bright green hair and eyes who is desperately trying to communicate to you. The mysterious woman sharply interrupts his gibberish by yelling, “Quiet! He doesn’t know what you are saying!”
You feel confused. But from that cloud of uncertainty a question forms; how does one become [the] greatest?
One Year of Bullet-Journaling
Invented for creative, by-hand types, the “Bullet-Journal’ is an analog system that can help organize your life. It functions as a future calendar, monthly and daily organizer, as well as a system for keeping pretty much everything in one place.
If you’re interested in journaling, you can watch the basic video on how to set one up here. If you don’t care, that’s cool too.
Either way, here’s a helpful concept from the Bullet-Journal system.
Migration 101
Here’s how the Bullet-Journal applies a concept called migration.
To begin, you have the future log (coming months),
A monthly log and task list (current month by day),
And a daily log (today/tomorrow’s events).
Let’s say you want to be ready for Halloween, but it’s only January. The first step is to write “Halloween” in the future log.
Once October rolls around, you add “Halloween” to the monthly log along with the task, “Get a costume,” a few days in advance.
When the fated day arrives, you add it to the daily log.
And once you get a costume, you cross off the task.
Or you decide to procrastinate and migrate it to tomorrow.
Or you decide to further procrastinate and migrate it BACK to the monthly log.
…back to monthly log.
Or! You can procrastinate even more by migrating it back to the future log!
Or you can cross it off because it’s a stupid idea.
And that’s migration in a nutshell.
Migration might not seem like much at first glance, but here’s why it’s the shit: you don’t lose track of anything, it’s always there, staring you in the face, taunting you in its arcane gibberish during your prophetic dreams.
Migrating Concepts
Now what if you took the process of migration and applied it not only to tasks, but concepts as well?
Say you keep a practice log. All month long you take notes on your experience, general trumpet schemes and understanding.
Now imagine that at the end of the month you had to throw away your journal, but are allowed to re-copy (migrate) anything and everything to your next journal.
The beauty of migration, and treating each month or journal as a departure is that you are forced to look back at your previous experience, cut the bull and keep the best.
You naturally eliminate redundancy, make mental repetitions of your most helpful ideas, and crystallize your understanding of concepts not yet fully formed.
Later, we will get into how migration can help you abstract the juicy stuff and apply those concepts to problem solving; but for now, let’s take a peek at a specific idea for practice time.
The Add-On List
One specific example of migration applied to the practice room is the “Add-On” section of a practice tracker.
How often have you heard about a new routine, exercise, mouthpiece, etc., to either a) jump from tactic to tactic without getting to know any particular approach, and/or b) get so overwhelmed you don’t do anything?
Keeping a running list of these ideas, and then, at a time of your choosing having the option of altering your routine from that list can help keep you stay sane in times of information overload.
By delaying the gratification of the new, shiny practice routine, you may realize that you’re already covering many of those bases. Or you might realize some of those ideas are just plain stupid. The point is that your routine is serving you, and minor tweaks can be made along the way.
And if something is still a really good idea but you’re not ready to add it in yet, migrate that shit.
One Year of Dailies
The Daily is choosing something, anything, and committing to doing it every day. As you go, you can squeeze more out of your Daily by learning to focus it toward specific areas of your musicianship.
While my Daily changed many times over the past year, the main focus was working through David Lucas Burge’s “Perfect Pitch Ear-Training Supercourse.”
Don’t bother with the Amazon reviews. They were written by the undedicated. Full BTB-Report to follow.
So my daily was working through the course, one lesson at a time. What started with just trying to sing a low C at the beginning of the day ended 13 months and over 120 synthesizer-based listening drills later.
What’s neat is that working in this way, one thing at a time to completion, is the back-bone of “Effortless Mastery…”
…but for one fatal flaw.
Man on a Wire
Phillipe Petit, the French guy who traversed the World Trade Centers on a hire-wire, relates a story in his book, Creativity: The Perfect Crime, where he’s learning to do some crazy, super-hard, never-been-done-before juggling trick.
You know, some real Cirque du Soleil shit.
He practiced the throw endlessly, and after each successful repetition, would take one of those binder-hole reinforcement stickers and stick it to a mirror.
+
Two years later, the mirror was filled up, at which point he threw it away and started anew, this time adding a reinforcement sticker at the completion of each successful “double-rep.”
The interesting thing is that later in life, Phillipe describes this tallying as “competing with himself,” and recognizes the mirror with all the stickers on it as nothing more than a distraction from the work.
Perfect Pitch Listening Hell
In Burge’s ear-training course you listen to a particular arrangement of notes (say, white-key thirds, or two random white keys followed by a black key) until you can correctly identify all the pitches. At correctly identifying 20 consecutive arrangements, you’ve passed a “verification” and move on to the next listening drill.
These verifications are probably necessary. They give us a framework for knowing when it’s time to move on, but it does raise an issue; the desperation to pass, or get the right answer, can take the importance from the practice. From learning!
This is clearly insane, wanting to “pass” more than wanting to actually internalize the material, but also easy to do. After 8, 9, or 10 months of doing the same thing over and over without a ton of noticeable pay-off, it can be challenging to keep that zen-thing going.
“Passing” turns to pride, and, as the weeks and months go by, the process can prove to be somewhat discouraging.
Belief
DLB’s method is balanced on the concept of easy, effortless listening. You sit there, muster up some curiosity, and listen to tones on the synthesizer, or your instrument, much like a baby would.
What does this note sound like?
Allowing the subconscious to take over seems like a pretty damn good idea. But again, after becoming obsessed with “passing,” and moving through the curriculum, it can become frustrating; especially if you don’t believe it’s going to work.
Reticular Activation
Have you ever had the experience where you get a new car, a new pair of sneakers, or whatever, and then you start noticing that product everywhere?
That’s called reticular activation. It’s the process of the conscious mind waking up the subconscious to the importance of something. Once that’s done, you start ignoring the “other stuff,” and what you’ve deemed important starts popping up all over the place; money, white Prii, tone colors…whatever floats your boat.
In this case, you could say that a massive amount of listening leads to a greater appreciation for “just” listening. But what really creates that shift? Hours of listening? Progressive programming? The pain of following-through even when you don’t want to? Do we derive linear results from practice, or does the commitment change the way we see ourselves, opening us up to more organic learning? Both?
Does anybody even care?
After painstakingly moving through the lessons, it’s almost like you have to come out the other end with just that curiosity; the rest is too much baggage. So now when a car drives by and honks its horn you might know what that note is; or not. Either way we can choose to enjoy the character of that tone, because even if we don’t recognize what’s there, it’s still there.
Change: Fast and Slow
So aside from trumpet grandeur, what we learn is that belief, and self-image, can be systematically changed through the Daily. One small bit, each day, for a good-long-while ought to do it.
But we don’t want to ignore the implication that these changes could perhaps be made more radically. And maybe through the process of slow, deliberate change we learn that we have more control over ourselves than we tend to think.
Or maybe we need a traumatic, mind-altering, hyper-emotional experience to snap us into shape.
Therefore, for a nominal fee, I will come to your home, sneak powerful hallucinogenic drugs into your water supply, dress in ancient garb (with animal mask), and perform a trumpet high-note ritual.
Breaking the Improvisation Barrier
I am not a particularly experienced improviser, nor do I claim that anyone would actually like to listen to me improvise. I don’t know a ton of tunes, and I definitely won’t sound all that good in many situations. However, I can now actually do it now, and here’s how I learned.
Slow Improvising
If you watched the old video about ii-V-I practice, you’ll remember slow improvising. If not, slow improvising is playing by ear, over a song in your head, with a metronome set anywhere from 60 to 80 beats per minute.
You just do it. The point is to pay attention to staying in that zone where you can a) hear a note, and b) play the note. One note is great. The quality and quantity of your ideas makes absolutely no difference. Respecting and strengthening that aural connection is where it’s at.
Where do you start? My initial Daily was playing by ear over the chord changes to Joyspring at 60 beats per minute for 5 minutes.
A day.
5 minutes was perfect. After that I’m usually just bullshitting anyway. Besides, if you can concentrate on playing by ear for five minutes – that’s one long-ass solo!
After awhile build up to a few more rounds of five minutes throughout the day. Once you’re comfy in one key, pick another.
Not Just For Jazz Players
Everyone can try slow improvising. It’s insanely easy to get into, and once you actually start you might be surprised how quickly you cross-over to the “other side.” Even if you don’t play a style of music that requires improvising, what improvising requires of you will serve you in any genre.
To get started, if you don’t know what to play, it doesn’t matter. Find a song. A blues. A couple chords. Anything. If you don’t have any ideas, just play the roots of each chord until they sound normal to you. Once they do the process is on its way and you’ll discover the other notes.
Aural Recall
Here’s something from the Perfect Pitch Supercourse:
Pick a note. Low C is great.
Now, before you play any trumpet for the day, ask yourself, “what does the low C feel like?”
Feel it for a second. Hold it in your mind. Now sing the note you’ve got.
Pick up your trumpet and play a low C.
Right or wrong, no difference; just listen for a moment.
Then say to yourself, “this is what the low C feels like.”
Feel it.
Play it and listen.
Every day.
Even If You Suck
You don’t need to do this with the intention of getting it right. We just do it, and on those days when the mind does not want to cooperate, we keep a calm, clear head, and get on with it.
Generating a pitch from memory is the peak of the perfect pitch mountain, and even if you never find your way to all 12 chromatic tones, once you have the trumpet in your hands, or are playing in the context of a tune, things will be much clearer. Any ear-training done without a point of reference will improve your acuity with references.
And you might even end up with perfect pitch.
DLB suggests sticking with the low C until you get 20 consecutive low Cs correct before moving on. You now know that all this counting may be distracting (thanks, Phillipe!), so you could stick with the low C until you feel it’s time to add, or switch to another note.
Listen to the low C in other contexts as well. For example, play the low C, then a low C#. Listen to both. Come back home to the low C. Now low D. Back to C. Then Eb…etc. Or put the low C into some triads and listen to those for awhile. Keep coming back to the low C.
Once you are aware of a subtle difference in the tones, without needing to know what that difference is, get on with your normal practicing. You will find that awakening the ear and imagination in this way leads to a subtle shift in your perception. The greater awareness then leads to greater change in your playing.
Learning to Let Go
Sometimes it’s hard to know when to let go of something, especially if you don’t understand it yet.
It might be time though, and if some part of your routine has become “another thing to do,” here is a rationalization I used last April to stop mouthpiece buzzing after over a year of daily practice:
- The embouchure results and experience will stay a part of me (yes)
- I learned a new tactic for building strength and improving pitch (yes)
- Methods can be abstracted and applied to other areas (yes)
You can always come back later.
Here’s a Good Story:
There’s this guy, and half-way through his life he becomes obsessed with the idea of finding buried treasure.
He goes out, buys some fancy equipment, and travels all around looking for that huge pay-off.
He is away from home. Out there. Searching. He’s going to find it.
But oops, he dies.
His family moves on and the house is sold.
The new owner decides to put a pool in the back yard. When excavation begins they find a shit-load of buried treasure.
The moral of the story is, if you seek buried treasure, dig on your own property first.
Problem Solving Part 1
What do you want to achieve? Better technique? Better range? What?
Now go big picture. Huge picture. Get into the problem. What is the crux of this situation?
For example, you want playing technique. What does that mean? What is playing technique?
Problem Solving Part 2
You now have a word for playing technique.
Look straight ahead ask yourself, out loud, “how have I developed _____ in the past?”
Maybe something comes; maybe not. Just ask. Eventually insights start rolling in.
As they do you’re identifying previous plans that have worked in the past.
Problem Solving Part 3
What habits can you develop around those plans that have worked in the past?
Get the habits right and you are practically unstoppable; by definition.
And while we’re at it, how have you successfully applied new habits in the past?
…
Good job digging on your own property first.
2018 Technical Routine
After chipping away at the bullshit for a good long while now (through migration), I’m committed to a simple routine that is made up of lip slurs and scales.
There’s really nothing sexy about it.
2018 Range Builder
After many years avoiding the subject, it’s time to get back into working on the lead range. I will be applying the same routine I used in high school to build my range to a high A, but this time without all the extra dumb shit.
The full routine is soon to be released as a free lesson series. If you want to know when that happens, get on the mailing list.
Get that HERE (BTB Range Builder Routine ***2019***)
“At Trumpet, You Must Be Greatest, To Be Truly Successful”
So what does it mean to be [the] greatest?
How does one become [the] greatest?
Well, solving with fuzzy-math, we get:
Greatest = Successful
Yes.
Successful = Greatest.
Uh-huh.
Greatest = Successful = full of success
…OK.
Success = Greatest
Redefining success, we get:
Success = You doin’ you.
You’re great.
Have a Year!
~ James
Random
- Latent and talent have the same letters, in a slightly different order. What’s up with that?
- I tutor and am inspired by a fine musician and trumpet player who took 10 of his favorite tunes (three sets of three plus an encore), and performed them in a park for some homeless people in Palm Springs.
- After being told to, “never meet your heroes,” I met one of mine, and it was great.
- “Most overestimate what they can achieve in a year and massively underestimate what they can achieve in 10-20.” – T. Robbins #truth #relentless #neverdie
- “Wise becomes the man who persists in his follies.” – Dunno