Welcome to The B-List.
Part story, part toolbox: ideas on finding success and personal fulfillment in music.
What is the B-List?
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Exploratory Mindset
Taking a step back and challenging your view, looking at things from a new angle, checking your intentions, and encouraging yourself not to cling are just as valuable as fixing the problem. They create lightness and space around whatever it is we are dealing with, and that’s helpful for all of us.
Flip The Script
The next time you feel motivated to critique your past behaviors, consider also what you did right. Could you list both things and see them as just that…a list? Objective data on the situation that might come in handy later is a lot easier to work with in the future than a late night binge of self judgement.
Productivity Anti-Hacks
The answer is the opposite of a hack. An anti-hack if you will. It lies in perspective.
Creating Depth in Education
Maybe what I knew deep down years ago and am just now able to articulate is that I didn’t want to teach music in the first place. What I wanted was to at least try to experience and teach the satisfaction of depth and exploration.
Lessons in Trust and Preparation
How to prepare musically and mentally for big performances.
Value and Cost of Sharing
Social media is unpaid work. Remember that we can all be empowered in our own choices about how we interact with our life, and especially in our enjoyment of the passage of time.
It's OK To Be Tired
Hang in there. Stay in the present. A new season is always around the corner.
Trying Something New
What are the ways you could explore your unique interests and skills to connect with others?
Constraints Create Freedom
Our culture pushes make-your-own schedules, self-employment, and autonomy as the ultimate freedoms, but we’re missing the mark thinking that everything should be unbound. Healthy structures help us achieve our goals and enjoy the time we spend in work and activities.
Using Our Ears
Being a musician who plays with good intonation looks a lot like being a human who plays well with others - both require us to learn to trust ourself and our ears fully but not blindly.
About Being
Much like practicing our instruments, practicing mindfulness can seem slow to progress and sometimes tedious, but the growth is always available to you if you are willing to stick with the practice.
Self Criticism: The Easy Way Out?
Have a clear intention for your actions and keep looking close to avoid getting caught up in generalities.
Teaching Yourself is Cultivating Trust
What better way could there be to grow as a musician than to learn to mindfully teach ourself?
How Busy Is Too Busy?
“The more firmly you believe it ought to be possible to find time for everything, the less pressure you’ll feel to ask whether any given activity is the best use of a portion of your time.”
Mind-Body Connections: The Third Eye Chakra
At first it can feel like a far stretch to combine the chakras with an aspect of musical performance like tonal resonance. As we grow our understanding that the body and mind are always intertwined, we close the gap between thinking of them as two separate entities and open up new resources for ourself as musicians.