If you are wondering why this blog space is updated infrequently, it is because my Substack, The Rhythmist, is really my main vehicle for communication with my friends, peers, audience, etc.
Anyway… recently I had an opportunity to sit for a very enjoyable conversation about the arts and creativity on The Agent Palmer Podcast, which you can hear by clicking on the picture below. Enjoy!
Recently I was speaking with an acquaintance who is familiar with my music making. In the course of the conversation I mentioned that my jazz trio (with the formidable Jeff Knoettner on piano and the equally formidable Rob Swanson on bass) was playing a corporate event in Exton later on in April.
My counterpart was surprised. “Wait, private events …. you do those?”
Yes, we do private events.
In fact, all my groups (the organ trio, the Big Brass Ones, and the small and large size Bryan Tuk Complex bands) are available for private events: parties, corporate events, shopping center openings, you name it. We can cover a wide array of different situations and bring something great to the table that will have your guests happy and engaged, and make you look like a genius in the process.
If you are interested in booking me and one of the groups
When I'm not working with my private students at groove, I teach marching percussion for the Kennett HS marching band.
This season, the kids are coming into an environment where everything is uncertain. It is likely the band won't appear at football games (either home or away), and the competitive season we would normally have will not happen. All that said, these young people came into camp last week, worked hard, complied with ALL the safety protocols, and had an absolutely GREAT attitude. Drumming for drumming and improvement's sake.
Lessons Learned This Week:
If you follow the safety protocols, you can still create and accomplish. Life does not have to stop completely.
The work and the process is its own reward.
People (especially performers I think) need to be around one another. There is no substitute for live interaction.
Will have more to share after week 2 of camp…..
An opportunity came up the other night with some of my percussion students to scratch the surface of an important topic: focus and mindfulness. While there were only a few minutes to talk about it, there was a lot more I wanted to say, hence this essay.
This is a book topic unto itself to be sure, certainly within the perspective of building high performing teams/ensembles and also from the standpoint of helping your students realize the absolute maximum of their potential, which the last time I checked, is what teachers are supposed to do. This is true in any endeavor, whether it is academics, sports or the arts.
So what am I getting at? Here it is: Your ability to achieve any goal is a direct function of your ability to focus on achieving the goal. That sounds circular, so let's bring it down to an example.
Let's say you have an academic assignment that should take you 45 minutes to complete. Rather than shutting off your phone, or tablet, or TV and giving 45 minutes of consistent, sustained effort, you let your mind wander. You check your phone. Then you work for five minutes. Then you get a text and you see who it's from. You respond, and that conversation takes you away for 10 minutes. Several other things like this happen in rapid succession, and before you know it, 30 minutes have elapsed and you have not advanced your work at all. A 45 minute task just turned into a 75 minute task. That costs you time and you may be the only person affected by that. Had you applied yourself in the way I'm about to describe below, you could have completed that task in less than 45 minutes, and gained a half hour of time to yourself.
When you are in a competitive team environment, the stakes are a lot higher - because your actions don't just affect you. By allowing your mind to wander, by losing focus on the assignment/performance/task, you are hurting yourself in THREE ways.
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