TEM232: Don't Focus On Growth

TEM232: Don’t Focus On Growth

Why growth is just the byproduct of continuing to show up every day.

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On Today's Episode of The Entrepreneurial Musician:

• A quick shout-out to the remarkable city of New Orleans

• The Inside the Practice Room workshop with Jeff Nelsen of Canadian Brass that inspired this episode

• Why growth is not the thing you should be focused on in the practice room or in your career

• The magic of showing up in a meaningful way day after day

• The danger of turning any one negative result into a narrative in your head

• This week’s quote is from the wonderful Brené Brown

• The all new Hitz Academy

Show notes for all episodes of TEM including topics discussed, links to all books and websites referenced can be found at:

http://www.tem.fm/shownotes

Inside the Practice Room with Jeff Nelsen

It’s not every day that one of the world’s best brass players gives you such a complete look into the daily process that made them what they are today.

Join Jeff Nelsen of Canadian Brass as he invites us inside of his practice room!

Jeff covered a lot of ground!

• His ideal number of practice sessions in a day

• How he religiously times his sessions and why it makes him more focused

• The magic of unemotional critique

• The “Three Phases” of preparation for a performance as he has laid out in his Fearless Performance program

• Why “forced urgency” is important at the beginning of the preparation process

Purchase long-term access to this workshop for only $29!

“Inside the Practice Room with Jeff Nelsen was absolutely fantastic! The step-by-step tips he shared on how to practice and prepare for a performance completely changed the way I teach my middle school students how to practice. We all have our own practice journals now (myself included!) Thanks to his tips, my students feel more confident in identifying their successes and are having a more positive experience in the practice room.”

— Kathryn Williams

The Entrepreneurial Musician: Jeff Nelsen

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Jeff Nelsen discusses his phenomenal career as a member of Canadian Brass, how he won four orchestral auditions, and how he started Fearless Performance, a method for mastering the mental process of performance.

He is one of the most uplifting people I've ever met and that is reflected in Fearless Performance.  In this interview, he discusses selling yourself as a musician (which he prefers to refer to as sharing), how to get the best out of yourself on stage, and most importantly how he took the idea for this program and made it a product in the form of seminars, lectures, and books.

As with Dr. Tim in the last episode, this will leave you fired up and ready to follow through on any ideas you have kicking around in your head!

Links:

Jeff's Website: http://www.jeffnelsen.com/

Fearless Performance: http://www.jeffnelsen.com/pages/fearless-performance

Jeff's TEDx Talk: http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/TEDxBloomington-Jeff-Nelsen-Fea

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To help support the show to offset the ongoing costs associated with producing and distributing this podcast please visit http://www.pedalnotemedia.com/support-the-entrepreneurial-musician

Next Episode: Dean of the Lawrence Conservatory of Music and former ethnomusicologist for Microsoft, Brian Pertl

Monday YouTube Fix: Jeff Nelsen "Fearless Performance" from TedxBloomington

Last week's collection of motivating and inspiring quotes from Jeff Nelsen's master class at George Mason inspired me to post this video.  It is truly a powerful thing watching Jeff do what he does on stage, whether with his horn or with his words.  This is an incredible talk that is absolutely worth 10 minutes of your time to become a better performer in all aspects of your life. Enjoy!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ko1pS9LeTg&]

Jeff Nelsen Master Class Quotes from George Mason University

Jeff Nelsen is simply put one of the most inspirational people I’ve ever been around in my life.  His always positive attitude is both genuine and predictable.  And he is an absolutely phenomenal horn player.  His website, jeffnelsen.com, is a wonderful resource for any musician.  We were honored to have Jeff play one of the horn books for the Boston Brass recording of the Stan Kenton Christmas Carols.  He is a very special player, teacher, and person. Jeff was just in Washington DC playing 2nd horn to his dear friend and mentor Marty Hackleman in the National Symphony Orchestra.  I believe my good friend Tom Cupples, 2nd trumpet in the NSO, summed up Jeff the best after a performance of Ein Heldenleben: “Jeff is amazing. Just being in the same room as him makes me a better musician.”

We were very fortunate to have Jeff come to George Mason and give a master class about performance and life in general.  I learned a ton from the class and have used many of the quotes below in my lessons already.  As usual, I have highlighted the ones that really speak to me the most.  I will admit to having a difficult time not highlighting them all.

I hope you enjoy these as much as I do!

PS Jeff is working on a book documenting his entire Fearless approach.  Keep your eyes on his website for details.
 

• "Success not only comes to those who want it the most but those who want it the most often."
   
• "There is a difference between simple and easy."
   
• "Simplify things as much as possible and then work on them."
   
• "You are engaged in performance when what you are doing matters."
   
• "Fearless performance is not necessarily the lack of fear but the realization there are things more important than fear."
   
• "(Shows picture of 16 month old) Have any of you ever been his age? When we are young we are afraid of good things like hot pots and traffic but we develop the rest along the way."
   
• "You have to become a master variable controller."
   
• "It's about isolating variables, changing one thing, and asking was that better?"
   
• "The only physical difference between practice and performance is the actual walk on stage."
   
• "The first mental difference is choosing 'this time means more.'”
   
• His teacher: "There are no bad days. There are only days where to takes greater effort to play your best."
   
• "If you approach every performance with your best, you don't leave room to try better."
   
• "Most people don't aim too high and miss. Most people aim to low and hit."
   
• "We can practice walking onstage."
   
• "Saying 'On stage you must play your best' - problem is that making sure implies you might not."
   
• "You can't control perception, you can only control presentation."
   
• "In the sacred arena of the performance place, get over it. It's too late to control it."
   
• "We're responsible any time we get nervous."
   
• "No one can make me feel anything without my consent."
   
• "We learn fear."
   
• "If we can learn fear, we can learn love-full performance."
   
• "Our level of nerves is inversely proportionate to our level of preparation."
   
• "Make what you are doing the only thing that matters."
   
• "There are three things that your audience and an audition panel are looking for: mastery, meaning, and autonomy."
   
• "An audition committee is checking to see if your rhythm is autonomous."
   
• "TV is getting great. We have to give the audience an experience."
   
• "Don't call it a warm up. Make a great routine that touches what you need to do and the bonus is that you're warmed up."
   
• "Musician is product. Technician is process."
   
• "We're really trying to learn how to transcend the technician."
   
• "I've missed 100% of the notes I've told myself not to miss."
   
• "Make it about the solution. It's not about what not to do."
   
• "Assign yourself practicing work for the next day."
   
• "If you can't sleep, get up and write down what you can't sleep about."
   
• "Tell your story to your audience."
   
• "On a scale of 1-10 how much music did you just make with a 1 being regurgitating all the ink on the page? If it's a 6...OK, out of that 6 out of 10 how much of that did you get to the audience?"
   
• "You should listen to your performance through the ears of your audience."
   
• "Don't ask. Tell."
   
• "The great performers of the world walk on stage and say 'I think this.'”
   
• "Walk on stage to be seen."
   
• “You are far too smart to be the only thing standing in your way.” - Jennifer Freeman
   
• "In the 10 second walk on stage there's not much of a chance to make things better but there are lots of chances to make things worse."
   
• "Every phrase is the only phrase."
   
• His Mom: "If you're listening and the audience is listening, who's singing? - Critique later."
   
• "Phil Meyers says that he went into his first few auditions trying to hide his weaknesses and it didn't work out. Then he tried to show them his strengths."
   
• Phil: “I don't go out there trying to sound my best. I go out there trying to sound like me.”
   
• "100% positive means taking the 'I liked' out of 'I liked how I played bar 6 well.'"
   
• "Must be 100% responsible for how you play as well."
   
• "If you make excuses, you make the performance space safe for failure."
   
• "Everything, unless it hits you in the head, can not affect you unless you let it."
   
• "You're right. There are people judging you and there are things to lose. You're right. Unless you want to do your best. Then you are wrong."
   
• "Competing lowers your goal. Just try to be the absolute best you can be."
   
• “If you do not have a website, you are invisible.” - David Cutler
   
• "Choosing to doubt and choosing to fear will get in your way. And it is a choice."
   
• "The word execute is a big part of performance."
   
• "I'm happy because I think I am."