There's no magic pill for music career success, but this may be the next best thing. Here are my five productivity hacks. In truth, most of us know all too well what we should be doing. And yet we delay or avoid doing it. We keep ourselves busy taking care of...
Think back to the last big challenge you faced — in your career or in your personal life. How did you respond to it? Were you thankful? Maybe not at the time, but afterwards? Here's to Thanking Our Dragons — the counter-intuitive approach to responding to life's...
Musicians: imagine for a moment that you could play, sing, or compose with much more freedom and abandon — and leave behind the "playing it safe." Imagine that in your next hour of practice or studio time, you could let go of any self-doubt, fear, or judgment. Think...
Most of us don't like to admit that we're scared. But the truth is, we ALL have anxieties around performing, auditioning, public speaking, and/or interviewing. And then there's networking and social interactions. To help, here are my best kept Secrets Revealed: How to...
In the world of skiing, "death cookies" refers to hitting hard chunks of ice that can "fowl up an otherwise smooth turn." This can be both scary and exhilarating. And this concept is also applicable to creative artists even if you've never slid down a slope. For...
Finding answers in unlikely places seems to be happening a lot these days. I'm taking an online course with the amazing Buddhist teacher Pema Chödrön. In the training, she offers a view of comfort zones that struck me as especially relevant for musicians. If you've...
How well are you dealing with the artist's struggle of the urgent vs. important? In his terrific book Making Your Life as an Artist, Andrew Simonet writes, “Most artists spend the vast majority of their time dealing with immediate problems. The PR package that was...
Welcome to my worst procrastination story: If you’re anything like me, you’ve had stretches when a task on your to-do list refuses to get done. It’s on the list day after day but not getting crossed off. This happened a few years ago: one seemingly simple item on my...
I've been re-reading Elizabeth Gilbert's terrific book, "Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear." This led me to find her riff on perfectionism (interview clip above and the highlights below). Here's Liz Gilbert on perfectionism — translated for musicians. Liz Gilbert...
First off, I admit it: I love finding tools to help people manage their projects and their time. And I've worked with many musicians teaching them methods to help them get past their Resistance so they can get more of their best work out into the world. (Instead of...
