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Give Up Your Big Goals Mar 12, 2024

Ever try to eat an elephant in one bite? Ridiculous I know. How about lifting a house? A task for a super being, but not us. Okay, let's be reasonable, ever eaten an entire 12" wide apple pie in one bite?

I know, I'm being a bit silly, but here's the thing:

Focusing entirely on your end goals...

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There's More to it than Throwing Free Throws performance anxiety Mar 05, 2024

I really enjoy talking about clichés as I imagine you've noticed, so here we go:

You miss every shot you don't take

In the end, we only regret the chances we didn't take

Life is inherently risky, there is only one big risk you should avoid at all costs, and that is doing nothing.

Don't...

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Take Two of These - And Call Me in Six Months Feb 27, 2024

Habits take time to form. It also isn't enough to experience something once, and expect to be able to repeat it consistently. This is why we practice, and it behooves us to practice with intent.

I had a teacher who told me that the acquisition of new skills took six months. That once you could...

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You're Not Going to Remember It. Write it Down. Feb 05, 2024

I had a great idea for a newsletter this week. It came to me right while I was editing videos and I thought, 'that's so good, there's no way that I'll forget it.'

Don't worry, I'm not going to bury the lead here. I totally forgot it.

Now, if this was the first time that this happened to me, one...

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Failure Happens Jan 21, 2024

I've been thinking about this for some days, and struggling a bit to decipher the words from the sentiment. It's easy to fall back on clichés when talking about this. Since I've mentioned that though, here's one of my favorites:

If you're not falling, you're not trying hard enough.

A...

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The Journey is the Destination Nov 19, 2023

This is another popular cliché, and I admit, I'm not fond of this one either, but what if we thought of it as lifetime learning? Does that make it any better?

The hard part of this, in my opinion, is two-fold. One more insidious than the other.

The first is humility. No matter how far...

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Choose Again. Oct 29, 2023

The simplest of ideas can be the most profound.

If something isn't working, choose again.

Still singing out of tune?

Then choose again how you approach your appoggio breath management. Choose again how you listen to and evaluate your vowel alignment. Choose again how you have practiced your ear...

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Fake it 'Til You Make it. Oct 15, 2023

I have never been a fan of that saying. It reeks of dishonesty or of being disingenuous; not traits that I wish to embody. Yet it frequently is deployed when discussing how to manage stage fright.

Okay, what about:

Mood follows action

That, I would submit, is what 'Fake it 'til you make it'...

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To Achieve Your Goals, Define Your Values Oct 01, 2023

I hadn't come across this concept before in all the years that I've studied music and worked with performance anxiety. It really hit me like a ton of bricks (in a good way, of course) and really helped me to understand a lot of what I had done in the past, albeit unconsciously.

In the pursuit of...

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Why Do We Have to Practice Every Day? Aug 11, 2023

Most of us have probably heard that we have to practice music every day. This is because the skillset is developed over time, and the muscle control involved in it needs accurate repetition in order to be second nature.

I would also like to posit that there is another reason, and it relates to...

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Elgato Stream Deck Jul 04, 2023

Proudly Sponsored by Capital One Shopping

 

This is a paid promotion by Capital One Shopping - but before you click away two things -

 

1. I bought the Elgato Stream Deck over a year ago with my own money.

2. I had already been using Capital One Shopping when they contacted me for this...

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Internal Versus External Jun 04, 2023

The internal experience of upper register singing, in cricothyroid dominant singing voice, or in the middle register for sopranos and mezzos, sometimes referred to as 'mixing head and chest voice' or 'mix voice' (though I feel that those phrases are misleading) can often sound very different to...

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