Being Uniquely You: Part II Authenticity

Our most precious commodity is our authenticity.  

Before you read further, I'd like you to complete an activity.  It doesn't take long and it could change your approach to life. Here's the activity:

1. Open a Word document (or Pages, Evernote... whatever you prefer)
2. Title it (something to this effect: "Things I Love About Myself That Other People Consider F'd Up."
3. Insert the date
4. List 5-10 things that you do or are that meet the title's description
5. Save this document for reference later.

My list includes things like:

• Enjoys running 100-mile races
• Vegan
• Likes getting or viewing tattoos
• Arranging for clarinet choir
• Small business
• Conservative politically 
• Working towards living debt free
• Playing Baermann
• Reading the Bible
• Being a science nerd
• Being very good at/educated about things people really don't think are useful

I'll do this exercise every so often and compare lists just to see where I am with these things.  The combination of these items is uniquely me.  No two people's lists will be the same and that is the very quality that makes you an appealing candidate in any endeavor. My wife says I'm a conundrum.  I like it that way. Maybe that should be on my list.

Here's how this connects to the previous posting: We live in the age of the entrepreneur.  We cannot count on someone else designing our job description, recruiting our students, generating our revenue, or even continue doing our jobs the way "we always have" and expecting it to suit us long term.  We cannot even count on having an employer long term. This is a mixed blessing. We are growing in our independence and autonomy.  Many people no longer have someone looking over our shoulder.  The problem here is that many lack the stability of larger employers and steady paychecks. 

We best serve our students (or customers/patients/clients) by teaching them to be uniquely their own people and by us being uniquely our own.  Others will be attracted to us when we are not pretending to be something we're not and instead are uniquely ourselves. People will come to our programs, enlist our services, and even want to be around us socially when we are genuine.  Maybe your ideal gig is playing in a quartet. It's simply not enough to be good at playing your instrument, you must also be good at networking, asking for performances, getting performances (that pay), and constantly figuring out what your customer wants. When you figure this out, you won't be one of the hundreds auditioning for one spot in an orchestra that may or may not even get filled at this audition.  If you have enough quartet gigs to keep food on your table and a roof above your head, the pressure of winning the audition is largely mitigated.  It's gravy if you win but not the end of the world if you don't.   

I play on my strengths and my unique combination from my list above and that is why I'm successful and why my students succeed.  I have good pedagogical ideas, but, as we all know, there's no magic spell to make someone a great clarinetist. It doesn't matter that I didn't study with Professor Q from the University of Z. I'll probably never have a student play in the New York Philharmonic, nor will I have students who really want to march in a college marching band, or come from large amounts of money. None of those options are authentic to my situation and I'm ok with that.  I recruit students who work hard and want to follow their own path. Sometimes we talk about marketing, small business, debt, taxes in addition to the items on our syllabus.  Students need to learn how to survive in as entrepreneurs, not employees. If I don't teach them this, who will? Maybe a future blog post from an ultra marathoning clarinetist will have some insight?

Here's the takeaway: your biggest success is being unique and putting in the hard work to back it up. Eric Thomas, the Hip Hop Preacher said it well: "You may come from privilege, your daddy may own the company, but you will not outwork me." 

So take that list, reflect on your uniqueness, put in some hard work and go with it. I can think of very few fields more dissimilar than ultra marathoning and clarinet-ing. But the lessons learned in one enhance the other. That's uniquely me and I embrace it. When you work for yourself, you'll always have an income. That's the way to escape someone else's job description and be your own boss and love your work. Become uniquely you. 

  

Being Uniquely You: Part I College Recruiting

I'm going to divide this blog post into two sections.  The first (the one you're reading) will be devoted to my thoughts on college recruiting and how I got to the Being Uniquely You portion of this. If you're not involved in a college scene, feel free to skip to Part II.  The second will be my thoughts on changing a dated system and being uniquely you.  Believe it or not, they're strongly connected.

A dear friend recently came to me with a problem centered around staying relevant in an extremely competitive market. As I'm sure you know, I teach music at a college. Part of my job is attracting students to my school. There are many ways people do this but the old fashioned way is by playing principal in a symphony and getting a reputation as a great player. We'll talk about the downsides of this but another way of recruiting was hosting festivals with the intent of attracting students. Still other schools have large scholarship endowments, preparation programs, well-known faculty, and still others attract students with large marching bands. 

Each of these ways are pretty common and were fairly tried-and-true for many years. In our modern college environment, each of these has it's challenges and are proving to be dated. Let's look at them carefully.

In the early to middle part of the 20th century, there were pretty much two options for musicians at the college level... future educators and symphony performers.

For the educators, students chose their schools based on their personal geography, the quality of the music education degree, and to some extent the quality of the band or orchestra.  Their degree is an extension of the education department. These students typically end up teaching music in schools as general music teachers or band/choir/orchestra conductors.  

For the players, people studied music at places like Curtis, Juilliard, and Eastman with the intention of becoming professional clarinetists themselves. Eventually, the larger state schools caught on and, for a while, the two groups produced most of the country's clarinetists for the symphonies and upper military bands. As the arts became deemphasized nationally, many symphonies started folding, reducing forces, or adjusting to their reduced revenues.  In short: fewer jobs.  People stuck with their dreams of playing in a symphony for a living and we were left where we are today... many candidates for a very few number of jobs, people playing lots of smaller gigs in regional symphonies, and many people switching fields. A more recent stress for performing musicians are auditions resulting in no selection. Clearly there are some problems with our old school model of hiring musicians for symphonies but either way, there are fewer jobs and reduced interest in pursuing that as a career. That translates to reduced interest in studying clarinet (or any instrument) in the college levels.  

The next means of recruitment of quality candidates is by hosting festivals.  It's the idea that you have a party, invite guests and some of those guests see how great your school is and want to come there.  Most All-State festivals are based around this model. Typically the organizational bodies do this. Some schools host this type of event every year.  It is my observation that potential students typically go to one to two of these events a year, at best.  But they're fun, you meet some interesting people, hear some good performances, and give your school a fairly high profile in a very specific market.  One problem here is that you rely on having a decent number of high school band directors and other community people attending to make the festival a success.  Festivals set up for large ensembles often offer adjudication for ensembles. This approach can turn a friendly gathering into a competition which isn't all bad but is still dependent on a large number of band directors bringing their bands.   

The next recruiting tool is the Jerry Maguire concept: Show me the money! Some schools have incredible scholarship endowments.  Some have virtually none.  Most have at least a little bit for a moderate number of students.  In my experience, this is the single best recruiting tool. People have trouble saying no to a free college education, though it happens on occasion. On the recruiting side of this, we have a little more trouble as often funding is limited and we have to spread it thinner than anyone would prefer. With an impending student loan crisis, smart students will be hesitant to borrow money for an education, especially for a career path that can be as tumultuous as a performing musician.  I advise students enroll in a music education degree so that upon graduation, they'll have at least a good shot at a junior high band director job or something better (though, I know many people who are perfectly happy with this career path).  This all changes if the student has aspiration in a field other than music.  The highest percentage of students accepted to medical schools are music majors.  Students on this track may be better served by a general music degree or if they are highly motivated, a performance degree.  These students need lots of electives that just aren't feasible in a music education degree.  The big thing here is that students leave college expecting careers and that is not guaranteed in any field but more students will matriculate at our schools if we have a good track record of job placement, even if that's not officially our job.  Students want to go to school for little out-of-pocket expense and to have a job when they graduate.  While an admirable goal, I've never met a student who went to school only to improve their mind.  

Some schools recruit by being good at getting students' jobs.  Many schools lie or fudge the numbers on this so I advise students do their due diligence before forking over any cash or signing up for financial aid.  That said, some schools are virtually feeders for jobs such as playing in the lower tier military bands, landing freelance work, and getting into graduate programs.  This can be a great recruiting tool if everyone is honest and upfront with their information.  

Often schools will employ well-known faculty.  This is good for attracting the student who wants to study with a celebrity of the instrument.  But, then again, how many of us are celebrities? Very few.  You can make yourself better-known by visiting schools, having an online, social media presence, writing a blog (did you think I do this because I have something to get off my chest?), or otherwise putting their name, face, and musical sound on the minds of students and their parents. 

The last means of recruitment I'll discuss is programs' marching band.  This can be a mixed bag of blessings and curses.  In my experience, marching bands are typically made of mostly non-majors but at smaller schools, the percentage can go up dramatically.  This is a fun way for students to be part of the football program and many schools offer scholarships for participation.  At some schools, no scholarships are required to field a marching band larger than some small towns.  Some students really want to go to a school where they can participate in this way. There is nothing inherently wrong with this approach however, the students should be advised about how to deal with cold temperatures, the perils of some of the choreography, and since marching band rehearsals and performance take a huge amount of time, they should be taught how to maximize their available time.  This experience is very helpful for students interested in a career in the military and being good at it before boot camp will save them some push-ups in the mud later down the road.  

None of these recruiting methods is inherently better than any other.  Sometimes we rely on a combination of a few of them.  They worked. The bottom line is, for us to stay relevant and employed, we need students.  We need to contribute something meaningful to the larger academic and musical communities. For students to continue in music, they need us. Here's the problem: getting them in the door is only half the battle. Students may be signing up for a music education, which they'll get, but what they don't see is that we have to teach them basic business and entrepreneurship and how to shape a career around their unique skill set. I'll continue this in Part II. Thanks for reading thus far!

Two sides of the craftsman: the carpenter and the programer

Teaching a lesson yesterday, I discovered an element of any performance-based activity (running or clarinet) that is not discussed in depth on any forums that have crossed my path.  The foundation of this discussion is that we are craftsmen.  A teacher a few years ago used the the phrase "perfecting your craft" about clarinet playing and initially I was put off by it.  In my mind, the word "craft" seemed to imply some sort of artsy, glitter and glue stick made, paper plates and macaroni project that is common in 5th grade art class and even makes its way to farmers markets and art shows.  Ugh, that was NOT why I played clarinet.  In my mind, I was a race horse with a clarinet.  Sometime later, probably after reflecting on pieces my paternal grandfather had completed as a woodworker did I come to embrace the true craftsmanship of his work.  He took great pride in his woodworking and made all sorts of furniture, puzzles, desks and boxes.  While woodworking was never his profession, he was very good at it and it brought joy, pleasure, and beauty to his life and to those who enjoyed his work. This seems an amiable goal for any musician or runner.  The wood was typically from a tree in the woods behind his house (also built by him, by hand... he never owed a dime on it or the land).  He simply was a craftsman.  He chopped, milled, cut, sanded, stained, and polished every board-foot of the wood he used.  There were lessons to be learned here.

One of the Glenn Mietz pieces I own is a very small, simple box with square dovetails.  I think he made a few of these and gave one to each of his children.  I put little odds and ends in it but it has a great deal of significance to me.  To me, the box is a small representation of what it means to be a craftsman.  He started with raw wood.  Maybe we can extrapolate that to music as purchasing a new piece of music or in running, coming back from a break.  As a craftsman, we work the project until it looks and functions as we intend it to.  This is an important concept as often our bodies function in a manner inconsistent to how we would prefer.  We all know the value of practicing or training slowly so that we can meticulously work through the problems we encounter.  Every phrase is shaped, every hill is run and, we hope, every imperfection is removed before our work is complete.

Unlike the carpenter, music and running are both performances.  We are required by the very nature of our endeavors to complete all the necessary steps as gracefully as possible in a single attempt whether at a race or at a recital.  This is where we employ the craftsmanship of a much more modern artisan... the computer programer.  Computer programs are at their essence and set of instructions that once initiated, run to their programed conclusion.  It will probably come as no surprise that this is the same manner of doing things that NASA uses (check out Tom Hanks in Apollo 13).  There are predetermined series of events which must be completed.  Think of the most basic series of events in your life.  Let's say you wanted to write a program to get a glass of water.  It might look like this:

1. Stand up
2. Walk to the kitchen
3. Remove a glass from the cupboard with your right hand
4. Turn on the faucet with your left hand
5. Hold glass under the faucet with your right hand until full
6. Turn off faucet with your left hand
7. Enjoy water

As a performance-driven artist/athlete, our instructions may be remarkably similar yet we seldom see it as such.  When we figure out how to practice in a deliberate sequence, our results are scarily consistent (see Rule No. 3).  This is where performance anxiety and nerves are systematically slaughtered by your conscious effort.  The more times we have initiated and completed the sequence correctly, the less we worry about it.  It is your job as a performer to consider each of those steps.  If you weren't 100% on how to turn on the faucet, step 4 may be rather stressful in a live-fire situation.  I go through this at hotels all the time.  "How the heck do I turn on the shower?! Twist, pull, slide?"  I usually figure it out through trial and error but am not above calling the front desk if I can't figure it out.  As a programmer of our own self-empowered performances, it is our job to find and correct those moments where we're not 100% how to accomplish them.  We accomplish this by completing them very slowly at first and, as we get better at them, doing it faster and faster.  If you can't figure it out on your own, ask your teacher, coach, mentor or, better still, look it up!  Whether they realize it or not, every great performer from sprinters to virtuoso musicians to astronauts goes through a predetermined series of events.  The more we do it, the easier and more consistently we can do it.

The last bit of this is what to do when something goes awry in a live situation.  The easiest answer is to accept your mistake, course correct if needed, and get back to the program.  Chances are, unless you do something (like shake your head, blow out the water in your keys, blush, or give it away) no one will notice.  There will always be elements of live performance we cannot control.  I've had reeds dry out on me, I've had the weather change dramatically in only a few minutes, I've run out of water 2 or 3 miles ahead of schedule, bears have a tendency of popping out of the woods and people walk in during the middle of the soft section of your clarinet/viola duo, etc. None of these things are really predictable but all are over-comable.  The smart performer just rolls with it, completes the performance as gracefully as possible, and makes contingencies for any future occurrences.   Personally, I learned to moisten my reeds during extended rests, to bring a jacket or at least rub my chest during adverse weather, to discern which streams are most likely safe to drink, when/where to carry bear spray and deal with them from a safe distance, and how to ignore distractions on stage.  Like the aforementioned Apollo 13 mission, success depends on improvisation and adaptation.

So here's the summary: Be the craftsman.  Work your craft slowly until it is performance-ready.   Look for any places where a contingency may be necessary.  At performance time, run the program.  After the performance, enjoy your success.  No glitter, macaroni, or glue sticks required.       

Dr. Mietz's First Three Rules

People keep asking for my life rules.  Here's the abbreviated version... everyone should have a code by which they live.  I can't say I have it down to an extensive list but the first three have never failed me:

Rule No. 1: Don't be dumb.  If something seems questionable, don't do it.  If you aren't sure it's a smart decision, it's probably dumb.  Don't do it. You can be gutsy, brave, daring, just don't be dumb.

Rule No. 2: If you didn't write it down, it didn't happen. I keep a log for most of the important things I do in life.  It sounds a little tedious but my memory sucks.  I attribute this partially to my dyslexia but if I write it down, I seldom have trouble remembering or proving a memory. I keep a running/training log, practice journal, written budget for our personal finances, and even a personal journal.  My iCal is immaculate. If it's worth remembering, it's worth writing down.

Rule No. 3: Consistency is key. This one ties the other two together, I think.  Work applied over time yields big results.  Example A: diamonds.  Pressure (i.e. work) over time creates something precious.  Writing things down helps me track and even improve my consistency.  If something is important to you, work at it as often as you can. When using consistency as a rule daily is good, twice daily is better, when I'm really in the thick of things, three times a day is the norm.  How much work are you completing a week/month/year?  When you have these numbers, you can evaluate the benefit of upping that number in the next period.  If it's worth doing, be consistent about it.

There are the first three.  I'm sure there are more but I use these every day.  Hope they help... I'd love to hear about your experiences with them!

Integrity

A cursory glance at an online definition will give you the following definitions of the word "integrity:" Thanks

in·teg·ri·ty

noun

1. 1.

   the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.

   "he is known to be a man of integrity"

   synonyms:

   honesty, probity, rectitude, honor, good character, principle(s), ethics,morals, righteousness, morality, virtue, decency, fairness,scrupulousness, sincerity, truthfulness, trustworthiness More
2. 2.

   the state of being whole and undivided.

   "upholding territorial integrity and national sovereignty"

   synonyms:

   unity, unification, coherence, cohesion, togetherness, solidarity

 Thanks Google dictionary.  This is a word I find myself clinging too almost daily but how do we apply it? A better question is, should we?

The answer is a resounding YES!  No one asks about integrity without implying it should be observed. Here's what integrity means to me.  Definition 1: I don't knowingly lie, I don't cheat, I don't steal, or deceive anyone or anything.  If a commitment is made, I stick to it unless new information presents itself and then I'm upfront about why I reconsidered.  Even then, I'll still do my best to uphold my commitment.  Definition 2: as Abraham Lincoln said "a house divided cannot stand."  This goes for the individual as well.  My convictions may not make sense to others but they are unified in my consciousness.  I strive to be upright and solid in my little world.  No loose ends, no unpaid bills, no surprise phone calls.

I've taken a number of oaths in my time but none weigh more deeply on my consciousness than my wedding vows and my Masonic obligations.  To me being a husband and a Mason are a serious business and not something to be taken lightly.  Each requires a promise to God and to others that we will do the right thing.  Weddings use rings as symbols of unending love and devotion, Masons use tools as symbols.  I promised my wife to love and take care of her for the rest of her life.  Much of Masonry is sworn to secrecy but it is no secret that some of the symbols are a square, compass, and plumb line.  I'm sure every Mason has his own interpretation of them and how they fit in his life.  For me, the square reminds me to be square with people.  I do my best to be honest and fair.  I pay the bill for dinner and give a fair tip; no more, no less.  A square is always 90 degrees and when used in trigonometry, gives you answers you may have a difficult time finding otherwise.  Think back to high school and those silly questions about the height of a tree and its shadow.  I bet you didn't know trig was actually teaching you morality!  The compass measures proportions, makes perfect circles, and (in my backcountry experiences) reminds me where north is.  Drive into any town in the United States and you'll see the compass around the letter G.  For me, not all Masons, the compass shows the way to God, my true north.  Any carpenter can tell you that a plumb line is nothing more than a vertical line.  Gravity pulls the weight and the string goes taught and shows the directionality of the force of gravity on the earth. Stand up straight.  Do an honest day's work.

When you combine all these qualities, you are left with a pretty amazing man.  I can't promise I'm 100% on all of them all the time but I do my best.  This is how integrity applies to everything.  Strive for perfection but accept that in this human form, we are going to come up short some, if not most of the time.  Some of these shortcomings we can avoid just by being our "best, most authentic selves," to quote Rich Roll.  If you've read my blog before, you know that running and music are important to me.  When I'm running and really present, I know that God is there helping me.  When working on a difficult piece of music I have no idea how I'll ever get through it but God does.  When my wife sings (a beautiful operatic singer), I feel something deeper than just the notes and rhythms.  I hear God's message through her voice (whatever the context or language of the lyrics) I hope people see that in my music and running as well.  There is no "life hack" to this wonderful state.  No shortcut.  You simply cannot scream-sing and hear that message like you can with decades of refined practice.  You can't just turn up the drums, plug in a distortion pedal, and drown out the congregation and expect to unify a group.  This is something Stravinsky wrestled with at the premiere of the Rite of Spring.  He sought to portray the profane; the non-refined pagan cultures.  This work is terrific but no one would ever consider it a sacred work (except Esa Pekka-Salonen who called it a Bible because it is terrifying for the musicians and dancers).  With Rite of Spring you see an artistic portrayal of a primitive society.  With Bach's B Minor Mass or St. Matthew's Passion, you feel God's integrity.  Martin Luther wrote "A mighty fortress is our God." To me, this implies craftsmanship, hard work, dedication, and most of all integrity.  Luther did not write, "our God is an unrefined, shoddily constructed, concert venue."  When my wife sings, it is solid, beautiful, and touches everyone (admit it or not) deeply.  It's not about musical style, it's about the integrity.  Solid, square, upright before God.  Even if you try and miss, there's power in the attempt.  No amount of praise-gasm, history lessons, scream-sinigng, or "just want to this or just want to that" can engage the soul as authentically as the refined traditions of thousands of years of worship.  There is no shortcut to being a good musician, runner, and who am I to argue with two thousand years of tradition. That's not to say that we can't have modern music but it should maintain the same ethos.  The Maslanka Mass, Bernstein Mass, Lloyd-Weber Mass, Britten War Requiem all move the listener just as much as the Bach mentioned earlier.  Thankfully, no scream-singing.  

One final thought to leave you with:  C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity talks about three kinds of morality.  There is your morality (or standing) with God, other living creatures, and yourself.  If you construct your personal building on a solid foundation from the ground up, you will have integrity with each of those branches of morality.  For me this is the only way to live.