Turning Problems Into Gifts And Enemies Into Friends (Coaches Corner, Episode 10)

Christopher: What if every problem you encountered in your musical life was actually a gift? It’s a nice idea, but to see things that way? Not always so easy, right?

In this week’s Coaches Corner, Coach Andy reveals the two key ingredients you need to transform any problem into a gift.

So before we dive into this week’s Coaches Corner episode, a quick recap rundown of the week. It’s been another action-packed week here on Musicality Now!

We kicked things off with part two of my conversation with David Reed from Improvise For Real, looking at some of the quotes they had posted on Instagram taken from their improvisation book. And I love talking with David. I hope you enjoy the conversations, too. And I’m excited to share the subsequent parts of that conversation with you in due course, too.

Then we had our mini-interview with Alex Ostapenko, a konnakol and body percussion expert, and as well as a clip from his masterclass at Musical U, where he gives a kind of beginner’s tutorial to konnakol, the Indian rhythmic language which helps you be more creative and expressive, as well as understanding rhythm on a much deeper level. Super cool masterclass, I hope you enjoyed that clip, and I hope you took part and tried it as you went and it gave you a taste of what konnakol can do.

Then I did an episode on The 80% Rule, something that is integral to everything we do at Musical U, but I don’t think I’ve ever covered in an article or podcast episode or video before. So that was all about giving yourself the wiggle room you need to move forwards as quickly as possible.

And then our Inside The Book episode. For this week, I gave you a sneak peek of the tagline for the new Musicality book, and we unpacked it a little bit to look at why those bits are in there and what they mean. And most importantly, what is the goal of the book? What can actually do for you if you pick up a copy of the musicality book? What results can you expect?

Today we’re wrapping up the week up, as we like to, with a Coaches Corner episode where our Next Level coaches share little tidbits from inside their coaching to help you in your musical life.

This week we have Camilo sharing a major breakthrough one of his clients had on saxophone through singing, and a small tweak they made to those singing exercises which made all the difference.

Andy talks about the idea that every problem can be a gift, and he shares the two ingredients that actually help you make that shift, help you see problems as gifts turn them into gifts.

Zac talks about how to transform the sometimes-scary metronome into your best buddy.

And Andrew talks about connecting with different levels of rhythm, different layers of rhythm, through really getting in touch with your inner pulse.

All that and more in this week’s episode of Coaches Corner!

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Christopher: Hey, welcome back to Coaches Corner. One of my favourite times of not every week, because we don’t do it every week, but every fortnight. One of my favourite times where I get together with our Next Level coaching team and ask them, I kind of peek behind the scenes of what’s going on in coaching and ask them to bring some insight or tip or trick or technique from their recent coaching that can be a benefit for you in your musical life.

I’m joined today by our Head Coach, Andrew Bishko, as well as coaches Zac Bailey, Camilo Suarez and Andy Portas. Thanks, guys, for joining me today.

So let’s kick things off with Camilo this week. What’s been going on in coaching?

Camilo: Well, this week I was happy about a major breakthrough that a client had with his voice.

He is a client who is interested in playing the saxophone, but also has been incorporating a lot of singing in order to develop his ear. Now, he realised in our conversation, realised that we were choosing songs that were too high for his register.

Then we moved to other songs that were in his register, and it was like magic the way that he could sing those melodies and then play them on his instrument with less effort. With less effort. So I think that’s a key component of our experience, helping clients feel that range where they feel comfortable, because they will see a lot of progress after doing that.

Christopher: That’s such a great tip. Yeah. We’ve been working just recently on the singing chapter of the Missing Manual, and it’s a great chance to go back to how we teach singing.

And a big part of it is that approach of finding your note and then finding your range and really factoring that in to what you then do with your voice.

And I was particularly aware of it this week, I’m working with one of my daughters on her pitch matching with her singing voice. And it’s funny, we found her note, her note is a B flat, and she can nail that pitch every time. But if we wander even a couple of tones away, she really struggles with it.

And it’s a really extreme example of that point that there’s going to be a comfortable range for your voice and for your ear, where everything just comes a bit more easily.

And when you know that, when you’re aware of it, it can really be a valuable way to get better results faster. Right?

Camilo: Yeah. And just to add that that brings so much joy to the experience.

I could see in his eyes and his expression of feeling much more confident when singing in his register.

Christopher: Fantastic. Thank you. Andy, what’s been new with coaching lately?

Andy: Well, we’ve been having a great time coaching, got clients moving on to various things and really enjoying the process.

But what I wanted to talk about today was I read a quote from Tony Robbins which says “every problem is a gift. Without them, we wouldn’t grow”.

So I got to thinking about this and how this relates to our clients and how we kind of get them through various issues. And it struck me that honesty was kind of a big thing within this because if we can be honest about what the problem actually is, we can then start to do something about that.

And then along with the honesty, it kind of dawned on me that vulnerability started being a really strong factor in this honesty. So this meant that if we can start being really honest about things in our practice and we can be vulnerable and have show a willingness to be curious, to play badly in practice, to experiment with things. And then as we’re building musicality, if we can again there be kind of more accepting of where we are.

So if we’re honest about the level we’re actually at rather than where we think we are, we can then start to build these really firm foundations and kind of build off those.

So it kind of struck me also that by having a coach, it kind of allows people to be vulnerable because they’ve got somebody to kind of bounce off. And in a sense, as coaches, we’re allowing people and being non-judgmental about what they’re doing.

We’re giving them permission to make mistakes, to kind of mess up in performances and all these things. By giving them the permission, by them being honest about this, this kind of builds confidence and they start seeing growth through this process.

And I suppose the same thing kind of applies if you’ve not got a coach. By recording what you’re doing and listening to what you practice, listening to the performance you’re doing, and being deadly honest about what you’re actually hearing, you can start and experience that very same kind of growth as well.

So that was my kind of my thought for the day. So progress and growth comes purely from honesty and being vulnerable.

Christopher: I love that. That’s such a great insight, Andy. Thank you.

And it’s funny, I was bragging on you guys last week to someone. I was telling them something about the coaching program, and I particularly called out how all of you, I think, are particularly good at creating that safe space for your clients.

And you’re right, like, it’s so powerful. And it’s counterintuitive, I think, that with the right person, it’s easier to be honest and vulnerable with them than when it’s just yourself in the practice room.

And you’re absolutely right that recording yourself can help you serve as your own coach, your own teacher. But it can be really painful to try and be honest with yourself and to listen back to those recordings and admit what’s going on! And I just really admire the way all of you create that safe space with your clients so that they can experience that growth and do so in a very comfortable and confident way.

I brag on you guys a lot!

Zac, what’s new with coaching in your world lately?

Zac: Hey, Christopher. Yeah, thank you.

I’ve noticed recently – it’s kind of over time, I’ve noticed it through a lot of clients and been thinking about it is a lot of our clients have a common fear, and it’s the fear of the metronome.

A lot of clients that are just afraid to use the metronome, they just don’t want to do it.

They’re like, it freaks them out. I’ve had clients say, recently a client said “the metronome is like this external dominator that is trying to control me”, and that’s like, oh, that’s an interesting way to think about it.

So I’ve come up with a way to really overcome this fear that’s really fun. So I had this client just close their eyes.

Just close their eyes and just listen to the metronome, and then just move their body, and they, they listen to the metronome. They listen, and then they just move their body, and then they felt the beat in their body, and they said, oh, I feel this. I feel it.

And when they able to feel that inside of their body, the metronome was no longer this external, dominating force. It was something that guided them to connect with themselves internally.

And they were able to feel the power of that steady beat, and then able to use that to enable their expression.

And I’ve noticed that whenever someone closes their eyes and taps into the steady beat, things just flow a lot easier. I’ve used that exact exercise when people were having struggles, repeating a melody back or trying to recall a solfa melody. I said, close your eyes, move your body.

Steady beat. Get that metronome, feel it, and then just flow with it. Just let it come out.

And things often come out much easier when people are connecting to the steady beat and just closing their eyes and feeling it.

And it’s not just the metronome, too. Whenever you feel something in music, that’s when you really understand it, and that’s when you take ownership of it and it’s no longer.

This external thing that you are feeling connected to is now an internal thing that you’re connected to, and you can use it however you like. It’s a fun thing.

Now it’s not an external dominating force that’s trying to control you. It’s a thing that you can tap into and just play with. And it’s pretty awesome.

It’s almost like an instant transformation when people just close your eyes and just feel it, whether it’s a metronome, if you’re scared of the metronome, close your eyes and feel it. Whatever you’re feeling, just close your eyes and feel it.

Got music playing, close your eyes and feel it and just flow. Things will come out, be open to unexpected, exciting things coming out of your body and your instrument.

When you close your eyes and just feel it, it’s pretty sweet.

Christopher: That’s awesome. That’s really cool.

It makes me think of a… I can’t remember if it was an article or a podcast episode I did once upon a time on how to make practicing scales less boring. And one of the suggestions was, like, practice with a drum beat rather than the metronome.

And I don’t think I would have realised it at the time, but I think part of what makes that work so well is exactly what you just described. That when you have a harsh click or a beep, it feels like this weird, unmusical thing. Whereas when you have a drum loop or something, instantly you’re like “oh, I’m making music with something”. And I think it’s that gateway into feeling it the way you just described.

And then I think if you can take that to a click or a beep or whatever it may be, even better. That’s really interesting. I love that.

Thanks. And Andrew Bishko, Head Coach, what’s new with you in coaching?

Andrew: Lately, I’ve been thinking about the idea of the inner pulse and actually how so many times it is about matching.

When we’re trying to do something, we’re trying to move forward and do something that seems external to us and is finding that reflection, that internal reflection that we have.

And so rhythm is a perfect example. I have a client who’s been working with the metronome and has made tremendous amount of progress, but has recently become stuck on a certain level of syncopation.

And so I was listening to the recordings, and it was like I said “like you and the metronome, you’re both riding on the same bus. You’re sitting next to each other, but you’re staring at your phones and pretending you don’t know each other”.

And I was racking my brains, and we’ve been doing a wonderful guest coaching, if I may mention that, today with Mister Dave Smith, an awesome drummer, and he’s been working with us on the internal pulse. And I was realising that’s what’s missing, is connecting with that internal pulse on that level.

So this person’s fine on connecting with quarter notes, but it was connecting with the 16th notes, it was not, they were not really placing them.

And so I’ve been thinking a lot about this idea of finding that internal pulse, finding that internal pulse.

And we talked about finding your note. It’s just a very similar thing. They’re both frequencies of vibration and finding that internal pulse. And then once you find it inside, it’s much easier to then go ahead and match it with something else.

But if you can’t find it inside, it’s really hard to match it. It always feels like an alien, like Zac was saying.

So that’s what I had to offer for today.

Christopher: That’s really cool. I love how you somehow managed to tie it in with singing everything’s a vibration, right? Like Nikola Tesla. Fantastic.

Thank you. I always so love the variety that comes out in these conversations. I hope some of these ideas today on singing, on honesty and vulnerability, and on pulse and rhythm and metronome being your friend, not the – what was the word you used, Zac?

Zac: I didn’t make that up. My client said that. “An external dominating force”.

Christopher: Dominating force. Gosh.

Andrew: Like a tyrant.

Zac: Yeah. Like a tyrant.

Christopher: A tyrant. Yeah, getting away from the tyrant view and relationship with the metrome and making it your buddy.

Fantastic insights, as always. Thank you guys, for joining me today, and we’ll look forward to seeing you again soon on the next Coaches Corner.

Cheers!

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