Practicing Mindmap

Today I sat down to make a practice log template in Notion for my students, and then this happened…

🤯.

All of my former students know I’m constantly shouting “logistics” from the rooftops. Come on, I know too.

But, this truly surprised me to see how many areas of our forward-facing practice and performance habits trace back to roots tied to preparation and intentionality.

Performance coachings are commonly in service of extracting our best musical selves, but often the friction or gap that is uncovered is several phases back in this process.

We end up skipping so many steps unintentionally. Practicing is very much an iceberg-meme situation; much of the work is underwater and in preparation phases — before we are ever in the room with the instrument.

Fall always represents a return to this methodology for me. My primary goal with my first year university students is to establish practice habits - a healthy balance, great strategies, and supportive, compounding methods for growth.

I hope to share more on this through the month of September (and I really need to get back to that Notion template…) In the meantime, I would love to know:

>> What is on your mind surrounding the topic of practicing?

Drop me a line! 🆎

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P.S. If you’re curious, this software is called MindNode. It’s absolutely one of my favorite platforms to go when I need to think or pursue some mental untangling!

Batman & Robin

I’m continuing to build out my M1 MacBook Pro workstation, and recently picked up the CalDigit TS3 Plus. I’ve now tried it at two stations and am already loving it. If the MacBook Pro is Batman, this thing is Robin. It’s much, much smaller than I expected, which makes it easy to toss in a bag for a hotel stay or a day trip. In that way, the power cable is a hassle, but much more portable than most peripherals.

Yesterday I hooked it up via the “Thunderbolt 3” Host port and confirmed it charges my laptop (Holy Smokes!…no power brick needed!), and hooked my external monitor up to the Thunderbolt 3 Downstream port for now (I need to read up a bit on optimum usage of the various USB-C ports vs. Thunderbolt). Then came the USB-A peripheral party: my Canon multifunction printer (which I suppose could go wireless eventually), my ScanSnap ix500, my Logitech webcam, and finally my beloved Focusrite 2i2 to power my monitor speakers. A quick switch of the audio outputs, and BOOM, POW, SHAZAM — no more laptop speaker music. Woohoo!

I also added my ethernet cable and the back was quickly filled up. I was pleased to see that the front audio ports popped up clearly in my system preferences, which will come in handy. I’m also so happy to have an SD card slot at the ready from now on for video editing as I move toward some upcoming YouTube projects.

Some Hops in my Rattle Collection

Pretty pumped to add this 3 Floyds Brewing Bottle Cap Rattle to my percussion inventory. Sounds great, extra colorful, and tons of hops!

Thanks to Upcycled Percussion for helping me pick this up. You can check out lots of other cool percussion offerings on their Reverb shop here.

Make Music Knoxville

I was fortunate to direct Elliot Cole’s Flowerpot Music with Nief-Norf & friends for the first ever Make Music Day event in Knoxville. Always such a pleasure to get out and enjoy our local Ijam’s Nature Center here in town and make some music with the local community!

Logitech Reboot

I still remember how excited I was when we bought the Logitech Harmony All-in-One remote back in the mid-90s, which allowed you to program all your devices to one remote control, including your TV, VCR, etc. It was amazing, and little did I know, the beginnings of my interests in home automation.

I’ve been using the Apple Magic Mouse for many years now but was recently inspired to check out other options. I picked up the Logitech Craft keyboard and the MX Master 3 for Mac mouse and now I’m in love with them both.

My Apple Magic Keyboard had lost its underside grips and would slide under my hands daily when I typed; having the Logitech Craft now, I can’t believe I waited this long to explore better options. It’s very heavy, I love the way the keys feel when I type (like right now!), and I’ve had no problems pairing it via Bluetooth.

It also hosts some Power User features I didn’t have before, specifically the ability to pair it simultaneously with multiple Bluetooth radios. I have mine set for band 1 to go to my M1 MacBook Pro, band to goes to my 12.9” iPad Pro, and band 3 goes to my iPhone. This makes various tasks throughout the day much faster, and I love being able to work from one station.

I’m also really enjoying the MX Master 3 mouse. The ergonomics are great, I’ve used the left thumb forward/back buttons often, and like that I can easily scroll at two different speeds. I’m still struggling to get used to the bottom thumb button, as I’ve found it to be about an inch behind where my thumb naturally rests.

All in all, very excited to add these two items to my workflow. Moving to a laptop-only lifestyle has been an adjustment, but having these at my workstations has certainly been an upgrade and brought some delight to daily tasks.

The Great Studio Build-Out Begins…

Today is a very exciting day. I’ve been working behind the scenes for months on a new studio upgrade that is inline with a lot of professional goals I have. For those of you who have been around for awhile you likely noticed a face lift on my website recently, which allows me to automate and upgrade my forthcoming newsletter as well as regular scheduling for clients and colleagues.

However, in addition to this, I’ve recently written and received a grant that will be focused on overhauling some of my instruments and significantly bolstering my audio, video, and lighting equipment for content creation. That process begins today with the first item arriving—a 13” M1 MacBook Pro.

I have been an iMac user for 16 years and have had a desktop computer for as long as I remember. My family had an Apple IIe, in high school and college I had a custom built PC, and then when I began grad school I bought an iMac. I love working at a desk and as I’ve proclaimed earlier, am obsessed with large work spaces. I’ve had laptops along the way, but have always had a desktop as my main machine.

However, I’ve always been frustrated by how dialed in I get my home machine, and much of that work doesn’t transfer to my laptop or my desktop at work. At home I have Hazel automating in the background, certain settings in apps like Apple Mail are tweaked, or even something as simple as a new desktop wallpaper may be missing. All kinds of small things occur and I never want to go back and do those a 2nd, or especially, a 3rd time on another machine. In general there is maintenance to multiple machines as well from software updates to battery life, and the friction really adds up.

So, with the announcement of the new Apple Silicon chips, I’ve decided to give the laptop lifestyle a chance. It’s a bit terrifying, but over the coming weeks, I’m planning to (attempt) to merge everything from my home iMac, work iMac, and work laptop (my rock solid 2012 MacBook Air) onto this new 13” M1 MacBook Pro which has been fully upgraded to include 16GB of Ram and a 2TB hard drive. This machine is going to drive audio/video recording sessions as well as all of my daily computing, and I can’t wait to get it fully optimized. Much more to come on this transition and all the equipment coming for the new studio. Until then, it’s a bittersweet day as I step out into new territory with this laptop.

Following Our Artistic Muse

I had a jam-packed, but inspiring, day today which included a business coaching, a collaboration check-in, a faculty task force meeting, applied lessons, and a board meeting. Despite the wide range of these activities I’m often surprised to find through-lines as I shift contexts throughout days like these.

Today’s invisible line surrounded the idea of our artistic muse. My brilliant theory colleague today said (paraphrasing) he has struggled in the past to bring new inspirations to the forefront of his teaching when he viewed his teaching as music theory. However, he recently flipped the equation to be that he teaches logic, equity, and critical thinking (for example) through the medium of music theory. I could not agree with this statement more. As a mentor, teaching percussionists stroke types or rudiments can quickly lead to burnout after decades of this material.

Later today, I attended the Day 3 of 5 of Jennifer Rosenfeld’s business coaching webinar. She had this great line that stuck with me in her discussion:

How do we bring our artistic selves into our business and make space for that, using it as a source of teaching and inspiration for the people that we are serving?

When I heard that I had to check myself to make sure I wasn’t still in the last meeting! I’ve had some success even this semester working with students in real time on topics that are ever-changing and relevant. It’s one of the reasons I’ve moved away from strict curricular structures. I’ve found that some of the best exchanges with students have come from spontaneous learning, often surrounding inspiration from current events, trends, or exposure. Furthermore, I strive to play my instruments as often as possible, because nothing keeps me energized, inspired, and able to relate to the students like a hard practice session earlier in the day.

PAS Board of Advisors

I was honored to learn that I was recently elected to serve a 2nd term on the PAS Board of Advisors. The full announcement is available here.

I’ve been a member of the Percussive Arts Society since 2000 and have thoroughly enjoyed serving this organization in many capacities over the years. I’ve grown a great deal by attending their annual PASIC event each November, and to this day it remains a highlight of my year, seeing friends new and old, and picking up some inspiration to take back to my teaching and performance.

Looking forward to another few years helping out as best as I know how.

Stepping Off the Merry-Go-Round

I’ve had an enjoyable afternoon looking at the last 24 months of my professional activity and asking myself the 3 big review questions:

• What should I start doing?

• What should I keep doing?

• What should I stop doing?

Prompted by a session Jennifer Rosenfeld is giving online this week, it felt great to carve out the time to stop producing, and just reflect. A mentor of mine always used to call this getting off the merry-go-round, and he was a master at planning and implementation. I have a regular weekly/monthly/quarterly review process and these questions come up regularly, but specifically this time I got out my calendar and clicked through each week, reflecting on the pros and cons of some of my past decisions.

I opened up a page in my Baron Fig Confidant Notebook, and after doing some work, eventually transferred a more polished version into Notion. I now have this document for easy review, any time I want to add to it down the road or review while making a decision.

I encourage you to give this exercise a try. And if you do, shoot me a note and let me know how it went. It’s widely known that saying “No” can be difficult, but cleaning up the map of our past can make the road forward a little less hazy.

Elevating Performance Atmosphere

I know, I know—musicians don’t need yet another thing to worry about in addition to performing. Trust me, as a percussionist (read: logistical ninja) I’m fully on board with musicians being able to focus on their performing and having an appropriate staff to handle production. However, I’ve recently been expanding my Gear Cage to include some LED lights (Affiliate Link) and a DMX control board (Affiliate Link). Having these items handy has been incredibly easy to implement into my performance practice, and it can take an otherwise non-inspiring performance space and make it a focused listening environment.

I’ve found the physical controller gives a lot of creative options throughout a performance, and it has a robust amount of programming options to align with an artistic vision. For example, at the Nief-Norf Summer Festival, our team programs more than a dozen concerts over two weeks. The Sandra G. Powell Recital Hall at the University of Tennessee is gorgeous, but in the end, it is still a Recital Hall. We’ve had a lot of success transforming the space by installing quad-speaker surround sound, having a pre-show playlist, and most of all, by doing our own lighting design.

Performing Christopher Burns’ Constellations at the Big Ears Festival. DMX Lighting placed around the stage and interacting with the performance.

It’s of course possible to elevate the controls through DAW usage as well, automating them or causing them to interact with the performance in many ways. The options here are endless. But for entry-level usage, a pair of lights and an analog controller can transform an after-hours book store into a community performance venue. For around $300, this combination can do a lot for a performance, and I see musicians spend far more on other equipment that sometimes gets them far less.