Why Many Professional Musicians Discount Solfege

"All those weird words just get in the way, just look at the notes and sing them!"

It is very common in discussions of ear training and music teaching to find professional musicians who feel that all forms of sight singing training relying a syllables (solfege, numbers, letter names, etc.) is a waste of time or even detrimental.

There is a reason for this.

When you have spent your whole life speaking only one language, say English, and then try to learn another language, say French, you go through three steps for each new word or phrase:

1) Hear/See the French word

2) Translate it to the English word

3) Discern the meaning

For example:

You see the word "chat"

You translate that (in your head) to "cat"

You see the image of a cat in your head

Mastery of language doesn't come until you can see/hear "chat" and immediately see the image of a feline in your head WITHOUT the intermediary step of thinking the English word "cat"

There are many philosophies of language education, and of music education as well.  Many language teachers agree that it is helpful for some students to learn how to translate the foreign language into their native tongue.

This is where solfege (or any sight reading method) comes in:

You see the note

You translate it to a syllable (do, re, mi; 1, 2, 3; A, B, C)

You hear the pitch in your head

OR

You hear the pitch

You translate it to a syllable (do, re, mi; 1, 2, 3; A, B, C)

You see the notation in your head

The problem is that many professional musicians learned music without an intermediary step (Like learning French without knowing English) so the process of translating makes no sense to them, and seems like an unnecessary extra step.

If you can see a pitch and immediately hear it in your head, or hear a pitch and immediately know what the notation is, then these systems weren't created for you.

They are for those of us who grew up without the language of music, and could use some assistance translating it. Want a free lesson in solfege and music reading?  If you live in the Boston area you can come to my studio, and if you don't, I do online lessons around the world via Skype, the first lesson is always free!  Let me know in the comments, or check out www.ChristopherGKeene.com

Why The Dedicated Always Win Out In The End

"I'm just not as talented as he is"

In the first weeks, months, and even years of competition between peers in any field, the advantage goes to the 'naturally gifted', the 'talented', the 'gifted'.

We've all seen it: the highschooler who gets every lead in the musicals, the young salesman that consistently outsells his coworkers, the kid on track team that no one can seem to keep pace with.

But what happens 10, or 5, or even 2 years down the road?

Let's take our imaginary "talented' youth, say they are a gifted dancer, and name them Billy.

And let's take another, shall we say "less gifted" (read: clumsy) dancer, named Zoey.

For at least the first few years of their dancing lives, Billy will consistently outperform Zoey, that's just the way things are, some people are better than others, and you need to accept there's always someone better than you.

But what does Billy learn about dance by being so good?

In many cases, Billy learns that dance is easy and requires no work or discipline.  While others in the studio must practice for hours to master a move, Billy practices for 5 minutes and nails it.  While other students need help from dance teachers and coaches, Billy thinks he's already got it all figured out and doesn't listen to the voices of experience.  Even when Billy is more amenable to instruction and hard work, he rarely learns to spend the kind of daily practice time most professional dancers do.  Billy started out as a 8/10 dancer, and after 3 years is still a solid 8/10.

Zoey on the other hand, sees that while she is not fantastic, when she practices (a lot) she gets better.  With proper encouragement and a supportive environment (good teachers and parents) she is rewarded for dedication and hard work, and has the intrinsic reward of getting better at something she loves.  She starts out as a 1/10 dancer, and every 6 months gets one level better through hard work and discipline.  3 years later, she is a 7/10 dancer.

Zoey is still not as good as Billy.

At this point a lot of Zoeys give up, and are encouraged to do so by well-meaning parents, friends and teachers that say "it's just not your thing, find a safe career".

BUT THIS IS THE TIPPING POINT

This is the moment where, if the dedication continues, she will start to match Billy's ability, and soon OVERTAKE him.

Zoey CONSISTENTLY improves, and eventually that will ALWAYS win over "natural talent"

Now the topic of whether or not "natural talent" even exists is a whole other blog post, I personally don't believe in it, but even if you do, take solace in the fact that with hard work and dedication, you can surpass any "natural" at anything. What did you used to be terrible at?  What have you worked your butt off to improve on?  Share in the comments!

How To Have More Energy Than a Nuclear Reactor

"I'm pretty introverted and low-key, but once I get to know you, I start to come out of my shell"

This line always gets a laugh.

I use it in every interview, and often use it when meeting new people, it's a crowd pleaser.

Why?

Because I'm the highest energy person you will ever meet in your life (including 5 year olds, I wear them OUT)

I constantly hear from friends and colleagues: "How can you be so full of energy!?"

What would it mean to you to achieve a consistently high level of energy?  What could you accomplish?

Here are some concrete strategies I use to maintain an irrationally high level of energy in all that I do:

1) Get More Sleep Than You Need:  I often sleep 10+ hours on my days off.  On days I work I will sneak a half hour nap before dinner.  The sleep adds up, and while I burn the candle at both ends while working, when I take time off I frequently am awake less than 5 hours a day.  No one can run on all cylinders forever, take the time your body needs to recover and store energy, then give it some more.

2) Be Physically Active:  When Richard Branson, one of the world's most successful businessmen, was asked how he stayed so productive, his two word answer was "work out".  It's paradoxical, we don't want to believe that something that makes us tired can give us more energy, but in the long run, the vitality and buzz you get from being active and having a body ready to respond to your desires is worth every ounce of sweat.

3)  Give Your Body The Right Fuel:  My personal dietary choices are rather eclectic and I believe that everyone's body is unique and you need to find the nutritional path that works for you.  That being said, you wouldn't put diesel in a Prius, you wouldn't put jet fuel in a Harley Davidson, and you wouldn't put vegetable oil in a Aircraft Carrier.  Different vehicles require different fuel, so do some reading, talk to a doctor (preferably a healthy one) and figure out what works for your body, then give it the absolute best.  As a general guideline, whole foods treat the body well, when in doubt: drink more water, and avoid putting things you can't pronounce in your mouth.

4)  Interact With Young People:  Children and young people have insanely high energy levels, especially considering the fact they live on cheetos and almost never sleep.  Being around them every day keeps me on my toes and keeps my energy at a peak level as long as they're near.  Find a way to interact with kids, if you don't teach then volunteer at an afterschool program, coach a soccer team, babysit for a friend, or get busy making some little energy enhancers of your own.

5)  Find Your Passion:  This is an entire blog series and book of it's own, but when you find something to do all day that rewards you not just financially but emotionally as well, you'll find yourself anticipating the alarm clock rather than dreading it.  When I know i have a group of passionate musicians waiting to sing with me every morning, I wake up ready to go and with a skip in my step, even with 3 hours of sleep.  Finding work you are so passionate about that it feels like play is the true secret to having high energy in every part of your life.

6)  Love Everyone:  Try to find something to love and compliment about everyone you meet and interact with.  It starts an unstoppable reciprocal cycle and you will soon find that every interaction you have shifts from draining to empowering.  The smile on a friends face when they thank you for the letter you sent, or the satisfaction of seeing a coworker blush at your praising words to their supervisor, or the look on a kids face when they learn something new from you and you let them know how proud you are of them is the kind of energy that is long-lasting, sustaining and life-building.  Caffeine ain't got nothing on love.

Don't bite off more than you can chew, choose one suggestion and commit to it for 21 days (the scientifically proven sticking point for a new habit)

If you make it that far, it should be automatic, and you can come back and try the next tip, I guarantee if you aren't already doing them, any one of these will skyrocket your energy levels and you won't want to turn back.

Which tip are you going to try?  Do you have suggestions of your own?  Share them in the comments:

The Power of "Sleeping On It"

"Let me sleep on it"

It's the bane of salesmen everywhere, because they realize it is a thinly veiled replacement for "I don't want your services but I don't want to make you feel bad by saying no"

Let's look at it in a new context though.

Brain research at major universities shows that we tend to retain what we study in the half hour before we go to sleep.

This is because the brain will fixate and work on anything we put before it in those moments before slumber.

What do most people do with these valuable learning moments?

They fret about the day they just had and what Susie said and what Bill did and why Johnny reacted that way.  And they fret about what will happen tomorrow.

So in this rich active brain time called sleep, their brains are wracking and wrecking themselves trying to come up with ways to explain or justify or rationalize these situations, and they wake up just as stressed as when they slept.

The amazing thing is, the brain doesn't just retain and review what we feed it before bed, it works on the problems and creates new solutions, if we give it the tools it needs.

This is amazing news.

Comedians often sleep with a pad of paper because they know some of the funniest jokes can come in a stroke of inspiration in the middle of the night.

Successful inventors, business men, writers do the same.

What could your brain accomplish if you gave it something constructive to "sleep on" rather than it's normal diet of gossip and stress and other people's problems?

How about reading something to expand your mind, and leaving your brain to bask in the glory of literature, or ponder the great questions of philosophy, or seek a deeper understanding of human psychology?

How about isolating a creative task you'd like to accomplish in your life and fixating on it before bed each night, a concrete goal, writing a novel, losing 100 pounds, running a marathon, recording an album, landing a leading role?

If you work on something 1 hour a day, in a month you have 30 hours of work.

If your brain works on it every night as you sleep, in a month you have 240 hours of work.

That's 10 FULL DAYS a month of work on ANYTHING YOU WANT TO ACCOMPLISH.  Don't flush it down the drain!

Activate the power of "sleeping on it" and you could find your progress accelerated 100 fold!

Assignment: Pick a concrete goal or a solvable issue in your life and fixate on it before bed tonight, focusing on getting out of the way of the solution.  Keep a pad of paper and a pen nearby, and write down anything that comes to you in the night.  Thank your brain in the morning.

What are you going to sleep on tonight?  Share in the comments.