TALK
TALK
Successful
Actions - July, 2005
0. I always operate on postulates and I always postulate the
ideal scene. This means whatever I want to achieve I imagine
it as already done and achieved in my universe until it is actually
done in the physical universe.
1. Make sure I'm on purpose as an artist meaning I'm not in
treason. Passion is everything and if one is not doing exactly
what they want, how can you expect to have any passion? Audience's
aren't stupid; they know sincerity and passion. Example: if
my hat and passion is progressive jazz fusion than that's what
I do and promote up the conditions no matter what anybody else
says or what the industry says. I never consult with anyone
regarding my purpose other than myself! And anybody or anything
that gets in my way is politely ignored and/or removed as the
case may warrant. Once I achieve what I wanted in an area, I
keep doing those things that got me there and/or move on to
a new game or area.
2.
I'm very product and service oriented meaning I finish to professional
competitive industry standards all products - CD's videos, DVD's,
music instruction manuals, performances etc. The key thing here
is finish so it can be released and exchanged with the public.
( A CD idea in one's head is not a valuable final product. You
must confront the time and money and production barriers and
finish the bloody thing! Waiting for that illusive record deal
is totally being a victim. I wait for no one and depend on no
one!) Professional industry standards means how does it stand
up to the standard that's currently selling or has been exchanged
in the past? One has to be brutally honest here, doesn't one?
If one is a singer and sings a little out of tune, then one
handles this; if one is a drummer and one's time is weak, well
get it handled. Promoting a weak product and/or service doesn't
work. When and if it does, it eventually fails anyway and besides,
pride and accomplishment and work ethic apply here - that's
what a pro is.
3. I always try and make my products and services in my area
a knock out so they produce an incredible effect on my public
and thus get great word of mouth. So first it has to get pass
my professional standards which I have postulated to be very
high; then it has to get pass my current eval of the industry's
standards which currently are less than my own standards which
is good as if it's the other way around, you are dead! In other
words, I always try and go that extra mile and give way more
than what might be expected.
4. I do lots of personal research in order to develop the correct
business relationships to promote my products and services to.
Some people call this networking but I hate that word as that
usually relates to smoozing which i don't really do as it's
kind of pretentious etc. Personal research means - contacting
those who might be able to help in some way, surfing the internet,
reading the trade magazines, going to concerts/clubs, jamming
with others; in other words pay attention to your particular
zone. Hoping someone will contact you doesn't work. You must
flow inordinate amounts of energy outwards for that to occur.
Also, you must do it because you want to... not only for the
money and/or fame. That's why number one above is so so important.
5. There is no such thing in my universe as giving up! I just
keep on outflowing my purpose's products and services to the
researched and developed relationships until the tea kettle
whistles. If it doesn't whistle, I never let it affect me for
very long; I simply get even more determined and refine my products
and services even further until it does.
6. I always keep in communication with my developed personal
and business relationships and flow them back the energy they
flowed me when they need it... this includes my fans!!!
Happy Hunting! ...John
Music
Tip - May, 2004
The musical tip of the day is "only play notes that YOU
like and want to play!" Sounds simple but not so easy to
always do yet therein lies the way for you to communicate YOUR
inner self and that's what people really want you to do, trust
me. Don't ever deny yourself; only you can deliver your message.
Once you achieve this ability - to play honest notes - you are
already successful! The rest will follow and simply takes persistence
and passion, two other important success ingredients. And by
all means practice your music fundamentals as you will need
these tools but they are useless until you play the notes you
want to play. Amen
Death
– The Great Unmentionable! - April, 2004
Hi all. Depending on your viewpoint, this might be an interesting
post. It has to do with the loss of my wife in 2000. Watching
a beautiful woman and talented being, my soul mate, contract
breast cancer in the prime of her life and then slowly waste
away despite all efforts to the contrary was both horrific and
inspirational. I learned so much about life and death during
our 14 month ordeal that I wrote a book entitled The Song That
Never Ended. (For the full story see www.newpara.com
to order directly from the publisher.)
Now what does this have to do with music? Well nothing and everything!
Nothing because the entire 14 months was spent traveling around
the world to various clinics trying to cure her cancer. Everything
because we were two professional musicians in our primes creating
music all over the world and then wham - Mack truck time! I
can vividly remember a concert we did together while she was
fighting the disease but was still healthy enough to perform.
It was an amazing performance. We looked at each other during
the show and later discussed how better we performed that night
and then realized that this new threat in our lives had not
only raised out love for each other but made us more appreciative
of the important things in life and thus excited our passion.
And honesty and passion of course is everything when it comes
to real artistry, something in today’s quick-fix society
which is badly needed, but that’s another post.
Suffice to say we became better and better human beings as the
fight continued and even though I was devastated when she made
her transition, I am forever thankful for the hard-learned realizations
about life and love and believe it or not even the value and
purpose of not only her death but death in general. My willingness
to honestly express my true inner artistic self soared and became
effortless and I am forever humbled! So although what follows
may seem like a heavy topic, I think it’s an appropriate
one as none of us escapes it.
“The Great Unmentionable!” (Another viewpoint)
Why is this? We mention birth quite readily and we prepare for
it and celebrate it with great joy and expectation. Shouldn’t
we do the same with death? We should no more wish to cheat ourselves
of death than to cheat ourselves of life. It’s not a disease.
It’s the most natural passage and the greatest adventure
we will embark upon after birth.
Sure, the physical material world says that you are biological
units to whom death is the ultimate disaster. But in truth,
the real you cannot die. Down deep, if we care to inspect, we
all know this to be true. Life is a game. We, as immortal spiritual
beings, come here from the nonphysical inner planes of awareness—the
thought-responsive higher frequency dimension or spiritual universe,
to play and experience and learn from the experience in the
outer physical planes of awareness—the physical dimension.
When our interest in physical reality begins diminishing, either
because we have completed our work and learned our lessons or
we‘ve had enough and need a break, we make preparations,
whether we’re conscious of them or not, to depart.
In order to accomplish this, it is necessary to shed our biological
vehicle, our human body, like a butterfly and fly away to the
higher vibrational frequencies of the spirit universe. We begin
to withdraw our control of the body, our stream of life consciousness,
and of course the body starts to disintegrate. This is death
and it can take on many variations, all of which have been given
many complicated names by the medicos—cancer , heart disease,
respiratory arrest, Alzheimer’s, stroke, heart attack,
pneumonia—the list goes on and on. However it happens,
through disease or accident, there are only so many ways a body
can die, and trust me, you definitely have a hand in causing
your own death. Life and death come forth out of each other
and pass into each other via transitional states in the same
manner that sleep comes forth out of being awake and being awake
out of sleep.
In fact, sleep is a helpful analogy for death because during
sleep, we too, as with death, withdraw ourselves from the game
of life, only if for a short time. Why? We need to separate
ourselves from the reality we have created to regroup, to recharge
our spirit, mind and body and then play anew after we awake.
And interestingly enough, the ongoing course of events sees
to it that when we awake in the morning, we find ourselves in
the situation that he have created the previous day. Similarly,
when we incarnate, we enter an environment that, more or less,
depending on the lessons to be learned, corresponds to our actions,
thoughts and considerations from the previous life. So although
the physical body follows the laws of genetic evolution—of
heredity—the “spiritual body” (you), must
reincarnate over and over again, carrying the fruits or the
spoils of previous lifetimes proportional to your spiritual
improvement. Hence the mechanism of death, which is but a higher
harmonic of sleep, a longer version, if you will.
Now of course, as with sleep, one could just decide to never
wake up, but then that would be death and whoops…it’s
Groundhog Day all over again. Yikes! Apparently spirits hate
doing nothing, so playing the game of life is highly desirable.
Until a spirit reaches the state of serenity, at total peace
with its pure essence, I’m afraid we’ll be coming
back again and again and again—hence death. To further
clarify the subject of death, I have included some definitions
derived from personal research and experience. When trying to
understand any given subject, I have always found it very helpful
to define its terms.
Definitions:
BIRTH—transition from nonphysical existence to physical
existence for the sake of a game. Actually a going to sleep,
spiritually. Alternative reality for amusement, enjoyment and
learning.
OUTER LIFE—Life in the physical universe, the game being
to learn as much as possible about our spiritual abilities,
our relationship with each other and our relationship to the
Supreme Being, Infinite Light, The Force, The Source, God, Allah,
Buddha, Love, whatever name you want to call it, through the
randomity created by our physical entanglements as a baby, child,
teenager, adult, elder. These entanglements all seem to fall
somewhere between the opposites of pain and pleasure, more or
less, and include such harmonic dichotomies as know and not-know,
love and hate, success and failure, good and bad, beauty and
ugliness, black and white, past and future, communication and
no communication, sane and insane, night and day, male and female,
rich and poor, truth and lies, war and peace, God and the Devil,
liberal and conservative, genius and idiot, be and not be, do
and not do, have and not have, noise and music, and so on—you
get the idea. But they are ALL harmonics of life and death,
which, in fact is an illusion, as a spiritual being cannot die,
but his biological vehicle can! And the best way to play this
game is to consciously know that you are playing a game that
you yourself have chosen to take part in it, right down to the
specific characters and plot. In other words, you could, if
you choose to remember this ability (your call), affect any
outcome of the game you want(success or failure is your call,
your lessons). You can also choose to stay within the game,
or leave as you wish. This of course takes advanced spiritual
awareness and responsibility, which is not readily taught in
educational systems on earth unless you responsibly seek it.
DEATH—Graduation! Withdrawal of the awareness of awareness
unit—YOU! (If someone told you to create an imaginary
cat in your mind and you did it, the “you” who did
it is you, the spirit, the awareness of awareness unit. After
all, who do you think is viewing the imaginary cat?!) Transition
to a higher frequency without your biological vehicle. Journey
back to home universe.. An awakening from the amnesia of physical
life. End of Virtual Reality Game Program called “life”!
INNER LIFE—Life in the spirit, nonphysical, between-lives
dimension. Assessment of lessons learned. Soul searching. Life
review. Damage control. Rest and relaxation (R&R) from all
of life’s physical entanglements—time, bodies, politics,
government, taxes, money, war, crime, greed, corruption, loss,
dishonesty, drugs, making a living, relationship problems, jealousy,
bill collectors, bad movies, awful music(Kenny G, Yanni, Madonna,
Britney Spears, etc), TV, the news, disease, pain and sex, etc.—that
help us learn valuable lessons through their challenges. There
are many spiritual planes, actually, because these planes of
existence are thought-responsive, more or less, and created
both individually and collectively. There are no static states
such as heaven and hell, other than what we create for ourselves.
REINCARNATION—Not again! Will I ever get it right? Reentry
into the physical universe and if you’re lucky, maybe
your amnesia shields will work and you’ll remember who
you really are! (Or maybe you are not supposed to remember because
that would ruin the game.) Apparently, reincarnation is only
necessary if YOU decide so, based on your last life’s
performance.
And if you want, you can wait for a while and greet your loved
ones when they graduate! But apparently, since life is a game,
reincarnation is more fun than sitting in heaven watching all
the fun, because otherwise we’d all still be in heaven,
right? Start of new Virtual Reality Game Program—hopefully
better than the last one! Use the Force this time, Luke! Better
yet…use the Source—YOU!
The best way to prepare for death—which by the way produces
a better life—is to
(1) live a life based on spiritual principles—unconditional
love and service to others. (note: This is the viewpoint I now
have when I play music for others and boy does it make a positive
difference in my performances)
(2) realize that you are an immortal spiritual being who was
given a body—incarnated—to learn valuable lessons
and when it’s time, you will graduate and go home. Embrace
the journey. Be excited about it. Admire it! It’s your
joyous transition—your liberation back to your home universe.
There is NOTHING to fear.
(3) If you
know or sense your time is near, resolve all unfinished business
and conflicts and delegate your duties to someone you trust.
In other words, you should set, if possible, all of your worldly
affairs in order so you can completely detach from them when
the time comes. If this is not possible, due to a sudden death,
then put ALL of this behind you as you exit as if it never existed,
and do it guiltlessly, by the way. You are graduating, so celebrate,
open your heart to your new enlightened state of being! (4)
At the moment of death—it is best to prepare for this
with some practice—focus your total attention on the Supreme
Being in whatever form you desire—God, The Light, Infinity,
etc. We are all part of God, the Light, etc., so by focusing
on this spiritual truth, this Infinity, we mirror enlightenment
instead of fear and other coarser lower-type wavelengths. And
the higher your wavelength is at the moment of transition—in
other words, the higher your awareness , which is solely in
your hands and your postulate—the better the afterlife
and the better the next incarnation. Don’t just die! Soar
to your higher self. Fly! And who knows, if you’ve learned
all your lessons, you may not have to come back and lesson to
easy listening elevator music ever again. Or at least, you will
come back in good shape!
The Song That Never Ended is available at www.newpara.com at
Amazon.com. Also an autographed copy is available at my on line
store.
Later… John
Technology vs. Musicianship. - May, 1996
All right, let's get this sorted out as this topic comes up
a lot at my seminars and in e mail questions. Technology is
supposed to be a systematic method, a tool if you will, for
attaining a specified and/or practical result; not a substitute,
and a poor one I might add, for musicianship or the lack thereof.
Did the lack of sophisticated technology (tape recorders, drum
machines, samplers, computers and sequencers, MIDI, etc.) dampen
the creative output and/or the quality of the great masters
from Bach to Charlie Parker? Of course not!
So what's happening here today? Where are the artists? Where
are those individuals who have taken the time to research and
master and pioneer new areas relative to their musical goals?
Where are the new Coltranes, Parkers, Jarretts, Bill Evanses,
the Coreas, the Art Tatums, the Stravinskys, the Bachs, the
Beethovens, the Mozarts, etc.? Where are the great rock and
roll artists - the Beatles, the Creams, the Whos, the Traffics,
the Led Zeppelins, the Hendrixes, the Emersons, the Yeses, etc.?
What's happening here? Where is artistic integrity, technique,
intonation (singing in tune), playing in tune, melody, harmony,
improvisational ability, originality, or even the ability to
play a whole song through from beginning to end without having
to quantize, cut, copy and paste?
Let's look at this more closely. In today's fast lane quest
for instant gratification - a symptom of the West and not of
the East where practicing Aikido for 20 years is considered
normal and necessary - we're told to take this pill for fast
relief, or go on that quack weight-loss diet or buy a lottery
ticket and become a millionaire overnight, sample a groove instead
of creating our own, quantize a phrase because we can't play
it correctly, punch in every word of a vocal track because we
can't sing in tune longer than a nanosecond, use a computer
because we're either too lazy to play and interact with other
musicians or couldn't anyway if we had the chance as that would
mean that we would really have to be this almost extinct being
called a musician! Yet society's addiction to quick-fix thinking
is leading us to artistic, social and personal suicide.
Now am I saying there is no place for technology? Hell no, as
long as they are tools to carry out musical ideas. But when
they become substitutes for inabilities, it shows in the end
product. (Ever listen to the difference between a drum track
programmed by a real musician/drummer as compared to someone
who should be selling hamburgers? Sure, I realize these 'musicia'
and their 'devices' have produced hit songs and have enabled
a lot of people to dabble in the musical arts and produce a
product. But take a good overall listen. What are you hearing?
We are on a dwindling spiral. The musical arts are fast becoming
third-rate facsimiles of the past because new original artists
are far and few between. Why you should ask? Simple - the concept
of mastering the fundamentals of music (musicianship) is almost
nonexistent. When one is trained, and by trained I mean however
this occurs (formally in school, privately with a teacher, by
reading books which I realize is also on its way out considering
there are videos and DVD’s now, listening to and studying
other great artists, etc.), one can actually have a Viewpoint
- a stability - an ability to create something on his own and
with expertise and communicative abilities. In other words,
a trained musician (please remember the above examples of what
trained can be) knows his fundamentals and cannot only produce
what he has already studied but also produce new creations and
thus advance the art. I have yet to meet a successful and prolific
artist who didn't intensely and consistently practice his art.
Is it really talent or is talent a word we give to someone who
makes the seemingly difficult look effortless. And how did he
really do it? I'll bet my reputation that it took a lot of time,
patience, and practice.
So what's the point of all of this? Simple. First realize that
technology in the hands of a master, an expert, works a billion
times better than in the hands of an amateur. Second, the goal
is for you to master the fundamentals so you can say something
as an artist because you know what? Only you can say what you
want to say. No one else can say better what you want to say.
So if you master the fundamentals then you can say it exactly
like you want to!
The quick fix is actually the long and expensive way as one
never attains his goal. Mastery is the short and inexpensive
way because one actually becomes whatever he intended….
be it a keyboardist, singer, poet, artist, actor, composer,
arranger, producer, etc.
Until next time…. John
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