Author: jafjazz

I saw this image on the door of a voice teacher last year, and it made me laugh and think: All too often we hear our parents, teachers, and friends say that "the road is not straight," but I've found that all too often we forget about this graphic while we're working on things. Generally, … Continue reading What Success Actually Looks Like

I've been wanting to start writing again for years now, but starting a blog always seemed too daunting. In part, I'm hesitant to start something I know I won't ever finish. More than that though, I've always thought there's too much advice and information online already. You can practically ask Siri what the meaning of … Continue reading Preface: Discovering the Whole World

I'll keep the engineer involved in this story anonymous, but this one is too good not to tell. A friend of mine somehow got the gig to provide sound for a national catering convention. In other words, it was a luau of representatives from companies selling mayonnaise, plastic silverware, and pizza boxes pitching their products … Continue reading Gig Stories 2: A Near Audio Accident

I couldn't make a blog and not have posts devoted to gig stories. Feel free to add your own or comment below. To kick things off, this is probably #1 in my "hall of fame" so to speak. The Cheese Wheel of Doom In the winter of my senior year, I got a very strange … Continue reading Gig Stories 1: The Cheese Wheel of Doom

One of my few "manly" pastimes is watching sports, especially basketball. In addition to the pure excitement of the contest, there is something about the strategy and consistency required for the game that fascinates me. More specifically, basketball is a game defined by changes in momentums and streaks. When a player gets "hot," it often … Continue reading Buzzer Beaters: Functioning Under Stress

In addition to sports, I also enjoy watching cooking shows. This one I can't justify with any kind of artistic motivation...I like to eat, and watching people make food is funny most of the time! That said, I have noticed one interesting trend that applies to pretty much any competition situation: the simple dishes like … Continue reading Fruit Salad Failings: The Difficulty of Doing Something Simple

To those of you who don't enjoy sports, I'm sorry to make yet another basketball post. For some reason, sports analogies seem to get at the core issues of performance art and life. In the words of Boston sports analyst Tommy Heinsohn, the best basketball players know how to respond when the other team "takes … Continue reading Plan B: Developing Versatility

Formally called “ironic process theory,” trying not to think about something or trying not to do something is one of the hardest things for the human mind. If someone tells you not to think about pink elephants, guess what? You think about pink elephants. Here are a few common examples of how that works in the … Continue reading Don’t Think About Pink Elephants

How do you know what to play? How do you learn how to interact with people? How do you keep an overall structure in mind while being "in the moment"? Both young Jazz musicians and music teachers ask these kinds of questions all the time, trying to figure out how to learn and pass on … Continue reading Learning Music as a Language: A Starter’s Guide

Reading about an aural tradition sometimes seems unnecessary, as practically all of the Jazz masters learned their craft from studying recordings. Still, I have found a few books especially profound, as they articulate artistic approaches, practice techniques, and experiences on the road. Here are some of my suggestions: Wynton Marsalis: To a Young Jazz Musician … Continue reading Good Jazz Reads