It's All in Your Head

I was reading a couple books lately that expanded my mindset regarding how to approach playing. They were really quite liberating, and reminded me that sometimes we have to give ourselves permission to do things that we might initally reject. 

The first is Thinking in Jazz, a thick tome that draws on extensive interviews with jazz artists on how they learned to play, and how their thinking evolved over time. Admittedly I'm not done with it yet, but so far it's been a real eye-opener.

The second is What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars, written by a man who had risen to the pinnacle of commodities trading, then lost it all due to his own self-admitted psychological hangups. This book is much shorter but no less important. 

So what do they have in common? Both illustrate that success can come from any number strategies. In fact, two different people may even employ seemingly contradictory strategies to arrive at the same successful outcome. Don't be afraid to experiment with new approaches, even if they seem a little daft at first.

On the other hand, the paths to failure are relatively few, and usually involve a problem between the ears. Barring any physical issues (e.g. It's the end of the night and your chops are hanging by a thread) any time you blame the drummer, the guy next to you, the sax section, anyone other than yourself for a recurring problem, you've got a cognitive or perceptual issue that prevents you from playing the passage correctly.

That being said, don't take it personally. Everyone makes mistakes, even recurring mistakes. It takes some curiosity and persistence to figure it out, but you'll be glad you did. You'll probably learn more than you bargained for. 

Oh yes, and one more thing- Jim Paul points out that we shouldn't take any particular instance of success personally either. Maybe you just got lucky. 

Back to the woodshed!