My Keywords

Each January, I pick a word for the year. I use choosing my keyword as an invitation to review the past year and ponder and dream about the year ahead. I call them keywords because keywords are connected to other words and other ideas. For me, they take the place of resolutions.

Below is the list of the keywords I have chosen to date.

• 2009: DISCIPLINE. I was taking the first steps in building my music career. I had been blogging for about 6 months and was looking for footholds in teaching and gigging.
• 2010: NOURISH. This keyword helped me battle burnout by remembering the importance self care. I also began to really understand and accommodate the energy cycles being self-supervised involves.
• 2011: EMBODY.  I had just returned from Tenerife in the Canary Islands and I wanted “to spend the next year becoming what I glimpsed about music and improvisation in Africa.”
• 2012: CREATE. This keyword led to a year of business-building activities like re-launching my workshops and private lesson studio.
• 2013: START. I was beginning work on my grant-funded vocal work and had little idea of how to begin.
• 2014: PRESENT. This was the year I presented my first full-length improv composition Between: A Journey Through the Middle. It was a whirlwind of a year filled with big shows, new workshops and many, many gigs.
• 2015: RELEASE. I originally chose the word because I wanted to share more of the music I create with more people, but 2015 became about releasing expectations.
• 2016: HEART. I felt this keyword guiding me as I worked on my (successful *smile*) album funding proposal and as I processed the events before and after November 2016’s election.
• 2017 – FLOURISH. I knew I had a lot to accomplish in 2017 and I wanted it to be a year of planting seeds for future growth.
• 2018 – REPLENISH. Fresh off a 30-day Kickstarter campaign and 3 days in the studio live tracking What the Music Says Do, I was in need of some rest and relaxation.