More than a year ago, my singer friend and mentor Bruce gave me an assignment to create some set lists. It came out of conversations about how I could find a repertoire I wanted to sing. He suggested that I imagine scenarios — “What if you had to sing two songs tomorrow at Carnegie Hall?” “How would you arrange a two-hour concert?” — and figure out what songs I would want to sing in each case.
(My percussionist brother gave me basically the same advice again earlier this summer.)
Have I completed this eminently concrete and useful “assignment?”
Uh … no.
…
Then, in August, I heard Seth Godin speak at the Pantages theater. He distributed a miniature workbook called ShipIt. ShipIt is a workbook designed to help you finish your thing and send it (actually ship it) out into the world. The key piece of advice on how to use said workbook?
Write in it.
(And if you’re wondering if I’ve filled in my workbook, you can stop wondering. No.)
…
I seem incredibly resistant to this advice to write things down so I had to ask myself why.
A lot of it is my issues with starting.
I feel incredibly tentative when I start trying to figure something out.
One of the things I learned in Italy is that this shows up in my improvising, too. (Surprise, surprise.)
…
Writing this blog has let me (forced me to *grin*) practice starting week after week. I learned from writing post after post, that even when I don’t have any idea what to say when I sit down, there is always a point where momentum takes over.
I write down what resonates.
Everything that resonates, whether it connects or not.
I move these ideas and thoughts around until connections start to form. All of the sudden, I’ve sorted out what I have to say and I can see the way through to the end of the post.
(It feels like a “click.”)
…
Over the last couple of years of blogging (and improvising!), I was delighted to discover that if I could just getting moving, I could usually see a direction. What to do next reveals itself. That’s what happened with the Passion Pays the Bills series of posts. I wrote the original list and then figured out each post’s content as I went.
For my next developmental step, however, I think I need to practice starting in more intentional ways. It’s not that I need to have everything figured out at the start, but I need to be more deliberate in selecting which ideas, projects and opportunities to pursue.
That’s where writing stuff down comes in. (I think. *smile*)
…
As we say in my family, lessons are repeated until they are learned, so it won’t surprise you to hear that a few weeks ago, my bass player friend Anthony suggested I sit down and — you guessed it — do so some writing.
He thought it could help me find a way to expand my Songtaneous message (I’ve been procrastinating updating the Songtaneous web site) and find connections between the motifs of my musical goals and my self-employed existence.
I felt pretty discouraged by my first attempt, but I’ve noticed things shifting over the past few weeks. Ideas for projects and people with whom I’d like to work have been surfacing.
Don’t worry, I’ve been writing them down. (*wink*)
