My question is this, “is this possible as an aging musician to reinvent one’s self and persevere long enough to succeed in a new direction, or are we forever stuck with the play lists of our youth?”

With the forced timeout from the pandemic, now maybe the best time to make a move. 

Here is a short list of artists who have reinvented themselves at least once in maturity.

1. Picasso
2. Miles Davis
3. David Bowie
4. David Byrne
5. J.K. Rowling
6. Henry Winkler, no kidding
7. Bob Dylan

 
“Growth comes from stepping outside your comfort zone” Dawn Staley

Easy when you are young. Harder when you are old and comfortable. 
​
Dream for a moment. Don’t worry if time is short, better to die in the saddle on the trail of a new adventure, than stuck in a chair staring at the wall I say.

David 

The mask was awkward in the beginning, now it is a key part of playing safe. Other protocols include playing in a garage with the doors open, and physically distancing. 

Winter will put an end to this soon. We will pick it up in the spring. 

​David

This will take work. Work that will get more difficult as this things drags on. 

First things don't wait for the government to solve your money problems. Taking a temp job will be better that sitting at home underpaid on government benefits waiting for a miracle. Even a temp job that pays the same as benefits. It gets you up, dressed, and out of the house, or at least interacting with humans on some level. This has got to be better than sitting alone at home stewing in our own juices.

Secondly, seek professional help, we all know in our hearts that we are looking at another year before any kind of communal music making and audience gatherings are allowed. The vaccine will need to work and then be distributed widely to a reluctant and skeptical population to do its possible magic. Ask your doctor, union rep for ideas and possibilities. 

Thirdly, take care of yourself. Sleep, exercise in sunlight, eating nutritional meals, and staying sober will up one’s chances to cope. 

Fourth, take online lessons or classes if you can swing it. I find this helpful. I interact with my drum tutor weekly, piano tutor bi-weekly. 

Fifth, stay close to your friends. Have online coffee meetups, or coffee in the park on a regular basis. 
 
Take care, 

David

1. ​Wilf Manning, high school teacher at Widdifield Secondary school in North Bay Ontario. Saw and encouraged something I couldn’t see. He sought me out before he passed, we had a beautiful lunch together. Never underestimate the effect of a gentle nudge.
2. Rufus Reid, bassist of note. Over lunch in Kentucky he gave me great insight and encouragement on a day I really needed it. I had just been taken to task for my drumming by renowned trumpeter and childhood hero of mine Bobby Shew, drum teacher to the stars Ed Soph, and vibraphonist Dick Sisto. It was ugly, they meant well, they were correct, I was heart broken.
3. Harry Forbes, at age 13 he presented me with a vision on the possibility to be a musician and how I might proceed. We still chat and play together.  
4. Ali Jackson, drummer from Lincoln Center Big Band NYC. “Bring joy to the bandstand”. Keeping it simple and musical. That was a hell of a week. Lowell Whitty this past week reminded me of the importance of keeping it simple and musical.
5. Leon Karan, pianist who when I was about to tell him my very modest goals for piano, said, “of course you are here to do your ARCT?”. Thank you, Leon. We hit it out of the park. You changed my musical direction and outlook. Nice side note: It took me years afterwards to recognize my own playing at the piano.

David

Is it possible to improve at this age? Assuming the body is able, the answer is of course an emphatic yes. Can you address the shortcomings in your skill set? Of course.

I got my time together on the drum set at age 61. Really

Do I have goals at the piano? Yes, one simple one and more complex. Be able to beautifully demonstrate for my students their repertoire levels 1 to 10. Secondly, refine my skill in teaching improvisation. You can consider which is the more complex endeavor.

Drumming goals: bring joy to the bandstand, earn a skill level equal to my piano work, and teach drums successfully to keen beginners.

For these goals I’ve created plans, made room, engaged coaches, and allocated my resources.

​David

Lockdown is imminent. What to do?

1. Stay safe and follow directions of competent health authorities. And then...

Work on our attitudes. 

Three sessions in 2 days.

1. Jazz trio around the pool. Each musician had an umbrella. We stood apart.
2. Classic rock quartet in a large recording studio. Spacing observed. Well ventilated. Singer behind and enclosed with plastic sheeting. 
3. Electronic improv trio outdoors on the patio under the starts. Almost romantic. 

Where there's a will there is a safe way. 

​David 

Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.
-Cecil Beaton

Think for a moment of your musical heroes, mentors, and villains. Did they exhibit these qualities? Did they express and live these qualities prior to obtaining success?

1. Daring, but not foolish
2. Different, but also competent
3. Impractical, but prudent and calculating
4. Singular purpose, no dilution of focus or hedging bets
5. Imagination with courage action

​They never chased a sound; they created a sound. As my mentor Bill King said in response to listening to one more mainstream jazz recording presented to him by eager hopeful shiny faces, “haven’t we made the record already?”

Have a great day.

​David  

Cognitive overload: Too much information, not enough context, too little time to process and reflect= stress, from the resulting inefficiencies in holding information in our memory for later retrieval. 

A good example for musicians in memorizing music. Apparently as we age, we lose abilities with working memory. Memorizing becomes increasingly difficult.

How do we improve our working memory? It's complicated, but decluttering the mind might be of help. 

Ten things to help lower this stress to free up our processing power, so to speak.

1. Acceptance that life is complicated, and aging is, if you are lucky, inevitable.
2. Lower social media use, this apparently is a negative factor of modern life.
3. Access news once a day, or week. Another difficult edict during a pandemic.
4. Do an audit of one’s daily activities. It may be time for a reshuffle, reordering, or abandonment of  activities and goals that are no longer relevant. Circumstances change, people change, you’ve changed.
5. Take a nature walk, leave the phone at home.
6. Call a friend, have coffee, chat about nothing important.
7. Practice without an agenda. With the current pandemic situation, it’s going to be awhile before activities musical resume. Have more fun with your instrument.
8. Declutter your studio.
9. Revisit your goals. Are they congruent? (It’s impossible to suck and blow at the same time.)
10. Seek out competent sources of information on this subject from eminent authors. My goal with this blog post is to excite your curiosity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_load#Effects_of_heavy_cognitive_load

David
 
 

Ten Tips:

1. Decide to learn something new, something unfamiliar. Something challenging. 
2. Decide to reach out to a new group of musicians. Keep reaching out until you find new musical soulmates. 
3. Buy a new instrument.
4. Clean out your studio until it’s fast and lean, uncluttered, and clean.
5. Ask younger acquaintances what they are listening to. Follow up.
6. Take a lesson or two with an eminent music teacher.
7. Head to the practice room and address your deficiencies.
8. Sight read new music.
9. Record yourself. When you are happy with the result: post it online.
10. Start a blog and tell the world about your journey to musical renewal.

 
Best,
 
David
 

A recent release from Fade/Dissolve our cinematic noise trio