X-Factor

Thoughts on Thriving as a Musician in 2012 and Beyond (What Does it Take?)

Recently, I was asked to write a guest post on a relatively new music site. As I did some browsing through the archives to learn more about the folks behind this venture, I found some noteworthy articles that I thought would be of interest to the readers of this blog. String-heavy emphasis, but still very [...]

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The Most Valuable Lesson I Learned at Oberlin

I never planned on going to Oberlin, but nevertheless, that’s where I found myself one day as a lost and somewhat bewildered freshperson (yep, “Obies” were fond of their PC language). Oberlin’s liberal crunchy granola-ness threw me for a loop, and I was really turned off by the idealism I found myself surrounded by. A [...]

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Why It’s Better to Be Better Than Different

It has been suggested that each of us is the answer to some problem that exists in the world. And in solving this problem and reshaping the world in some personally meaningful way, we are most likely to find success and personal satisfaction. Indeed, this is how a headhunter would coach you to present yourself [...]

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The Disproportionate Power of Baby Steps

Did you know that if you eliminate one can of soda per day from your diet and change nothing else, you will have lost about 15 lbs. by this time next year? Or that if every household in the US replaced one 60-watt light bulb with a CFL bulb, the energy saved would power all [...]

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One Simple Change That Can Increase Your Odds of Winning an Audition

How much time per day we should spend practicing for optimal performance is a popular point of discussion. But when was the last time you had a conversation with another musician about how much time per day we should spend sleeping for optimal performance? According to sleep researchers such as James Maas of Cornell University, [...]

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