Opportunities

(This is a post dealing with skill development, whether you are a musician, sports participant, business owner or budding artist.  The logo implies music, yet these ideas are transferable to all endeavors.  Thanks for reading.)

Here is a news flash for you. 

Opportunities don’t happen.  

You create them.

Before I started blogging in 2009, my blogs did not exist.  No one came to me and said, “I want you to take over these six blogs and pretty soon you’ll have a readership in 120 countries and nearly 200,000 clicks."

The opportunity existed within and was waiting for me to dig it out.

Perhaps you are a phenomenal violinist/drummer/sculptor/time management guru, yet you’ll never be discovered if you don’t put yourself and your talent out there.  You have to get noticed in order to create opportunities.

Got a great idea for a new widget?  Same principle applies.

Go - Be - Do!

Michael Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Soul

I Believe in Evolution

(This is a post dealing with skill development, whether you are a musician, sports participant, business owner or budding artist.  The logo implies music, yet these ideas are transferable to all endeavors.  Thanks for reading.)

I believe in evolution, for some of my best mistakes have evolved into amazing successes. 

~Dropped drum sticks have taught me to improvise.

~Poor job performance has taught me better ways of performing.

~Mistakes in a musical performance have honed my performance skills to a new edge.

~Mistakes in relationships have brought me to the doorstep of my greatest love of a lifetime.

I believe in evolution.

Education itself is the best example of evolution that exists.  Compare a first grade student to a senior and you readily understand that.

And so we evolve as human beings.  We evolve or we die.  Those who choose to remain rutted and root-bound are the lost kingdom people.  They lose their edge, they lose their desire to grow and understand, and they lose their way in an ever-changing world.

The golden question is this – will we evolve, learn, grow and become students of our past, or not?

Let’s march toward our future and evolve together.

Michael Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Student

Stealing Is Allowed

If you’ve ever been encouraged to steal, now is the time.  Now before you rush out and start lifting a bunch of stuff, pause just a minute and read this.

We start with a quote from Pablo Picasso.

In whatever area your skill may lie, you can steal – ideas, patterns, style and form.

I was amazed when I recently watched a YouTube clip of Joe Morello, Dave Brubeck’s drummer of years ago, playing Take Five.  It became very clear to me how much I had emulated Joe’s style in my younger years.  I was guilty of stealing his drumming ideas.

I have several writers whom I admire and I confess I try my best to write in their style from time to time.  

Some of my poem ideas in A Time for Rhyme are borrowed from Shel Silverstein.  I read his stuff and am amazed at his gift and wit.  The words are surely mine, but the style is his.  

I am guilty of stealing.  I have borrowed musical styles, singing tricks, conducting tricks, drumming licks, writing flow, even actual words and phrases from others greater than myself. 

And you can steal too. 

Take time to study people who are greats in your field and whose style and gifts you greatly admire, and borrow a way of holding a club, a particular management style, or a musical motif.  I’ve even stolen from my brothers, whom I greatly admired as a young boy. 

The gist of our thought is this – borrow, learn, get better and then perfect your skill so well that you make it your own.

Class dismissed.

Michael Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Student

Take a Risk

Go ahead.  Take a risk. 

Sit down at the keyboard, or drums; pull out your clarinet or tuba; take a few whacks at the ball with your trusty seven-iron.

Take a risk.

Take a big risk.

Attempt to get better.  Improve.  Master a rough spot in your skill.

Life is a risk.  We don’t get anywhere by ignoring the risks.  We acknowledge them, and go and do the thing anyway.

Yes, there are risks.

You might not improve at all. 

You might hurt yourself by swinging too hard, losing your balance, bruising your lips or fingers or falling off the chair.

You might – but I doubt it.

You might get better.

You might improve and be inspired to come back another day for a risk-taking session.

Now wouldn’t that be something?

Michael Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Student

Everybody Starts Somewhere

Picasso didn't start out being Picasso.  He started small, and was probably not very good at first.  However, he made a start.

Last night Carolyn and I attended a musical show featuring high-school students age 12-18.  They were doing a show featuring the great hits of the Beatles.  For some of those students, this was their first time on a stage performing their brand of music. 

They made a start.  THE MADE A START!

That is significant.  For their first outing I give them all an A+.  I chose to put my music critic ear aside and enjoy the moment for what it was – young and eager talent stretching their collective wings and daring to perform. 

Way to go kids!  So proud of you.

This was their starting place. 

I’m reminded of how the Beatles got their start.  Legend has it that in their early days, before they became the internationally known group, THE BEATLES, they performed in any venue that would invite them.  They played their original songs for 10-12 hours per day, perfecting them writing more songs.  And the songs continue.  They perfected their craft and that is what helped launch them on the Ed Sullivan Show in January 1964.  They were not an overnight sensation.  They practiced and prepared for their moment of glory, and when it came they were ready.

We could name any great individual and the story would be the same.  Their talent was honed in secrecy and obscurity.  They practiced in the quiet of their home, or a drafty studio in some forgotten university music/arts hall. 

Where did you get your start?  Parents, it is a good thing to remind your children of this important aspect to talent development. 

We make a beginning.  We start somewhere. 

And where that takes us is largely up to us and our commitment. 

Michael Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Student

See a Pro

My friend, Richard, reminded me of this principle this week.  This is for any of us in pursuit of “better”.

Do you want “better”? 

Better skill

Better speech making

Better piano playing

Better drumming

Better selling

Better parenting

Whatever your pursuit might be in the “bettering of your life”, the main idea is this – go and see a professional do what you aspire to do.

Learn from the best.  Buy the best seat you can afford and go see the show. 

Be amazed.  Be wowed.  Be impressed.  Be inspired.

And then mimic what you saw until you make it your own.

As a young drummer, before the days of YouTube, I listened to the Dave Brubeck Quartet often.  I learned some of my best drumming methods from Joe Morello, Dave’s drummer on the Take Five album.

A year ago, thanks to YouTube, I watched Joe play that famous drum solo.  Later, I remarked to Carolyn how much Joe’s playing had influenced my own drumming style and had never realized it until that particular moment.

Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery.

And it’s a great way to learn from the best of the best.

Carolyn Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Student

Character and Talent

Possessing natural ability is important.  It can jump-start a career, a professional bent or a sports icon.  However, without character, that talent soon fades. 

John Wooden, legendary coach of the UCLA basketball program and the only coach in history able to boast of 88 consecutive wins knows a bit about character and talent. 

How did John Wooden become John Wooden?  He had a profound sense of integrity – or character, as is our focus today.

“I believe ability can get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.  It is easy to begin thinking you can just turn it on automatically, without proper preparation.  It takes real character to keep working as hard or even harder once you’re there.  When you read about an athlete or team that wins over and over, remember - More than ability, they have character.”

~John Wooden

Character gets a person out of bed and into the practice room.

Character helps one focus on the immediate job at hand – a difficult passage, a messy measure.

Character drives one to perfect practice principles. 

And that, parents of the people I have grown to love, is one more reason to guide your child into habits and skill-set development that will launch their ability to realize dreams and goals regardless of the path they pursue.

Carolyn Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Student