summer reading list

Photo by Shena Tschofen.

Is there any combination of words in the English language sweeter than “summer vacation”? That glorious expanse of three hot months spent sunbathing on beaches, napping in hammocks, and eating ice cream barefoot on hot asphalt.

Okay, enough fantasy. Realistically, most of us have probably been working to pay for that expensive conservatory tuition (it’s too damn high!) and/or slaving away in hot practice rooms at music festivals around the world. But one should always make time for summer reading breaks. Here are four books you should add to your list! Many, many thanks to my friends for their recommendations!

loving the bomb

Improv comedy and classical music may seem like two very disparate worlds, but certain principles about performance–about sharing yourself and your work with an audience–remain true across the board. It’s always enlightening to hear great performers, from any field, share about their processes and philosophies. This GQ interview with Stephen Colbert is intimate, descriptive, and even profound.

“Our first night professionally onstage,” he said, the longtime Second City director Jeff Michalski told them that the most important lesson he could pass on to them was this: “You have to learn to love the bomb.”

“It took me a long time to really understand what that meant,” Colbert said. “It wasn’t ‘Don’t worry, you’ll get it next time.’ It wasn’t ‘Laugh it off.’ No, it means what it says. You gotta learn to love when you’re failing.… The embracing of that, the discomfort of failing in front of an audience, leads you to penetrate through the fear that blinds you. Fear is the mind killer.”…

He said he trained himself, not just onstage but every day in life, even in his dream states, to steer toward fear rather than away from it. “I like to do things that are publicly embarrassing,” he said, “to feel the embarrassment touch me and sink into me and then be gone. I like getting on elevators and singing too loudly in that small space. The feeling you feel is almost like a vapor. The discomfort and the wishing that it would end that comes around you. I would do things like that and just breathe it in.” He stopped and took in a deep yogic breath, then slowly shook his head. “Nope, can’t kill me. This thing can’t kill me.”

It can’t kill you. Sometimes courage comes when your love for something outweighs the embarrassment and discomfort of failing, and no matter how experienced a performer you are, it’s good for most of us to be reminded of this. Read the whole article here for more insights into Colbert’s work process, and a surprisingly emotional discussion about suffering and acceptance, and gratefulness and loving God.

fear

Photo by dryhead.

The question is usually:

“How do I get rid of the fear?”

Perhaps a better question would be:

“How do I dance with the fear?”

Click over to Seth Godin’s blog for a very brief but poignant post on what our true enemy is. (Hint: it’s not fear.)

TEDxBloomington: Fearless Performance

Have a little bit of free time? Watch Jeff Nelsen, horn teacher at Indiana University, share some thoughts about performing. Compassionate, entertaining, insightful, and takes only ten minutes.

HBR: The Relationship between Anxiety and Performance

Although directed toward people in the business world, this article by Scott Stossel in the Harvard Business Review addresses some points about performance in high-pressure situations that are equally as relevant for us musicians.

For those who choke during presentations to board members or pitches to clients, for example…the best approach may be one akin to what Beilock has athletes do in her experiments: redirecting your mind, in the moment, to something other than how you’re comporting yourself, so you can allow the skills and knowhow you’ve worked so hard to acquire to automatically kick into gear and carry you through. Your focus should not be on worrying about outcomes or consequences or on how you’re being perceived but simply on the task at hand. Prepare thoroughly (but not too obsessively) in advance; then stay in the moment.