In every university music program in the world - every university worth a damn, anyway - an integral part of the curriculum is a once-a-week, private lesson with your professor...
This kind of systematic exposure to a vastly more experienced and educated mentor not only emotionally involves you to a degree that dispassionate study can't do, it also makes up the greatest chunk of your learning.
When you find these kinds of competent people, you hold on to them for dear life, soak up all their knowledge, and always, ALWAYS pay them what they're worth.
Rest assured, your return on investment will be much larger than the piddling sums you pay (though they may not seem so piddling at the time, especially if you're a musician!)
After years of meandering, I've recently started investing in myself again in the form of private tutelage in three specific areas:
1. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
2. Powerlifting
3. Business
Do I miss the money I'm paying for this education?
Yes, it ain't cheap.
But I realize (and thankfully, know from experience) that this money will come back to me with extra zeros at the end.
What makes this relationship so powerful...?
"Tell Me About Your Fah-zuh" - My singing instructor was like a second father to me.
My real dad is a beautiful man but a hard-boiled Soviet physicist for whom music represented an intellectually rewarded hobby, but not a career.
(Unless of course you were cut from the same cloth as a Rachmaninoff or Hvorostovsky, but those guys are 1 in a billion).
My professor, on the other hand, let's call him Dr. Z, heard something in me, believe in me and encouraged me.
And little by little, I began to hear what he was hearing, and started to think that maybe it wasn't so crazy after all.
Obviously, there's tons of Freudian shit happening here.
But so what?
Who do most of us want to impress more than anybody in the world? Our dads.
This relationship makes you strive harder, learn deeper, and be better.
And it's a bittersweet thing, it requires the kind of trust you're not used to granting anybody, not even your main bitch.
This person can bend you into a pretzel or shape you into a David. You give him that power.
Mastery must be transmitted - A true master, if you're lucky enough to find him or her, transmits their knowledge in a way that goes beyond the high level technical corrections and conceptual adjustments.
You can find that in books, or on Youtube.
What the master imparts to you is something overwhelming and vast.
It's a feeling that they have everything you want and if you pay attention earnestly enough, they can give it to you - no, help you find it yourself.
If you've studied with a true master, perhaps you know what I mean.
Usually, this is a much older individual, and necessarily so.
Very few people under 40 years of age can claim true mastery over any one thing, much less the ability to TEACH it, which is in no way related to their ability to practice it competently.
Naturally, the master has to be supremely competent.
But a supremely competent practitioner makes not a good teacher.
And that's why I say "when you find one, hold on to him...don't be a schmuck."
***
I've found my BJJ coaching and business coaching to bear the juiciest fruits so far, and I don't begrudge a single dollar.
There is, however, another angle to this that should be addressed.
In fact, it has been addressed in the seinfeld episode "the protegé".
Basically, some people need an imposing individual to tell them what to do, light a fire under their ass, and be a co-dependent of sorts.
Even to the point where the student will overlook poor technique/skill in the instructor.
Well, we all need to eat.
So of course if you come to an instructor and offer them money to help you, they'll take it.
But beware of celebrity worship and idolization.
Women are more prone to this more than men but believe me it happens to guys too.
This relationship is a powerful thing; something the ancients knew about but has been going the way of the dodo in modernity.
I want you to think about one thing that's the most important to you right now.
It's probably either A) Making more money B) Getting better with girls C) traveling more D) putting up bigger numbers in the gym or some other masculine pursuit.
Then go and seek out the most competent practitioner/teacher you can and ask for an hour-long private session.
It might just take you to the next level.
This kind of systematic exposure to a vastly more experienced and educated mentor not only emotionally involves you to a degree that dispassionate study can't do, it also makes up the greatest chunk of your learning.
When you find these kinds of competent people, you hold on to them for dear life, soak up all their knowledge, and always, ALWAYS pay them what they're worth.
Rest assured, your return on investment will be much larger than the piddling sums you pay (though they may not seem so piddling at the time, especially if you're a musician!)
After years of meandering, I've recently started investing in myself again in the form of private tutelage in three specific areas:
1. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
2. Powerlifting
3. Business
Do I miss the money I'm paying for this education?
Yes, it ain't cheap.
But I realize (and thankfully, know from experience) that this money will come back to me with extra zeros at the end.
What makes this relationship so powerful...?
"Tell Me About Your Fah-zuh" - My singing instructor was like a second father to me.
My real dad is a beautiful man but a hard-boiled Soviet physicist for whom music represented an intellectually rewarded hobby, but not a career.
(Unless of course you were cut from the same cloth as a Rachmaninoff or Hvorostovsky, but those guys are 1 in a billion).
My professor, on the other hand, let's call him Dr. Z, heard something in me, believe in me and encouraged me.
And little by little, I began to hear what he was hearing, and started to think that maybe it wasn't so crazy after all.
Obviously, there's tons of Freudian shit happening here.
But so what?
Who do most of us want to impress more than anybody in the world? Our dads.
This relationship makes you strive harder, learn deeper, and be better.
And it's a bittersweet thing, it requires the kind of trust you're not used to granting anybody, not even your main bitch.
This person can bend you into a pretzel or shape you into a David. You give him that power.
Mastery must be transmitted - A true master, if you're lucky enough to find him or her, transmits their knowledge in a way that goes beyond the high level technical corrections and conceptual adjustments.
You can find that in books, or on Youtube.
What the master imparts to you is something overwhelming and vast.
It's a feeling that they have everything you want and if you pay attention earnestly enough, they can give it to you - no, help you find it yourself.
If you've studied with a true master, perhaps you know what I mean.
Usually, this is a much older individual, and necessarily so.
Very few people under 40 years of age can claim true mastery over any one thing, much less the ability to TEACH it, which is in no way related to their ability to practice it competently.
Naturally, the master has to be supremely competent.
But a supremely competent practitioner makes not a good teacher.
And that's why I say "when you find one, hold on to him...don't be a schmuck."
***
I've found my BJJ coaching and business coaching to bear the juiciest fruits so far, and I don't begrudge a single dollar.
There is, however, another angle to this that should be addressed.
In fact, it has been addressed in the seinfeld episode "the protegé".
Basically, some people need an imposing individual to tell them what to do, light a fire under their ass, and be a co-dependent of sorts.
Even to the point where the student will overlook poor technique/skill in the instructor.
Well, we all need to eat.
So of course if you come to an instructor and offer them money to help you, they'll take it.
But beware of celebrity worship and idolization.
Women are more prone to this more than men but believe me it happens to guys too.
This relationship is a powerful thing; something the ancients knew about but has been going the way of the dodo in modernity.
I want you to think about one thing that's the most important to you right now.
It's probably either A) Making more money B) Getting better with girls C) traveling more D) putting up bigger numbers in the gym or some other masculine pursuit.
Then go and seek out the most competent practitioner/teacher you can and ask for an hour-long private session.
It might just take you to the next level.
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