I’m always fascinated by the process of making things, and the internal struggles to overcome. One such example is reaching out to other musicians you…

In this lesson you’ll learn four types of feedback: no feedback, negative, positive & specific. And I’m going to make the case for turning everything into…

The answers to everything are in the experiences you have playing with, and for, people. And on records. So: Get better at listening. Get more…

  Imagine, when you next have a gig, stepping into someone else’s shoes. Be them for the next forty minutes. Choose well.

So you have an audition. Nailing it means you can get into college, or maybe you get to tour the world… But ARGHHHHH!! Curses! You…

At one place I teach at, there’s a class where the students have to perform a new tune every week and improvise on it. I…

Sometimes, it’s good to get lost in the land of Nerd. To do things for no reason other than that it might be interesting. To…

Don’t listen to things too much. Don’t go over and over it. Don’t prepare too much. It’s like when you take a bite of some…

Two notions for you to entertain: Painting is adding. Sculpting is subtracting. Adding means bringing things together. Perhaps there’s a sense of starting from nothing….

Yesterday’s post was born out of thinking about leaving space. I was going to write ‘Leave more space’ in the book but ended up just…

          Now you see it, now you don’t

I Loooooove reading about the mindset of sportspeople. I especially like the reading about the preparation, practice, focus, psychology, and so on in one-on-one sport. Boxing,…

There are schools of thought that use smatterings of Eastern philosophy, diagrams of the 7 buckets, blooming flowers, paths, routines, approaches, methods, long term goals,…

I love artists’ sketchbooks. The quick explosion of an idea. Captured on a page.

Creative things happen quickly. You get an idea, it’s got energy, you need to act. Now! Do it, finish it. Put it out. Move on….

You get to notice things about people through teaching. One interesting thing is how people respond to a challenge that’s beyond them at that moment….

Lurking within the tunes that you already play are ideas waiting to be used. Take the standard Night and Day for example. A common way…

The scene is the people. It is not 52nd Street or music college. Those are places. Usually there will be lots of like-minded people there….

To everything. ‘Please stab yourself repeatedly in the eye with this courgette’. Apart from that. Here’s an example: Cliff Richard calls you for an audition….

I said in a previous post that creativity is where imagination meets reality. It’s very easy to start the creative process. You just imagine something,…

What was the thing that made you want to play? What was the best experience you’ve had playing music? What was the best gig you’ve…

Just resist what you normally do. Do you play solos that start low and end high? Start high then. Start with a barrage of 32nd…

  How do you define a thing? For example, if you ask, ‘what is a bus?’, you could start to define that by setting out…

An interesting possibility that the Internet offers up is that you can very easily post snippets of your playing, things you’re working on, things you…

How does one become more aware? Have you ever listened to boiling water for more than, say, 9 hours straight? If not, surround yourself with…

Say no more.

I was at a party the other day and a chap told me a story about a friend of his. No idea if it was…

Here are two ideas to do with space The first comes from artist Betty Edwards. In her fantastic book, Drawing on the Right Side of the…

I love being in bands where all the members are involved with the direction, arrangement, playing, marketing, ideas and so on. The rehearsals, gigs and…

Check out these three posts about rhythm, and look for patterns Triplets 16th Notes Groups of 5 For example, within 1 beat there are: 7…

See this post: https://www.mikeoutram.com/2010/09/what-do-you-think-about-when-you-play/