The virtual barber shop is fun! You’ll need headphones. I remember experiencing something like this at Disney World as a kid.

Phantom words creates the effect of a single word using separate sounds, demonstrating how your brain constructs meaning out of meaningless noise.

Temporal induction of speech shows how our brains fill in gaps when data is missing.

The scale illusion demonstrates how our brain groups notes together. See this image for the notation of what’s being played and what you are probably hearing.

Phantom melodies demonstrates how our brain picks out melodies from patterns at high-speeds.

Have fun!

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Sometimes, all it takes is a little hands-on mentoring to take you over the top. Visit www.AbsolutePitchUniversity.com today.

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I’ve used this technique constantly in my creative pursuits. Whether it be composing, arranging, or songwriting, the Oblique Strategies have helped to keep me in a state of creative flow.

I wanted to create a mobile version since I find myself sans computer a lot now that I have my iPhone. This online version of the Oblique Strategies will work on any browser even though it’s optimized for iPhone.

Check it out and bookmark it if you like it: Oblique Strategies

The post Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies For Your iPhone appeared first on Graham English Blog Archives.

Two Frames

For the best results in doing any kind of goal setting or personal change work, remember the following:

Problem Frame questions are less effective. This is when your goal or challenge is framed with the following questions:

• What’s wrong? Why is it a problem?
• Why do you have it?
• Whose fault is it?
• What caused it?
• Why can’t you solve it?

Outcome Frames are more effective. An effective outcome frame comes from answering the following questions:

1. What specifically do you want? OUTCOME FRAME
2. How will you know when you have it? EVIDENCE FRAME
3. When, where and with whom do you want it? CONTEXT FRAME
4. What will happen when you get it? ECOLOGY FRAME
5. What stops you from having it now? LIMITS OF MODEL
6. What resources do you have and need to get what you want? RESOURCE FRAME
7. What will having it do for you? META-OUTCOME FRAME
8. What will be your first step? PLANNING FRAME

I use this Well-Formed Outcomes Template on all of my goals.

There are four basic questions you need to ask to make this goal successful.

Four basic outcome questions:

1. What am I moving towards? (The desired state or outcome)
2. Why am I moving? (The values that guide you)
3. How will I get there? (The strategy for the journey)
4. What if something goes wrong? (Risk management and contingency planning)

There are nine questions you need to ask when working with outcomes. These are known as ‘the well-formed conditions.’ When you have thought them through, then your outcome will be realistic, achievable and motivating. These conditions apply best to individual outcomes.
How to structure outcomes:

1. Positive: What do I want?
2. Evidence: How will you know you are succeeding/have succeeded?
3. Specifics: Where, when, and with whom?
4. Resources: What resources do you have?
5. Control: Can you start and maintain this outcome?
6. Ecology: What are the wider consequences?
What time and effort will this outcome require?

Who else is affected and how will they feel?

What will you have to give up when you achieve this outcome?

What is good about the present situation?

What else could happen when you get your outcome?

7. Identity: Is this outcome in keeping with who you are?
8. How do your outcomes fit together?
9. Action plan: What to do next?

Completed on

Many of the individual frames that contribute to an effective outcome frame are often overlooked. I’ll go into some of them later, but for now, the main points are to state the outcome in a positive form (“I want to play the Gflat scale at 250bpm.”), give a sensory-based description of the outcome (“I will feel loose and confident in my body, see ‘this image’ in my mind’s eye, hear ‘this sound’ on my instrument…”), make sure the outcome is appropriately contextualized (“When wouldn’t you want this?” “I wouldn’t want to write one song a week during certain holidays or vacations.”), the outcome is ecologically sound (“Is there any way this could be a problem?” “Writing one song a week could be a problem if it takes me more than 40 hours a week or causes other areas of my life to suffer.”), and the outcome is an appropriate, achievable chunk size.

Turn Your Weaknesses Into Strengths

The next step is to take the list of your musical weaknesses and turn them into positive outcomes. If your weakness is sight-reading, then create an outcome to practice sight-reading for 5 or 10 minutes a day while keeping a journal of what you learned. If your weakness is completing songs, create an outcome to finish and record one song a month. You can also take your list of musical strengths and determine how you would like to sustain and improve them. If your strength is creating melodies, set an outcome to create 5 new melodies every day.

Try the following exercise as a test to prove to yourself how powerful a written, well-formed outcome can be. Take two of your musical weaknesses and complete a well-formed outcome template for each of them. In two weeks, see how much closer you are to achieving these goals then you are to improving any of your other musical weaknesses on your list.

Go ahead, do it. I dare you. No, I double-dog dare you!

The post The Path To Musical Excellence: Setting Clear Outcomes appeared first on Graham English Blog Archives.

You’re about to see two sides of me. One side is called tough love. That side of me is here to challenge you. The other side is your biggest fan. I want to see you succeed at whatever you desire and this side of me is here to help you see the cloud’s silver lining.

The Power of Clarity

I coach a lot of musicians and I can tell you that the number one thing in the way of achieving their goals is that the goal isn’t clear. The language they use is sloppy and filled with fear and unrealistic expectations.

If I were to ask you, what’s your number one musical goal? Could you tell me on the spot? Nobody I’ve ever asked this question to has been able to answer it with any kind of certainty. My question to you is this: Do you just hope that it will happen? Or are you going to make it happen?

If you just hope it will happen, quit now. Because there are thousands of musicians–and more musicians are being made all the time–who are going to do whatever it takes to succeed. If you are going to make it happen, then “how” are you going to make it happen? Do you have a clear written-out plan? Is your plan specific with no question about what to do next? Or is your plan vague?

I’ll help you conquer these roadblocks to your success later. First, I want to help motivate you to want to change your ways.

Whatever your goals are (and I hope you’re beginning to think about them if you haven’t already), let’s take a deep look at what it takes to be the best at something, to be a master.

The key to dramatic improvement is deliberate practice. You need to have an understanding of your own strengths and weaknesses and then develop a plan to improve your weaknesses and master your strengths.

If you want to be a songwriter and you write great chord progressions but suck at writing melodies, then you won’t get very far. What amateurs do is continually work on the skills that they are already satisfied with because they are afraid of sucking at something. So they never improve their weaknesses.

This is really great news. Because it doesn’t take much effort to honestly identify what you suck at. Once you’ve done this, you have the map of mastery. Just travel to all of the distant lands that you’ve never been to and get to know them. Explore their terrain and have conversations with the people who live there.

X Marks The Spot

Knowing your weaknesses is powerful in many ways. First, it gets rid of any delusion about what you can accomplish by just wishing. Knowing you suck at something brings your attention back to reality. If you have big dreams of being a Grammy winning artist, that’s great. But it won’t happen if you can’t produce Grammy worthy material.

Second, identifying your weaknesses creates a clear target. Knowing that your ear needs improvement gives you a direction. Clarify that even further to “I have trouble identifying minor 6ths and recognizing chord positions” and you have a target that could possible be eliminated in a week or two.

Pleasure and Pain

What will your music sound like a year from now if you don’t identify your weaknesses? What would your music sound like if you weren’t allowed to play with your strengths? What will you music sound like a year from now if you do nothing and continue to play at your current level? How would you feel if your favorite musician heard you today and then heard you a year from now after you had done nothing to improve? What kind of musician are you–what kind of person are you–if you know what needs to be done but don’t do it?

Now, stop for a moment and consider what your music would sound like if you had no weaknesses. How would you feel knowing that you did what needed to be done and mastered your art? How does it feel to be the kind of person that never gives up and makes their dream a reality? What does your music sound like now that you have turned your weaknesses into strengths? How has your experience of music changed? What caliber of musician do you play with now?

What are you waiting for?

1. Write all of your musical weaknesses down on a sheet of paper.
2. On another sheet of paper write down your musical strengths.
3. Tape these sheets of paper somewhere you will see them every day.
4. Set aside as much time as you possibly can to master your art.
5. Download my turbocharged practice schedule.
6. Practice, practice, practice.

Now that you know what to do, you have no excuse not to do it, do you? Make this small commitment (it will take about an hour) and follow through. Later, I will discuss how to crush potential obstacles before they occur, how to find shortcuts to your goals by modeling other musicians, how something as simple as your language could be holding you back, and much more. Please join me in making 2007 the year of exceptional art.

Further reading:
How To Be An Expert
The War of Art

The post The Path To Musical Excellence: Deliberate Practice appeared first on Graham English Blog Archives.

• There Is Nothing Boring In Life. Only Boring People.
• It’s Not Just The Notes You Play That Matters…
• Experts on Expertise — Practice Makes Perfect
• Hacking Your Musical Strategies Day 5: Composing Strategies
• Hacking Your Musical Strategies Day 4: Comparing Strategies
• Hacking Your Musical Strategies Day 3: Learning Strategies
• Hacking Your Musical Strategies Day 2: Motivation Strategies
• Hacking Your Musical Strategies Day 1: Decision Strategies
• What Is Your Musical Dojo?
• Hack Your Musical Mind
• Five Common Musicianship Problems – Which Ones Do You Want To Overcome?
• Turbocharge Your Practicing
• New Music Hacks Podcast
• Your Goals As Waveform
• Experiencing Stage Fright?
• How To Be An Expert
• MusicHack #5. Turn It Upside Down
• MusicHack #4
• MusicHack #1
• 6 Creativity Hacks

The post Top Music Hacks for 2006 appeared first on Graham English Blog Archives.

You do a lot of work on your instrument technique, your knowledge of music theory, and your craft of music composition. Do you also have a plan to improve you, the musician?

Take two musicians and give them the same four bars of music to play. One musician will sound different than the other. And one musician will probably sound more appealing to you. If they’re playing the same notes on the same instrument, how can this be?

I once studied with a teacher who didn’t teach me how to improve my art. Instead, he taught me how to improve the artist. He would have an audience present and ask me to affect them in a certain way. Just by tweaking the thoughts in my mind, he could get me to tap their feet or get them to lean forward. It turns out, just by thinking differently, I could control the energetic component of my art. Most of the time, the instructions were to control how I felt in my own body. In a sense, I was giving my attention not to the art, but to the artist.

It’s surprising to see how the way you feel when you make music affects the way your listeners feel.

The next time you play in front of someone, hold a listener response in your mind. Then see how you can manifest this response with your focus and your feelings. You’ll be amazed.

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