Living Musically Kyle Mazur

A plea to musicians to start fighting the hatred in the world with Music.
Referenced in this podcast:
Martin Luther King Jr. Quote
“Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”
― Martin Luther King Jr., Strength to Love
Victor Wooten Music Lesson
https://www.amazon.com/Music-Lesson-Spiritual-Search-Through/dp/0425220931/ref=sr_1_1?crid=UGF79D68EXO6&dchild=1&keywords=the+music+lesson+victor+wooten&qid=1590876879&sprefix=the+music+lesson+%2Caps%2C154&sr=8-1

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LivingMusically
Website: http://livingmusicallypodcast.com/
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All Podcast Subscription Links: https://living-musically-podcast.captivate.fm/listen

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LivingMusically
Website: http://livingmusicallypodcast.com/
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/living-musically/id1503086056
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2Ft9iRsYddDs6hzJmlwVXL
Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5jYXB0aXZhdGUuZm0vbGl2aW5nLW11c2ljYWxseS1wb2RjYXN0Lw
All Podcast Subscription Links: https://living-musically-podcast.captivate.fm/listen

Welcome back to the Living Musically Podcast.  We’ve talked about how ego plays a negative role in life and in music.  I think it’s important to talk about the opposite.  Thinking of the group as a whole.
We are in an interesting time.  As Covid-19 continues to spread throughout our world, we have been told by numerous experts to cover our faces when out in public.  The reason for the covering is not to prevent you from getting the virus yourself, but to prevent you from spreading it to others.  Yet while out there are so many people not wearing masks.

I am originally from NY and still have friends living there, so I have followed New York’s fight with the virus rather carefully.  In a recent press conference the Governor, Andrew Cuomo said the following:

“It’s disrespectful to the nurses, the doctors, the people who have been frontline workers.  You wear the mask not for yourself, you wear the mask for me.  It’s a sign of respect to other people… you know how you show love? By wearing a mask… Just be responsible and show respect.  I don’t think that’s too much for us to ask of one another.  That’s a basic common decency in this situation.”

When the CDC first recommended face coverings several weeks ago, President Trump said he wouldn’t wear one.  Several weeks later the vice president visited the Mayo Clinic and refused to wear one because he’s “tested regularly”.

During this pandemic, we must all work together and get on the same page to win.  Sadly, people are unwilling to do what’s right for everyone because it makes their lives more difficult.  By going against the experts' advice, we are only prolonging the virus and putting more people at risk.

When I was in High School I fell in love with choral music.  We had an amazing choir.  We did foreign and domestic tours.  While I was in the choir we toured through Sweden.  I always look back on that experience because it taught me so much.  I remember my first year.  It amazed me that there were 80 people of different color, race, social group, cheerleaders, football players, musicians, not musicians, math whizzes, history buffs literally everything.  For 42 minutes, 5 days a week and 2.5 hours every monday night we were all there working to accomplish the same goal. To make music.

My second year in that group, my father passed away.  People that I had never talked to in that group reached out to me, called me, came to the visitation and funeral.  Making music together connected us in a way that most people don’t connect in our world.  Every person in that room throughout my years were like family.  

Whether you sing or not, everyone should sing in a choir.  To be a successful choir, you need to be able to listen to the person next to you and blend with them.  If one person sticks out in a choir, it’s not a choir.  You need to be able to listen to the person next to you, listen to the volume that they’re singing, the vowel that they’re singing and the pitch they’re singing and match them.  Not to mention there’s a person on the other side of you, and in front of you, and behind you.  

The backbone to Living Musically is it’s never about you.  You are essential to the process, but you are also completely replaceable.  Over the years I have gotten rid of my smart watch and replaced it with a “dumb watch” one that has no batteries but operates with a series of gears and springs.  Everything in that watch needs to work together to keep the right time.  If one piece is out of sync, it won’t keep good time.  Living in our community is the same.  When we have a gear or a spring that isn’t working to achieve the same goal, that goal becomes far more...

Welcome back to the Living Musically Podcast.  Today’s topic is one that I have fought all of my life.  It seems no matter where I go and find myself in a bad situation someone’s ego is always at the heart of the matter. Ego is an unhealthy belief in our own importance.  
What causes egotism?  Ironically, a lack of self esteem can cause egotism.  As a defense mechanism the ego steps up and makes up for the lack of self esteem.  Issues arise when it goes too far.
I think there needs to be a healthy balance of ego and humbleness.  Not enough ego and you have low self esteem.  Too much ego and you’ll be surrounded by problems and negativity. It’s almost like driving a stick shift car.  You need to know how to lift off the clutch and push the gas.  Too much gas and you rev the engine, but if you let off the clutch too fast you stall.  Too much Ego is like revving the engine, and it can send you spiraling out of control, spouting lies and trying to cover your mistakes.  Unfortunately, we see this way too often in our world.  However if you don’t have enough ego, you will stall and never get anywhere because your low self esteem will consume you and paralyze you from making any progress.

Starting this podcast has been a great example of trying to find balance.  In general, I have pretty low self esteem.  On top of that, I’m also worried about losing control over my ego and becoming what I hate, an egomaniac.  So, I focus on preventing my ego from trying to balance out my low self esteem.  Because of this, my low self esteem likes to point out things like I’m not really a recording engineer and have no business recording, who am I to think that I have a message to share, you get the picture.  So I have had to let a little bit of ego in to balance that out to share my story and hopefully help all of you listening.

As a music teacher, I have to find the balance with my students as well.  A lot of the techniques I teach require me to convince my students that they can do it first.  It’s feeding their ego but in a productive, responsible manner.  

If I introduce a concept by saying “This is nearly impossible” the chance of success is nearly 0.  It’s like the Henry Ford quote “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t -- you’re right”  Going in knowing you can do something is most of the battle.

I had a voice student who wanted to develop a natural vibrato while singing and then learn how to control it.  It’s very typical for singers.  The problem was she was so self conscious of how she sounded that she couldn’t focus on the technique I was trying to teach her.  Her inner voice kept saying “There’s no vibrato there you’re never going to get this.  It took time, but I eventually found a way to distract her inner voice that was driving down her self esteem and encourage her ego enough to relax her and all of a sudden she mastered the technique.

CEO Harold Geneen said “The egotist does not stumble about, knocking things off his desk.  He does not stammer or drool.  No, instead he becomes more and more arrogant, and some people not knowing what is underneath such an attitude mistake this arrogance for a sense of power and self confidence.”

This quote I think sums up our president Donald Trump.  It doesn’t matter your political stance, it is very clear that Donald Trump is driven by his own ego.  Over the years, his ego has given him a sense of self power and self confidence.  In fact he wouldn’t be in this position without ego.  His ego has not only fueled his presidential bid but has fueled his followers.  He has used his egotism to feed the ego of his supporters to gain support.  That has brought him to his current position as...

Welcome back to the Living Musically Podcast.  Today’s episode we are going to be using meditation to heal our bodies.  
The beginning part of this meditation is one that I typically use at the beginning of my meditations and that’s a self check.  We’ll take a close look at each part of our bodies and try to feel and listen to what they’re telling us. Sometimes we can feel pain or tension sometimes we won’t feel anything.  All we are doing is taking note of what we feel at each part. 

As I concentrate on each section I can sometimes feel a tingling sensation as I focus.  Other people might feel different things. There is no right or wrong feeling. As you focus on your body, notice if it’s warm or cold.  You might notice that there is pain. Also notice if there is tension. If there is tension try to relax the tension. What you might find is that your tension in one area might be related to another area of your body.

Let’s begin our meditation:

Get into a comfortable position.  You can sit, stand or lie down. You can close your eyes or not.

Take a deep breath in
Exhale

Take a deep breath in
Exhale

Take a deep breath in
Exhale

Take a deep breath in
Exhale

Take a deep breath in
Exhale

Let your breath return to normal

Bring your attention to your left foot

Focus on your toes to start now, move to your whole foot.  

Now move up to your shin and calf.

Move up to your thigh 

Now take a full inventory of your left leg as a whole

Now move to your right foot and start at your toes.  Now move up to your foot, your shin and calf, your thigh

Now move to your glutes start with your left glute.  And now your right

Now i’m going to ask you to engage the muscles in your lower body and relax.  Each time you relax. I want you to imagine your legs sinking down deeper in to the chair or bed each time you...

Welcome back to another Living Musically Podcast.  We are going to continue looking at meditation. This is similar to the meditation we did last week where we looked at noting.  This meditation is going to focus on sound. I like doing this meditation outside during a walk or just sitting in my backyard. You can however do this meditation anywhere.  The goal is to focus only on sound. Your brain will likely jump in and try to flash images and force you to do other things. But try and focus on just sound. Maybe a bird chirping, or a car passing by.  Maybe it’s raining. Maybe it’s perfectly still and silent. Silence has its own sound.
Let’s begin

Take a deep breath
Exhale

Take a deep breath
Exhale

Take a deep breath
Exhale

Take a deep breath
Exhale

Take a deep breath
Exhale

Keep focused on the sounds surrounding you

Thank you for listening to today’s podcast.  If you haven’t subscribed yet please do so. Make sure you share this with a friend that might benefit.  I’ll talk to you next week. Peace

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LivingMusically
Website: http://livingmusicallypodcast.com/
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/living-musically/id1503086056
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2Ft9iRsYddDs6hzJmlwVXL
Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5jYXB0aXZhdGUuZm0vbGl2aW5nLW11c2ljYWxseS1wb2RjYXN0Lw
All Podcast Subscription Links: https://living-musically-podcast.captivate.fm/listen