Now into their second year, my coaching groups at the Yale School of Music have provided a powerful measure of support to our budding artists as they forge the joys and the uncertainties of the artistic path. This year, our coaching groups were much more free form than last year. Students shared their challenges and successes and we improvised our topics …
The Power of Yet: How Music Entrepreneurs Are Inspired to Create Long-Term Success
I greatly admire the groundbreaking work of Dr. Carol Dweck of Stanford University, who lays out her research on the type of mindset that leads to success in her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Dr. Dweck identifies two mindsets: the growth mindset and the fixed mindset. Those with a growth mindset do not simply rely on “talent” …
How to Develop the Growth Mindset: 4 Steps for Music Entrepreneurs To Achieve Success
My class has started and I am thrilled to have another wonderful group of budding music entrepreneurs! This year, I have framed my entrepreneurship course under the umbrella of change: How can you change over the course of this semester and learn the mindset, skills and tools to enable you to create your career success? One important element of success …
The Growth Mindset of Arts Entrepreneurs: An Essential Element in Creating Success
With summer behind us and everyone back in the saddle at work or at school, this is a great opportunity to start off the new year with a new mindset. Whether I am teaching conservatory music students, working with arts leaders or coaching individual clients, my project is the same: how can I help you to create authentic success and …
Managing Audition Rejection: How Music Entrepreneurs Keep Going
This is the season when music students are hearing about the results of their auditions: from graduate schools, fellowships and summer programs, as well as professional orchestra and other ensemble auditions. With so much competition for a limited number of spots, rejection is a common phenomenon. In two of my recent coaching groups at the Yale School of Music, we went …
Entrepreneurial Projects: How Today’s Musicians Are Expanding the Horizons of Classical Music
Each semester, the students in my class at Yale learn how to apply their new entrepreneurial skills in a semester project that is subject to two rules: 1. Do something you never done before; and 2. Go outside your comfort zone. The goal is for students to feel free to experiment, focusing on the learning experience and not on achieving …
“Be good” vs. “Get Better”: Optimizing the Experience of Performing
I have just returned from my summer vacation in California wine country where I learned some valuable lessons about optimal goal setting while improving my piano skills!
Where did all this happen?
At pianoSonoma, a festival that brings together serious adult piano students to study with Juilliard faculty members Michael Shinn and Jessica Chow Shinn, and collaborate and perform chamber music with Young Artists ( current students at or recent graduates of Juilliard), as well attend concerts by the faculty and the Young Artists. It is a thrilling week where I can indulge in my passion for learning and playing the piano and share the joy of making music with superbly talented musicians.
On the plane ride out to California, I had a chance to catch up on my Kindle backlog and settled into a short book called “9 Things Successful People Do Differently” by psychologist and goal-setting expert Heidi Grant Halvorson. Now success is what I teach, coach on and advocate so I was interested in her 9 points. And the one that resonated most powerfully with me was point #5:
Focus On Getting Better, Rather Than Being Good
What does she mean?