0- to 4-year-olds?!

OK, I think we saw this coming, what with babies and toddlers playing with the iPhones their parents hand them to keep quiet. But it still shocks me! Is this what it felt like when the telephone came out?

I’m going outside to play.

Sheila is an amazing woman and an inspirational jazz musician. I was lucky enough to study with her in New York City, and she is a wonderful, sweet, funny, and honest teacher. What a gift she has in her voice, and what a gift she has in being able to tell her stories through song and to bring out the most playful parts of her collaborators.

In her early 80s and as strong as ever, she’s touring and teaching. Don’t miss her if she’ll be near you!

P.S. 2012 will supposedly be the 30th and final year of the Jazz Masters honor. What a shame – I hope that we will find ways to continue to recognize our living jazz legends and to let them know how much they continue to spur on musicians around the world.

We also do workshops in schools in the U.S., so don’t hesitate to be in touch!

As winter (maybe? finally?) turns to spring, we are gearing up for the Vermont Governor’s Institute on the Arts, a 2-week program for interested high school students. The lessons Colin points out are great for our students to hear…. and in fact are vital parts of the creative process. Here’s one I love:

It gets ugly before it gets pretty

Don’t panic. Your most creative work always goes through a period when it is just awful. This is normal. In fact if things are going very smoothly its time to worry. You may be missing something.

Applications for the Vermont Governor’s Institute on the Arts are available now (the deadline to turn it in to most high schools is March 15). Check out our blog to learn more!

The conference was great! I got to meet and share ideas with leaders of similar programs all around the country. I heard about how music students learn to improvise and collaborate with film and theater students at the Kentucky Governor’s School for the Arts. I heard about a West Virginia Governor’s Honors Academy class that teaches students to accept failure and use it to propel them forward. I heard about how excited the alumni of the Missouri Scholars Academy are about returning for reunions. And so much more…. check out the NCOGS website to see the programs for motivated teens in your area! There are programs in many subject areas, including the arts, engineering, math, science, and international relations.

I feel like a new person.

If I hadn’t been outside, I would have missed the gorgeous sunset on the Summer Solstice the other evening.

If I hadn’t been outside, I would have missed meeting an adorably exasperated 10-year-old boy who was dogsitting for a very hyper and friendly beagle. “I don’t know how I’ll last another two and a half hours,” he sighed.

If I hadn’t been outside, I would have missed watching bugs crawl through damp grass, and the salty smell of the evening air, and the graceful, meticulous details on an old Victorian home.

Slow down today. Go outside. Open your eyes.

It seems many people are wondering how to make a career in music work! So how do you make a micro-funding campaign successful? Here are a few questions to ask yourself as you get started:

1. Do you have an email list? Friends? Family? Have you been reaching out to them regularly, even when you don’t need something from them?

2. Do you have a budget? Sit down right now and make one. How much money do you need? What do you need it for? Be specific and realistic. Pad the numbers, too … it will cost more than you think!

3. Do you have a story? Why are you raising money for this particular project? What makes it special? Why will people want to throw money at you for it?

4. Do you have a sense of what your audience can afford? With Kickstarter, you can set the levels of contribution at many different levels. You’ll also set a threshold; to make any money through the platform, that threshold must be met. So set it to something you know you can reach, and work to blow past that mark. If you don’t make the threshold, you can’t go back to your audience a month later and put your hand out again.

5. Do you have spell-checker? Run your draft by a few trusted friends before you set the promotional wheels in motion, at least one of whom is not in your industry. They will see things you will never see from the inside.

Here are a couple of successful micro-fundraising projects:

elizabeth! – Kickstarter
Natalie John – Kickstarter
Ethan Lipton – Kickstarter
Jill Sobule – Her own site (read Jill’s letter to Bob Lefsetz on micro-funding at all levels)
Josh Freese – His own site
The Ramblers – Pledge Music

What’s worked for you? What other questions do you have?

Friday I gave a master class at the University of Quito, San Francisco. Professor Jay Byron invited trombone and trumpet players, and some other students showed up as well – singers, bass players, guitarists, and drummers.

We listened to some music and then practiced improvising alone and in pairs….

…and finally as a group:

Later we headed over to “The Cactus” for a set of my music and then a jam session with the students. Lots of fun! Thanks to visiting faculty Matt Witek, Katie Thiroux, and Samuel, who played during the master class and the Cactus session.

In the states, we say it’s a small world. In Quito, it’s a chico mundo.

And indeed it is! It seems that everyone here knows everyone, at the very least. And most of the time they are also cousins.

Tuesday night, Jesse and I went to La Liebre, which is a former video store turned cafe where there is a jazz jam session. The players were great – Carlos (drums), Cayo (bass), and Ramiro (guitar) were generous and invited us up to join them for several songs. There were also great musicians of all ages – from high school to college music professors!

The shock for me was finding an old friend from New York – singer Cathy Elliott – in the bar! Apparently, she came to Quito to teach a few years ago and stayed! It was a chico mundo moment to see her so far from Queens College!

Wednesday night, we joined Cesar, Cristhian, and Stef to play as a brass quintet for an art exhibition in a fancy hotel in the historic district. We piled into a pickup truck with seven people and many instruments, and headed down there, driven by a dapper man with salt and pepper hair and glasses (see below). Later we found out that the woman who listened so attentively to our music was his wife, and a painter herself. And of course HER mother was the MC of the event, an incredibly warm and gracious petite woman with enormous sunglasses, speaking many languages and generally being glamorous. And that woman knows the director of the dance program Jesse’s girlfriend is interested in checking out when she arrives here… OF COURSE! Chico mundo.

Classes at “El Brass” are going well. Wednesday we had more private lessons with middle-school-aged young folks, and then groups of small children just learning music. They are so cute! One girl, Patricia, who is about 5 years old, could not stop giggling when we played a “musical chairs” type game. She loves music and being with other kids here. Many of these children, including her, are very very poor. It is a fantastic thing that they can come to the Fundacion to learn about music, and more importantly to gain confidence in themselves.