Great story about the healing powers of music.  They refer to music as the “Quickening Art”.  It’s clear to me that there is a very powerful effect that music has on the brain, opening up pathways that may otherwise be forever blocked.

There have been some recent studies that show that the dopamine release which occurs when listening to music is able to trigger physiological effects similar to that of cocaine.

http://news.discovery.com/human/music-dopamine-happiness-brain-110110.html

It is little wonder then that we all get such a “High” from seeing live music.  People often link experiences with the powerful stimuli which occurs simultaneously.  The song that was playing when you first met the love of your live, the soundtrack for a great day at the beach, or even the healing tunes that one uses to work their way through grief.

Human experience is one of growth, and listening to music that was linked to growth in the past helps to further cement the lessons learned in the past, allowing us to springboard our development from day to day.

Powerful stuff.

These were good musicians, full time musicians doing nothing else.  Their live gigs were all that really kept them going, and many times they’d play for food, drinks and hotel just to try to reach more fans.

With todays tools, it’s becoming increasingly possible to create great digital product and little to no cost.  Home studios are cropping up where using garageband or audacity allows artists to use their own computers.  Gear rentals make getting the right interfaces super cheap.

I love to see artists doing what they can to drive more revenue in their live shows as well, but the complexity of live is pretty high and remains out of the reach of most artists.  There are cobbled together solutions, but none that just screams “easy and powerful”.

The technology should be transparent to the fan.  They shouldn’t know what effects processors or DI boxes are in use to get a great sound.  At the same time, if those effects are poor and the sound sucks.. it detracts from the art.  Same thing with any sort of distribution method.

Ultimately that’s our aim, to provide great tools for the artist to create a more rewarding career while providing transparent access to the content for the fans.

Panelists:
Michael Nash: EVP Digital Strategy & Business Development: Warner Music Group

Doug Hutchinson: CEO Cricket Communications

David Ring: EVP ELabs UMG

Michael Paul: EVP Global Digital Business

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I feel that technology should enhance the experience rather than keep people thinking about a time or place outside of the concert.  If people had confidence that they could relive the concert and share it in a seamless, non-distruptive manner, then I think they’d be more likely to give their attention to what both they (initially) and the band would prefer.. the performance.

While there are challenges for the artist to make commercial use of fan submitted video (licensing video of live performances is NOT easy), ultimately I think that the challenges in legalities, technology and artist perception of the value of this type of content will eventually win out, and fans can get the best of both worlds, namely a full immersion in the event while also satisfying their need to share and have their presence at the event memorialized on their social networks.

What do you think.. is mobile technology to be the savior or the downfall of the live concert experience?

I’d contacted Matt the Electrician and Reed Turner who played last night before show and they were all for it.. so, all things cleared, we showed up bearing gear.  Surprisingly, everything went very smoothly.  Being able to plug into the front of house sound board and use a monitor mix to customize our recording levels was awesome.  I did notice that the lower registers seemed to be a bit loud on our recording, so I’ll need to account for that later.  Overall.. great experience and looking forward to getting out and recording again next week when we can sell the track.

Stay tuned

Make a decision to succeed, no matter what.  Keep chipping away at those walls until you break through.  If you need external validation to provide your motivation, you’re looking in the wrong place.  Those on the outside looking in will never see the incremental growth that you’re making towards your goals and will think that you’re at a standstill when in reality the effort that you expend is constantly moving your closer to your goal.

Take a few deep breaths, picture your goal, then get back at it.  It’s the only way you’ll ever get there.

If you pick some result that you want to achieve in your life and begin back tracking how you got there, you’ll find that every positive thing in your live has a basis in love.

Love of yourself, family, lovers, friends, strangers and nature..

So,open the door to each of those types of love, stand fast in the face of a life, which through our perspective can either pull us down or lift us up. It is all up to us how to approach things.

The root of this read is that everyone attempting to grow goes through cycles of exertion and recovery.  Growth in emotional, spiritual, mental and physical capacity can only be achieved through these cycles.  Sprints with shorter periods of recovery do more to maintain larger energy reserves.

If we want to be able to maximize the short time we have here on earth, we should all strive to ensure that our tanks are as full as they can be.  Just like a high level athlete is judged partially on their ability to recover quickly from exertion, so to is a person who can quickly recover after emotional, mental or spiritual strain and put that strain to good use through becoming stronger.

Energy in one is not mutually exclusive to another.  If you are full of emotional energy, fulfilled and happy, it will be easier for you to expend effort in other areas of your life.  Never lose site of how your interactions with others can be either an effort or recovery.  You may play a unique role in that persons life which allows them to recharge.  There may be periods of days, weeks or years where someone important to you seems like they aren’t engaged in actively “exerting” when around you.  If they’re still around, it’s most likely that they need you as part of their recovery.  Find value in what you can do for another, but don’t discount your own cycles of exertion and recovery.

So..I sat down to figure it out by just writing down a number of concepts that are important to me, maybe some that I do well today, other that I’d like to do better.

The list became quite long, so I tried to categorize them into a few key concepts that I could easily recall and reference.

The long list:
Perseverance
Commitment
Honesty
Respect
Playfullness
Innocent Curiosity
Responsibility
Creativity
Compasssion
Patience
Empathy
Integrity
Kindness

These ultimately got grouped as below:

1) Care
- Compassion
- Empathy
- Kindness

2) Explore Life
- Creativity
- Playfullness
- Innocent Curiosity
- Learn

3) Be Trustworthy
- Commitment
- Honesty
- Respect
- Responsibility
- Integrity

4) Take the Long View
- Perseverance
- Patience

These 4 things are going to be going up around me as a constant reminder.

What are your core values?