“The conductor doesn't make a sound. He depends for his power on his ability to make other people powerful. I realized that my job was to awaken possibility in other people.“
Being an executive coach myself, I can definitely "hear" her voice in every single one of his thoughts; but then they really co-create this approach - he's a "natural" :)
he is a great speaker and well practiced. its great advice for sure. sometimes it works better with two people bouncing ideas off each other and yes its good to know there is a co author. it would be nice if he could fit that in somewhere as well. it would give him major bonus points.
Ben Zander is a pure musician. When I say pure, he has the true sense of humour, optimism and a need for an audience. I fall in to the same compartments. For the last year of the Covid problem, I have used the time to contemplate. And it has resulted in a plan that goes as follows: Once the epidemic is over, to get out and play for free in as many places as possible. This is to put back in to the stony broke venues something that they need. An attraction. To bring in people to hear real music being played again. And I will do it with a chum or two. This will satisfy personal egos, venues will enjoy the notion of free entertainment, and best of all, audiences may just pick up on our joy. Thank you Mr Zander for reminding me why I became a musician.
Love it! Especially his ah-ha moment..'my job is to awaken the possibility in other people' AND 'if they are not shining, who am I being that my players (or students or peers, anyone engaged with you) are not shining?'. Very simple but significantly inspiring! Love Zanders enthusiasm and engaging charisma!
saw his Ted talk and now this. he is excellent. i thought he was just talking about classical music but more of a motivational life coach type person which is perfectly amazing as well. really good speaker and glad he travels around the world motivating people.
He is right. My brass teacher was amazing. My piano tutor was a demon. If I made a mistake I would have the ruler across my fingers. She didn't know I only had a 2 octave keyboard to practice on. I also drew out on paper a piano keyboard and joined all the pieces together with tape. I would practice on that. I had lessons from her for 2 yrs. Was super critical. When you compared her to my brass teacher.... If I made a mistake with the tenor horn, he wouldn't stop me. He would encourage me to carry on. He would get me to practice the bits which I was stuck on, but cheer me on. I looked forward to every lesson.
I love Benjamin Zander life long experiences...& will be so looking forward to seeing him live. I so love his stories and realness...I really value people who help us all along our way...
"radiating possibilities"... this is the philosophy of giving without expectation ... I am happy to see he is applying in to students and sharing with the audience...
I love it! I love it! I love it! Benjamin Zander is the true president of the new world because he let his personality bloom. And I agree with him totally!!
I would hear that "voice in my head", especially when performing a particularly tricky piece by Haydn ... so I wrote 'THIMK" [sic] at the top of the music ... and that generally drowned out that voice. I should have told myself to "THIMK" in a lot of other endeavors!
He is a brilliant man. When he talks about the voice in your head he is talking about what Prof Dr. Steve Peters calls "The chimp". He is also on You Tube.
As he says : hoping that in future the world will be full of people with an A - possibilities . ! the future - future of living with possibilities ! A viola player
I showed this video to my daughter, and she is writing the letter of having an A in her music class/audition. She tends to be too harsh with herself. I am trying to help her. We will see...
I'm still sceptical. Environmental factors influence people more than teachers/conductors/managers. E.g. switchandshift.com/when-optimism-fails-and-what-to-do-about-it On a constructive note, the persistent emphasis on optimism is not likely to help if it deceives people so that they fail to tackle their problems. That would-be singer or actor or sports player who is never going to make it? Encouragement to keep going on the wrong path in life is not only misplaced, but also destructive. The smart money is on using the natural tendency to pessimism as a spur to improvement, like here: www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/well-good/motivate-me/66171902/powerful-motivators-when-optimism-fails Let's face it: most people have bigger problems than how to play musical instruments, laudable though that activity may be. (It tends to be the preserve of those with rich parents, who could afford to pay for tuition when they were young.)
That's is why our economic system is destructive to all people including eventually the rich. To all humanity. With advanced technology, the lowest worker should be paid enough to afford a home, raise children, their own or adopted, and have time to for such things currently relegated to a few rich people in society, an ever diminishing number of feudal lordships strangling humanity. Failure hurts us all. Jades anyone. But you do have to go through the morning process... hearing this fluff too soon could easily piss anyone off. This crap is only good taken in moderation. Or as you noted, could be destructive. But in moderation, you can know when to say cheese ball and move on... and when to say okay... I think I'm ready to try again. And it becomes helpful. Otherwise you end up with this crap is just cheese ball fluff nonsense from a disconnected ass hole trying to peddle a book or something. Fuck you and life. And you may end up giving up altogether. If you think he's a cheese ball, just don't buy any of his books. But find inspiration wherever, when you're in the mood to be moved by it in a positive way. Moderation.
I feel it to be a confusing video. Mr. Zander spends a lot of time with the concepts of negative voice in your head, downward spiral, grading system and spends IMO much too little time with the language of possibility. He didn't even write words of possibility on the flip-chart. What are the techniques to allow me to give my mother-in-law an "A"? How in the world can I possibly do this? (She's dead.) One of the things I find fascinating about playing music is that She (music) doesn't care at all about me or whether I'm following her or not. I care greatly about Her, though. This love, fascination, interest what have you is often strong enough to get me on track and help me avoid getting distracted. I'd like a bit more than just "Rule #6" to help me to stay on track. My teacher (Samuel Baron) wanted to show me that he empathized with me and told me a story of a concert in which he came out and noticed "...all the evil energy..." in the room and he played very badly (he said). I asked him if he did not indeed simply IMAGINE the bad vibes and he adamantly insisted that this was the real situation in the room. He further insisted that you can't think this away - especially not on stage. Over time, I've come to agree with him and I am attuned and sensitive to these energies. But a sourpuss only has power over you if you let him/her. I was hoping to hear from Mr. Zander HOW to not take them or/and myself so seriously, distracting me from the beauty and joy of the music at hand. What are the tools for this? What's the language? How can I even laugh at the "chatter-box" in my head who rears its jealous head just when I'm concentrating on something else? I used to make appointments with this voice when it started up, "Oh yes, I know what you're saying, but I've got something to do, now. Let's talk over coffee at 14:30." This would always temporarily ameliorate this voice. At the appointment (which I always kept) I'd learn what an idiot I was or how guilty of something I was and was able to accept. I was also often able to dissipate some of the voice's fears. I gave it certain, specific tasks to accomplish etc. I was hoping to hear more about this, here. How fascinating.
Aha! I just read that his wife is half of the accomplishment. No wonder! There's always a woman in there when things get really good. I've never had to give grades, but I would always give every student an A if I was ever forced into that situation. Potential cannot be measured and it can manifest later. No one stays mediocre.
@@saurabhwashimkar I just feel it's weird when people reuse lines on different people as if they didn't just say that to someone else.. Maybe that's an attitude but i also feel education is about sincerity and blanket compliments don't feel very sincere
ok...inspirational, but it really isn't that simple now is it. Standing in possibility and rule number 6 is a drop in the ocean for what is really required to be successful, especially in classical music.
When I look at the audience I don't see a room full of aspiring classical musicians. There's other videos where he does teach that demographic one on one and they're interesting too. I don't want to be a pro musician, personally, and I'm not parenting any prodigy kids. I stumbled across these videos while looking for a way to teach myself and my children music appreciation and stamina for the challenges that accompany learning to master instruments for their own pleasure not necessarily audiences'. Namaste 😘😘😘
"radiating possibilities"... this is the philosophy of giving without expectation ... I am happy to see he is applying in to students and sharing with the audience...
