The virtual barber shop is fun! You’ll need headphones. I remember experiencing something like this at Disney World as a kid.

Phantom words creates the effect of a single word using separate sounds, demonstrating how your brain constructs meaning out of meaningless noise.

Temporal induction of speech shows how our brains fill in gaps when data is missing.

The scale illusion demonstrates how our brain groups notes together. See this image for the notation of what’s being played and what you are probably hearing.

Phantom melodies demonstrates how our brain picks out melodies from patterns at high-speeds.

Have fun!

Sometimes, all it takes is a little hands-on mentoring to take you over the top. Visit www.AbsolutePitchUniversity.com today.

I’ve used this technique constantly in my creative pursuits. Whether it be composing, arranging, or songwriting, the Oblique Strategies have helped to keep me in a state of creative flow.

I wanted to create a mobile version since I find myself sans computer a lot now that I have my iPhone. This online version of the Oblique Strategies will work on any browser even though it’s optimized for iPhone.

Check it out and bookmark it if you like it: Oblique Strategies

Two Frames

For the best results in doing any kind of goal setting or personal change work, remember the following:

Problem Frame questions are less effective. This is when your goal or challenge is framed with the following questions:

• What’s wrong? Why is it a problem?
• Why do you have it?
• Whose fault is it?
• What caused it?
• Why can’t you solve it?

Outcome Frames are more effective. An effective outcome frame comes from answering the following questions:

1. What specifically do you want? OUTCOME FRAME
2. How will you know when you have it? EVIDENCE FRAME
3. When, where and with whom do you want it? CONTEXT FRAME
4. What will happen when you get it? ECOLOGY FRAME
5. What stops you from having it now? LIMITS OF MODEL
6. What resources do you have and need to get what you want? RESOURCE FRAME
7. What will having it do for you? META-OUTCOME FRAME
8. What will be your first step? PLANNING FRAME

I use this Well-Formed Outcomes Template on all of my goals.

There are four basic questions you need to ask to make this goal successful.

Four basic outcome questions:

1. What am I moving towards? (The desired state or outcome)
2. Why am I moving? (The values that guide you)
3. How will I get there? (The strategy for the journey)
4. What if something goes wrong? (Risk management and contingency planning)

There are nine questions you need to ask when working with outcomes. These are known as ‘the well-formed conditions.’ When you have thought them through, then your outcome will be realistic, achievable and motivating. These conditions apply best to individual outcomes.
How to structure outcomes:

1. Positive: What do I want?
2. Evidence: How will you know you are succeeding/have succeeded?
3. Specifics: Where, when, and with whom?
4. Resources: What resources do you have?
5. Control: Can you start and maintain this outcome?
6. Ecology: What are the wider consequences?
What time and effort will this outcome require?

Who else is affected and how will they feel?

What will you have to give up when you achieve this outcome?

What is good about the present situation?

What else could happen when you get your outcome?

7. Identity: Is this outcome in keeping with who you are?
8. How do your outcomes fit together?
9. Action plan: What to do next?

Completed on

Many of the individual frames that contribute to an effective outcome frame are often overlooked. I’ll go into some of them later, but for now, the main points are to state the outcome in a positive form (“I want to play the Gflat scale at 250bpm.”), give a sensory-based description of the outcome (“I will feel loose and confident in my body, see ‘this image’ in my mind’s eye, hear ‘this sound’ on my instrument…”), make sure the outcome is appropriately contextualized (“When wouldn’t you want this?” “I wouldn’t want to write one song a week during certain holidays or vacations.”), the outcome is ecologically sound (“Is there any way this could be a problem?” “Writing one song a week could be a problem if it takes me more than 40 hours a week or causes other areas of my life to suffer.”), and the outcome is an appropriate, achievable chunk size.

Turn Your Weaknesses Into Strengths

The next step is to take the list of your musical weaknesses and turn them into positive outcomes. If your weakness is sight-reading, then create an outcome to practice sight-reading for 5 or 10 minutes a day while keeping a journal of what you learned. If your weakness is completing songs, create an outcome to finish and record one song a month. You can also take your list of musical strengths and determine how you would like to sustain and improve them. If your strength is creating melodies, set an outcome to create 5 new melodies every day.

Try the following exercise as a test to prove to yourself how powerful a written, well-formed outcome can be. Take two of your musical weaknesses and complete a well-formed outcome template for each of them. In two weeks, see how much closer you are to achieving these goals then you are to improving any of your other musical weaknesses on your list.

Go ahead, do it. I dare you. No, I double-dog dare you!

You’re about to see two sides of me. One side is called tough love. That side of me is here to challenge you. The other side is your biggest fan. I want to see you succeed at whatever you desire and this side of me is here to help you see the cloud’s silver lining.

The Power of Clarity

I coach a lot of musicians and I can tell you that the number one thing in the way of achieving their goals is that the goal isn’t clear. The language they use is sloppy and filled with fear and unrealistic expectations.

If I were to ask you, what’s your number one musical goal? Could you tell me on the spot? Nobody I’ve ever asked this question to has been able to answer it with any kind of certainty. My question to you is this: Do you just hope that it will happen? Or are you going to make it happen?

If you just hope it will happen, quit now. Because there are thousands of musicians–and more musicians are being made all the time–who are going to do whatever it takes to succeed. If you are going to make it happen, then “how” are you going to make it happen? Do you have a clear written-out plan? Is your plan specific with no question about what to do next? Or is your plan vague?

I’ll help you conquer these roadblocks to your success later. First, I want to help motivate you to want to change your ways.

Whatever your goals are (and I hope you’re beginning to think about them if you haven’t already), let’s take a deep look at what it takes to be the best at something, to be a master.

The key to dramatic improvement is deliberate practice. You need to have an understanding of your own strengths and weaknesses and then develop a plan to improve your weaknesses and master your strengths.

If you want to be a songwriter and you write great chord progressions but suck at writing melodies, then you won’t get very far. What amateurs do is continually work on the skills that they are already satisfied with because they are afraid of sucking at something. So they never improve their weaknesses.

This is really great news. Because it doesn’t take much effort to honestly identify what you suck at. Once you’ve done this, you have the map of mastery. Just travel to all of the distant lands that you’ve never been to and get to know them. Explore their terrain and have conversations with the people who live there.

X Marks The Spot

Knowing your weaknesses is powerful in many ways. First, it gets rid of any delusion about what you can accomplish by just wishing. Knowing you suck at something brings your attention back to reality. If you have big dreams of being a Grammy winning artist, that’s great. But it won’t happen if you can’t produce Grammy worthy material.

Second, identifying your weaknesses creates a clear target. Knowing that your ear needs improvement gives you a direction. Clarify that even further to “I have trouble identifying minor 6ths and recognizing chord positions” and you have a target that could possible be eliminated in a week or two.

Pleasure and Pain

What will your music sound like a year from now if you don’t identify your weaknesses? What would your music sound like if you weren’t allowed to play with your strengths? What will you music sound like a year from now if you do nothing and continue to play at your current level? How would you feel if your favorite musician heard you today and then heard you a year from now after you had done nothing to improve? What kind of musician are you–what kind of person are you–if you know what needs to be done but don’t do it?

Now, stop for a moment and consider what your music would sound like if you had no weaknesses. How would you feel knowing that you did what needed to be done and mastered your art? How does it feel to be the kind of person that never gives up and makes their dream a reality? What does your music sound like now that you have turned your weaknesses into strengths? How has your experience of music changed? What caliber of musician do you play with now?

What are you waiting for?

1. Write all of your musical weaknesses down on a sheet of paper.
2. On another sheet of paper write down your musical strengths.
3. Tape these sheets of paper somewhere you will see them every day.
4. Set aside as much time as you possibly can to master your art.
5. Download my turbocharged practice schedule.
6. Practice, practice, practice.

Now that you know what to do, you have no excuse not to do it, do you? Make this small commitment (it will take about an hour) and follow through. Later, I will discuss how to crush potential obstacles before they occur, how to find shortcuts to your goals by modeling other musicians, how something as simple as your language could be holding you back, and much more. Please join me in making 2007 the year of exceptional art.

Further reading:
How To Be An Expert
The War of Art

• There Is Nothing Boring In Life. Only Boring People.
• It’s Not Just The Notes You Play That Matters…
• Experts on Expertise — Practice Makes Perfect
• Hacking Your Musical Strategies Day 5: Composing Strategies
• Hacking Your Musical Strategies Day 4: Comparing Strategies
• Hacking Your Musical Strategies Day 3: Learning Strategies
• Hacking Your Musical Strategies Day 2: Motivation Strategies
• Hacking Your Musical Strategies Day 1: Decision Strategies
• What Is Your Musical Dojo?
• Hack Your Musical Mind
• Five Common Musicianship Problems – Which Ones Do You Want To Overcome?
• Turbocharge Your Practicing
• New Music Hacks Podcast
• Your Goals As Waveform
• Experiencing Stage Fright?
• How To Be An Expert
• MusicHack #5. Turn It Upside Down
• MusicHack #4
• MusicHack #1
• 6 Creativity Hacks

You do a lot of work on your instrument technique, your knowledge of music theory, and your craft of music composition. Do you also have a plan to improve you, the musician?

Take two musicians and give them the same four bars of music to play. One musician will sound different than the other. And one musician will probably sound more appealing to you. If they’re playing the same notes on the same instrument, how can this be?

I once studied with a teacher who didn’t teach me how to improve my art. Instead, he taught me how to improve the artist. He would have an audience present and ask me to affect them in a certain way. Just by tweaking the thoughts in my mind, he could get me to tap their feet or get them to lean forward. It turns out, just by thinking differently, I could control the energetic component of my art. Most of the time, the instructions were to control how I felt in my own body. In a sense, I was giving my attention not to the art, but to the artist.

It’s surprising to see how the way you feel when you make music affects the way your listeners feel.

The next time you play in front of someone, hold a listener response in your mind. Then see how you can manifest this response with your focus and your feelings. You’ll be amazed.

Are You Unconsciously Hitting Delete?

With all of my music students and coaching clients, I look for five specific deletions in their language.

1. Simple Deletions
   A simple deletion is when something important is missing out of a sentence, for example: “I can’t do it.”

   Students often use the words “it” and “that” in sentences with simple deletions. The solution is to recover the information that is missing with open questions.

   “I can’t do it.” “What exactly can’t you do?”
   “I can deal with it.” “What exactly will you deal with?”

   Notice your own simple deletions and question them by asking: “What or where or when exactly?”

2. Unspecified Referential Index
   A referential index is the person or thing that takes action or is affected by an action. When this is unspecified, all that is left is something being done but nobody doing it, for example: “Mistakes were made.”

   Words like “him”, “her”, “they” and “one” are not specific. Passive verbs are another good example of this pattern. A passive verb says that something was done rather than a person did something.

   “Mistakes were made.” “Who made the mistakes?”
   “It seems like an impossible task.” “Seems to whom? Impossible to whom?”
   Notice your own unspecified referential indexes and question them by asking: “Who exactly?”

3. Unspecified Verbs
   An unspecified verb deletes exactly how an event happened, for example: “My ear training is progressing.”

   To recover the deleted information, I ask exactly how the event happened.

   “My ear training is progressing.” “How exactly is your ear training progressing?”
   “I can deal with it.” “How specifically will you deal with it?”

   Notice your own unspecified verbs and question them by asking: “How exactly?”

4. Judgments
   Judgments are statements of opinion which are expressed as if they were facts: “That was awful.”
   When students express judgments, I question the values that lie behind these judgments and uncover who is doing the judging.

   “That was awful.” “Who says and by what standard is it awful?”
   “This is bad music.” “Who says and by what standard is it bad?”

   Unowned judgements can cause trouble. Prejudice is the result of thoughtless judgements. Notice your own value judgments and question their validity by asking: “By what standard am I making this judgment?”

5. Comparisons
   A comparison compares one thing with another in order to evaluate it, for example: “I did that badly.”

   I’m particularly aware of words like, better, worse, easier, good and bad and I make sure there is a basis for comparison. When there is not, I ask about the comparison.

   “I did that badly.” “Badly compared to what?”
   Common in ear training: “Only 6 out of 20. Not too good.” “Good compared to what? Is 100% realistic on your first or second try?”

   Comparisons can be very important. They are often used to motivate people by setting a standard to aspire to. However, the standard may be unrealistic or not appropriate. Notice your own comparisons and question them by asking: “Compared with what?”

Asking questions allows me to gather information that specifies someone’s experience, in order to get a full and detailed representation of that experience. When students and clients offer me a challenge to solve, knowing what questions to ask makes all the difference. Many people don’t know what questions to ask, and they end up solving the wrong “problems.”

Now you know the questions that will solve five of the most common musicianship problems.

Long ago, during the peak of the Human Potential Movement, the mind technology “Neuro-Linguistic Programming” was created by some very colorful and controversial characters in California.

The eccentric Richard Bandler (known for his unconventional and provocative therapy) and the former military Captain John Grinder (who specialized in the transformational grammar of Noam Chomsky) first developed Neuro-Linguistic Programming. Through “word of mouth”, NLP grew to the point where coaches like Tony Robbins were charging between $5,000 and $20,000 for a single weekend of coaching.

Just before I hooked up with NLP developers David Gordon (who specialized in therapeutic metaphors and, for the past 20 years, modeling) and Charles Faulkner (who has worked closely with futures traders worldwide and helped them make millions!), I produced my first absolute pitch ear training course.

Soon after, I became an NLP Master Practitioner — a massive 28-day affair in Winter Park Colorado, complete with major NLP developers (Steve Andreas, author of “Transforming Your Self“, finished the event)… NLP coaches (from all over the world–even as far as IRAQ!)… and a jaw-dropping stable of the best NLP trainers.

That wildly-successful training seminar taught me the “model” for almost everything I’ve done since… because at its core is killer information and a powerful “tool box” to build your life exactly the way you want!

I enjoy NLP. I’ve been using it for over 15 years. I’ve written about it extensively. (Most recent: Hacking Your Self Concept) I have even been paid as a life coach — to help people achieve their life goals in everything from relationships to finances.

However…

…Where I have found NLP to be most useful is in using the core of NLP to capture and acquire the skills and abilities of the world’s greatest musicians.

It is the one thing that made NLP so powerful.

Specifically: Modeling.

You see, back then during my NLP training, David Gordon showed me how experience has structure. Skills as diverse as being able to effectively negotiate, tell a joke, manage a large group, write a book, promptly pay bills, plan the future, learn from the past, or compose music, all have a structure. Every human being is a vault of abilities in which they are an expert, or in modeling terms, an “exemplar.” All you need to open the vault is the correct combination.

But… that’s just the beginning. Because if an experience or behavior is possible for one person, it is possible for anyone.

I went crazy when I thought about that. But I went completely insane when I actually experienced it…

Let me tell you, the “real” training didn’t start… until we began with the “Hot Seats“. We all got our chance to be in the spot light and become the “exemplar.” We modeled each other. I mean, everybody’s an expert at something. Wanna hear the great part? I wasn’t at this training alone. I was there with some of my closest friends… who just happened to be musicians!

Every night, after hours, we would retreat into our mountain hideaway and hack into each other’s minds just like pale, sunlight-starved computer geeks (think of “Neo” in The Matrix). We modeled jazz improvisation, songwriting, engineering, music production, we took orchestration manuals and turned them into detailed models, we dug into biographies of great composers like Beethoven to find models for creativity, and the most important model of all… Stretching the limits of hearing.

Modeling is exciting, isn’t it?

But let’s get back to Music Hacks…

In February 2004, British technology journalist Danny O’Brien coined the term lifehack, which refers to productivity tricks that programmers and other geeks devise and employ to cut through information overload and organize their data. Since that time, websites devoted to lifehacks have proliferated the web. (An article I wrote comparing goals to musical waves was highly regarded at lifehack.org on May 31st, 2006)

The “hacker ethic” is based upon the computer geeks at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and is similar to the values existing in the open scientific community: information-sharing is powerful and positive, “cracking codes” is acceptable as long as it is virtuous and ethical, and hacking develops individual character. These values are closely related to the virtue ethics found in the writings of Plato and Aristotle.

I came up with the term “Music Hack” to reference these little mini-models that I was using to create slick solutions for my students’ and colleagues’ creative and musical challenges. The idea was to help you learn to hack your music and creativity intentionally, so you never get stuck and experience more joy out of playing.

I started using my Music Hack concept publicly during my first big advanced absolute pitch coaching teleseminar… when I discovered that I had more time than I’d planned for at the ends of these calls. So I randomly picked someone… put them down in the “Hot Seat”… and proceeded to grill them on the specifics of their “problems.”

And then, as casually as if we were discussing the weather…

I Solved Every Problem
They Had.

I did it to fill up time. Almost as an afterthought.

Yet, those first few Music Hacks immediately became the talk of the attendees. People in the teleseminar were stunned at how quickly we were able to solve what seemed like truly impossible challenges and unsolvable problems.

The folks in the Hot Seats actually seemed dazed. These were problems that had consumed their waking hours, exhausted their emotional resources, and frustrated every other music teacher they contacted… and we took maybe 15 minutes to uncover the root problems, redirect the energy, SOLVE the biggest problems… and even lay out a quick plan, complete with simple and specific assignments.

It happened so fast, some people thought it was a trick.

It wasn’t. In the beginning, I just needed to calm the Hot Seat hackee down enough to clearly tell me what the problem was. (That took a little skill — and it’s a critical lesson (use today: Your first step to fixing anything is to clearly identify the problem… in one or two short sentences, without any jargon.)

It wasn’t a trick, and it wasn’t magic.

It was just experience and modeling. Plus decades of hard-core, “stay at it until it works” effort, with my butt on the line…

Combined with the ability to TEACH — to understand how to communicate, and “translate” all that experience in a way that was easily absorbed… and learned.

And what about those problems that each Hot Seat participant was so sure was unique to him alone, and so challenging they were nearly impossible to solve?

Child’s play. I learned long ago that there aren’t all that many things that can go wrong in playing music. The blunders made by the concert pianist or singer-songwriter aren’t all that different from the mistakes made by the jazz cat or the guitar shredder.

And the solutions don’t always have to be made up fresh and new for each problem. Still… getting to each solution — even the simple ones — nevertheless…

Requires Hard-Core Expertise That ONLY Comes From Years Of DOING It.

That… plus the advanced knowledge of modeling and music psychology that ONLY a veteran musician and NLP Master Practitioner ever acquires.

The heart of successful musicianship is all about understanding humans. Your listeners are humans, and that means they share ALL the same unconscious listening patterns as everyone else. (If you’re playing music to zebras or insects, you’re excused.)

And you, as the performing musician or songwriter or whatever, are also human… and you share most or all of the same “mind screw ups” that other folks suffer whenever they encounter the thought-provoking, emotional and often confusing “real world” of music.

A good Music Hack, really, is like…

A Vicious “Intervention” In Your
Life And Music…
By Someone Who Knows The Right Path.

It can be startling, having everything you’re doing ripped apart and reassembled in front of your eyes. But it works.

I do not enjoy crushing anyone’s naive ideas of how things get done in the music world.

But if that’s what I have to do to get you on the right track, I won’t hesitate to get out the dynamite. That’s the way I learned — with some of the most intense (yet basically caring) mentors around. And that’s the way most of my most successful students and colleagues have learned fastest.

Here’s what you get during a Music Hack Hot Seat, as performed by yours truly:

Click Here to discover the power of Music Hacks…

Absolute Pitch University is 12 weeks of personal coaching through bi-weekly teleseminars. Every teleseminar is recorded for you to listen to again and again… and in case you have to miss one. We’ll cover Absolute Pitch Power (and even those other AP methods out there), Music Hacks, Modeling, Hot Seats, and much, much more. You’ll have discussion areas to ask questions and communicate with other classmates. It doesn’t matter how old you are, what instrument or style you play, where you live (International students are welcome), or what skill level you are.

APU is personalized to YOU.

PLUS… I’ll let you pay in three installments, if you want.

Register Now => Absolute Pitch University

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APU is an Absolute Pitch Master Mind (a coordination of knowledge and effort, in a spirit of harmony, between two or more people, for the attainment of a definite purpose) PLUS a whole lot more. But deeper than that, it is a learning environment that delves into the reasons why you play music in the first place. This is only for people who want to make each moment at your instrument–and possibly away from your instrument—a work of art and a moment to remember.

If you’re ready, this is the opportunity for that hands-on “music-hacking” that will change everything for you…

=> Absolute Pitch University

within another system of minor thirds:

And you could repeat that entire pattern by another interval, thereby creating a system within a system within a system! Patterns can be extremely complex mathematically. Developing your own will help strengthen your creativity as well as your chops.

In a solo, use patterns as a starting point or as a connecting point between phrases. Exploit their repetition to increase tension. Winding down a solo with a descending pattern is an effective way to give the listener something recognizable to hold on to as they ease back into their seat. And, of course, you can use a super fast and complex pattern to just plain astonish your audience.

Get all of my TOP SECRET patterns for free:

My sax teacher, Nathan Davis, used to tell me, “Go without practicing one day, and you know. Go without practicing two days, your friends will know. Go without three days, and everyone knows.” Good advice.

When you implement a practice schedule, here are some critical points to focus on:

• Ritualization – Beginning a practice schedule can be difficult. But if you push through it, it will become a very valuable habit.
• Objectivity – There’s no sense in beating yourself up over mistakes or for not being at the level you think you should be. Take an objective approach to mistakes and progress and your practice time will be more productive and enjoyable.
• Singularity – Work on one thing at a time. Focus your energy for better results.
• Organization – Keep detailed notes of your strengths, weaknesses and your progress. Frequently check your practice history to see how far you’ve come and how far you need to go.
• Prioritization – Work on most difficult things and areas of needed improvement first. It may be good to warm up with your greatest strength in order to build your confidence level before embarking on more difficult endeavors.
• Emotional State – Take a moment before beginning your practice routine to check yourself. Simply being aware of your emotional and mental states will help you transcend them and be better equipped to handle the pressures of mastering an instrument.
• Constant and Never Ending Improvement – Quincy Jones said, “Standing still isn’t staying neutral. It’s moving backwards.” Never allow yourself to stagnate.

For Saxophone Players:

• Breathing – Practice taking deep breaths by filling the diaphragm with air and with minimal shoulder movement and physical stress. Pull as much air as you can into the lungs and allow the abdomen and rib cage to expand. Hold the breath for a few seconds and exhale completely. You can add resistance to the abdomen by lying on your back and placing something on the abdomen such as a large book or two. Not only is this a good exercise for strengthening your diaphragm and increasing lung capacity, it also increases blood flow and improves your lymphatic system.
• Mouthpiece Alone – Since the tone and pitch of the saxophone comes primarily from the larynx, it’s a good idea to strengthen this connection by practicing on the mouthpiece alone. Play scales and intervals over the range of at least a tenth and avoid biting the mouthpiece or using too much pressure. Let the larynx do the work.
• Overtones – Use a minimum amount of embouchure movement to execute each overtone. Place the emphasis on laryngeal activity. Also concentrate on intonation and timbral quality. Working on your overtones will help you create a warm, big tone.
• Long Tones – Check embouchure positions in regard to quality of tone. Practice long tones chromatically, stepwise and intervallically. Occasionally, crescendo and decrescendo using pre and post tones and checking intonation constantly. Concentrate on evenness of sound and breath. Try to pre-hear the intervals.
• Miscellaneous – Experiment with position of tongue for both sustained notes and for tonguing. Practice single, double and tripple-tonguing at various speeds, levels of intensity, and using all combinations of tongue and reed areas. Try out expressive and coloristic devices. Explore.
• Reading – Practice sight reading both classical and jazz solo transcriptions. Play exercises and patterns for finger dexterity and smoothness in all ranges.
• Scales, Arpeggios and Intervals – Practice legato at quickest overall speed in various articulative and rhythmic configurations. Always use a metronome!

And finally…

Write down your goals. Begin with long range goals (5-10 years), then medium range goals (1-5 years), and finally short range goals (3-12 months). After considering your goals and the steps it will take to achieve these goals, create a weekly goal schedule. Keep a diligent journal of your practicing and you’ll be sure to improve. Once a year, reevaluate your goals and their progress. Remember, when it comes to goals, the sky is the limit!

Good luck and never give up!

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This Music Hacks teleclinic is designed to help you learn to hack your music intentionally, so you never get stuck and experience more joy out of playing.

Register now to get your passcode. There are only 90 spots available. So hurry!

To get your Passcode for our FREE LIVE teleclinic (Thursday, July 6 at 5:30pm PDT, 8:30pm EDT), please fill out the following information and click “Give Me My Pass Code.”

Here it is inverted:



Here it is backwards:



First person to guess the original melody gets a free standard edition of Absolute Pitch Power. Post your answer in the comments.

In the broadest sense, every time you learn something, you’re hacking your brain. Music hacks are slick solutions to common musical problems. Like using a hack to create a brand new melody instantly when you’re up against a deadline. Or tricks to make your improvised solos stand out from note one and make the listener feel involved like they’re having a conversation with you. Things like that.

This Music Hacks teleclinic is designed to help you learn to hack your music intentionally, so you never get stuck and experience more joy out of playing.

Register now to get your passcode. There are only 90 spots available. So hurry!

To get your Passcode for our LIVE teleclinic (Thursday, June 22 at 5:30pm PDT, 8:30pm EDT), please fill out the following information and click “Give Me My Pass Code.”

A major benefit to this scale is that you only have to learn it in three different keys since it repeats itself every minor third. Another useful aspect of its symmetrical and repeating nature is the use of scale patterns. Patterns can be a wonderful source of inspiration for solos as well as being useful in improving finger dexterity. And now for some practical applications:

In this example, the scale (whole step-half step) is played over a Dmin7 chord and ends nicely by leading into the third (G#) of the E7 chord.

This example is similar to the first but uses a different diminished scale over the same chord (Dmin7).

This is a nice long run over a G7 chord.

Here’s a pattern in the style of John Coltrane.

Get 17 of my favorite diminished scale patterns for free:

US researchers tested the effect of music on 60 patients who had endured years of chronic pain.

Those who listened to music reported a cut in pain levels of up to 21%, and in associated depression of up to 25%, compared to those who did not listen.

Not that we need any scientific proof to tell us that music can change the way we feel, but it’s nice to have studies on the effects of music anyway — Especially for the burgeoning field of music therapy.

The only thing standing between you-as-amateur and you-as-expert is dedication. All that talk about prodigies? We could all be prodigies (or nearly so) if we just put in the time and focused. At least that’s what the brain guys are saying. Best of all–it’s almost never too late.

MusicHack #2:
Talent = A gift for concentration, dedication, and a simple desire to keep getting better.

From The New Brain by Dr. K. Anders Ericsson, professor of psychology at Florida State University, who has spent most of his 20+ year career on the study of genuises, prodigies, and superior performers:

“For the superior performer the goal isn’t just repeating the same thing again and again but achieving higher levels of control over every aspect of their performance. That’s why they don’t find practice boring. Each practice session they are working on doing something better than they did the last time.”

MusicHack #3:
“The research says that if we were willing to put in more hours, and to use those hours to practice the things that aren’t so fun, we could become good. Great. Potentially brilliant.”

Most of us want to practice the things we’re already good at, and avoid the things we suck at. We stay average or intermediate amateurs forever.

Here’s where the article directly relates to Absolute Pitch Power users:

Your users will typically fall into one of the three categories in the graphic: expert, amateur, or drop-out. The drop-outs decide that during that “I suck at this” phase, it isn’t worth continuing. They give up. Is that something you can work on? Do you know what your attrition rate is?

Once a quarter I implement new strategies to keep Absolute Pitch Power customers engaged and reduce attrition. I wish there was a 100% fool-proof way to keep people active because I feel personally responsible. It’s unfortunate that absolute pitch success is not entirely up to me.

But the most troubling–and where we have the most leverage–is with the amateur who is satisfied with where they are. These are the folks who you overhear saying, “Yes, I know there’s a better way to do this thing, but I already know how to do it this [less efficient, less powerful] way and it’s easy for me to just keep doing it like that.” In other words, they made it past the suck threshold, but now they don’t want to push for new skills and capabilities. They don’t want to suck again. But that means they’ll never get past the kick-ass threshold where there’s a much greater chance they’ll become passionate about it. The further up that capability curve they are, the higher-res the user experience is!

Can we help make it easier for them to continue on the path to becoming expert? Remember, being better is better. Whatever you’re better at becomes more fun, more satisfying, a richer experience, and it leads to more flow. This is what we’re trying to do for our users.

First of all, I love the term “higher-res user experience.” Do you realize that is the benefit of having absolute pitch? It’s like increasing the sampling rate from 8kHz to 96kHz. It’s a richer and more detailed experience of sound.

And here’s my challenge to you. What can you do to push through the amateur threshold into kick-ass territory? How can you make it easy to follow through when it ceases to be fun? Because remember, that’s where passion, flow and satisfaction are waiting for you.

I’ll let the author close:

And if the neuroscientists are right, you can create new brain cells–by learning (and not being stuck in a dull cubicle)–at virtually any age. Think about it… if you’re 30 today, if you take up the guitar tomorrow, you’ll have been playing for TWENTY years by the time you’re 50. You’ll be kicking some serious guitar butt. And if you’re 50 today, there’s no reason you can’t be kicking guitar butt at 70. What are you waiting for?