Companion Notes for FBMCFE Ask Me Anything Video 4

These particular questions in this video 4, ask very direct questions that are more personal to me. The questions lead me to talk a lot about my own life. One of the things I never put together before this question by Tim,(What has trombone playing taught you about yourself/the world?), was what the trombone taught me about the value of waiting. I had to wait almost 5 years from the point I wanted to play (age 4) until I actually could start to play (age 9). I never lost my interest or desire during that time period. But I had to wait.

Looking at it this way was very interesting and speaks of several things including the potency of desire. Desire in regards to human development, is a double edged sword. I think we all have experienced having desires for things which turned out to be not the best choice for us right? So the power of choice and what influences us to make choices comes into all this.

For example, the body needs food and gets a desire (called hunger) for food and perhaps even a particular kind of food. This can seem very simple, but for someone who is trained in diet and functional health, knows that food is either medicine or poison. It is either healthy and nutritious or is too high in sugar, certain oils, harmful preservatives and actually are "empty" calories that create problems to our health. Also, if we were raised in an environment where food was not really thought about carefully and we relied on food to comfort us in times of stress, we develop habits that take us away from the actual reason for food which is the healthy functioning and good maintenance of the body to live a vibrant life. This requires good nourishment rich in vitamins, minerals, healthy fats, protein and good fiber. So many times our desires are created from conditions we were raised in. Environment is a very strong influence!

In my case, no one in my immediate family was a trained musician except for my uncle who played piano. My grandfather was a self taught violinist who played old Yiddish and Polish folk tunes. My desire to play trombone was sparked when I saw Mr. Greenjeans play a trombone on the old favorite baby boomer television kids show Captain Kangaroo. But that impression was so powerful it “got into me.” I couldn’t let it go. I HAD TO PLAY THE TROMBONE!! Was it a karmic connection from the past? It was such a strong pull. I was certain (when looking back to that time)that we picked each other at the level of instinct and it was an excellent match in so many ways for which I am truly grateful. Music eventually led to spiritual unfoldment with a great thirst for  truth and understanding which pointed in the studying of natural laws and human behavior. As my great life mentor always said, "It's the direction something takes (that is important and telling)." All I can say is what an incredible gift. And the greater gift was where "IT" directed me or should I say, AWAKENED in me!!

TO BE CONTINUED...

Bolter Offerings Schedule for week 10/17 - /10/22/22

Hi Everyone!

-As of right now, there will be 2 offerings in the course of a week. The combination of Warm-Up and Musical Meditation occurs on Mondays and the Fundamentals session on Saturdays..

 -Videos will also be put out most weeks with companion notes during FBMCFE (Frequency Bone Music Connection-Fall Edition.) A NOTE ABOUT THIS WEEK'S AMA VIDEO (Ask Me Anything video 4) IS LISTED BELOW.   

-The Monthly Masterclass Series will continue monthly. The next one being on Saturday October 29th. Topic: "Addressing Embouchure Issues- Including Injury" This class will include therapeutic playing methods. A donation of $5 - $10 for students and $15 - $ 20 for working people. Let me know if there is a need for financial assistance. 

UPDATE CHANGE: For the sessions to actually take place, there will need to be at least 5 (ideally 10) people signed up for the class. I will need to know this by 8:30pm Eastern time the day before the class. If the number is short of the 5 minimum, the session, there will not be a session that day. Once I know there will be at least 5 signed on, then all involved will be sent a Zoom Invitation.

Thanks In advance for keeping this in mind.

ONLY REMINDRS WILL BE SENT OUT FOR THE MONTHLY MASTERCLASS SERIES

Here is This Week's Schedule of Bolter Offerings (and How To Sign Up):

NOTE - Check out my daily Instagram posts @nbolt2

In the next day or two, FBMCFE,  AMA (ask me anything) video 4 will be uploaded to YouTube. There will be several of these videos where I will take a  good dive into several questions that people sent to my instagram. Video 4will address questions that have to do with my own journey and what I have learned about myself and life as well as the connection between music and spirit.

10/17 Warm-Up and Musical Meditation on Zoom this week will be from 10-11am EDT. For the first half hour we will warm-up together on the horn using certain affirmations. The last half hour will be moving into deeper meditative processes using the horn. :-) Free-will donation of your choice is appreciated but not required.

10/22 Fundamentals Saturday on Zoom 11am-12pm EDT: $7.50 donation is required for all attendees. TOPIC: "Practice Diet”  This class will work on several things as well.Some new etudes may be sent out to  participants before the class begins!

 

*IMPORTANT NOTE

BEFORE MAKING YOUR DONATION, PLEASE READ THE DIRECTIONS CAREFULLY BELOW THE LINK SO YOU CAN DO IT CORRECTLY. THANKS IN ADVANCE! :-)

HOW TO SIGN UP:

(Note especially #6)

1. To pay/donate, please go to:

https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/vierabolter

(Please COPY and PASTE LINK if needed).  

2. You will arrive at a PayPal window with the Air-ev and Frequency Band symbols and the name Carol Viera (Dr V's name)

3. Click "SEND" option

4. Enter AMOUNT [based on which session(s) you are attending and the fee schedule above]

5. At the bottom of the same window is the prompt: "What's this payment for?" ENTER A NOTE about which session(s) you are attending (e.g., Musical Meditation Monday or Warm-Up Wednesday or FBSMC 14 or more than one)

6. **IMPORTANT!** Select left box titled "PERSONAL" (because your are not "purchasing" merchandise, which is the default option; selecting that option incurs extra fees and creates an income category error for us; we do declare these personal payments on our taxes, as we would private lessons and coachings)

7. COMPLETE TRANSACTION (make sure you transaction goes through)

8. You will receive a ZOOM LINK WITHIN 24 HOURS. If you do NOT receive the link, check that you completed the transaction. If you did complete the transaction, please email me (normtobe at gmail dot com) so I can send you link directly.

Feel free to SHARE THIS INFORMATION with anyone who might be interested in attending any or all of these sessions.

NOTE ALSO: Please have your donation in by 8:30pm the day before your session begins. PLEASE REREAD THE UPDATE CHANGE IN THE FIRST PART OF THis POST.

Hope to see you soon at a session you choose!

Companion Notes for FBMCFE, Ask Me Anything Series, Video 3

Real science is truth. Humans do not see all of it if there is a financial incentive or any other personal motives driving it.

There is human science which is the observations of the natural laws and finding causes and effects and then taking it into everyday life. There are so many examples that have benefited human life and society in all fields of life; agriculture, architecture, travel, communication and on and on.

What is this box?? If you are frozen in the current “box” of what is acceptable, you will never find your personal Art. In the video, the reality that there is always space inside of matter (and our minds), is brought up to encourage finding that space. If we are trapped inside our training, conditioned responses, habits and blindly keep acting from that programming, it will be extremely confining. The acoustics inside of our minds will govern the quality of resonance that we generate out of ourselves.

The box has many rooms! These small boxes within the box attract certain types of people. There is the sound “freaks’ the live and breath sound. There are intonation “sticklers” that can “smell” out of tune like a fine hound. There are rhythm “fanatics” that sense anything that is out of step. NOW, before anyone gets offended by what I am saying, I’m being humorous and I’d love to see an old Monty Python's Flying Circus do a rendition of all those characters! What a funny episode that would be! It’s starting to give me ideas……

My point is that we all have aptitudes and some people have a lot of natural attitudes that are very sensitive and can pick off real subtle changes. I remember Gunther Schuller having a set of ears that were the greatest I ever witnessed. I played in the Boston Pops with Buddy Rich, and his rhythmic virtuosity was a marvel for me to witness. Getting back to the “box” and all of its smaller boxes inside of it, like rhythm box, pitch box, timber box, style box, make up the current box and past boxes of the basic requirements for getting passed the first rounds of auditions and beyond. BUT, inside of those boundaries is SPACE. As they said in Star Trek, “Space, the final frontier.” Finding the space inside of a small space is part of the job of the artist. The instrument itself is a space, a box, a form in which we build a relationship with while finding the means and ways to translate life into it.. Music is a medium which can have enumerable rooms (different genres) all created from  an incredible variety of influences from nationality, ethnicity, race, religion, climate,a particular time period and even astrological.

From taking a partial look into all that, we can see how many holes we can fall into as opposed to embracing them all in a healthy organic fluid way by building a real relationship with them all and seeing how they are all parts of a whole living organism we call Art, here in the medium of music.

1. Build your own relationship with music and your instrument.

2. Find the space inside the current fashions so you don't lose yourself.

3. Let the spirit of the music govern the other smaller boxes, not the other way around.

More to come…

Bolter Offering Schedule for 10/10 - 10/15/22

Hi Everyone!

-As of right now, there will be 2 offerings in the course of a week. The combination of Warm-Up and Musical Meditation occurs on Mondays and the Fundamentals session on Saturdays..

 -Videos will also be put out most weeks with companion notes during FBMCFE (Frequency Bone Music Connection-Fall Edition.) A NOTE ABOUT THIS WEEK'S AMA VIDEO IS BELOW. NEW Ask Me Anything Video will be up in the next day or so on YouTube.  

-The Monthly Masterclass Series will continue monthly. The next one being on Saturday October 29th. Topic: "Addressing Embouchure Issues- Including Injury"

UPDATE CHANGE: For the sessions to actually take place, there will need to be at least 5 (ideally 10) people signed up for the class. I will need to know this by 8:30pm Eastern time the day before the class. If the number is short of the 5 minimum, the session, there will not be a session that day. Once I know there will be at least 5 signed on, then all involved will be sent a Zoom Invitation. Thanks In advance for keeping this in mind.

Here is This Week's Schedule of Bolter Offerings (and How To Sign Up):

NOTE - Check out my daily Instagram posts @nbolt2

In the next day or two, FBMCFE,  AMA (ask me anything) video 3 will be uploaded to YouTube. There will be several of these videos where I will take a  good dive into several questions that people sent to my instagram. Video 3 will address a question about how to maintain your feeling about an excerpt and still remain in the accepted "box" of how to play it. A very important video for those taking auditions.

10/10 Warm-Up and Musical Meditation on Zoom this week will be from 10-11am EDT. For the first half hour we will warm-up together on the horn using certain affirmations. The last half hour will be moving into deeper meditative processes using the horn. :-) Free-will donation of your choice is appreciated but not required.

10/15 Fun-damentals Saturday on Zoom 11am-12pm EDT: $7.50 donation is required for all attendees. TOPIC: "Practice Diet”  This class will work on several things as well.Some new etudes may be sent out to  participants before the class begins!

 

*IMPORTANT NOTE

BEFORE MAKING YOUR DONATION, PLEASE READ THE DIRECTIONS CAREFULLY BELOW THE LINK SO YOU CAN DO IT CORRECTLY. THANKS IN ADVANCE! :-)

HOW TO SIGN UP:

(Note especially #6)

1. To pay/donate, please go to:

https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/vierabolter

(Please COPY and PASTE LINK if needed).  

2. You will arrive at a PayPal window with the Air-ev and Frequency Band symbols and the name Carol Viera (Dr V's name)

3. Click "SEND" option

4. Enter AMOUNT [based on which session(s) you are attending and the fee schedule above]

5. At the bottom of the same window is the prompt: "What's this payment for?" ENTER A NOTE about which session(s) you are attending (e.g., Musical Meditation Monday or Warm-Up Wednesday or FBSMC 14 or more than one)

6. **IMPORTANT!** Select left box titled "PERSONAL" (because your are not "purchasing" merchandise, which is the default option; selecting that option incurs extra fees and creates an income category error for us; we do declare these personal payments on our taxes, as we would private lessons and coachings)

7. COMPLETE TRANSACTION (make sure you transaction goes through)

8. You will receive a ZOOM LINK WITHIN 24 HOURS. If you do NOT receive the link, check that you completed the transaction. If you did complete the transaction, please email me (normtobe at gmail dot com) so I can send you link directly.

Feel free to SHARE THIS INFORMATION with anyone who might be interested in attending any or all of these sessions.

NOTE ALSO: Please have your donation in by 8:30pm the day before your session begins. PLEASE REREAD THE UPDATE CHANGE IN THE FIRST PART OF THis POST.

Hope to see you soon at a session you choose!

Companion Notes to FBMCFE- AMA (ask me anything) Series Video 2

One of the important things for me in doing the work that I do is not falling for what is “expected” from the general trombone and or music community. I hope it would be clear to everyone who follows me at all, that music and trombone are expressions and tools for understanding life for me, hence, music as a living thing. My great life mentor said, “All things are in all things.” I have found that with music and everything else! Nature’s Laws are the core laws that govern life in all of the universe. Even though the Laws might express themselves in what appears to be many ways, the essence of them is always the same.

If you have not seen the video yet, here is the link:https://youtu.be/XeClWOeNWA0

The two questions asked on the video, reflect times when we feel separated from our deeper Self. The questions asked had the phrases inner-child and inner-imagination. In this case, inner can mean pushed way to the back of our feelings and minds eye. Why would that be? Well, that aspect can be changed if we regularly connect to them. But how and why did those vital forces get pushed so far back? Well, ask yourself this; how much are those vital essences talked about in regular cultural-industrial-21st century life in the schools and on the job, even in the arts? It is business driven, money driven, career driven and that needs consumers. Maybe that is part of it? And more too.. Environment is a very strong influence on our unconscious, semi conscious and conscious mind.

Sometimes we might feel dull or unhappy with how things are going. Well, welcome to being a human on planet earth! You can’t avoid ups and downs but you can learn to deal with them better, much better. That is good news!

I started looking into the word flow and came up with an acronym for it being  Floating Lightly Over Waves. This speaks of an attitude and approach and floating lightly over waves implies being upbove the turbulence of the ups and downs of life. Like anything else we want, it needs to be grown, self grown in ourselves. Like a gardener, we need to give it attention by spending time with it, feeding it with our ever evolving intentions, and integrating it into our lives so it can be a part of our life. But, if we do not connect to it in some form or another regularly, we might not even remember to call upon it to help us, let alone feel it as a friend and ally.

It is relationship building isn’t it? To be in touch with the essence parts of our soul-spirit and its many companion parts like- love, care, patience, humility, honesty, compassion, belief, trust, light, joy, happiness, inspiration.. the list goes on and on. This does put the responsibility on us to have a real interest in our own inner personal development. This surely will be tested. No doubtit! Part of the ups and downs we go through helps us to find the inner strength which turns into greater equanimity forming a foundation of resiliency, courage and stability.




This is all part of the Art of Living.

 

More soon!

 

Bolter Offerings Schedule for 10/3-10/8 PLUS UPDATE AND CHANGE

Hi Everyone!

-As of right now, there will be 2 offerings in the course of a week. The combination of Warm-Up and Musical Meditation occurs on Mondays and the Fundamentals session on Saturdays.

 -Videos will also be put out most weeks with companion notes during FBMCFE (Frequency Bone Music Connection-Fall Edition.) A NOTE ABOUT THIS WEEK'S AMA VIDEO IS BELOW.

-The Monthly Masterclass Series will continue monthly. The next one being on Saturday October 29th.

UPDATE CHANGE: For the sessions to actually take place, there will need to be at least 5 (ideally 10) people signed up for the class. I will need to know this by 8:30pm Eastern time the day before the class. If the number is short of the 5 minimum, the session, there will not be a session that day. Once I know there will be at least 5 signed on, then all involved will be sent a Zoom Invitation. Thanks In advance for keeping this in mind.

Here is This Week's Schedule of Bolter Offerings (and How To Sign Up):

NOTE - Check out my daily Instagram posts @nbolt2

***In the next day or two, FBMCFE,  AMA (ask me anything) video 2 will be uploaded to YouTube.  There will be several of these videos where I will take a  good dive into several questions that people sent to my instagram. In video 2, 2 questions are looked into. One is about the inner child, the other about the inner imagination and how to reconnect to them during times when things are not going as well as you'd like and just not feeling it.

10/3 Warm-Up and Musical Meditation on Zoom this week will be from 10-11am EDT. For the first half hour we will warm-up together on the horn using certain affirmations. The last half hour will be moving into deeper meditative processes using the horn. :-) Free-will donation of your choice is appreciated but not required.

10/8 Fun-damentals Saturday on Zoom 11am-12pm EDT: $7.50 donation is required for all attendees. TOPIC: "A mix of things 5!”  This class will work on several things including "Response.'"Some new etudes may be sent out to  participants before the class begins!

 

*IMPORTANT NOTE

BEFORE MAKING YOUR DONATION, PLEASE READ THE DIRECTIONS CAREFULLY BELOW THE LINK SO YOU CAN DO IT CORRECTLY. THANKS IN ADVANCE! :-)

HOW TO SIGN UP:

(Note especially #6)

1. To pay/donate, please go to:

https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/vierabolter

(Please COPY and PASTE LINK if needed).  

2. You will arrive at a PayPal window with the Air-ev and Frequency Band symbols and the name Carol Viera (Dr V's name)

3. Click "SEND" option

4. Enter AMOUNT [based on which session(s) you are attending and the fee schedule above]

5. At the bottom of the same window is the prompt: "What's this payment for?" ENTER A NOTE about which session(s) you are attending (e.g., Musical Meditation Monday or Warm-Up Wednesday or FBSMC 14 or more than one)

6. **IMPORTANT!** Select left box titled "PERSONAL" (because your are not "purchasing" merchandise, which is the default option; selecting that option incurs extra fees and creates an income category error for us; we do declare these personal payments on our taxes, as we would private lessons and coachings)

7. COMPLETE TRANSACTION (make sure you transaction goes through)

8. You will receive a ZOOM LINK WITHIN 24 HOURS. If you do NOT receive the link, check that you completed the transaction. If you did complete the transaction, please email me (normtobe at gmail dot com) so I can send you link directly.

Feel free to SHARE THIS INFORMATION with anyone who might be interested in attending any or all of these sessions.

NOTE ALSO: Please have your donation in by 8:30pm the day before your session begins. PLEASE REREAD THE UPDATE CHANGE IN THE FIRST PART OF THis POST.

Hope to see you soon at a session you choose!