This blog post is about you activating your superpowers. You don’t need to swallow some external red pill Matrix-style or take one more masterclass. No, in fact, it’s all there already inside of you. Just quietly working its magic in the background. I’m talking about your values. Your very own, deeply personal, heartfelt, purposeful and homegrown values. Do you want to fill your career with more meaning? Then bring your values to the surface and build your music career firmly upon this shockproof inner compass. Ask yourself, what else will point you towards True North?
Are you ready? You might want to find your shovel because it will require you to dig deep.
Where Did I Lose The Way?
We all start with a deep love for music and a desire to honour it by trying our best to become better at it. To express the ideas that come to us as directly as possible. Then something happens that blows us off course.
One cause can be the mechanics of Higher Music Education: the institutionalising effect of going through a system of music education. A possible effect of evaluating/judging musical performances by students is that it creates musicians that are rooted in outer-referenced values. As a young musician we probably all asked our teachers:
“How was my performance?”
“Did you like what I just played?”
“How should I play this part?”
However, do this long enough and it creates a system of looking for approval outside of yourself. I’ve seen many artists lose touch with the sublime and joy of being a musician this way…
This article is about re-centrering yourself. The key to that is re-connecting yourself to your deepest values. Artistic expression and career development based upon your own rules and by your own definition of success, instead of those by others.
As Oscar Wilde said: “Be yourself: everybody else is already taken.“
Why Not Start With The Beginning?
Let’s start with providing some context and dust off this millennia-old Roman concept. What are values again? According to the Cambridge Dictionary, values are “the beliefs people have, especially about what is right and wrong and what is most important in life, that control their behaviour.” This means that values are not things we collect, they are a practice. They are things we do. You don’t have courage. You practice it. Every day a little. The same for values as freedom, compassion, generosity, wisdom, love or humility. They exist in our behaviour. The seed lies in our intentions, in our heart and mind, but it grows into a blooming flower in our actions. As the Stoic philosopher Seneca stated: “Works not words.” Living according to your deepest values is what constitutes personal integrity. It is what it means to live an authentic life.
So, how does this concept translate to the reality of being a professional musician?
Music Is An Expression Of Your Humanity
Herbie Hancock said about jazz: “The conduit is being human and manifesting that humanity in everything that you do.” (Source: National Geographic) In that way, jazz can be seen as an expression of our humanity. Ask yourself, without a firm belief in values as Equality and Freedom, would Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” or Nina Simone’s “Mississippi Goddam” exist? For them, striving for equal human rights naturally meant integrating these core values into their art. Could John Coltrane’s ‘Alabama’ or his seminal album A Love Supreme have been created without deepfelt principles as Hope, Love and Compassion? I don’t think so. In fact, those very principles are what makes art deeply human. It’s why certain songs and albums stand the test of time and others don’t. Classics in literature, standards in jazz, they all share a timeless quality based upon more than aesthetics and stylistic elements.
So what is music?
It is art.
It is spirit.
It is character. Your character.
And what shapes your character at its core? You guessed it.
Your authentic character – your human spirit expressed through creativity – is what will attract other people to you and your art. Your values are what resonates with people. Expressing them more clearly is the higher goal. Music is the tool you use as a note-smith to do that.
In Coltrane’s own words: “Music is an expression of higher ideals … brotherhood is there; and I believe with brotherhood, there would be no poverty … there would be no war … I know that there are bad forces, forces put here that bring suffering to others and misery to the world, but I want to be a force which is truly for good.”
Our Values Are Us
Our decisions and actions flow from our values and in this way our
values help to define us; they are part of our identity. Our exploration
and discovery of our principles is therefore a discovery of self. Your values are the foundation you built your career on. This insight prompted one of my favourite writers – David Foster Wallace – to say the following:
“Because here’s something else that’s weird but true: in the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship — be it JC or Allah, be it YHWH or the Wiccan Mother Goddess, or the Four Noble Truths, or some inviolable set of ethical principles — is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive.“
What do you choose to worship? On what foundation are you building your music career? What fuels your artistic fire?
Discovering Your Core Values
The question worth exploring for you is which values lay at your core as a human being? To answer this question, it’s good to keep in mind this advice from Scott Jeffrey:
“Values aren’t selected; they’re discovered. We don’t choose our values. Our values reveal themselves to us.”
That means your values are already there in your behaviour. In past choices, current loves, dreams dreamt and fears overcome. You just have to make them concrete by finding the right words. This is why I call our values our superpowers. When clear, they shine the light guiding your steps forward. Suddenly, seemingly difficult choices become crystal clear, of course, THIS is how I should interact with the audience on stage, this is how I sell my albums, formulate my contract, distribute my music and so on. When you know your values you can live in accord with them. They are like a beacon reminding you what is important to you. When in doubt about a decision, test it against your values.
It’s time. Are you ready for some deep self-exploration?
Three Ways To Discover Your Core Values
In my eBook Write Your Biography, I provide musicians with three ways to find their own personal values based upon a ‘whole-person’ approach. The goal is to find five core values that represent your full-personality. Remember: they don’t have to be sexy, they have to be you.
1) Your DNA
For starters, think about your family, culture, talents, spirituality, artistic taste, dreams, ambitions, and causes you care about. How do these make you the person you are? How did your parents raise you? Which moments
in your life did you learn from most? Which five words are at the essence of your personality? Write them down and integrate them into your bio either literally or in spirit.
2) Artists that inspire you
Analyze the story, message, feeling, and spirit of your favourite artists. Why do you love them? Are there themes that surface when you compare your favourite artists? What do you feel when listening to Lizz Wright or Pharoah Sanders? What fuels their art?
3) Your own music until now
Analyze your own work until this point. Which values do they express? Are they representative of who you are right now? If not, what do you need to change in your art to make it more YOU?
Don’t Evaluate And Create At The Same Time
Start out by a free-flow writing exercise. Don’t judge the words that come to mind. As a stream-of-consciousness exercise just write your thoughts down. Try to find the right words to describe your inner beliefs. A distinct set of values that truly represent you requires precision. Dig deep. Is Honesty the right word, or is it Integrity? Is it Friendship or Community? Is it Adventure or Curiosity?
In addition, think in different categories to avoid having too similar values from the same ‘domain’. As Scott Jeffrey writes: “If you have a group of values that include honesty, transparency, integrity, candour, directness, and truth, select a word that best represents the group.” You need contrast between your five core values for them to truly represent your full personality.
I. Can’t. Find. The. Right. Words. HELP!
I have been there, and so has every single person I’ve coached. Don’t worry. Finding the precise word that embodies your beliefs is hard work. Give it time. Be patient. Revisit them over the course of a few months and test them again and again. Do they still resonate and ignite your fire? Then you’re on to something. Polish them as if they are five rough diamonds. Because they really are.
Values Are Not Static
Values are not static. As you grow and develop as a human being, so do your values transform. Your five core values might be different a year from now. Designing your career from the inside-out is also a life-long process. Keep your inner compass pointing True North. Check-in upon your values from time to time. Are they still your most important principles on life, art and what your music is for?
Activate your own superpowers and create more great music! Looking forward to hearing it!
Upcoming: Part II
Please do and keep your eyes open for my next upcoming blog post A Value-driven Music Career (part II). Here I will illustrate how to use these values in your art and career design by analyzing purposeful artists like Christian Scott, Pharoah Sanders and Vulfpeck.
Pieter Schoonderwoerd
Your Jazz Career
Need some inspiration? Check this great article by Scott Jeffrey listing 200 values to expand your vocabulary. Do you need more exercises to pinpoint your exact five core values?
For seven inspiring exercises on finding your core values, please visit this website.
Great resources on living a value-based life and how to use these for your life- and career design are:
The Gifts of Imperfection – Brené Brown (values are a practice)
A Man’s Search For Meaning – Viktor E. Frankl (being proactive vs reactive)
Maria Popova on The Shortness of Life by Seneca (productivity vs presence)
Find an empowering ebook on developing your artistic vision and writing a compelling artist biography here.
I’ve been coaching and educating jazz artists for years to achieve their creative and professional ambitions. If you are a high-performing artist and interested in transformative career coaching, you can read more about it here.
Be More Of You. Be Creative!