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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Adam, for agreeing to be part of the Project today, and before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?

Adam Gussow: Yes.  My name is Adam Gussow, and I’m an Associate Professor of English and Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi; and I’m a harmonica player.

Toni: Well thank you, Adam.  Now, we’re going to be talking about the word inspiration, so when you think about that, who do you inspire and how you do that?

Adam: Well, I can tell you who inspire, I think, because I get emails from them, and it’s a sort of strange thing.  I seem to have stumbled into a way of inspiring blues harmonica players or blues harmonica students or people who’ve always wanted to learn how to play the harmonica and play blues on it.  Around the world, I get emails every day from people who’ve seen by now what amounts to more than 200 instructional videos, free videos that are on YouTube.

When this all started … almost exactly three years ago it started because I was just surfing the web one day, and I went to YouTube, and I found that somebody had posted something of me.  And I thought “That’s interesting, this person is controlling my image.  Let me check out and see what else is out there on YouTube” and discovered that there were an awful lot of really bad harmonica playing and one guy who was pretty good who was offering some instruction and nothing else.  And I had been a pro harmonica player for a number of years, recorded with a duo called Satan and Adam, and had also been a teacher for a long time and thought “You know, people deserve better.”

So I got a camera — I didn’t really know how to do the whole thing_- and I set it up on a little tripod, and I uploaded it as Gussow Lesson 000.  I thought “I’ll do something different.  I will pretend as though I’m going to actually upload at least 100 of these,” that’s why I’ll give it three zeros, “and I’ll just talk on camera and say this is what I’m going to do.”

I have to be honest; it was out of entirely mixed motives.  It was to want to teach, it was to want to show off, it was to want to share, it was to want to inspire, it was to … I called it “Blues Harmonica Secrets Revealed!”  I wanted to almost get back at some of my fellow professionals who weren’t sharing this stuff.

And you know, it’s okay.  It’s possible to actually begin with mixed motives and then put something out in the world and realize that what you’ve done is give people something that they receive as a gift.  And that’s what started to happen is that people started to email me from day one and say “Hey, this is great!  Are you going to do more of these?”

And I thought “Wow!  Well, yeah, okay,” and I did 40 videos in 40 days and developed, you know, got 100 people to subscribe, and then it just kept on snowballing.  People said “You know, Adam, we’d really like to send you money,” and I said “Okay, well, I’ll get a P.O. box.”  And they said “Oh no, that’s very old fashioned, you need to update yourself and get PayPal.”  One thing led to another.  I got a Paypal account, and they sent money in!  I thought “Wait a minute, from around the world people are sending me money for me doing videos?”  So again, mixed motives; the profit motive enters.

But here’s what I get these days, three years down the line – I get emails from people in Iraq and Pakistan and California and Alaska, and I get some letters from people who say “I’ve just stumbled across your videos, and I’ve always wanted to learn how to play, thank you so much.”  I get videos from people … emails from people who say “25 years ago, I really took this instrument seriously, and then I just lost interest.  I stumbled across one of your videos, and I’m playing again.  I don’t know how to thank you.”

Occasionally they say “Where can we send money?”  But I mean the point is, those kind of letters … and I realized that something that I had that wasn’t even of great interest to me three years ago, my own ability to play the harmonica, was sleeping.  My own hunger to get back and really learn.  And the moment I began to give it away was the moment it began to reawaken in me.

And so all of these spiritual truths, you know … to give is to receive.  We can talk about the Interfaith Church where I learned some of this stuff, but all of these truths turned out to be true and, I mean, I guess that’s a long answer to a great question, but that’s one of the ways that I inspire.

Let me tell you one thing that people invoke when they talk about what they like about my teaching style, and this surprised me, is I resolved that … the player who inspired me was a guy who always was willing to make mistakes because he was always trying to improve.  And so in my videos, one thing I did from the beginning was I was a little awkward in moments or, if I made a mistake, I didn’t try to edit that out.  I’d say “I guess that was a clam …”  “Okay, let me try that again.” … and again and again, people who email me say that’s the most refreshing thing.  “You make me feel like it’s okay to make mistakes.  You make me feel like it’s okay not to be perfect.”

So again, you know, sort of shedding the shell of perfection and just allowing myself to be authentic and to be more or less who I really am as a teacher; somebody with considerable skill — obviously that comes through — but also somebody willing to say “This is how the process really works.  You want to learn how to play?  You’re going to make a lot of these mistakes.  I make them, you’ll make them, but it’s okay, and you’ve got to keep on going.”  And so that’s how I inspire people.

Toni: It sounds as though there’s a lot more going on there than … and I don’t mean to demean this at all — but than just teaching the harmonica.  It sounds like there is a whole lot more going on in those videos in addition to that.

Adam: Yeah.

Toni: I would wonder then, how do you think putting those videos out, and I understand being a teacher as well, how do you help other people to explore their own potential?

Adam: Well, one thing I’ve ended up doing is creating a website, and I do many things on the website including sell some harmonica lessons through videos, but I’ve also used my training as somebody with a PhD in English and somebody who knows how literary criticism works, I’ve used my training to kind of … the way that they used to rank books, top 10 books, I’ve ranked harmonica players, or I’ve given people a top 10 list and a second 10 list.

So one of the way I inspire people is to say “You know what?  If you want to learn how to play the instrument, here are some steps.  And one of the things you need to do is you need to really have good stuff coming into your ears.  You need to really be listening to the good stuff, so I’m going to center you.  Here are 20 players that you ought to be listening to who are the heart and soul of blues harmonica.”  That’s one of the ways is to say “Listen to the good stuff.”

I also … some of my lessons are about spiritual principles.  That was one that people actually liked a lot.  There was one in particular that was very unlike what other people were doing when they taught harmonica.  I said “To be a good blues harmonica player or improviser, you have to be a warrior, a lover, and a painter” and then I went through those three things.

“You’re a warrior to the extent that you should do what warriors do before they go into battle and take your instruments seriously.  Don’t play old flatted-out harps.  Take yourself seriously.  It’s a discipline to go into the woodshed and to practice.”  I said “You’re a lover because you have to learn how to listen as well as how to play, and good music making is about leaving space, right, not just playing.  That’s the way being a lover is about communication.  It’s about listening to your audience.  And then you’re a painter because good soloing is about” … this is sort of a parallel with the lover, but it’s about “knowing how to create mass and volume.  Also by leaving space, create meaning by leaving space.”

And so that’s one of the ways I inspire people was to say it’s not just about this hole and that reed and this custom harmonica, but it’s really about larger principles that can go into any discipline that you might have and that these can undergird what you’re doing.

Toni: So what inspires you, Adam?

Adam: What inspires me?  My son.  I’ve got a four-year-old, and the challenge of watching him grow and realizing that he has some of the same crazed intensity that I must have had that drove my mother nuts, and trying to let all that be there and heal and try not to tell him … try not to overly shape him while at the same time providing boundaries.  I would say that’s one thing is just the life process of my own son.

I was inspired at a particular period in my life.  As a former marathoner, I was in a period where I was actually smoking occasionally and had a kind of mild heart attack which shook me to my core, would be fair to say, back in the year 2000.  It happened shortly after I began to go to the first and only church service that I’ve ever attended which was a very unusual place in Manhattan, actually, across the street from Carnegie Hall.  It was called the Interfaith Fellowship.  It was a bunch of … it was just all kinds of people, and we read a book called A Course In Miracles which I’m sure some of your listeners would be familiar with.

Toni: Yes.

Adam: And I did a lot of reading after that heart thing.  I read … well, here are some people I read.  I read every book that I could find in the new age spirituality section of the book store.  I read Pema Chodron When Things Fall Apart:  Heart Advice For Difficult Times. I find Pema Chodron, the Tibetan Buddhist way — although I’ve never taken it in a formal way — I found her incredibly inspiring for her ability to say “Sometimes you just need to sit with yourself in those moments when everything has messed up.”  That was good for me.

Jack Kornfield, A Path With Heart; and then the two ministers at the Interfaith Fellowship, Diane Burke and John Mundy, were incredibly helpful in that really difficult time when I fell apart and picked myself back up and began to kind of pay a lot more attention to my heart and found myself a part of a community.

I can also tell you that I was terrifically inspired by the handful of workshops that I took at a place called The Omega Institute which, again, I suspect some of your listeners may have heard of, kind of a place in the Hudson River Valley.  A workshop, for example, with Marianne Williamson who foremost, I guess, exemplar of … or proponent of The Course In Miracles.

And that was terrific to watch powerful, spiritually enlightened people lay some of their own stuff out there and say they had to work with it, too, and are still working with it.  That was all … in terms of forgiveness for myself, that was a good thing.  And one more thing that also inspired me …

Toni: Sure.

Adam: Musicians, as somebody who was a musician trying to learn his craft.  In fact, I really would be negligent if I didn’t name the one single musician who has inspired me the most which is the man who I have played with for 23 years, a man named Sterling Magee who is an African American rhythm and blues guitar player who was playing on the streets of Harlem back in 1986 when I first came across him.  He was calling himself Mr. Satan at that point, as was everybody in Harlem, and I played with him.

He let me play, and we began a … he plays guitar and percussion; I play harmonica.  And we became an act after three or four years of playing on the street and ended up playing festivals and club gigs all over the country.  He was an incredibly – he still is – but I mean then he was an incredibly powerful musician and also a good man who was always telling me to clean up my mouth.  He didn’t like certain words that, you know, young musicians might use.  So he taught me all about respect but also about the art of really reaching down into myself as a musician and always doing the thing that frightened me a little bit; always being willing to find my edge and then just kind of leap past it – that inspired me.

Toni: Finding that edge and leaping past it – is that part of what you do as far as exploring your own potential?

Adam: Yeah, it’s something I’m doing right now, actually.  I’m making a foray into production and producing an event in North Mississippi in May, which means I’m dealing with musicians from the standpoint of the guy who’s going to be paying them which is all very new to me, because I’m used to sort of making the deal from the other side.

Toni: Right, right.

Adam: It’s hard to lowball somebody when you’ve been there, so I’m trying to put my ideals into action.  Yeah, you know, there’s certain spiritual principles that I really explored deeply during that period in the early 2000s and that has stuck with me ever since, and I would say one of them … you know, it came up in so many different texts, but one of them is “brave people aren’t people who were never afraid,” you know?  There are people who are afraid who acknowledge that fear and then take a deep breath and step out beyond it, and I find that – in fact, I’m feeling it right now.  I find that a very moving principle.

Toni: I had someone say to me just today on another interview that fear is just unfinished business.

Adam: Okay, that works for me.

Toni: And I thought “Yeah, all right; that’s a nice way to put that as well.”  You had mentioned in a comment that you said you do in your teaching with the harmonica and also, but I’m hearing it as kind of a theme in your interview, but I want you to clarify this for the people who are listening – you said “leaving a space.”  Define what that means for the people who will be listening and reading your interview.  What does it mean from your perspective to “leave a space?”

Adam: Oh, to leave a space.  Well, it means – and this is especially important I think for people who are possessed by visions, you know, transformative visions and they want to share those visions with the world.  It’s really important in order to bring people along.  I think good ministers … I live in Mississippi and good Bible belt ministers know this but, you know, even if you rise to a thunderous pitch, I think it’s really important also to give people a space in which they can step forward towards you.

So that’s what it means to leave a space.  It means … well, it means to listen, and it means to really listen if you can.  It’s hard to remain that present so that you’re always able to listen even as you’re putting a vision out there, but it means being … I think, wasn’t it Daniel Goleman’s book about emotional intelligence?  It means also having a little emotional intelligence.

I had a student … I teach at Ole Miss, and I had a student who was my age who is an educational professional in Mississippi who had actually not done very well on an exam, and I had to speak with her about it.  And I had gone back and looked at her transcript, her sort of record, and realized that she had been taking courses for 20 years towards her PhD.  She was respected in her field; she just hadn’t done well on this exam because she had misunderstood something.

But as I began to talk … I wanted to tell her that I really admired that it had taken her 20 years but, as I began, as I sort of paged through the couple of pages of her transcript, I realized that there was a pain that was kind of clouding her eyes, and that she … For her, that was a burden that when she had taken off five years to have a kid or three years because she’d had a divorce and things were going bad for her, and I realized I may have intended to praise her but that what she was getting was her own unfinished business.

And I had to be present enough to see that pain and then to reframe what I was presenting by accentuating “I can’t tell you how impressed I am that you’ve persisted in this; that you’ve persisted in this and we’re going to get you through.”  So that’s what I mean about space is you have to know how to pause.

Toni: It’s almost … what I’m hearing in this interview is that it’s leaving the space but also respecting that space and being able to readjust that space when necessary.

Adam: Yes.

Toni: And that’s what I’ve heard from you in this interview; not only what you do for others, but also what you’ve learned.  Because you spoke very eloquently about your own challenges and how you must have been in a space for a couple of years, and you not only were helped through that space but it sounds like you were listening very intently to others and learning while you were in that space that allows you to do what you’re doing today.

What an awesome gift that you’re giving today to the Get Inspired! Project by giving us this interview.  And for that, Adam, we cannot thank you enough.  We will post a link or two or however you want people to be able to find you, listen to your music, or maybe learn how to play the harmonica.

Adam: Yeah, why not?

Toni: You know, sure!  So we thank you so very much, Adam, for coming to the table today.

Adam: It’s been my pleasure, Toni.

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For more information about Adam Gussow:  www.youtube.com/user/KudzuRunner, www.modernbluesharmonica.com, www.hillcountryharmonica.com

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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Linda, for agreeing to be part of the Project, and before we begin, can you introduce yourself?

Linda Oh: Yes.  My name is Linda Oh.  I’m a jazz musician.  I’m a bass player, originally born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  I grew up in Western Australia in a city called Perth, and I now live in New York City playing and composing music.

Toni: Well thank you for that.  Linda, when you think about inspiration, who do you inspire and how do you do that?

Linda: Well, first of all I like to … my music, the point of my music is to try and move people.  That’s my main goal, so that’s what I think about when I write and when I play music, so I guess that’s one way.  Through my music, I like to move people and bring a sense of beauty into their lives.

Second of all, jazz is a very male-dominated scene.  The majority of people who play it, who teach it, and who write about it are male, and so I knew it was very tough being female when I was growing up and trying to play music, jazz music.  So I like to think that I inspire young aspiring female jazz musicians, and I do that by basically sharing my story.  You know, it’s definitely not easy.

When I first moved to New York, I even had one person tell me that no one would hire me anyway because I’m Asian and I’m female and the constant … people always say … you know, I share my story and just tell them that it’s all about making the music, and you can’t really get too tied up in the whole gender thing, and just keep doing what you’re doing, work hard and be kind to people and great things will happen.

Toni: Fantastic.  By having that sort of mentality and really mindset, how do you think then that that helps others explore their potential?

Linda: I think it’s a good story to tell people that they, too, can do that too, you know?  They can just focus on what they need to do and not listen to the negative thoughts, I guess, or see a positive viewpoint as well as knowing that little things make a big difference.  If they work hard and spend all the hours like I do practicing, you know?

No one … I don’t believe in complete, natural-born talent.  I think there’s a lot of hard work that has to be put in anything that you do, so I’m a combination of hard work and positive thoughts against the negative thoughts that anyone may bring to you or that you may bring to yourself.

Toni: You know, the other thing I’m wondering, Linda, is for yourself and what you’re doing and what you’re currently living as far as working towards your passion and your purpose with your music and that example you’re setting for other aspiring young female musicians, I would also think moving from one location to another the way that you did also takes a lot of courage and overcoming that fear, if you had any.  Would you think that that also as a story helps others?

Linda: Definitely, definitely.  And I think a lot of people do do that, move and the way I did it.  I guess I had some friends who had done it before, and they helped me.  I think moral support is one of the biggest things and I think, you know, it’s hard to really succeed without amazing people who are behind you who are helping you out.  So I have a lot of moral support in that way.  I guess the move itself, it was exciting, and I basically focused on what I needed to do and that was to make music and to move people.  And New York was definitely the place to be, and so I just kept reminding myself of that, just to be strong and do what I need to do.

Toni: Well now, let’s talk about you and inspiration.  What do you need to be inspired?

Linda: I need, I guess, my loved ones around me.  I have an amazing family, especially my two older sisters who have been real inspiring to me.  One of them is a veterinarian and a mother, and my other sister is a doctor who has worked in Tanzania, on the outskirts of Sudan, in Kenya, and right now she’s in rural Australia helping out Aboriginal communities in the North.

Toni: Wow; and so your family, obviously you draw a lot of inspiration and support from them.  What else as you are on this journey, professionally or personally … Linda, do you find yourself reaching towards certain tools, certain … I don’t know, an awareness, methodologies that when you go “Gosh, I’m looking for that inspiration, I need inspiration”, where do you find yourself going or reaching for?

Linda: Yes, certainly.  First of all, I think it’s important to have affirmation, to tell yourself, you know, keeping reminding yourself why you’re here and what you need to do and keep feeding yourself positive energy.  And I draw that a lot from the people around me and from books I read, from stories of people who have succeeded in some way despite their circumstances.  Those are the big ones, I think, and knowing, you know, that people can get through hard times, especially people who are more unfortunate than I am.

Toni: How would you recommend that somebody do that?  There’s people that are reading these interviews and listening to them all over the world, Linda, and you are following your passion and your dream.  And whether someone is an aspiring musician, or a painter, a writer, a yoga instructor, or a fireman, you know, at such a young age you actually had the courage to take that leap and to follow this dream towards this fantastic music that you produce.  So what advice would you give others as far as the inspiration that you seek?  How would someone stay positive?  How would they, you know, look for those affirmations and find them?  What would you recommend to someone?

Linda: Well, I think that inspiration is everywhere, you just have to basically open your eyes and be aware of it.  And when I was growing up, I grew up in Perth, which is a very isolated city on the West Coast of Australia, and there aren’t that many musicians, but there were a lot of amazing ones and it was just a matter of getting out into the city and finding it.

And I think almost every little city has something there to offer, some sort of art or something to inspire you.  And that’s basically what I did in Perth despite the fact that I had lots of recordings I also went out to see music.  I went out to see and experience art and try and find people who were really succeeding, you know, and doing what they want to do and what they love to do.  Yes, that’s definitely what inspired me.

Toni: I think one of the gold nuggets as well that you’ve given in this interview is to be aware of it, to be aware of it, and almost … that goes back to how you support the young females that are coming up in this as well.  You know, you were told “You’re never going to make it” and yet you ignored that and stayed focused on what you were doing which was your music, and that’s what you’re advising others to do.  And so I think it’s being aware of what you need to pay attention to, and that’s really what I’m hearing you say.

Linda: Exactly, yeah.

Toni: Now, your potential – what do you need to explore your own potential, to keep moving in this business and putting this beautiful music out?

Linda: I think one of the biggest things that I try and do is I try and challenge myself, not to the point where I’m setting myself unrealistic goal-setting, but I think it’s important to keep setting the bar, you know, just a little higher because you’ll always surprise yourself at what you can do, I think, that way.

So I’m always challenging myself to grow, listening to new music, being aware of what’s happening now with the younger musicians, and that’s something I hope to do even when I’m really old and, I don’t know, maybe achieved a lot.  I’m not sure yet.

Toni: So it’s really just kind of moving and focusing and, like you said, challenging yourself to be better.  What a sense of accomplishment you must be feeling right now though, to have met the milestones you’ve met already.

Linda: Yes.

Toni: That’s amazing.  Well, Linda, you’ve given such a nice message, a nice gentle message to people that are listening and reading this interview, and we will post a way that people can find you and hear your music.  And thank you so very much for not only the music you’re producing but helping others along the way as well.  So for coming to the Project, we really thank you for that.

Linda: Well, thanks so much, Toni.

Toni: Thank you, Linda.  Take care.

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For more information about Linda Oh:  www.lindaohmusic.com,  www.amazon.com/Entry-Linda-Oh-Trio, www.cdbaby.com/cd/LindaOhTrio, itunes.apple.com/us/album/entry/id330009808

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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Brian, for agreeing to take part in this Project and before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?

Brian O’Neal: Hello.  My name is Brian O’Neal, and I am a professional, national recording artist and CEO and founder of DO Foundation nonprofit for the homeless.

Toni: Okay, and just so that we have a little bit of background, can you give us a summary of what is the DO Foundation?

Brian: The DO Foundation … well actually the word DO really stands for Daisy O’Neal which is my late grandmother, and it’s named after her because that’s the person who inspired me my entire life for music and helping the homeless, and also it’s short for “do something.”  I notice a lot of people in the world do a lot of talking about homelessness and poverty, but they don’t actually do anything.  So the title DO Foundation … we really prefer DO Something as a Foundation, but that name was taken, so it is DO Foundation.

Toni: Well thank you for that, and at the end of your interview post people who read and follow the Get Inspired! Project will be able to be see how to reach your Foundation, and also we’re going to post it on the Project page.

So, let’s go into the very first question, Brian.  When you think about inspiration, who do you inspire and how do you think you do that?

Brian: Who do I inspire?

Toni: Yes.

Brian: I think I inspire many people who follow my music.  That actually started when I started recording music which is what they call “smooth jazz.”  I kind of hate that title but … I started out by inspiring a lot of other musicians.  They watched me pretty much teach myself how to play, since I’d never taken lessons.  All the while, I was a software developer working 12 hours a day on a computer, and I’d go home and I’d record all of this music and take it back to work.

I’d notice a lot of my coworkers were wanting to do the same thing.  Not necessarily record music, but want to branch out and do other things in life.  They figured well, if you’re a software developer, how in the world are you going to be able to go home and be a full-time musician too?  I started inspiring people that way, and they would tell me that quite often, kind of going in one ear and out the other, because I felt, you know, no matter what you tell me, I still have a lot of work ahead of me.

Their words of encouragement was okay, but it felt deep down inside I was really trying to impress my parents because my parents, as I was growing up, they always told me to never do music, I’d be crazy for trying to be a musician.  They were very non-supportive.  My dad would say typical things like “Get a real job.  Being a musician is not a real job.”  He associated drugs and alcohol, women, and sex and all that … rock and roll, playing in bars.

So I spent a lot of time working on that music and, like I said, a lot of coworkers would … I would inspire a lot of my coworkers and, in return, they would make a lot of comments about that.

Well, it was recently, Toni, that I walked off that job to do music full time, and I noticed my music changed.  It became more intense, and I developed a pretty large fan base.  Pretty much all the remarks that I get from my fans is how inspiring the music is.

And by the way, the music that I do does not contain lyrics, so part of my mission is to educate my fan base and even the world with music, stating that you can say a lot of things without saying words.

Toni: That’s a great sentiment.

Brian: Yes, there’s actually a track on my recent CD called “No Words Necessary”, and there’s a video that goes with it, and the video is a lot of things that could happen to a person or things that we do day-to-day that are expressed without saying words.  It’s pretty nifty.

Toni: When you talk about the way that you inspire others through your music and also by setting the example that you did by staying passionate about your music and then ultimately making that decision, you know, the belief without evidence move, to do what you love and feeling that difference.  To me that’s all about taking action.  And is that something that you also do … you talked about your professional life … is that what you do in your personal life, how you inspire others?  Is that what you’ve done with the DO Foundation is to take that action?

Brian: Yes.  Well, the music actually led to the DO Foundation and, because I’m a jazz artist, that’s actually doing videos to songs that I don’t have lyrics to.  It causes people to actually really watch the video and what’s going on, and really listen to the music.  Because my fan base grew from that, a lot of people opened up and said “Hey, this is different; a video without a singer.  There’s all instruments doing all the speaking.”

That kind of set the platform for me to actually say things verbally and people would listen.  And because I’ve always had the other passion of helping other human beings, homelessness and poverty, the few times that I mentioned that to my fan base, the reaction was just overwhelming.   People were listening.  So here I have a stage to speak and people would listen; I would have a very large audience.

I had written a song called “Dreams in Color” and it’s about homelessness, and I actually spent two weeks as a homeless person to film the footage for that.  I merged it with the song, made the video, put it online, and got hundreds of thousands of hits on that.

The messages that I got from people were basically that I inspired them to actually notice homeless people.  We’ve got people who walked around every day, regular people like you and myself that step over homeless people, ignore them, and homeless people are actually considered … or they consider themselves invisible.  The two weeks I was on the streets, I got a chance to talk with many of them, and the biggest gripe is “Why do people ignore us?  Why do people think that we’re not here?  Why can’t people help us?”  So that’s in the video.  That message is very strong in that video.

Toni: By putting this out there and showcasing with your music and then the song that you’ve written and taking this cause, how do you think then that that helps other people explore their potential, by what you’ve done?  How might that then help somebody else explore their own potential?

Brian: Well, it causes them to stop and think, and … it’s kind of hard to explain.  I get so many messages from people on how it changes their lives and how they’re inspired.  Basically, what they see in the video and what they hear in the music, it really causes them to slow down and actually look, listen, feel.  And they also realize that they are passionate people inside, and it doesn’t matter what their peers think, because peer pressure seems to be one of the biggest things that holds people back.

It actually held me back for a while when I was younger.  Peer pressure meaning that a lot of my friends that were going to sports would say “You’d don’t want to be a musician”, or “You don’t want go into computer science, because you’re not going to make that much money, you’re not going to have the women.”

Even with more mature people today, and I speak with a lot of my fans and they told me that they don’t  help homeless people or they won’t stop and give a dollar because if they’re with a few girlfriends, they’re embarrassed, or they don’t want the homeless person to follow them, or they’re afraid of something.

So it causes them to open up and realize that they are human, homeless people are human, and we all have the right to have help.

Toni: So, when you are inspiring others through your music or the work that you’re doing with this Foundation, it’s really setting an example in  a very unique way for others to say it’s okay, let’s, like you said, stop, think, slow down, look, listen, and then I also heard that you’re asking people to move through their own fear.

Brian: Yes.  I notice that it’s working much better, and I’m able to reach a larger crowd when I do things first.  Because I’m in the limelight as an artist, as a national recording artist, people are watching me.  When I shot the video, I was on the streets for two weeks, and I didn’t know it would have that type of impact with my current fans, the fact that I truly went homeless.  I was a bum, and I was out there.  That brought in 2,000 or 3,000 more fans – brand new fans who had never heard of me.  Those people are still following me.  After realizing that because I’m in the limelight like that through my music status, things that I say and do, people are watching.

Toni: Right.

Brian: They follow by example.

Toni: Well then let me ask you this, Brian, what do you need to be inspired?  You’re out there inspiring others, you’re aware of it, so what do you need to stay inspired and to be inspired?

Brian: Well, I’m inspired … that’s a tough one, because I think that’s just who I am and how I’m made.  I think I give my late grandmother, Daisy O’Neal, the credit because she was one awesome woman.  She gave to any and everyone.  She’d give her last dollar to anyone, total strangers.

Coming up as a child, she always told me things like “Brian, if you want to do music, you do music.  If that makes you most happy, that’s what you do.  Don’t listen to your friends, don’t listen to your parents when they tell you get a job to make a lot of money, get a job that’s going to allow you to travel and buy big houses and things like that.  If music is in you and that’s makes you happy, then that’s what you do.”

I remember her saying that many times around age six or seven,  and that kind of kept me going the rest of my life, and I’ve taught my own children that.  I’ve spread that to others, like my best friends and other people in the family, and I notice large changes in them.  I notice that they are happy.  They may not be as rich as they want to be, but as people they’re much happier.

Toni: So when you think about … when you’re going “You know what?  I need to fill my own bucket here.  I need to find inspiration and seek inspiration.”  I heard that acts of kindness inspire you and following your purpose inspires you … what else do you find inspiring?  For you?

Brian: Music.

Toni: Music.

Brian: Not my own music.  Music does so much for me and not the typical top 40 stuff and things on the radio.  I find the most inspiring music is music that’s attached to visual things like the music that’s in movies.  I can sit and watch the most exciting visual movie, but it’s that music that’s behind the scenes that’s driving me.  I can actually go to a movie theater and close my eyes the whole time and really get into the music.

Most people don’t realize that almost every single thing you watch on television, commercials and all, has music behind it; that’s what I’m listening to.  I can be staring at the television, but I don’t really see much, but I hear everything.  Instruments speak to me and instruments inspire me a lot, and there’s a handful of them that do the trick for me.  The cello.  The sound of the cello does it, hands down.

Toni: Yeah.

Brian: Anything with a cello, yeah, that does it for me.  Second would probably be oboe, and then piano, and acoustic guitar.

Toni: And so, Brian, you’ve been very honest with how you inspire, what inspires you, the acts of kindness to people following their passion, music … what are you doing and what will you continue to do so that you can keep exploring your own potential?

Brian: I will continue being a musician for one, because it’s in my blood and I’ve learned that that is the engine that drives me.  They say music is the universal language of the world; that is so true.  If music goes away, or I’m not able to hear music or feel it, it would probably stop me right in my tracks.

Toni: So, staying connected to the music.  Is that through your own writing that you’ll continue with growing your own potential?  Is it writing?  What does that mean for you?

Brian: Well, it’s pretty much all of it.  I am a composer first.  The performing aspect of it, I do a lot of performing and I travel the country.  That’s fun, and it’s nice to play for an audience and to feel what they feel right there in the same room.  But if anything had to go away, I wouldn’t mind if that part goes away.  I could stay home every day the rest of my life just composing music for other people and myself.

But as long as I’m able to hear music and continue to appreciate it the way I do, that keeps me going.  That’s the rest of my life, no matter what happens.  If there’s no Do Foundation, there’s no touring, there’s no fancy house in the mountains and fancy car, as long as I have ears and my two hands and at least one instrument, I’m happy.

Toni: Only one.

Brian: Well, minimum one.  I play about seven, but, you know, I could do everything with a piano.

Toni: Well, you have been really kind today to give up your time to be a part of the Get Inspired! Project, particularly knowing that you’re going to be going back out on the street, you said, tomorrow.  What’s so interesting about this interview is that even though your passion is in music — and that’s really come out loud and clear throughout this interview — but it’s interesting that your passion is putting the music out there without any words so that the message speaks louder than the words, and you’ve started a Foundation about doing something without screaming it from the mountaintop; that’s pretty awesome.

Brian: And by example.

Toni: And by example, absolutely.

Brian: The more I do, the more the people around me do and then that just kind of spreads, and so on.

Toni: It does.  It really does.  Well, we will definitely have a way for people to get ahold of you and, as I said in the beginning of the interview, we will spotlight your Foundation and I’m sure there’s people that are going to be listening and reading this that will want to hear your music as well, so thank you, Brian, very much, for this interview today.  Good luck to you going back on the street, stay safe, and hopefully we will reconnect in the future.

Brian: Thank you so much for taking your time and interviewing me.  I so appreciate it.

Toni: You’re welcome.  Take care, Brian.

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For more information about Brian O’Neal:  www.dofoundation.net, info@dofoundation.net

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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Scotty, for agreeing to take part in this project, and before we begin can you please introduce yourself?

Scotty Manzo: Yeah, Toni, I’m Scotty Manzanares, I live in Castle Rock, south of Denver in Colorado, my website’s at scottymanzo.com, and I am a musician.

Toni: What do you play?

Scotty: I play mostly guitar, but usually anything in our back room that consists of jimbays and keyboards, and I’m really starting to fall in love with the piano.  So, just a little bit of everything, really.

Toni: Fantastic!  Let’s go right into the very first question, which is, when you think about inspiration in either what you do for living or who you’ve come across in your lifetime, who do you think you inspire and how do you think you do that?

Scotty: Well, I think I’m pretty much pretty positive all the time, so usually anybody I’m hanging out with, or if I run into an old friend, it’s always something funny.   So I think I’m pretty … I’ve always stayed pretty positive.  Really, just come across really everybody.  That’s kind of how it is.

Toni: How do you think — being positive is absolutely a great example — but what else do you think it is about you that inspires people?

Scotty: I would think maybe because I kind of do it.  If somebody’s got an idea, no matter how far-fetched it is or anything, I really like to inspire them to do it.  I think that’s why people kind of tell me when they have an idea on something; it could be out there, but I always encourage it.

Toni: So it’s that motivation and saying, come on, you can do it kind of an attitude?

Scotty: Yeah.  It really is.  And if I have a connection or something I will try to get them there, or a book to read.  I know in my travels searching, I’ve come across a lot of good teachers, so at least get them in that direction or send them an email of an author, or you know, just kind of anything.

Toni: How do you think by being positive and by encouraging people to just do it and to follow what they want to do, helping them to make that connection, how do you think that that might help them to explore their potential?

Scotty: That’s a really good one.  I think just that they can do it.

Another thing I usually do is a secret box technique that has endless cash, an endless money box, and “What would you do if you had this?”  I can’t remember who taught me that, it was some great teacher.  But I usually will talk about that, and then the ideas pop out left and right and that’s kind of like the light.  It helps me out.  It’s like “What would I do if I just had this endless source of money right now?”  And I just try to go down that path.  Usually it’s always something with music, traveling.  But that seems to be a good technique to help somebody just really open their mind right there.

Toni: Do you think that your music inspires others?

Scotty: On my page … on my link to my music, I can’t … it’s different to everybody.  After a show or something, somebody will say something, but I couldn’t explain it.  I’d have to have somebody else listen to it and see if it’s inspiring.  It’s nice to hear that when it really did inspire them.  So yeah, it’s just one of those things.  These are the people I like, these are my mentors, this is what kind of music I’m loving right now, and that kind of more explains me type of thing.

Toni: So let’s go with that one.  What do you think you need to be inspired?

Scotty: Oh, I like that one!  Definitely good music.  I’ve been getting a lot of really, really cool stuff lately.  A good Pat O’Bryan Unseminar for sure.  People like you, Toni; I love what you’re doing.  I was going through your website and that’s inspiring.

Toni: Well thank you!

Scotty: Absolutely.  Just love what you guys are doing.  Being around positive people and then just … I think usually two or three nights a week I’m usually trying to get on some kind of interview and just listen in.  I used to go to the weekend things a lot; if there’s a real estate convention, whatever, just a lot of positive people.  So usually on my weekends I’ll go check out something.  Obviously I have a lot of product to prove that.

Then really volunteering with the elderly; that’s one thing I really like to do and help them out, and that makes me really feel good and it inspires me to do that.  I want to be a full-time volunteer.

Toni: That one kind of came right out of the blue, volunteering with the elderly and that’s fantastic!  How did you get involved in that?

Scotty: I’ve always been around older people, but on around the last about 14 years I’ve been working at assisted living homes, nursing homes, usually doing maintenance or something inside those homes, and just a little thing helping an elderly person out.  Somehow, my elders, it just makes their life, and it just makes me feel good.  That’s something I want to do just full-time.  Not have to worry about getting paid for it.

And of course, traveling, and being able to help if somebody needs a little something done on their house, I can do that.  I think that’s inspiring, you know, just volunteering like that.

Toni: Have you always been a positive person?

Scotty: I think I have.  I’ve had … and of course everybody has had to endure the trenches, but for the most part, yeah, I have.  I really have.  If there’s something going on I try not to market it, but sometimes I do need to talk and get it out of me or whatever, but I try not to … I’ve always been pretty positive, and you would have to ask the people I’ve been around more that question.  I try to.  I try to stay on the up-and-up.  I’m really super optimistic, way on that side.

Toni: Are there certain tools that you might reach for when you know, man, it’s time for me to get inspired and to be re-inspired?  Are there tools or books or things that you might reach for?

Scotty: You know, I’m standing actually right next to my bookshelf here.   I think … usually this is kind of something I do once in a while … I’ll actually get in the car — and we have a back highway 105 that runs kind of west of I-25 going between Denver and Colorado Springs — and I will actually put on some really good trance music and drive that highway, and it just really puts me in a focus.

And another thing I always have done is taken a road trip by myself; I think that’s my best clearing tool is doing that and just listening to good stuff — all the music that inspires me, to interviews, to business mentors, and just a good long road trip, a week or so.  And I can really get clear doing that.

Toni: And when you are doing these things or you’re listening to good music or following positive people, the volunteering that you do, the road trips that you take – how does that all then allow you or help you to explore your own potential?

Scotty: I think because it really just opens up your mind.   It clears me, personally.  And then once you’re in that flow, say you can’t sleep, you’re so busy getting up, writing stuff down and ideas are just coming left and right, and you try to tame it.  I think sometimes, like with me personally, I’ve tamed it too much.  You want to stay in that flow.  You don’t want to let go of it.  But I think just being around positive people too, that really helps out.

Toni: And so when you’re looking to grow and to move into your own space of potential and to move forward in that, do your mentors help you to do that as well?

Scotty: I would say, yes, absolutely yes.  I’m working with Pat O’Bryan.  I’m doing a coaching program through him right now.  But in just that one week that he’s on, showing you hands on and all that, that is such a great … and when you actually get across those road blocks, that is the best.

I’m always seeking mentors to do that so I can kind of pass on the knowledge and learn something new.  My mentors is my mom, my family, my friends.  Really everybody.  I’m just really honored for all of them, for sure.

Toni: So when you are in learning from these people and just moving because of these people that are helping you as well that allow you to open up your mind and think differently, do you think then that’s what you do when you inspire others, that the people that have helped you or what you do to clear your mind and to stay positive, do you think that everything you do for yourself, whether it’s through inspiration or exploring your own potential, do you think that all relates back to how you treat others?

Scotty: I think it really does.

Toni: How do you think it does that?

Scotty: Because you can really tell when you see somebody, and they’re … even like after a show you can see this awake feeling in their face.  It’s something … there’s a certain look, I’m sure you’ve seen it a lot when somebody saw something that you did, just watching your actions and just something really enlightening.  It’s like, “Dude, I’m going to pick up my bass again and start playing”, or somebody is going to get back to their drums.

Here’s a little example:  I sent some music down to one of my friends in Arkansas and I loaded a whole bunch of stuff on a thumb drive that … I don’t even know what song I pulled out, but I sent it down there.  And I got a call back about a week later — and I was actually a little bit down that week — but my friend Liz, she’s like “Scotty, that is the most awesome writing I’ve ever seen!”

I’m like, “What are you talking about?”

“That book you’re writing!”

I’m like,“What book?”   The zip disk … and she’s like “Jay, he took off up to the mountains and he’s writing, and it really inspired us.”  And I had to go through all my stuff and wow!  I sent that whole file.  I sent them everything.

And so that was really, really cool.

Toni: Absolutely.  It sounds incredibly contagious, really.  This interview with you feels to me like somebody who just “is.”  You don’t give a lot of thought to inspiration, you don’t give a lot of thought to exploration of potential because it just is within you to help others, to inspire others.  Your enthusiasm is contagious and you just live a very positive life as best you can and do what you need to move forward, and that just moves for others.  That’s what I’m hearing in this interview.

Scotty: Oh, I love that – that just totally inspired me!  Thank you, Toni.

Toni: Well, you’re welcome!

Scotty: That is so cool!

Toni: That came from you, though, Scotty; that didn’t come from me, and that’s what I’m taking away from this interview, that you just are and that inspiration just is.  So I think this has been an awesome interview, and I appreciate your honesty and also coming to the table and being part of the Project.  And for that, I thank you.

Scotty: Thank you, Toni.

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For more information about Scotty Manzaneres:  www.scottymanzo.com, www.myspace.com/scottymanzanares

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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Jason, for agreeing to do this interview with us, and before we get into the questions, can you please introduce yourself?

Jason Parker: Absolutely, and thanks for having me.  My name is Jason Parker, and I am a professional musician, jazz trumpet player from Seattle, Washington.

Toni: Fantastic!  So Jason, when you think of the word inspiration and what that means, who do you think you might inspire and how would you do that?

Jason: Well, you know, that’s a tough question to answer, and I’m not sure it’s for me to say who I inspire.  But I can say that my goal is to live my life purposefully and joyfully with intention and always in service of my passions and something a little bit larger than me, I guess.  And if that ends up inspiring people, I think that’s fantastic.

It’s easier for me to talk about what inspires me, and I think that answer is also maybe part of the answer to your question, because I like to think that whatever I take in as inspiration I can maybe turn around and send back out into the world.  So I always look to surround myself with people who are passionate and creative and living the life they want to live and living joyfully interested in communication and collaboration, which is something that then forms my art from the core.

I mean, that’s what it is to be a jazz musician is to try to communicate something in a collaborative way with band members, try to communicate between the band members and also try to communicate something out to the audience that’s listening.  So that’s what inspires me.  Musically, when we’re onstage and everybody is focused on the moment and focused on each other and sending off that vibe into the audience, that’s what gets me most inspired professionally.  And personally, I think that it’s just people who are living that life that I described earlier that I strive to live as well.

Toni: Well let me just ask you this.  If you are … Being a musician, I would believe that your music would have an intention to possibly inspire others.  Have you ever been given that feedback, or would you hope that your music would inspire others?

Jason: Sure.  You know, I think in all art forms what you’re trying to do is communicate something of your own emotions to your audience and that can take many forms, inspiration certainly being one of them.  We do get feedback on a regular basis.  My band, in particularly, really brings everything they’ve got to the performances.  And it’s not only a musical experience, it’s a visual experience, and it’s an emotional experience as well.  And in that sense, I think that we do inspire other musicians to sort of bring that kind of passion and joy to their performances, and I think we inspire the non-musicians just by the mere fact that we kind of hit them hard emotionally.

I think one thing … I always say this about myself; all artists are self-deprecating — and so take this with that in mind — but I’m certainly not the best trumpet player in the world.  I strive to be the best trumpet player that I can be, but by no means am I the best in the world.  But I think what I’m particularly good at is putting together a band that shares that common passion and the desire to put that passion out there for all the world to see 100% of the time.  That’s what we hope to bring to each and every performance, just putting that out there and letting people see it; not only letting people hear it, but letting people see it and letting people feel it in as many different ways as we possibly can.  We’re hooting and hollering and egging each other on and smiling and laughing, and that kind of display of joy and passion is what I’m after at all times, and that does inspire people, both musicians and non-musicians.

Toni: Well that takes me into the next question, which is how do you think that that inspiration might help explore potential in others?  And you know, at the beginning you thought “Well maybe I’m not sure that I inspire”, but listening to you, there’s a lot of inspiration going on and a lot of creating an experience for not only the people in your audience but fellow musicians.  And by experiencing that focus and that passion and that joy, I would imagine that that also translates into helping others explore their potential in that music industry.  Would you agree?

Jason: Yeah, absolutely.  I mean, we play very often at a club that is near the University of Washington, and so we get a lot of students coming out.  And I really love the fact that this club is sort of tied into the University in some ways because it allows us to bring our experience and what we’ve learned and what we feel is important to the stage and let the young guys see it and feel it and experience it.  I’m aware of that when we play, for sure.  I think we’re all aware of that.

And my band as a trio leads a jam session there that’s sort of a nontraditional jazz jam in that they don’t really call standard tunes.  They are not playing “Autumn Leaves” and “Bye, Bye Blackbird.”  They just get up and play from their hearts and they play with their passion.  And it’s great, because you see these 19-year-old music students come in with their horns, and they’re ready to play their song that they’ve worked on, and they sort of sit in the back with their jaws open, watching this band just making music out of nothing.  They may not get up that night and they may not get up the next night, but maybe the third time they come back they’ll get up on stage and blow a few tentative notes.

And then, you know, over the course of weeks or months, we can see these people sort of getting the idea and being inspired by this kind of playing, because it’s not the kind of playing that they’re being taught in their school.  It’s more of a playing from your gut, and that’s something that takes most people a lifetime to learn, and we’re all still trying to get to that point.  But it’s fun to see these young cats come in and sort of get their minds turned around to this kind of way of playing.  It’s exceptional to see that.

And not only that, but I think that the way that I run my business as a business.  You know, a lot of musicians are so concerned with the artistic side of things that they neglect the business side of things, which is why there are business managers and lawyers and whatnot.  But these days, I think a lot more people are sort of tuning into the fact that you’ve got to run your own career and you’ve got to run your own business, because the days of the major labels throwing giant amounts of money at bands are pretty much over.  It’s time that we need to step up, and that’s one thing that …

Another way I sort of, I guess, try to lead by example is by showing people that it can be done.  I mean, I’m just one person running a business.  I’m making music, but I’m also running a business.  And it’s become a very successful business, and I hope that particularly the young people, as well, they see how we go about promoting and marketing ourselves, how we go about being professionals and doing everything that it takes to be a professional.  And then that way maybe we can get some of these guys coming up the ranks thinking about the other side of the music business.

Toni: Well, I’m hearing a whole lot of exploration here and whole lot of inspiration that you’re providing to the fellow musicians, to the students.  And I’m hearing that you’re also not just inspiring those students, particularly that are sitting in the back of the room, to think “I can do it” as well, but you’re also showing them by example the bricks and mortar that it takes to run that business, not just get up and play.

Jason: Yeah.  There’s a lot of people who can play their instruments in the world.  We all know super, super talented artists who are not making a living with their art.  And there’s certainly a number of different reasons why that doesn’t happen, but I think one of the big ones is that artists oftentimes sort of feel put out by having to concern themselves with the finances and the business end of things.  And I’m happy to see that more and more that’s changing and that there’s so many artists out there who are trying to teach and inspire other artists to spend at least some, if not equal, amounts of time on that side.

I mean, I think there’s times in my career where I’ve spent much more time on that side and much less time practicing my art, but that’s what’s gotten me to the point where I am now.  I’m an artist who’s making a living, and I don’t take that lightly.  And I feel very fortunate that I’ve been able to do that, but I don’t feel lucky because I feel like I’ve put in an incredible amount of work to get to that point; and it’s been work on my instrument, and it’s been work off my instrument; and that’s the new model.

There’s a lot of talk these days on the internet in the music blog world about how the music industry has changed and there are all of these different models, and everybody is trying to figure it out.  We’re sort of in this Wild West phase of the music business where there is no one model anymore.  And everybody’s trying everything they can, particularly using the internet and finding ways to connect with other artists, finding ways to connect with potential audience people, finding ways to do things for ourselves.  It’s like we’ve taken it back from the Music Industry with capital M and capital I.  And you know, I think that’s only good for musicians, and it’s only good for music lovers because now we’re making our own decisions.  It’s a beautiful time.

There’s a lot of people out there who tend to look at it sort of negatively and like “Well, I don’t know I can do this.  There’s too much work, and without the labels I don’t know how I can get tour support and marketing support and all this kind of stuff”, when all the tools are there and it’s changing every single day.  I would say literally four to five times a week I come across a new model that I’ve never seen before that somebody is doing and make it work.  Whether it’s broadcasting live concerts from their studio via UStream, or putting free music out there via Bandcamp, or setting up tours completely on the internet, getting sponsorships.  It’s just incredible the amount of resources and the amount of different methods that are available to us right now.

To me, it’s like the best time in the world to be a musician.  I see nothing negative going on right now, because we have complete control over our careers, and we have complete control over our lives; and I don’t see how that could be a bad thing.

Toni: No, it doesn’t sound that way, and also, other musicians that have been in the game for a while can benefit, and those that are coming into the game are going to benefit from that.  You’ve touched on it briefly as far as what inspires you, which is the creativity, people living to their passion and really getting that passion and experiencing it.  But are there certain tools that you seek out when you need to be inspired?  What do you reach for?  What do you do when you need to be inspired?

Jason: Yeah, there’s a couple things I’ll do.  I’m a trumpet player, so I spend a lot of time playing the trumpet obviously, and sometimes I get stuck in ruts and I need some sort of non-trumpet inspiration.  So musically, I’ll turn to the piano, and I’ll play piano for a while or I’ll play some guitar, because just the act of making music on a different instrument makes you think different ways and makes you do different things.  All that stuff helps.

I tell my students all the time that any musical experience you can have will benefit you as a musician.  So you know, I love to play the drums, even though I’m terrible at it.  I can’t play the drums, but I sit down at the drums, and I bang around for a little while or I’ll play some stuff on the piano.  So musically, just sort of getting out of the trumpet and getting onto other instruments really helps a lot.  I tend to listen to incredible amounts of music, and that’s always very inspiring.

And sometimes I just need inspiration that doesn’t come from music, and I’ll take a walk around my neighborhood, or I’ll go to Green Lake and sit by the water and just stare at the ripples in the water.  I read a lot of nonfiction books, a lot of music stuff.  I’m a little bit obsessed.  At any given time, I’ll be reading a book about a French horn player and John Coltrane and Dan Levitan’s books about music and the brain, or I’ll turn to the great of teachers in the world like Thich Nhat Hahn or Pema Chodron or Byron Katie.

I love to just soak up other people’s thoughts about inspiration and other’s people’s thoughts about how to live an authentic life and be in the present moment.  I think that’s what it is.  When I’m most inspired, it’s when I’m not thinking about the past and I’m not thinking about the future, and I’m firmly rooted in the present.  Any activity that can bring that sort of presence to me is what’s going to ultimately lead to the inspiration that I need.

Toni: The final question then for you would be using all of these tools and the music you reach for or the books that you read and being in that present moment, really working hard at that, how would that help you explore your own potential?

Jason: Wow … you know, again, I think that it’s really … My potential, I’m 100% certain, lies in being in that present moment, because when I’m worried about the past I’m not living up to my potential.  When I’m worrying about the future, I’m not living up to my potential.  These things can be weights that drag you down, drag me down.  So it’s getting to that moment that really allows me to open up, and I feel like when I’m open that’s when the potential is there to live my best life.

And so, I think that’s why I gravitated to music at such a young age because it’s such an act of the moment.  Certainly there are times when I’m playing the trumpet and my mind is wandering.  And I’ve recently had quite an epiphany about that after not playing my horn for a few weeks and coming back to it and really getting immersed in the sound, which of course then immerses me in the present moment.

When I’m really focused on the sound that I’m making and the sound that’s coming out of the horn, I can’t possibly be thinking about anything else.  And that’s what drew me into music I think originally, was just that it blocks out all those other things in life, and it allows me to be in that space where everything opens up.  And it’s only when I’m open and I’m allowing things in that I’m able to put things out, and that to me is where the inspiration is and where I can get to my fullest potential is when it’s coming in and going out in a big circle.

Toni: I think that is a phenomenal way to put that.  I love that; allowing things in, in order to put things out, and that music is an act of the moment.  That is absolutely fantastic!  The wisdom that you have put forth in this interview with your experience as a musician,  how that’s impacted your life and you’re impacting others – students, fellow band members, musicians, and the audience – has come full circle in this interview and I know there’s going to be many people who are going to learn and benefit by this, and for that I thank you.  Thank you very much for giving us this time today.

Jason: Thanks, Toni.  It’s great to talk about these things and, you know, just finding new ways to express them is always a wonderful thing too, so I appreciate the opportunity.

Toni: Well thank you so much, Jason, and hopefully we’ll speak again soon.

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For more information about Jason Parker:  oneworkingmusician.com

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