Gifted healers, leaders, and coaches

  • After all the years and $ spent on your deep work, do you ever reflexively do something that makes you cringe and scream at yourself, "Why the hell did you do THAT?!?!"

     

  • Does it feel like you'd give anything to finally get past your old habits and compulsions so you can truly trust, respect, and feel good about the person you see in the mirror?

     

  • Are you at a crossroads, professionally or personally (e.g. job/career change, divorce, new empty nester, retiring)? Do you have some time now, but time feels more precious than ever?

     

  • Are you feeling called to get more involved politically and wanting to make a real difference from a place of deep integrity?

This unique & effective sound improvisation practice helps you to...

and go about your day with more ease and grace.

I know... this sounds like a leap.

And you may think sound improv would just be an "escape" or "extra-curricular,"

Or maybe just unrealistic or impractical.

If you'll give me a couple of minutes to watch this video, I'll say a little more about how and why this practice works so well.

Affordable and effective

Tune and Balance

Overwhelm / Anxiety

  • You spend way too much time every day just deleting emails you won't open. The idea of "mailbox zero" now feels naively quaint!

  • You just snapped at their spouse and kids again after promising just last week you wouldn't.

  • You wake up in the middle of the night worrying if you can pull it all together.

  • You hardly ever feel at home in your skin anymore.

Compulsive / Addictive behavior

(Any behavior that has become more of an escape than authenic presence.)

  • chemicals

  • television

  • social media

  • shopping

  • sports

  • partying

  • entertainment

  • news

  • food

  • working out

  • sex

  • ???

Major life transitions

  • Job/career change

  • Separation/ divorce

  • Empty nesting

  • Retirement

  • Does it seem like the bottom dropped out and don't know which way is up?

  • Are you flailing trying to find your way and nothing is certain? ...like you don't know what you're supposed to do?  Or what you even want?

Citizenship

  • You're deeply concerned about democracy but feel powerless.

  • You want to make a difference, but you don't know what would be the best way to use your time and energy.

  • You wish you could have more meaningful political conversations with people on all sides, but don't want to create further polarization.

  • You wish you could share your perspective with people and take action that aligns well with your values, but you feel overwhelmed and discouraged.

Do you envy people who...

  • seem to always enjoy themselves, bon vivante, always the life of the party?

  • Do you miss your joyful free spirit and miss your carefree, playful self?

Have your healing powers been working better on others than on yourself?

Even with all you know about how the past and the unconscious influence all of our thoughts and behavior...

Is it time to fully engage

the deeper agency, freedom and fulfillment you've always known is possible for you?

and... (no, it's not unrelated)

...have you always thought it'd be fun to be able to sit at a piano and

make it sing?

I can help put these things together for you. 

You can find your flow again and restore your confidence, spontaneity, playfulness -- and yes, your innate genius.

It's fun and rewarding in all sorts of ways... for Life!

Genie

I've got a soft spot for people who...

...remember where they were when they first heard The Koln Concert by Keith Jarrett and how that music stretched the very boundaries of what’s possible and made the world more wondrous.

We’d get along great if...

you get the importance of knowing where your towel is, and that as you read this sentence, you think, “I need to read that Hitchhiker’s Guide 4-book trilogy again!”  

Or if you were always there for the next Monty Python’s Flying Circus (or the Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, or Good Neighbors...)

We’d be simpatico if...

whenever you think of Mark Nepo or David Whyte or Rumi or Hafiz, you think a time when their words helped you through a really dark and hard time.

If you have the classic (and one and only) Willis Alan Ramsey record (or any of Uncle Walt’s Band’s records), we’re good.

We could be a good fit if...

when you go out in the streets, hold up protest signs, and chant with thousands of others, you enjoy being part of something healthy that's bigger than yourself, and you enjoy bringing your presence and voice to the public square.

There's a special place in my heart for...

people who’ve ever been to a party, saw someone sit at a piano and start improvising engaging music and thought “I want to know what that feels like before I die.”

The Vitals

You’re able and willing to invest in yourself.

You can afford to spend $1500 over the course of a year to address and resolve this problem.

You’re willing to establish and maintain a practice. You are willing to spend at least 10 minutes/day, 5 days/week on a reflective practice where you can express and examine your own thoughts and beliefs.

You understand that changing old ways and establishing and sustaining new ones will take time.  You’re willing to commit to this life-changing process for 1 year.

You’re willing to establish a new daily practice. 

You have the space to dedicate to The Practice, exercises, assignments, and challenges between the group and individual sessions for the entirety of our work together.

Instruments you’ll need

You’ll need an acoustic piano or electronic keyboard that sounds really good to your ears and feels good to play. If you don’t love the sound and feel of the instrument, this process won’t work.

For some courses you’ll need a hand drum that sounds good to you. As with the piano, if you don’t love the sound or feel of the drum, this process won’t work. I recommend a djembe or conga because of the relative ease of playing and the tonal variety those drums offer.

Access to and ability to handle the tech

You have reliable access to fast internet and are able to meet regularly on Google Meet.  The ability to access the online courses and the community forums is also helpful.

Willingness to venture into uncomfortable territory

You are open to engaging in a practice designed to experience, become more familiar with, and operate skillfully in unknown territory (ideas, practices, etc).

You’re willing to feel and sit with discomfort when it arises.

You have the emotional tools to recognize emotional blocks that come up & communicate about them. We will work through them together but you need to be able to recognize them.

And you’re willing to experience surprise, grace, joy, and expansion when it arises as well.

The Helpfuls

You’re aware... 

that the unconscious plays a big role in your issues.  Much of the value of this work will be learning to work with these aspects of yourself with compassion and curiosity.

Your attitude (i.e. your perceptual orientation)

You tend toward an attitude of ongoing learning and growth. You know that things, experiences, people, ways of thinking and behaving are temporary and that you can change and grow.

With that awareness, you are willing to try things that may be outside of your comfort zone.

Starting well

Before our first session, you will read the preparatory materials and consider deeply what you want to be different and what you want your life to look like in 1 year.

Reasonable expectations

You understand that this immersion is about a new kind of relationship with music, with sound, and with yourself. It is designed to help you establish an enjoyable and fruitful relationship with music-making and it will offer you foundational skills for creating music in expansive ways for life.

As such, you understand that this will not be about playing other people’s music, playing to other people’s standards, or playing the way other people think music should be learned and played. 

This approach won't prevent you from pursuing that independently, but that is not the intent or focus of this practice.

The preferables

Things to have in place before we begin

It will be helpful for you and the likelihood of success if you have the support of the people in your household.  You will need time alone for your practice, and you may prefer (at least at first) to not have anyone around who could hear you play. 

Making arrangements so you can feel safe and uninhibited during your practice is crucial for success in this program. 

For example, sometimes you may need to express fiery feelings like confusion, frustration, and anger. Playing that out on the piano can sound noisy and gnarly. 

Knowing you can make those sounds without concern for what others may think or how they might feel is vital for this process to work well for you.

Meditation in motion

You realize this process is a spiritual and a somatic practice; a meditation in motion, a mindfulness practice that presents the need to make decisions moment by moment.

You will be engaging in a wide-open orientation to your external environment while listening to, and making decisions about, ideas and inspiration from within.

Deal Breakers

This can work for anyone who wants to know what it feels like to tap their innate creativity and musicality and is willing to put in the time, attention, and care to that end. 

And as you’ve gone through this page, you’ve seen some of the things that are vital or helpful in increasing the odds of your success.

But there is one deal breaker.  Even this can be worked through if someone is willing to accept the possibility of being wrong about this.

But if you believe you “don’t have a musical bone in your body” or that “some people are creative and others are not, and that you are in the ‘not’ group,” and you are fully committed to those beliefs, I won’t engage in a contest with you over that.

As Henry Ford put it, “whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.”

My Philosophy

If what you've read on this page resonates with you, if it feels like you, then the next step is to read about the philosophy that underlies this work. 

If (and only if) the philosophy makes sense to you, then there's a much better chance that this approach can be helpful for you.  This is important to know before we step into working together.

Read about "My Philosophy"

To learn more

To find out what your strengths and blind spots are around your creativity, check out this assessment tool, The Essential Edge quiz.

To find out why things seems so much harder than they “should” be, watch this short video on the Essential Skill we all need to liberate ourselves from old ingrained thought and behavior patterns.

For exploring what’s possible for shifting your life and going in a different direction that aligns more with what you most want, click here to read my short eBook, “Sound Your Future: 9 Ways Sound Improv Can Help You Find Stability Amidst Chaos, Shift Old Patterns, and Play Your Way Forward.”

If you'd like to talk about working with me one-on-one, or explore the year-long Sound You System immersion, click here to schedule a Curiosity Call.  I'll look forward to seeing if there's a fit!

Live Musically

Starter Kit

Want a way to get beyond the anxious overwhelm of your circumstances and into a flow sharing your gifts?  It's now easier (and fun) to learn a new approach to living more fully with intention, integrity, and grace. This starter kit is going to get you ready to shift from feeling like the universe is trying to overwhelm and defeat you to being joyfully realigned with your clarity, creativity, and power. You don’t need to choose between joy, fulfillment and tending to the world's great hunger.

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Not a fit after all?  No problem, here are some alternatives...

If you’d like to believe a program like this one is possible for you, but you don’t  feel this is it, or you don't feel ready for it now, you may want to check out:

  • An Artist’s Way class

  • A class/workshop in improv theatre

  • Find a local drum circle (or get a group of friends together and start one)

  • “The Listening Book” W.A. Mathieu

  • “Write What You Don’t Know: 10 Steps to Writing With Confidence, Energy, and Flow” by Allegra Houston and James Navé

  • “Effortless Mastery” by Kenny Werner

  • “The Music Lesson” by Victor Wooten

Whether we end up working together or not, I hope this page has been helpful in clarifying some things for you as you go. 

Wishing you many blessings onward,

Daniel