Brave Musician began in a basement. Sort of. For me, it began July 2015 with a question in a basement classroom of the university where I was finishing my masters. I was defending my master’s project, when the head of the program looked at me and asked “what are you going to do with this?” The “this” he was referring to was a 154 page book called “The Doublers Workbook: strategies and exercises to facilitate efficient, productive, and creative practicing on multiple instruments.” I stared blankly, I had no idea. I had just finished it, I thought I was done!
He knew something that I didn’t realize at the time. I wasn’t done. Things were just beginning.
A couple of days later, I got a call from Marina. She asked if I’d like to collaborate and asked if I had any materials we could start with. You can see where this is going. For me, it was such a powerful example of the universe working to make something happen. After a lot of exploring, much of which is documented in our podcast, we realized that the world needed something different from the book I had written. And that was ok. Because we were now on a path, we knew what we wanted to do, and we had a place to start. (Interestingly enough, there are quite a few Brave things in the book I wrote, which has helped to keep me motivated, least of which is the knowledge that if I can finish a 154 page book, I can finish anything.)
We have come a long way in the last few years, and we have a lot more coming. Like any venture you have ups and downs, setbacks, and recalculations and that’s all part of the process. But when you’re in the middle of it, sometimes you can’t see how it is all connected.
Fast forward to October 2019 and I’m standing in front of eager and curious undergrads of that same university as a guest lecturer. I’m wearing my bold purple Brave Musician t-shirt and I’m telling the story of Brave Musician to students in a music entrepreneurship class. Although I reflected then on how wonderful it was to be back, it didn’t really hit me. It hit me when I got the check. It was like the circle I didn’t even realize was happening was suddenly completed.
Circles in life are so fascinating to me, partly because we don’t always know we are in a circle until it ends by coming back around. We are also living in many circles - big and small - simultaneously. It’s a little crazy to think about! Circles are also interesting because they rarely feel like circles. We think we are moving in a straight line, except it only feels that way because of our perspective. If someone could pan out from where we are at a single point in our lives, I believe we see more circles than lines.
In this case, this circle of mine started with a question and ended with a check. And it’s still just the beginning.