SchwartzBlog

I was talking to a friend of mine (conversation is relevant but private so I am not going to go into it) and we got onto the topic of why we have done certain activities. He said that he had participated in one of his activities because no one else did. Because he didn’t want to be near certain people. And it got me seriously thinking…

So most of you know that I participate in a lot of activities that you wouldn’t normally see a kid doing. One of those is being a referee. Being a referee has defined me as a person. I started with recreation and 9 year old travel games, and as of next month I will referee my first non-scrimage Varsity soccer game. It is a big deal for me. But when people ask me why I started it is difficult for me to give them a straight answer.

The truth of the matter is that I was running lines (the guy with the flags on the sidelines) for my brother’s soccer game a while back and the mentor for the current referee saw my enthusiasm and asked me if I wanted to take the course. I did and the rest is history. But I know there is more to it than that.

So here is why I think I became a referee.

1) I wanted to get out of the house. Weekends for me were all about TV. It kind of sucked. I wanted an activity that I could constantly look forward to.

2) My dad wouldn’t give me a bigger allowance. In addition, some money I got for birthday’s and other things my parents would not give me access to. Now I will also say that my parents had my best interests at heart when they did that, but at the age of 12 I didn’t really care, I just wanted money that I could call my own.

3) I can say this now because it is no longer true, but I have a feeling that I also enjoyed the power of being a referee. I remember a few months after I was offered to take the course (but before I took the course) I saw a referee throw my brother’s coach out of the game. I liked it and I ended up becoming good friends with that referee. I liked having control. But that mindset was not a good one. Those power trips that I took got me into trouble many times. It also almost ended my referee career more than once. And that referee that I became good friends with, is no longer a referee because he got into to many arguments with people. But nonetheless It still is a reason.

4) Kids were not referee’s. It just didn’t happen. Even now, at 17, I am still the youngest ref to do high school level games. When I did travel, I was (one of the) youngest to do travel. I am the youngest referee mentor. It deals with my maturity level. I liked doing activities that adults did.

5) Kids were not referee’s. No this is not a duplicate. In all honesty I was not the most popular kid when I was younger. Im still not the most popular kid, but it is much better than what it was. I thought that I couldn’t get along with most kids. The truth was I couldn’t get along with most people in general. But I thought it was just kids. So I did this so I would not be around people I know, people that made fun of me.

At the end of the day, I was only 11 years old when I was offered the referee course and there is no way that any of these thoughts went through my head when I made the decision to do it. But I think subconsciously I think these ideas were what made me take that course and continue to be a referee to this day.

thank you for reading

So this Symphony concert has been a big deal for me, and a lot has gone into it.

First I have to give a shout out to my multiple trumpet instructors who got me to this point (In the order of their first lesson with me):

Don Dupont, Matthew Buehler, Michael Barasch, Clyde Daley, Cem Colpan, Benjamin Tubb, Brandon Manning, and Ricky Casparie

So what makes a great musician? Good teachers and a lot of practice. What makes a hired musician? Good teachers, practiced, and a few connections.

What makes a great ensemble? In my mind there are two key elements, an attentive set of musicians and an unbelievable conductor. What is an unbelievable conductor? A conductor that is attentive, can hear specifics within the ensemble, and is ecstatic about his or her ensemble. Up until a few days ago the best conductor I had played under was Brian Worsdale. Brian is all of the above, but a few days ago he was surpassed by a man named Jeffrey Grogan. Mr. Grogan was the head of the marching band at the University of Michigan, and is currently the head of music at Montclair State University. But you wouldn’t need to hear that to know how into music this guy is. He is nuts. Seriously, when he gets onto the podium, it is like the music is running through every vain in his body. And you can see it not only in the way he conducts but in the way the band members respond. Because when you have a group of attentive musicians watching Mr. Grogan, that passion spreads around. Seeing Grogan conduct like that makes me want to put my own passion into the music, and I wasn’t the only musician who felt that way.

What Mr. Grogan did (and what Mr. Worsdale does for that matter) was show the musicians how into it he was. And that motivated the musicians to respond. So what makes a great ensemble? A group of musicians who are ready to be inspired, and a conductor who is ready to inspire them.

Music is everywhere, all you need to do is listen.

Inspiration is just Imagination on another scale.

Nothing is as powerful as the power to inspire others.

thank you for reading

Those of you who know me know that I like helping others and I like being productive. I like to be constantly doing something and I crave structure. I also get stressed out extremely easily. It is rare when I am not stressed about something. I had an opportunity to manage some of that stress over the school year. One of my gym teachers started a class called meditation and told me that I had to take it. And I loved it. I learned how to breath better, and I learned how to de-stress. It was the one our every other school day where I really became stress free. And I used his techniques even after school ended.

Now while I do get stressed a lot, what I do not get is nervous. I, for the most part, am confident in what I do, with one exception. The one thing that can make me nervous is while I play trumpet. Because trumpet is the one hobby I have that has not turned a profit. Everything else that I do I can say I am a professional at. But with trumpet I still have a lot to learn. So I get nervous. And since I don’t get nervous a lot, I have not fully learned how to deal with being nervous like I deal with being stressed. And if you get nervous while playing a brass instrument, it can really screw you over. So I tried using the same techniques that I used during the school year. Well actually I didn’t. See, those techniques are mainly around breathing, and you can’t use breathing exercises while playing a trumpet.

So I was stuck, until yesterday when I was introduced to the Alexander Technique. The purpose that I got out of it was to put you in a state where you relinquish yourself from the rest of the world. While lying on the floor, an instructor will put your arms, legs, and head in certain rotations to remove tension in your body. Once that is done, you let all of your muscles essentially go to sleep and you enter a state of, well I guess zen. And my trumpet playing has seriously benefitted from it. As you may have read, I recently completed the greatest concert of my life. Now the reason I was able to complete that task was because of both skill and practice. But neither of those would have done me any good if I wasn’t able to overcome that stress. So none of that would have been possible without meditation.

Live Life, Live It Hard, Let Nothing Stand In Your Way

There are a few major themes that make me as a person. A few include business, technology, and music. So far in my life I have some major success in both business and technology. And last night, I had my first major success in music. Over the past few weeks I have been preparing a piece called Pictures at an Exhibition. It is a Symphony Orchestra piece which features trumpet as well as other instruments, but what makes it so special to me is that in the beginning, the trumpet is the only instrument that plays. So this concert I had last night was huge, and it changed my life for the better.

Up until this point I have only considered trumpet as a hobby, specifically because all of my other activities have turned into a profit. But Pictures was a different story. Because this is not a piece that you can make a mistake on. Because in some instances you are the only person playing. So in preparation for this performance I had to grow as a trumpet player. I had to enhance the quality of my sound. I had to make my sound stronger while still maintaining tone and intonation. It was the hardest piece I had ever played.

I’ll do my best to upload a video as soon as I can get my hands on one, but long story short I nailed the concert and  it was one of my major life experiences. I have yet to write a quote about it (Click on the “Code” page if you don’t know what I’m talking about) but I will soon. It was the first time I was able to bring trumpet to a level beyond what you would see at some high school. It was just awesome.

So why am I blogging about this? Well first off because I like to write about my experiences, But I also what all of you to take something from it. For a while I have been considering where I am going to go with trumpet and whether it would be a considerable part of my life or not. Here is the moral of the story. It doesn’t matter what your interests are. Everything pays off if you put the time in. Everything. Whether it be financial or just pride, it pays off.

Never let music escape your life.