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Hey — here's your weekly Rx. No filler. I promise.
Words Worth Keeping
"Feedback is the breakfast of champions."
— Ken Blanchard, and champions don't skip breakfast
The rock-star panel. Some of the best ears in the business, all in one room.
This Week
This week at Festival Napa Valley, a room full of students got something rare: a two-and-a-half-hour mock audition — three minutes each, behind a screen, in front of the entire student body — judged by a panel of some of the most accomplished orchestral players alive. The Met Orchestra, Zurich Opera, the LA Phil, the San Francisco Symphony, the Colorado Symphony, and more — all in the room. You play the biggest excerpts in the rep, and seconds later you get powerful, honest, personalized feedback on what you just did — out loud, in front of everyone.
And here's the rare part: the whole room could see both sides of the screen at the same time — the player on one side, the committee on the other. Something you almost never get to witness. You could watch the feedback happen live: a horn player nails the high note and every pen on the panel starts moving. A violinist rushes a run and the pens catch it just as fast. Feedback made visible.
And this is the whole point: the most powerful comments of the day didn't come from people playing the same instrument. A trombonist unlocked a violinist's phrase. A flutist handed a bassist pure gold. A trumpet player gave a percussionist the note that stuck. They weren't hearing what you meant to do. They were hearing what you did.
That kind of outside-ear feedback is the whole reason I built HPAC — if you don't have a room like it yet, there's one open just below.
The Prescription
Haven't read Anders Ericsson's Peak? Read it. He spent his career studying how experts actually get good, and the answer is stubbornly boring: it's not reps, it's reps plus feedback.
You need something outside your own head telling you what's really landing — because the flaw you can't hear is usually the exact one holding you back. And the outside ear doesn't have to play your instrument. Often it's better when it doesn't.
So here's your prescription: before this week is out, play for one person who plays your instrument, and one who doesn't. Then look for the pattern in what they both say. That pattern is the truth.
If nobody outside your own head is telling you the truth about your playing, you're not practicing. You're just repeating.
Happy practicing,
Chris @ Honesty Pill Coaching
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