In Our Chicken Little World this week. I find a reason to just sit back and think “You Know i could have been born during the war, Dickens England, Lived in Ireland when all those pre-chilled out Danes came rampaging through. But no - I am living in 2000 and freakin 8 baby and I’m pretty darn grateful for that…
And this gem is exhibit 1…
You may not know it, I am a huge John Mayer Fan. Sure his music is great (well superb actually, a truly great songwriter) but that’s not why I think he’s great.
He’s great because he is a thinker, a student and has a true appreciation and deep thinking of the ART of being an Artist.
I put up a video of Warren Buffett earlier in the week and I think Mayer may be the Warren Buffett of Music
Stay with me….
Both are Students of fundamentals, I’d like to think that if i have a slight skill (sure sucking coffee up through a TimTam without breaking the cookie takes chops…but I digress) in identifying the common themes in everything.
Any breakthrough idea I have ever had has been one of transition - What if you took Real Estate Strategies and applied them to Buying and Selling web sites. What if you took the valuation principles of Graham and Buffet and applied them to web sites…
Transition of a fundamental is a smart thing to do.
Let’s take Johns Lecture
It’s BRILLIANT - if you know anything of music - he can encapsulate some core principles in a way that I have not heard expressed - Seven years of music theory training did not come even come close to the insights I received listening to this.
But that’s not the best bit.
What if you applied the ART of transition and say swapped out songwriting and thought the art of copy, or marketing in a niche…
I GUARANTEE you will go WHOA!
And that’s how you know someone is on point with fundamentals. There are a dozen blog posts in this lecture - The Art and Science of Curiosity, The give and take of working with your audience (and let me tell you dear reader - we all work an audience…), Respecting the 1, The True Artists are Always Students, What you can control…and more importantly what you can’t, The Love of the Process, The crucial nature of design…
And I bet there’s more….So at one level this is a fantastic lecture on songwriting… at another level it may be one of the better One and a Half Hours you could ever spend…
Here is the link
Now here is the soooooo 2008 bit
How did a Mayer Fan in Melbourne Australia get hold of a lecture that occured in Berkelee less than 24 hours earlier…
Well I use Google reader to alert me to John Mayer news. So I knew John had given a lecture and I thought - damn, I would have given my left testi….toe to be there.
Then a student called BASSGUY with an iPhone sat in the front row with an iPhone and recorded the whole thing, processed it (hey the audio is not great but boy it’s well good enough) and uploaded it to the net. Another John Mayer blog linked to it - I downloaded it to my iPhone and listened to it driving around today - it was so good it even made me take a walk as an excuse to listen more.
That’s why living in 2008 is not so bad after all.
I think I’m going to write a song now.
Ed
Tags: JohnMayer, Berklee, Warren Buffett, Ed Dale, Songwriting
The link to the lecture’s mp3 is broken already!
Hope you saved it…
Hmm strange, must be something on my end. We’re ten minutes later and I tried again. Now is DOES work. Sorry chaps!
COOL!! I love JM too. Can’t wait to listen to it.
Downloaded the file and will listen as soon as I post this:) Good going Ed.
I’ve been saying this over and over and over again to my readers: Learn from history so you don’t get caught in the ‘Chicken Little’ trap of repeating it. The U.S. had the same problems in 1970 (don’t ask how I know) and wasn’t doing that hot in 1990.
I can hardly wait to listen to the JM audio, there’s gold in there somewhere - I just know it!
Thanks for the great information and videos in your post…Ed…This is why we LOVE you!
Motivates me to ‘create’ more product…not sit and mope! Take Action!
Marijo
Simply amazing. (takes a while to download, but worth every second, it’s that great) This is SO worth listening to, that you MUST TAKE THE TIME!!!!
Ed, thank YOU for sharing this incredible lesson on life. It’s about song writing and about EVERYTHING else.
Don’t wait until later on this one. Listen now. And then you may want to listen again. It is THAT GOOD!!
It’s great, I’m glad someone recorded it. Never stop the train! (I play guitar, I know all about stopping the train)
And never say you’re sorry. And don’t swear on stage (or at work…).
He’s got a great presentation. I’m glad I’m taking the time to listen. Thanks.
I also listened to part of the Warren Buffet video. His head’s in the right place as far as I’m concerned.
Cheryl
I really do appreciate this Ed. I was feeling abit panicky today and look forward to getting something more solid under my feet again.
Thank you for putting this together like this for us.
Pat
Amazing story, I play guitar and went to Berklee for the summer years ago….
Thank you so much for sharing this. Loving and loving in the year 2008 ain’t so bad after all.
At last several voices of reason and calm in an ocean of media-generated panic! Will we never learn? Thanks so much for bringing this to our attention Ed. Just confirms my belief that for every down there is an up and big downs are followed by big ups, so lets look forward to the big wins!!
That was excellent!
It’s been many years since I gave up studying acoustic guitar. I remember the vibration of the sound as being quite special. And this recording has almost convinced me to pick up the instrument again.
At the very end, the most encouraging nugget that anybody can benefit from, especially during these times, is to “define your expectations.” Decide what you really want, and without being afraid, say what you specifically want. Then prepare to celebrate the achievement when it happens.
Thanks!
Excellent thanks for sharing. Of all the many tidbits, the last comment is pure gold, turn art into science, dissect it, name it, and then put it back into art. That, can be directly translated straight into copywriting, writing and website dynamics. One of the man Ah ha moments from that audio. Highly recommend listening to the whole thing twice.
Thanks Ed.
We are blessed.Thanks to you and your connections we too now have access to this great insights.
[...] John Mayer Lecture At Berklee - Fundementals Are Fundementals - Thirty Day Challenge. [...]
Very cool lecture. JM has some great things to say.
The professor/host was annoying as all getout though.
This was great, I’ll definitely be listening to it a few more times over! It was particularity interesting for me also because music is a bit of a hobby of mine and song witting is something i definitely want to get into.
But, i can see how this is relevant to a lot of things in life too.
Jayen
Many thanks for discussing such an topical article with all of us. I’ve bookmarked your blog will come back for a re-read again. Keep up the good work. We have a Dan Kennedy Copywriting seminar that we offer to our customers you can check it out here Copywriting Courses Visit This
[...] Recording of John Mayer’s 2008 Lecture at Berklee on the Thirty Day Challenge Site A Review of John [...]