Happy Birthday, Mom!

The Morning Show is a blog companion to the Podcast Audio

(Note - this show aired YESTERDAY - I didn't forget my mom's birthday!)

Good morning, and welcome to The Morning Show!

  I'd like to wish my mom a very happy birthday today!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!  Got my party hat on...seriously!  Check out Instagram @JoshUrban to see a video of this show.
Now, some people know how to party, but my mother has the distinction of knowing how to celebrate.  Her birthday, our birthdays, other people's birthdays, life events, small victories, major accomplishments...And in doing that, in choosing to make a festive big deal out of things we could easily overlook, she consistently chooses to summon the magic of the occasion.

  It's so easy to stop doing that as the years go by.  Life can be gray, and we compound the dreariness with little choices.  Mom's celebration isn't because the lack of hardship, or the ease of the occasion, often quite to the contrary.  Sharing joy doesn't have to wait till the sun comes out - indeed, it often precedes it, and coaxes the rays to break through the clouds.

  Happy Birthday, Mom!  Toasting you today, and looking forward to celebrating with you!

#MusicMonday

This is a blog companion to the Podcast Audio

Hey there, and Happy #MusicMonday!  It's been 72 episodes, and it's time for a music Monday one!  So, bringing you a story, and of course, a metaphor.  

  I'd like to introduce you to one of my guitars.  This is an old Harmony acoustic.  My buddy Bernie gave it to me.  It's kind of a junky guitar, and one of my favorites.  One of my students was looking at it today.  "It looks nice."  "It's really not" I replied.  "Look, the strings are all hard to play, you can't adjust the neck, it's warped, it sounds clunky...But if you use it for a gritty slide sound, it's killin'."  

  In most respects, it's not even worthy of a practice guitar.  But for the right application, it's magic.  Take another listen.  

  I've spent so much time and money searching for the "perfect" guitar.  But what is ideal, really?  Out of context, there isn't.  That's one of the things I love about art and music - a "nasty" sound is just the ticket for certain tracks, while other songs require that high-dollar acoustic tone.  But it's application specific.  

  Maybe anything and everything has a beautiful song within, and it's our job to find it.

The Morning Show: The Complexities of Mother's Day

The Morning Show is the blog companion to the Podcast Audio

I keep yelling at my students and pointing fiercely, demanding "DO YOU KNOW WHAT SUNDAY IS?"  Why, it's Mother's Day.  Like anything else, it's a complicated day.  I'm incredibly lucky to have a living mother that I'm close to, but many of my friends aren't in the same boat, for a variety of reasons.  With the flood of mom pictures flooding the Facebook news feeds this weekend, comes a complexity of feeling for many people.

  So, be it that you're planning on taking great selfies with your mom like I am, or will be grieving yours like many of my friends, or feeling the lack of a strong female influence in your life like others, I propose a cool idea.

  This Sunday is a perfect opportunity to honor those feminine role models in our lives - those who nurture, those who listen, those who guide, those who love.  Let's take a moment out to honor them, and to let them know how much they mean to us.  And if you're one of these women, take a moment to appreciate yourself.  Children come in many forms, not just offspring. I challenge you to drop a note, send a card, or pick up the phone to tell an important woman in your life other than your mom that she makes a difference.  (And, of course, if you're close to your mom, let her know, too!)  And I say, to all you ladies out there...Happy Mother's Day!  Thanks for doing what you do!

Attacking the Corners

The Morning Show is a blog companion to the podcast audio

Hey there, and yay for Thursday!  It's the Morning Show!  I have this cool book called Zen Guitar, and there's a great quote in it.  "The Samurai say:  Attack the Corners."  I've been doing this with a Bach piece.  There's a delightful flute spotlight in the Orchestral Suite #2 in B minor, and while I've learned half of it years ago, I never tackled the rest.  For the past week, I've been chipping away at it for 15 minutes a day, attacking the corners.  It's not perfect, but it's GETTING THERE!

  We were talking about impossibilities yesterday, traits of our lives that we consider intractable.  For example, I'm a clumsy guy who's terrible at sight reading musical pieces.  With 15 minutes a day of attacking the corners of a Bach piece, I'm changing the sight reading impossibility.  And what about the clumsy part?  Did I mention the Latin Dance practice?  It's even sillier than you'd think...me, a clumsy white boy, trying to move to a beat.  But hey man, with a little bit of consistency, it's getting there.  Not only is it fun, but transformational to think "Hey, one day I might be able to consider myself...graceful."  That day is a long way off, but the fact that the journey has even been started is a fact that has changed my perception of myself.  So, what will you do today to attack the corners of an impossibility?

Sneaky identities

The Morning Show is the blog companion to the podcast audio 

Hey there, and welcome to the Morning Show!

  Speaking at schools, I see how early we start to develop identities, and how blinding they can be.  We start with such a limited range, but if we're a little better or slightly worse than our buddy at say, throwing a ball, or solving a math problem, we start to build reasons why.  "Oh, I'm better at writing", or more dangerous still, after one or two failures of athletics, "I'm better at writing than playing basketball."  (This was me.)  One or two failures!  And we build a life identity around this, our prophecy self-fulfilling, because yeah, if you don't practice a skill, you will be bad at it.

  Looking at the kids doing this, I can trace it all the way to present-day me.  Part of my identity is a clumsy, goofy guy, but that's changing.  I'll get into how I'm doing that in tomorrow's episode, and hopefully you can join me in this process of reinvention.  For today, see if you can spot any of these "Impossibilities" that you've told yourself.  See you tomorrow!

The Morning Show - Creativity and Limits

The Morning Show is an blog companion to the podcast audio

Hey there, and welcome to the morning show!  Wanted to share an idea about creativity that will hopefully help you, regardless of your field of expertise.  As you may know, I'm a musician, and musicians like to buy gear.  We often make the mistake of thinking that we need more gear to create new things.  I was searching for a good keyboard sound the other day.  My first thought was "MORE SOFTWARE!"  I almost dropped $350 on an upgrade.  I wisely decided to think about it.  Sometimes having a limited budget is the best thing for creativity.  Rummaging around in my studio, I hooked up a weird guitar effect that sounds like a keyboard, and recorded that onto an old reel-to-reel tape recorder a friend had given men.  I sampled THAT into my software, and boom, had the coolest old school sound you'd ever want to hear.  Not only did I have it already, and not only did I save myself $350, but I created a custom sound that nobody else has, and learned more about sampling and recording in the process.  Bottom line:  I was able to use limitations to create something unique. PLEASE remind me of this next time I start whining that I need more gear.  And let me know what you cook up!

Free Market Entertaining

The Morning Show is a blog companion to the podcast audio


Good morning, and welcome to the Signalman show!  MAN what a blast at career day last week!  I had the honor of speaking with three 4th grade classes at Berry Elementary in Waldorf, MD.  We had FUN!  As a matter of fact, I'd like to dedicate this week's podcast series to some of the themes illustrated from this event.

  We've heard of Free Market Economics, but when it comes to speakers and entertainers, most of us are communists.  We demand attention, and make the "government" (the teachers in this case) corral the market (the students) into giving it to us.  I heard guys saying sternly to 9 year olds "Hey, voices off."  Dude, you're lucky they didn't throw things at you.  Here's the thing about that:  sure, they'll be quiet, but man, they'll hate you.  As a musician, I see this happen when artists bemoan the fact that people "just don't appreciate good music anymore" or "the room is too noisy."  Man, we've gotta EARN this!  I went up to some poor kid, got right up in his face, and started yelling drill-sergeant style "WHO'S THE BOSS HERE?  WHO'S THE BOSS HERE?"  Startled, he kept saying back "YOU ARE!  YOU ARE"  "No" I said in a normal voice.  "you are!  Tricked ya!"