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TEM125: Time for Three's Ranaan Meyer Quotes (TEM Short)

This TEM Short features thoughts on my favorite quotes from Ranaan Meyer in TEM124.

Quotes:

"Yeah, so I decided, based on what I had heard and sort of my professional evaluation of what we had done ... Of course I'm being sarcastic because I had no idea what I was doing, but I had the audacity to say, ‘Well, we're never going to play background music, and we're going to have a flat fee of $1,500.' And this was back 15 years ago right when we started, and like I said, we're college kids slash just out of college. $1,500 for a trio, that seemed like all the money in the world, and Nick and Zach were kind of uncomfortable, but they said, "You know what, Ranaan, if you really feel like you can go get that, go get it.”
"I always encourage people ... I mean, obviously not everybody goes to Curtis, but there are opportunities wherever you are in school, out in the professional world, to look for communities where you can be surrounding yourself with a place to fish. That's crucial. You want to fish in the right pond. So look for those places and then gun for them.”
"There's definitely this thing that happens constantly in our career which is, we were just playing at a show recently for a presenter, and I made the mistake of saying, 'Yeah, so-and-so recommended us for this, right?' and then one of the people that worked said, ‘No, who are they? I don't even know who they are.' I knew for a fact that the person that I mentioned definitely was the first introduction from them to us, but by the time we had arrived there, so many other people had taken credit for us being there. And that's good for us. I mean, that only makes us feel good, and loved, and all that stuff. But the point was is that, people want to take ownership of you, of what you're trying to sell. They want to believe in it, and when you get people to believe in it, that's when you've really succeed to the point of not having to sell yourself. And ultimately, selling yourself is getting them to believe it."
"I'm a big believer in stepping stones. It's very rare in life that all of a sudden at the snap of a finger or the drop of a hat you are on top of the world with everything you possibly could ever imagine for your career. It's a process, and I think it's really good for young artists, or just up and coming artists, to realize that. So, as long as you're going on the trajectory that you want to see for yourself, you should consider yourself a success at all times.”
"If you're interested in more than just picking up your instrument and playing it in tune and in time with a musical feeling behind it, then this is an amazing world that will open up so many doors."
"As a more mature young man, I now have at the top of my notes, whenever I write down the things that I need to do on my daily schedule, et cetera, in big, old, capital, bold font, DELEGATE WHEN POSSIBLE. And I think this is a really important thing to discuss because ultimately that takes a lot of maturity."
"I think it's important to work really hard, to work really smart, and then dream, Man of La Mancha, dream the impossible dream. You know, really, really think about it and imagine it happening because if you can really see it happening, there may just be that opportunity.”

Show notes for all episodes of TEM including topics discussed, links to all books and websites referenced can be found at:

http://www.andrewhitz.com/shownotes

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Produced by Andrew Hitz

“Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson

I'm not sure you could get better advice in less than 20 words for someone making a go of it in the music business today than this quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson (who obviously wasn't speaking about the music industry in 2015!)

If your plan is to play in a string quartet that is very similar to the Kronos Quartet that simply does it better than them, good luck to you.

If your plan is to write a book that basically mirrors the message of The Savvy Musician by David Cutler and simply write it better, good luck to you.

If your plan is to play in a brass quintet that mirrors the repertoire and persona of the Canadian Brass and simply do it a little better than they do, good luck to you.

To be clear, I'm not sarcastically wishing you luck because any of those three things are impossible. To the contrary.

You can absolutely do what Kronos does a little better. You can absolutely write a better book than Dr. Cutler did. You can absolutely be a better version of Canadian Brass. (Although all of these will be incredibly difficult to accomplish!)

The point is that the market place is not looking for a book that is 2% better than The Savvy Musician. Why was it such a wild success? Because there were no books like it. People talked about it. People shared it. People spread the word.

No one will get excited about a slightly improved version of anything that already exists and that's if they even notice in the first place.

But if you leave a brand new trail that is interesting, people will do your marketing for you. Just ask Time for Three, Gustavo Dudamel, Alarm Will Sound, and countless other artists and ensembles.

It's been done many times before and the beautiful thing is there's always room for more trails. Always.