I don’t exactly remember how I originally met Maddi Demko, but she stands as one of the students I really miss working with. She took to guitar, singing, and songwriting SO fast, and so passionately, it was inspiring.

She was an early teen when I started working with her, and she excelled through a lot of the core curriculum with a sense of ease, and she would learn and write songs without me having to nag her. She just knew to :do it”, as far as developing her skills on her own between lessons. The voice she developed for herself is one that I can still hear when I think about it, she had a tone, and inflection that was (is) very distinctive. Her knowledge of music theory was also solid, which was delightful, because that is often an area of resistance with many students.

Family Support, Music EducationJimmy ClarkOctober 18, 2019 Comment

“Au...what..?” : How I Came To Work With Autism (Rick’s Story) : Wellness Story #6

An Unexpected Journey..

It’s been just about 5 years that I’ve been working with various special needs communities. I didn’t set out to do this intentionally, it kind of just happened one day, and the fulfillment that it brought me was almost staggering. There were some experiences earlier in my career that would hint at things to come, but those experiences didn’t initially fully blossom, instead they took root, and slowly developed, and as I would realize later, they would set the stage in many ways for my future endeavors.

The Story Of Rick

One day I was walking through New Brunswick, New Jersey doing promotion for my band Amber Blues. While cutting across a Rutgers Campus field I stumbled upon a man sitting on the steps of a building playing a guitar.

Musings, Health & Wellness, Wellness StoriesJimmy ClarkOctober 16, 2019Inspiration, case study, storyComment

Web Weaving

In business it is imperative that we weave webs. That we connect the dots between communities, individuals, associates, competitors, friends, and family, and really anyone else that is in our own personal storyline.

It has ALWAYS been my belief that we can absolutely without a doubt discover hidden connections to just about any stranger that you may meet in your journey. It’s like a call back to the old “Degrees Of Kevin Bacon” game, where the idea is to connect any random actor to Kevin Bacon in the least amount of moves possible. Sound familiar? If so, you know what I mean. If not, give it a Google, and there will certainly be a more thorough description of how the game is played. The point of this is this: Be a center point. Be a point where all other stands of the web are strung from and connected to.

Music, Collaboration, Musings, Music BusinessJimmy ClarkOctober 14, 2019 Comment

The Dubbakas: Family Support Story #12

Ashrith was a student who I worked with for quite a few years. He started right around the same time as a few of my other students, namely Advait, who was featured in another Family Support Blog. Ashrith, Advait, and a few others all lived in the same neighborhood, so they were fairly interactive with each other as students.

Ashrith started guitar with me, and then we evolved into piano, vocals, and songwriting. He is one of the only other students that wrote original music at such a young age.

Family Support, Music EducationJimmy ClarkOctober 11, 2019Comment

Kindness

The Importance Of Kindness

Kindness, as a practice, feeds all areas of one's' personal, creative, and professional life. Practicing kindness softens walls that are not always needed – not to diminish the importance of boundaries, not at all – but more so the ones that do not serve us. Envy, jealousy, self doubt, low self-esteem, over-caution, trauma, and other low vibration energies are some such energies. Exhibiting kindness towards one's self as well as towards others helps one to develop feelings and thoughts of authentic self-joy and compersion (the sense of joy for another's joy). Having a frigid demeanor, where the warmth of kindness falls to the wayside, is a fast track road to dismantling all good things in one's life environment. Kindness MUST be an element in the formula, because left out, there cannot be authentic joy in any capacity. To be unkind is to breed hurt, and pain, and to further perpetuate suffering.

Musings, Health & WellnessJimmy ClarkOctober 9, 2019wellness, philosophy Comment

Turn Your Mistakes Into Your Greatest Lessons

Let’s Face It.. We Are All Screw Up Sometimes

In life we all make good choices, and bad choices. Some things work out well, and others not so much. It’s not the missteps we make that have to define us, but rather it’s what we do with these experiences that matters the most.

Using words like good and bad as far as choices are concerned, well that’s up to each individual to decide the parameters of. What’s good for one, may not be good for another, and likewise. So knowing what you desire is absolutely important, because it is against those desires that all other choices are measured and integrated. It’s imperative that you learn how to read and use your own internal compass to decide which paths you will take on your journey.

MusicJimmy ClarkOctober 7, 2019Comment

Yoga Teacher Training: Wellness Story #5

…One of the major changes that I decided to pursue was to become a certified yoga instructor. I didn’t choose to do this as a way to become a full-time yoga teacher, nor did I do it with the intention of opening my own studio; I wanted to be able to apply yogic principles and practices to everything I did in life, and primarily, with my services and offerings as a music teacher. Systematic breathing, body awareness, mind-body-spirit balancing practices; . . . all of these appealed to me as a teacher of music, so I made the choice to take the plunge. Teacher training isn’t exactly cheap, and it’s a huge time commitment, and so I didn’t take it lightly.

Musings, Health & Wellness, Wellness StoriesJimmy ClarkSeptember 4, 2019Inspiration, case study, storyComment

How to Manage Complex Projects: Part 2

A complex project requires a lot of resources, people, time, and as always, the almighty dollar. These components aren’t always readily available, but with solid planning, networking, and mindful frugality, anything is possible.

Often people are your best resource, and that’s because people often have their own resource pools and networks.

Music Education, Musings, Music, Collaboration, Music BusinessJimmy ClarkSeptember 2, 2019JC Music and WellnessComment

The Borkars: Family Support Story #11

Sometimes natural talent just screams from the rooftops, and when it does, heed the call. His parents did a spectacular job raising him and his brother. They are cultured, talented, and kind people. Support skill with steadfast attention and great things will happen. Advait worked so hard to earn his accomplishments and his family took an interactive role which provided him the resources he needed to thrive.

Family Support, Music EducationJimmy ClarkAugust 30, 2019Comment

Harvest Gathering (Year 1): Wellness Story #4

The next day after I was settled in, I had my classes and this is where the magick of this story comes in. I was delivering sound healings using the crystal bowls, tuning forks, and mostly, my didgeridoo. I fell into a trance-like groove while working with the bodies and the sounds. I was scanning people’s bodies, using the didj essentially as a dowsing rod for injuries and areas in need of healing. To my surprise, I was discovering all kinds of energetics intuitively, and with my tools.

I recall scanning someone's body, and stopping at their shoulder and asking, “What’s going on here in your body?”, and I was blown away when I was told that there had recently been a surgery in that spot and that it was in recovery.

Musings, Health & Wellness, Wellness StoriesJimmy ClarkAugust 28, 2019Inspiration, case study, storyComment

How to Manage Complex Projects: Part 1

In the entertainment world, many people wear many hats; songwriter hats, manager hats, tour bus driver hat, graphic arts hat, musician or artist hat . . . and the list goes on and on. I personally have a huge hat collection. It would seem like I have ten heads. I wear them all fairly well, but that is not often the most effective way to operate, even if you can. Just because you can doesn’t always mean you should. That is an important lesson to really learn over and over again. As artists we get carried away, and we get excited, so it’s not uncommon for us to dive head first into all processes. It’s not a bad thing to do, per se, but it limits the other areas to which your energy can go. If you are an artist, and you happen to hate managing social media accounts, then consider, if you will, hiring a social media manager, and freeing up all that time to do what you do best, . . . create!

Music Education, Musings, Music, Collaboration, Music BusinessJimmy ClarkAugust 26, 2019JC Music and WellnessComment

Pete Jablonka: Family Support Story #10

Sometimes in life, you meet people under circumstances based on business, but life can turn all that around by putting all parties into situations where it becomes a matter of keeping one’s sanity as a team effort. A karmic connection, where without each other being part of the mix, neither would have come out as unscathed. Friendship can endure over the years, even with sizable brakes occasionally as a factor. The biggest lesson learned: Generosity, Kindness, and openness are all transferable qualities. It’s the essence of the idea “Be the change you want to see in the world,” and I think that a large part of my demeanor and the quality of my character was forged in my relationship with my friend, Pete.

Family Support, Music EducationJimmy ClarkAugust 23, 2019 Comment

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