In my field I have met and known a number of musicians and artists, who simply could not wait and learn a few random skills, then just hit the ground running. These people believe that execution is more important than learning the skills to properly execute the idea.

People like this wants immediate gratification and pass over things that are “childish” or “time consuming”. There were even some musicians I know that even skipped completely over the basic chord patterns and progressions that were all necessary for them to progress and grow as an artist, in the hopes of “becoming the rock star of tomorrow”.

Everything needs time to grow. You can’t really plan the seeds in your garden and expect to harvest apples the next day. No one is above this rule of nature. However, that basic law of nature can simply be overlooked because our modern society pushes the idea of “do THIS instantly!”

If you believe this hype, you might just lose a couple of pound in 7 days, learn Yoga in three days, and get your Master’s degree after 6 weeks. When you look at these things in a slower pace, what is the quality going to be like? Thinking at a slower pace, what is the quality that you will have? How many exercise routines can you actually learn in a week? How many moves can you remember by heart in 7 days? Can you do a Head-stand without killing yourself if you rush Yoga?

A lot of musicians can’t wait to learn to play the bass guitar and form immediately a rock band. They buy some random equipment, start hammering things out, and end up finding that they hit a brick wall.

I learned from Dave Frank’s workshop after he showed the very entertaining and talented Marx Brothers that you have to learn the rules first before you can break them. Although Chico Marx’s playing stunts were certainly beyond what any piano teacher could teach, the fact remains that he knew the basics of the game. Chico fired the wrong notes intentionally to entertain, but the piece still was great – he hit the “perfect wrong notes”. Of course, there is no other way of learning which notes to miss if he did not know which ones he was supposed to hit, in the first place.

You have to learn he rules first, before you can break them. As a musician, it is imperative that you learn proper scales and chords before you can begin to improvise.

In case you have not heard the name before he is not just any jazz piano school owner and musician.. Dave Frank is one of the hottest solo jazz pianists music educators on the jazz scene today, author of Hal Leonard’s best-selling book series Joy of Improv.

The Dave Frank Marx Brothers Master Class can be viewed on Youtube. To watch it visit Youtube and search for Dave Frank Marx Brothers.

Here is the first of six videos from that class.

Personal financial management can be hard for some people, especially when we get mixed messages about immediate gratification and what we should own. Most of us have to have things that are not really necessities, and depending on how much we make, that can be a huge problem. Some are very good about spending their money where it should be spent, and others need help. If you don’t seem to have the skills to help yourself in this area, you should see if you can find some financial management software to give you a head start on controlling your finances.

People use checks or cash to pay for everything. Some are able to keep track of their finances simply by having a checkbook balanced. It gives you records as to where the money goes each month. If you lose track, you can just go back and look at the records. But this concept is hard to do with credit cards and debit cards, which are very common today. This is where the financial management software program comes along as they can go on any computer.

You may see that you have the software that comes with your computer, but it might not be what you need. You can try it and see what it does for you before testing another software. Microsoft has a program that can work on many computers, and that financial management program may be all that you need, but then again, check it if it works well for you. And if it does work, then you will have more direction and more of an incentive to spend your money wisely.

If you have no such financial management software on your computer, you can go out and find some. You may be surprised to see what some of them can do for you. They can help you with your monthly or weekly budget, and some can connect with some of your accounts to allow you to pay your bills online and on time. Some will help you pay down debt, and some will remind you when you have something coming up that you must pay. Look around at the various types of financial management software out there before you make your final choice. You won’t use your software if you don’t like it or if you don’t feel comfortable with it.

Article by Chris B, you can find more about him on his profile.