<![CDATA[My Site

<![CDATA[My Site - Blog]]>Sun, 11 Jun 2023 19:03:15 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[Solving Open Ended Problems]]>Mon, 26 Jul 2021 18:42:09 GMThttps://www.musicianshandbook.org/blog/solving-open-ended-problemsToday I wanted to share a central idea that is at the core of Musician’s Handbook.
Solving large problems, with multiple solutions

Before talking about some conceptual questions such as why and how this is important, let us take a look at what this idea looks like at a practical level.

There are currently 7.8 billion human beings on planet earth. This leads to lots of ideas, experiences, and views from every single one of these people. With there being that many people, there are bound to be some crossovers of these ideas, and even of human experiences. One modern-day example of this would be the Covid-19 pandemic. This current event has affected all worldwide but has affected careers, families, living situations, mental health, and physical health differently for each individual.

Within the field of mental health, and mental health advocacy, there is this same paradigm of overarching ideas/concepts that bind us together, with subcategories of lived experience that add more detail and opportunities to connect to those experiences.

To bring some practical real-world examples of this within mental health advocacy, here are just a few examples of mental health platforms that provide resources and support to individuals within a specific field of study -
Mental health platforms

Cobalt

Athletes for Hope

Mental Health and Athletes

HealthyGamerGG

Healthcare workers, Athletes, and Gamers are all very separate communities with their own identities, problems, and solutions. With just the concept of burnout, here are some examples that individuals from these fields may face

Cobalt
What does it feel like to study for the USMLE? To desperately binge memorize only to purge the information later on.
Or be on call for 24 hours during your residency?

Athletes for Hope
What does it feel like practice throwing threes for a week, but still miss the shot and let down the team?

HealthyGamerGG
What does it feel like to “Run it down mid” and give up three kills in a row in League of Legends or Dota or Smite?

Musician’s Handbook
And as a Musician. What does it feel like to practice a lick for hours, while it becomes more difficult to perform, with it becoming more and more frustrating to play?

Within our first two blog posts, we have discussed what mental health problems this generation is facing, and why there has been an exponential growth of these problems over the last decade.
With this post, I want to start conversations on how we might begin to solve these problems, and a start is to follow the example of these many organizations, and meeting people where they are and -
Solving large problems, with multiple solutions

HealthyGamerGG, Cobalt, and Athletes for Hope have had immense success in reaching the demographics and people within their fields of gamers, health care workers, and athletes. It’s time for us to do the same as musicians.

The temptation is high to view this massive influx of mental health as a singular problem, needing a singular solution.
This is not the case.

Moving forward, within our lives, it's incredibly important for us to view and acknowledge these subcategories of people, and evaluate how to approach them with their problems. No one is going to connect conceptualization “Burnout”, without the context of what it looks and feels like within their walk of life.

Moving forward let us take this concept to better connect with those around us, both within and outside of our circles.

Peace and Joy,

Musician's Handbook
Emmet Harris

]]><![CDATA[Our epidemic of disconnection]]>Sun, 13 Jun 2021 16:24:47 GMThttps://www.musicianshandbook.org/blog/our-epidemic-of-disconnectionHello everyone!

To go alongside all posts from our YouTube channel, there will be a blog entry to go with the topic discussed in our YouTube videos. I know processing information through only written, visual, or audible forms can be difficult. To help address this, the videos posted on the YouTube channel will be covering the same content as blog posts, but in a condensed format. While Blog posts will provide more context, and resources used for discussing the topic.

This post is going to directly expand upon the video - Community Spotlight: Introduction.

I wanted to provide more resources and context for an aspect of our modern-day mental health crisis.
I hope to answer some questions, such as - how do we know this crisis is happening? And for our musical community, what are some practical steps to improve and care for one another?

The most recent reports from the CDC and the NIMH as of 2018 show that suicide is the second leading cause of death for teenagers and young adults (ages 15-34)

The number one leading cause of death is listed as "unintentional". This category is broad and can include such things as car crashes, getting struck by lightning, or animal attacks. This means that the number one potential cause for my age group is determined, mostly, by random chance. With the second-highest cause of death being suicide, we can deduce some understanding from this. We learn the most likely and controllable factor for our generation's deaths is us.

The highest risk factor for you is you.

Modern medicine as people say, truly is a modern-day miracle, and has been inspiring to see what has been accomplished within my own generation alone. To list a few

As seen by this last year's pandemic with the assistance of Ventilator, pumped oxygen in and exhaled stale oxygen out of Covid-19 patients lungs.
We can, through a feeding tube and IV, supply humans with food and water to keep bodies functioning and avoiding dehydration and ketoacidosis
If there are failures with vital organs such as a heart, lung, liver, it is possible to transplants parts or whole organs from other beings into other humans

Medicine can breathe for you, provide nutrients for you, and keep organs running or supply other organs to avoid organ failure and death.
But it can not, and will not, be able to protect you from yourself.
Does this mean that we as colleagues, friends, and teachers can not help and support our loved ones? No, quite the contrary. We can offer support, we can be a listening ear, we can offer resources, but we need your help, we all need to be involved in this.

The biggest trap and feeling with depression, is that is a constant, and has no end. But, if the brain can live with depression, it also can live without it. Living with depression, the constant advice and direction from others are to contact mental health professionals, get a referral, find a counselor. What I think is hard to explain is how exhausting, vulnerable, and difficult this process is, and that’s ok. You do not need to go through this process alone.

Ask for help from a friend, say exactly that.
When we live with these challenges by ourselves, they do feel so daunting, but when asked by a friend to help with a problem, we often help and see solutions so clearly.

As musicians, this happens all the time -

A composer asks for help from some instrumentalist understanding some intricacies of the instrument
A colleague asks for someone to listen to him, leading up to an audition
A new freshman in your studio isn’t sure what to play for their first recital and asks you for recommendations

All of us have personal experiences with these three situations, and in every case, someone is willing to, without any alternative motive, help and support these individuals. Our community of musicians is a caring, loving one, we simply have to give each other a chance to show it. Talk to your teacher, your colleagues, your friends, your family. We have so much support to offer as a community, we simply have to give each other a chance.

I hope that these community spotlights can be a way for us all to learn, de-stigmatize, and support ourselves as musicians.

Peace and joy,

Emmet Harris

]]><![CDATA[Welcome to Musician's Handbook!]]>Mon, 24 May 2021 18:57:44 GMThttps://www.musicianshandbook.org/blog/welcome-to-musicians-handbookThank you all for tuning in for this first entry into the Musician's Handbook. There are so many topics, subtopics, and discussions to have. At first, I would like to define what Musician's Handbook is and the vision for this space on the internet. This hub is a place for community, content, and active creation to thrive for music makers within our musical community, but what does that look like?

Community - Regular mental health discussions, creator spotlights, and community spotlights are part of the Musician's Handbook Discord and YouTube Channel.

Content - Incredibly talented, intelligent musician's have been discussing mental health issues online, and we are here to share and propel their stories.

Creation - We are actively researching, listening, and striving to better understand topics on mental health and wellness, new topics, and to provide the best support possible for musician's.

These pillars of Musician's Handbook will serve as a statement, gesture, and re-centering of what this place is.

We are also determined to help and assist all of us in the musical community through these discussions. These resources will offer support for individuals suffering from mental health issues, friends and colleagues wanting to support, and Teachers/Professors looking to do the same. All three of these people groups and lens are incredibly important towards all of our healing and moving forward as a musical community.

These issues on mental health are slowly becoming less and less stigmatized, and talked about more openly, which is such an amazing accomplishment and we as a musical community should be proud of.
But with only anecdotal evidence and no numbers to visualize, these issues will become more confusing, misunderstood, and forgotten. Our friends at The73Percent saw this same issue and launched their eye-opening project. The poster listed below is based on a study made by The73Percent in 2019 asking 1,489 independent music makers questions related to mental health.

Below the poster, there is a link to the original report.

https://the73percent.com/Record_Union-The_73_Percent_Report.pdf

Just the name of the organization, and the first statistic alone tells the story. 73% of 1489 independent music makers say they suffer from depression or anxiety.

Identifying a severe increase in mental health issues for musician's helps frame the problem, and possible paths forward as a community. For Musician's Handbook, this will involve propelling resources and discussions of unique issues found at higher rates for musician's. A list of issues such as this could go on forever, but from my own lens and experience, there are four major categories that will serve as a starting point, with more categories to follow.

- Imposter Syndrome
- Performance Anxiety
- Burnout
- Physical Health

Resource pages for these four topics are up on the website featuring conversations that have been happening. I will also be giving my own perspective and dialogue on these topics in further blog post series, identifying strategies and approaches for the perspectives of those suffering, colleagues, and Teachers. The conversations, blog posts, videos, and research musician's have made for mental health in the past years has been utterly inspiring. I hope whatever perspective you find yourself approaching these topics that it is useful and helpful along your own journey.

Peace and Joy,

Musician's Handbook,
Emmet Harris

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