We recently connected with Blake Musfeldt and have shared our conversation below.
Blake, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?
My musicianship is constantly being tested. I actually told someone today that every single day I learn something new about music, and I do not believe that to be an exaggeration. From playing on toy drums as a little kid, to now arranging my own pieces and pursuing music in college, my journey to where I am now has been one riddled with dips in my creativity. Starting band in middle school got me excited to learn, but I quickly realized I didn’t care much for the French horn. Being stuck in an activity in which I loved the culture and the activity but hated my craft created a lot of cognitive dissonance for me, and hampered a lot of my creative expression throughout high school and my marching band experience. Joining my school’s choir and barbershop ensemble opened an entirely new world for me. I finally felt like my voice could be heard (no pun intended). My visions and musicianship were seen and valued. I think people tend to undervalue the impact of your environment on creativity, and while many great artists have channeled their pain and negative emotion in their work, I believe that true expression must be conducted from a more holistic stance. By holistic, I mean a sort of all-encompassing collectedness that brings to light all of your learned experiences to be shown in your work. For me, this means that in order to keep my creativity alive, I need to seek out an environment- whether physical or social- that allows me to fully embrace the many facets of unbridled creativity.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I am studying choral music education at the University of Texas at Austin. While I love choral music and plan to become a choir director, my true passion is barbershop singing. Almost everyone is familiar with the idea of a barbershop quartet, whether they know it or not. At its core, a barbershop quartet is (traditionally) 4 men split into 4 distinct voice parts singing in harmony. Barbershop music is arranged in such a way that the chords sung by the musicians have a certain “ring” to them, that can be described as a high-pitched chiming that can be heard above the singers. When group executes this at a high level, you can sometimes hear a “phantom” fifth voice singing an octave above the others! To me, singing barbershop is an easy way to deepen your friendships with fellow musicians from any realm of practice- be it instrumental or vocal or otherwise. It has set me on the path of singing that I am pursuing today, and I’m not sure where I’d be without it.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
1.) My drive to learn musical concepts across many forms. I spent hours learning things that will never really have practical use, just because I thought they were interesting. Did you know there are three distinct types of throat singing, with each one containing several variations? If you want to grow in your craft, learn small, interesting concepts to grow your appreciation for it.
2.) My love of performance. Once you overcome stage fright, there is no greater joy than sharing what you love with an audience, no matter what size. It took me some time, (and of course I’ll still get butterflies before a big show), but I can truly say I am comfortable performing anything requested of me. Before you perform, take deep, grounding breaths that come from low in your body. Keep your mind still and focus on your training.
3.) In an odd way, my tendency to give up too early. My whole life, I have struggled to pursue things that I am not immediately skilled at. However, as I have grown older, I am able to recognize this fact and will become irritated if I notice it starting to occur. Sometimes I’ll stick with something just to spite myself for wanting to quit!
Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?
Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse. This book is a short, yet incredibly beautiful deep dive into a man’s life from adolescence to enlightenment during the time of the Buddha. It can be hard to get into due to some heavy exposition at the beginning, but I promise that if you stick with it, you will learn at least one impactful lesson. Some of my favorite takes from the book are that no knowledge can be fully communicated; by speaking something, you remove the essential element of understanding that thing from experience. The most meaningful thing I learned from that fact, however, is that in order to reach a place of enlightenment- whatever that means to you- you must become your own pupil and your own teacher. Everything in life has a lesson to teach, you just have to listen.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: blakemusfeldt
Image Credits
Kyra Cox, Texas Cultural Trust, Band of America
