Interview by Rachelle Jenkins
This week I sat down (via Zoom, of course) with Christopher Still — 2nd trumpet of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and founder of Honesty Pill — to chat about the future.
I previously interviewed Chris last May — almost exactly one year ago — and I’m sure neither of us could have predicted then just how radically different our world and careers would be only twelve months later. With everything going on, he is optimistic — encouraged even — by the opportunities around us, if we are willing to look for them. I really appreciate Chris’ outlook and thoroughly enjoyed our conversation. Enjoy!
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We’ve spoken before about Honesty Pill, but for those who aren’t familiar, could you give us a refresher on what it is and how it was created?
Absolutely. I didn’t really set out to create something — it just sort of organically grew out of a need. People were coming to Los Angeles to get coachings on their excerpts and I realized that they were making the same kind of mistakes over and over again. I thought, “Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way that I could take this information and somehow present it beforehand, maybe online? And in a way that they could infuse it into their own playing before we got together?”
The other thing I noticed was that people — even those who are really desperate to succeed — don't really like to face their biggest weaknesses, and you really have to do that if you want to improve. Nobody likes to play what they don’t sound good at. But you have to focus on the things you don’t do well. I call this way of practicing “swallowing the honesty pill.”
So that evolved from coaching audition strategy to other areas, like practice, performance and mindset work. I created the Audition Accelerator, and another called the Practice Accelerator, which was a subset of the Audition Accelerator’s timeline. It’s all connected. I also have a Performance Accelerator, but I am putting that on hold because — well, you know, performances... no one is on stage right now!
One thing that became really obvious to me is that everybody makes the same types of mistakes. And the even bigger picture of that is that everybody makes the same types of mistakes whether they’re a musician or not. We are really good at training to be proficient on our instruments, but all but ignore getting trained on how to get a job, sustain a job, create a new audience, or market ourselves. These are skills that most musicians just don’t have. That’s sort of my mission — to help musicians diversify their skills, not just be an instrument-operator or a “really good employee” of an orchestra. Because there is absolutely a lot more available to us.
Do you think this pandemic has made that need more apparent to your clients?
100%.
I am a walking billboard for the idea that you can spend your life building a great career, pretty much get into the top echelon of the field, be thinking you’re good to go, and then find that that support structure can disappear in 24 hours. A lot of my clients are realizing, “Hmm… maybe I need to start to diversify a little.”
Despite the horrors of this pandemic, of which there are many, there is a lot of beauty and opportunity that has been created that just didn't exist two months ago. I was talking recently with one of my coaching colleagues about how over the next five years, we are going to see a real sea-change towards specialized learning happening online and how we’re so excited that we’re a part of this field already because we’re positioned to serve in that area. I know it sounds cliché — leading with service — but that’s kind of what fires me up about this.
““Despite the horrors of this pandemic, of which there are many, there is a lot of beauty and opportunity that has been created that just didn’t exist two months ago.””
What I didn't see coming was that that sea-change would happen in 48 hours!
Everyone is suddenly doing everything online. A lot of barriers that have been keeping people from doing this were instantly eradicated and that created a lot of opportunity. I think a lot of musicians are realizing that maybe it’s time to look around and see what else is out there.
It’s impossible to say when we will “go back to normal” but, when we do, what do you think that will look like?
Let’s be honest... even before the pandemic, it wasn’t like subscriptions for orchestra concerts were doing great. And I'm not saying our industry was dying — I don’t embrace that notion and don't believe that's true either. I think our industry is changing and it has been changing for decades. I think this situation just really pulled back the curtain on what's happening and that we are very slow to change. Some of our business models, especially in our education systems, are just a bit archaic. And I don't believe we are ever going to go back to exactly the same way it was before — which is a good and a bad thing. It’s a bad thing because even orchestras like the LA Phil had cracked the success code, and the pandemic shut us down anyway. The good part is that musicians are creative people and creative organizations will work together to come up with new ways that didn't exist before. And that’s completely inspiring to me.
It kind of feels like the solutions many orchestras are coming up with during this sort of waiting period are really deeply stuck in the “old ways.” We have these modern problems that we’re trying to solve with 1980s solutions — but streaming it.
Exactly.
Right now, what’s happening on the education side of it is that private teachers are trying to exactly recreate their one-on-one lessons situation — but now they’re just doing it online. And I don't blame anyone for doing that because we’re all just trying to figure out which end is up. However, there are missed opportunities. You can actually do more online, in some cases, than you could have done in your one-on-one classroom! The most obvious example is being able to teach lessons to people in any part of the world. That’s an example of an opportunity. There are more nuanced things too — and we of course need to get our microphones and webcams worked out — but in some ways, things are actually better in this new realm than in person. Here’s an example:
My Audition Accelerator members had mock auditions scheduled in their respective communities. The idea is to go out and book various rooms, churches, and concert halls, invite five people out to that space, and run a straight-up “audition mode” mock audition. Of course, all of that got cancelled and went out the window. So we decided to do it online. People have been doing mock auditions online long before COVID-19, but we discovered some new things.
In the online mock auditions, we’d look at the video, the committee would assemble in a Zoom group, and we’d share a Google Document that the candidate could see on the screen. While that person is playing, they’re watching a Google Doc of their committee populate with comments. They could watch the exact thing that they did in that moment that generated a response — which is something that’s just not possible in a real mock audition.
If you notice that five committee members have mentioned something about tone or articulation, when you’re coaching that person, you can say, “Look, your whole committee is noticing that you’ve got this thing going on with your articulation. Is that something that's been brought up to you before?” These conversations and feedback can happen in real time.
So I think there are a lot of creative things like that that have come out of this and, in those ways, I don’t think I ever want to go back to the old paradigm.
Have you seen the different “COVID seating maps” proposals for future concerts? What are your thoughts on these? Do you think it’s worth it — financially, artistically, or otherwise — to hold concerts with only a fraction of the seats filled?
It’s a tricky thing. I have two thoughts on this. How is the audience going to deal with social distancing? And how is the orchestra going to deal with social distancing? Here is a solution that I thought was interesting. I am not necessarily advocating for this but it’s an interesting idea:
We have an 18,000-seat venue — the Hollywood Bowl. On some nights where it seems like there aren’t really big crowds and only 6,000 people show up and it looks empty… you realize, “Wow — 6,000 people are here tonight, on a random Tuesday evening.” We have the ability in a venue like that to spread thousands of people out in a safe manner, if that exists, and maintain the social distancing in the audience.
So then what happens on stage? Well, luckily, there are orchestras like the LA Phil who have been cultivating an open mindedness in our audience, where we could do some pretty interesting pieces that could be spatially worked out or asynchronistic performances or something or looping. I don’t know. We’ve opened the doors to a lot of possibilities as far as what people are willing to expect from an orchestra concert. So I see a model where it could work. The question is... is that sustainable? Is it impactful? Is it really our mission? Is this what we really want to do? I don’t know.
Do you think orchestras should fight so hard to stay relevant right now by streaming home-based projects, trying to plan chamber concerts, and remodel our typical “mission” to fit the current reality? Or should just wait it out until it’s safe to congregate again, focusing instead on planning for a more viable future after the pandemic has subsided?
I give great amounts of appreciation to the orchestras that have gone through the huge effort of recording parts of a symphony or chamber piece, and then editing it all together. It’s amazing.
But let me ask you… how many of those have you watched? And how many of them have you watched more than once? And would you pay money to watch that?
Truthfully, only one or two.
You’re like me. I’m not even interested really in watching my own orchestra’s version of that, and here’s the reason––for me, playing in an orchestra is about creating community––drawing people together in an experience. While I think it’s great to see these Zoom projects happening, sitting at home alone recording my solo line into a microphone is not very satisfying. Now, I’d rather come together online than not at all, but I just don’t think that’s the way of the future for orchestras. I think it’s a great thing to do in this time to give people a sense that they’re not alone. And maybe there is some kid sitting at home who would never have gone to the New York Philharmonic who now knows that that’s a thing. So that’s kind of cool.
Aside from practicing, what should musicians be doing during this downtime to best prepare them for what happens next? Is this different for students versus people already in jobs?
First of all, keep practicing. This is an excellent time to become extremely efficient with your practice so that you are not accidentally spinning your wheels and practicing ineffectively — which is something musicians do all the time. Whether or not your schedule is jammed and you only have thirty minutes to practice or you have three weeks of vacation and all the time in the world, you still have to maintain some sort of goal setting, efficiency, and a metric to measure your improvement.
In addition to that, I would start to realize that the skills required for you to become an employable professional musician are exactly the same types of skills that are required to run a successful business of some kind. You have more to offer than the sound that comes out of your instrument. You could be a person who is really good at helping students prepare for summer festivals, or a person who is really good at a specific type of method, or a person who is really good at giving inspiring anecdotal speeches to your board members at a luncheon. There are a lot of skills that are a part of being a musician that can work in other arenas and you can still have a satisfying career doing that.
I bet there are going to be a lot of musicians who are about to realize that maybe playing wasn’t actually the part of being a musician that they were most attracted to. Maybe they never asked themselves that question. For me, I love playing the trumpet in the LA Phil — but what gets me more excited is helping other people figure out what their superpower is, and then empowering them to do something with it. I think I’ve done that as a coach of musicians but now I am doing that in a more intentional way.
Ask yourself this question: “What is my superpower?”
Really stop and think about it, because if you know what that is you can identify who you are going to help and who you are going to connect with — which, by the way, is a great way to make a living.
““For me, I love playing the trumpet in the LA Phil — but what gets me more excited is helping other people figure out what their superpower is, and then empowering them to do something with it.””
With everything going on, do you feel any different now about encouraging young students to become professional musicians?
I don’t feel at all differently — because I’ve never been a person who has tried to convince anyone that they should become a professional musician.
And that’s not because I think it’s a bad job — it’s completely the opposite. I have always been an advocate of diversification of your abilities and not being someone who is identified — self-identified — as only “I am a trumpet player” or “I am a flute player.”
These conversations happen all the time with musicians. You meet someone and the first question out of their mouth is: “What instrument do you play?” That’s obviously a great starting point to a conversation but what if you started a conversation with, “What really lights you up?” That’s a mindset shift that requires you to not identify yourself as one single thing. So I will continue to encourage people to become musicians. To those who wish to pursue careers in orchestral performance, go for it!
The identity thing is a huge problem, I think. We are so much more than our playing — and yet, I’ve met so many musicians who cannot see themselves beyond the instrument they hold in their hands. A side effect of this pandemic seems to be that these people — whose identity is wrapped around their ability to perform on their instrument — are now completely lost. “Who am I if I cannot play my instrument?” How can we encourage more people to use this time to “look under the hood” and examine these parts of ourselves?
I’ve been encouraging people to look under the hood of that well before COVID-19. If you are a person who has allowed yourself to become defined by your instrument, what happens if you get an injury and suddenly you can’t play anymore? Or you can’t play for six months? That doesn’t have to be the end of your life.
I heard someone describe this as a snow globe. We don’t really want to see what’s inside the snow globe, we want to see all the busy activity that happens when you shake it up. When we stop shaking it and all of the snow settles to the bottom, we can suddenly see what’s in there really clearly... and so we just shake it up again! We keep shaking it up to keep it always busy because we just don’t want to see our self-reflection.
““If you stare at yourself and all you see is a big black hole where your career once was, that’s upsetting. But if you already know that you are more than your seat in your orchestra — you see infinite possibilities instead of dread or panic.””
This pandemic has made all the snow go to the bottom and stop for a very long time and we’re left just sitting here staring at ourselves. If you stare at yourself and all you see is a big black hole where your career once was, that’s upsetting. But if you already know that you are more than your seat in your orchestra — you see infinite possibilities instead of dread or panic.
Obviously there are a lot of unknowns — and I don't want to overwhelm or create more unknowns — but I think it’s worth a little bit of exploration as to what other things are there.
If you are a professional musician “hopeful” who says, “The only thing in my life that is going to make me happy is becoming the principal violist of the Chicago Symphony,” you really have to ask why you’re defining yourself that way. If you start to unpack that a little, you might realize that the reason you want that job isn’t the reason you thought it was — and you might be able to flourish in a lot of other parts of the industry that you’ve never considered.
Oh, and fun fact — if your orchestra just got wiped off the face of the earth, that dream job doesn’t exist anymore anyway, so you’d better have some other tools in your belt.
So maybe you really need to figure out what “the thing” is — so you can be open to seeing it everywhere instead of just on stage. If you’re lucky, maybe you can find that thing and the job that you wanted. That’s my situation — I have the job that I want and I have the thing. I hope the job that I have comes back soon, but if it stays gone for a while, I know where I am going to be standing — and it’s not solely going to be in the trumpet section. It’s also going to be doing the thing that I love — creating communities and bringing people together. And I think that’s the whole point of being a musician anyway.
What tips do you have for teachers transitioning to online lessons?
It requires an exponential amount of focus from both the teacher and the student to teach this way. Your teaching has to become extremely focused. You can no longer teach off the cuff or respond to what a student is thinking or feeling because it’s just not going to be as apparent online. Normally, when a student walks into your room and sits down, you can tell right away what kind of lesson it will be by their energy. You can feel it. That doesn’t translate to online learning, so your Spidey Senses have to be really attuned. I love this part of online teaching.
So my tips for teachers would be to take an honest look at your teaching and see if you can create smaller, focused, digestible and inspiring chunks of information — and slow down. You’re just not going to get as much done as you would in person — especially at the beginning.
Also, remain open to the possibilities that something might happen here that couldn't have happened “in the real world.” You can bring in other students into the lessons and do some interplay or have them help each other out in ways you couldn’t before.
...and for students transitioning to online learning?
One thing I’d say is that I am shocked at how many musicians — pre-COVID too — do not regularly self-record. Shocked. It is the number one way to fast-track your improvement and the statistics are surprisingly appalling. Now however, we’re staring at each other’s faces and recordings are always happening. Students now have this opportunity to get a little closer to the flame of self-recording regularly. Some are seeing what they look like when they play for the very first time.
The other thing I’d say to students is to just go easy on yourself. Try not to judge yourself too harshly. This is going to take some adjustments.
A lot of students are suddenly without a space to practice. Any advice for these people?
One of my clients in the Practice Accelerator is a good example of this. His goal for the program was to gain ease in the upper register — specifically, confidence with high C and above. We designed the entire practice program around ways he could reach that goal with practice timers, metrics, and routines.
Then the pandemic occurred and after a few days his upstairs neighbor started banging on the ceiling every time he played, and it became obvious that he could no longer practice without a mute — which is not good.
So he said, “What do I do? My game changer goal was to play high C’s and now I can’t even play without a mute in my bell.”
Oftentimes, it’s a world of opposites. The greater your relationship with paradox, the more enlightened you will become. We pivoted his goal completely and started working on extremely soft leadpipe work. Through that work, his aperture got super focused and efficient — to the extent that, when he was playing without the mute, he realized that soft, focused practice actually helped his upper register too! So this whole thing caused us to pivot, but it turned out that we actually knocked out his goal and another one! Win/Win.
Another thing to consider, if you’re dealing with neighbors:
What if you spoke with them and said, “Hey, I know this is challenging but this is my work. Can we agree on one hour in the day where I could play freely and do my work and that’s all you will hear from me?”
Any rational person would say sure. And if you do that, your practice will become laser beam focused — probably more focused than it ever was before — because you have this limited window of time. It’s another silver lining. These possibilities exist if you go at it with the right mindset.
Below are a few questions from Audition Playbook Discussion Group members:
What could we viably do in order to create a situation in the near future where orchestras come back together again in a way similar to pre-COVID days? What are your projections for orchestras in both the professional and community categories? Will Mahler 2 ever be performed again?
I am not a doctor — so I don’t know when we’ll be able to come back together again. However, take a deep breath. We will play Mahler 2 again.
Human beings have overcome adaptations and evolutions before and we’ll figure this one out as well. I don’t think we’re ever totally going back to the standard model — and I hope we don’t, in some ways, because I think this is an opportunity. If there’s one thing I hope people take away from all of this it would be that every problem is also an opportunity. This is a big problem. But it’s a big opportunity too.
We will adapt. We’ll be back on stage. We’ll play again.
““The obstacle we face now is the one musicians have always faced — finding a creative way to connect in a meaningful, impactful way with our audience. That’s always been the challenge.””
The obstacle we face now is the one musicians have always faced — finding a creative way to connect in a meaningful, impactful way with our audience. That’s always been the challenge.
How can musicians use this unique time to uplift artists whom the music industry marginalizes? How can we teach and perform during this time to help make sure that this marginalization doesn’t go back to “normal” after the pandemic?
One of the biggest challenges we’re facing in moving everything online is the disproportionate amount of devices and reliable wifi available to so many students — the digital divide. We see this inequity much more now then we did when we were working with students face-to-face. I find that to be a real tragedy. However we can start to connect with those underserved communities quickly, it would do good for the whole human race — to uplift, inspire, and support — and to let those people know they’re not outside of this. They’re not in a different room. That actually troubles me very deeply. I immediately thought of my YOLA kids. Maybe there aren’t a whole lot of devices around. Maybe there are a few extra siblings all sharing one room. Maybe they need the device for other learning. People really need widespread access.
How do we move forward if this becomes a recurring event and we experience pandemics every few years?
I’d like to remain optimistic, but what if this is the new normal and we have to shut down every few years for a while? Well, the orchestras who have figured out ways to adapt, invent and carry on will survive. The ones who cling to old models will not. And that has always been true.
Lastly, what’s coming up for you and Honesty Pill? Where can people find you?
I am doing a three-day Facebook Live training this week — Monday-Wednesday, May 10-12 — called “Beyond the Concert Hall: How I Used my Classical Music Training to Jumpstart an Online Business.” Basically, we’re going to talk about the biggest barriers for people, taking their unique skills and ideas and exploring how they might create a sustaining online business with it. I’m really excited to hear about everyone’s projects.
This will roll into the launch of my next coaching program which is essentially going to focus on the roadmap for launching an online business. Instead of you having to go watch 350 YouTube videos, I’m going to give you all of the information you need — immediately. It’s another type of my Accelerator programs. It took me two years to figure all of this out, and I’ve distilled it down to 16 weeks.
There is a possibility that I will be running another session of the Audition Accelerator again in 2020, but we’ll see.
I’d love to encourage anyone to go and join my mailing list at honestypill.com as well as the Facebook community. It’s a really great and supportive place for people to come in and be with other like-minded people.
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