Tag: loa

In my quest to quickly learn how to play the saxophone, I sought out great players to listen to, model, and study.

It didn’t take long to discover sexy sax superstar Mindi Abair.

Mindi Abair and me

Her latest album, Wild Heart, is already topping the Billboard charts. She’s been on American Idol for two seasons. She toured with Aerosmith. She’s been on Letterman. She played with Bruce Springsteen. She’s breaking through to even wider mainstream public awareness. Her blend of rock and jazz is just the right combo to excite and inspire me.

I had a sax lesson with her via Skype that helped me with numerous sax playing issues. That was a turning point in my playing. As a result, I’ve already played sax on several albums, from Invoking Divinity and Afflatus, to a forthcoming album with twice Grammy nominated singer Ruthie Foster and my music producer Daniel Barrett.

Randy Jacobs and Mindi Abair performing private acoustic concert for friends

And then I hired Mindi to perform a private acoustic concert for friends.

That’s where I became even more enthralled and inspired.

Mindi is open, generous, loving and lovable.

Hugging Mindi Abair

She spent time with each of my friends. She showed me her sax (Yamaha Custom Z alto) and answered more of my questions about playing.

And her playing stunned me.

She’s smooth, hot, sultry, jazzy, rocking, screaming, soothing, and more.

When I grow up, I want to play like her.

She put thought into which songs to play for me and my friends.

She considered my interest in positive thinking and played her song “I Can’t Lose” (off the Wild Heart album).

She heard that one of my guests loved the song “Summertime” and played her powerful version of it.

And she told stories.

Each song was introduced with a charming behind the scenes story.

It made the show intimate and unique and unforgettable.

With guitarist Randy Jacobs

Her guitar player was just as warm and talented.

Randy Jacobs played for Ringo and Willie and a long list of greats. He was as humble and friendly as Mindi. (And he was very impressed that drummer Joe Vitale, the “other” Joe Vitale who is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, recorded several albums with me.)

Check out Mindi Abair at http://www.mindiabair.com/

Check out Randy Jacobs at http://www.randyjacobs.com/

And here’s Mindi showing you how it’s done…

Ao Akua,

Joe

PS – Mindi Abair was kind about my sax playing, too. She called me (in a Tweet) a “killer saxophonist”! Thank you, Mindi! 🙂

Saxman Joe on Baritone

People usually marvel at the speed at which I get things done –

• Fifty books in a few decades.
• Ten albums in three years.
• Thirteen movies in seven years.

I personally don’t think it’s such a big deal. It’s simply what I do.

But I’ve noticed that when people get close to me, they also begin to get things done faster than ever before.

Why?

How is this possible?

Why do some people never start a project, others take forever to complete them, and others never finish them – yet I and those close to me start and complete at warp speed?

For example, my wife, Nerissa, just completed her first book, a cookbook titled Bread-Free Bread. It consists of almost 80 recipes, all of them created from scratch. They reveal how to make “breads” out of vegetables, seeds and nuts. The book is already a bestseller.

But here’s the interesting part: she landed a publishing deal and began the book project before signing it, worked night and day for two months to create, develop, test and retest the recipes, as well as take color photos of each dish.

Nerissa has a bestselling cookbook

And she did it while having two surgeries, selling rental property of 17 years, buying a new home for her mother, having bathroom remodeling and construction workers interrupting her, losing our beloved cat of 15 years, and maintaining her activities in local politics.

Pretty impressive.

But how was this possible?

She’s not alone.

Guitar Monk Mathew Dixon is my partner on several music projects, such as Aligning to Zero.

When I told him I had an idea for more original healing music, created with my baritone clearing electric guitar, and with prayers read by me, we took action and broke the speed of sound.

We created all tracks, from zero, in about four weeks.

A few weeks later, we were selling the album.

It’s called Invoking Divinity.

Created at warp speed

Some musicians take years to get their first album done.

Some never do it at all.

How did we do it so fast?

These stories of time distortion and instant results don’t stop there.

As you may already know from a previous blog post, I heard a baritone saxophone for the first time in January of 2014.

I loved it.

I bought a vintage bari sax in February.

In March I started playing, improvising, and learning.

Thanks to my music producer’s belief in me – Daniel Barrett said I have a supernatural connection to the sax – I was in the studio recording an all sax album in October.

In November – yes, this month – barely ten months from first hearing the bari sax – I completed it.

It’s called Afflatus, which means “divine inspiration.”

Another Miracle

And by the way, that’s my tenth album — in just over three years.

How is this possible?

What’s my secret to instant productivity?

It’s this –

I move as if I am on fire.

I treat ideas as gifts from the universe.

When they arrive, I do my best to act fast, if not instantly.

I also watch my mind for any excuses or doubts, and remove them at once.

The more I am clear, the faster I can create.

That’s worth repeating —

“The more I am clear (of limiting beliefs about what is possible), the faster I can create.”

And I surround myself with people who encourage and believe in me.

The result is a win-win.

I get projects done, and others around me are inspired to get things done, too.

Inspiration is contagious.

It ignites fire in others too.

Click image to get both volumes free

I’ve often said, “Money likes speed.”

Well, the Universe likes it, too.

Inspired?

Take action.

The faster you do, the faster everyone benefits.

And lest you think I am producing mediocre work by moving so quickly, keep in mind that several of my songs have been nominated for the Posi Award (considered the Grammy’s of positive music), my music video called “Be Kind” has been seen (at recent count) over 90,000 times, my albums with Mathew are all best-sellers for us, and the team that helps me create my singer-songwriter music are celebrity musicians, award winning musicians, and even one musician in the legendary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I’ve even had three Grammy winners involved in one album.

And my books – such as The Attractor Factor and Zero Limits – are bestsellers around the world.

I am producing top quality at top speed.

You can do this, too.

One more example:

A few years ago I was invited to be on the cover of Austin All Natural magazine. I decided I would create my first album in three months, and feature it as the cover story. It would announce my debut as a musician.

But I also went to Mathew Dixon, and to singer Sarah Marie, and told them if they, too, completed new albums within three months, I’d see that they were included in the magazine.

We could support each other.

It’d be a win-win-win.

We all went to work.

Remember, we each started from nothing.

And we each had the same three months to get our albums done.

We did it, too.

We completed our albums and were featured in the issue.

Again, inspiration is contagious.

This is the secret of great productivity:

Light a fire in your heart and let the flames of passion drive you to completion.

Knowing that others have done this helps you erase any mental limitations that may have been slowing or stopping you.

Doing it with others, or with others who believe in you, also collapses time, excuses, and perceived limits.

Truth is, I don’t know that we have any real limitations.

But what fun it is to test the limits.

Light a fire and burn.

Ao Akua,

Joe

PS — If you want help in achieving and attracting your desires, check out Miracles Coaching.

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My wife Nerissa couldn’t get me to eat my vegetables so she did something creative: she disguised them as breads.

That did the trick.

I ate pizza with “bread” made out of spinach.

I ate burgers with “bread” made out of kale.

I ate desserts made out of beans.

Nerissa in the gluten-free test kitchen

I never knew it was just vegetables or seeds.

I never knew there wasn’t any gluten or grain.

All of it tasted delicious.

AND I maintained my new fitness lifestyle, released excess weight, and never felt hungry or deprived.

It also led to her writing an entire cookbook of 75 original recipes on how to make gluten-free bread out of vegetables, seeds, and some nuts.*

I’m not the only one who loves this healthy food.

Body-for-Life fitness legend Bill Phillips tasted it — because I hand delivered it to him — and endorsed it.

And I’ve never seen him endorse anything.

Nerissa’s cookbook is called “Bread-Free Bread.”

The sub-title is “Amazingly Healthy Gluten-Free, Grain-Free Breads, Muffins, Cookies & More.”

I'm proud of Nerissa and her gluten-free book

If you or someone you know needs to stay away from gluten, or wants a healthier alternative to foods that are questionable, go get the book.

It’s available at bookstores and of course from Amazon —

http://www.amazon.com/Bread-Free-Bread-Amazingly-Gluten-Free-Grain-Free/dp/1581572808/

Please go get a copy for yourself and remember, the holidays are near and this would make a great gift for family and friends, so order several.

To your health!

Ao Akua,

Joe

PS — * Nerissa created every one of these 75 recipes from zero, tested and retested them, and also took all the photos — all within two months. And she did all of this while having two surgeries, having a new bathroom remodeled with jack hammers and construction workers interrupting her, and as a beloved cat of 15 years passed away, and as she sold her rental property of 17 years. She’s proof that you can accomplish almost anything with focus, determination, and passion. Go get her book, for yourself and friends, from your local bookstore or from Amazon at — http://www.amazon.com/Bread-Free-Bread-Amazingly-Gluten-Free-Grain-Free/dp/1581572808/

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You can achieve great things when someone believes in you.

I know this first hand.

Daniel Barret, my music producer, coauthor of The Remembering Process, and friend, urged me to create an album of all saxophone music before I felt ready to do so.

I even argued with him about it.

“You have a two year old son,” I began. “Getting me to record sax music right now is like my offering to train your son for the Olympics. He’s not ready. I’m not ready.”

But Daniel persisted.

My first all sax album

“You have a supernatural connection to the sax,” he said. “Every time I hear you play, I feel the power of it.”

Keep in mind that I had heard a baritone saxophone for the first time last January, when Thomas van der Brook came into the studio to add his bari sax to a track on my Reflection album.

I loved it.

I decided right then to buy a sax and learn how to play.

I did, too.

But that was only months ago.

I had a couple lessons to learn how to put the sax together, watched some YouTube videos on how to play the sax, bought 17 books on the sax, and a DVD course, and just kept trying.

Every week or so, I’d record my playing and send it to Daniel.

I was simply sharing.

But he used it as evidence.

He felt I was ready to record.

After a few months – and with Daniel’s polite but persistent encouragement – I took the jump.

I realized I had been arguing for my limitations.

Enough of that.

I agreed to create an album of all sax music.

Gulp.

That was a HUGE, BOLD, and SCARY move.

I didn’t feel confident.

I didn’t feel ready.

Yet I knew that one of the best ways to learn something is to simply dive in and create a project out of it. Recording an album of sax music would put me in a situation where I had to learn how to play, and fast.

I also knew that as soon as I stated an intention, and invited inspiration, that the Universe would rush in to help me.

And so the adventure began.

It helped that sax great Mindi Abair heard me play (during a Skype sax lesson with her) and said, “You have real talent.”

It helped that I went in the studio with Mathew Dixon and added some bari sax to the first track of our album, Invoking Divinity, which came out hauntingly beautiful.

But that wasn’t a whole album of sax music.

I still remember the first day in the studio with Daniel.

As he set up the mike, and I put together the mouthpiece and reed on my baritone sax, he looked at me and said, “On one level this is an insane thing to do, but let’s do it and see what occurs.”

The result?

Magic.

I played the baritone, tenor, and alto saxophones.

Back cover of sax album

Daniel mixed the music and added some tasty sounds.

I wrote and recorded some hypnotic odes, or prayers.

We ended up with ten tracks – the first five with the poems at an audible level, and the second five with the prayers at a subliminal, or below conscious, level.

I decided to call the album Afflatus, which means, “sudden Divine inspiration.”

And the album is done.

The miracle is complete.

When Mark Hallman, who mastered the album, heard it, he said, “This is the best music you’ve recorded yet. A masterpiece.”

When Mathew Dixon, my partner on several albums, heard it, he said, “It sounds fantastic! I just finished listening and it sounds incredible!”

I’m about as proud as any musician could be.

I’ll be selling the album in 2015 but I’ll be giving it away — yes, you read it right: giving it away for free — in December, as part of my birthday/end of year sale. (I’ll give you details later, of course.)

But I wanted to share this adventure with you today for the lesson it reveals.

It all started with someone who believed in me more than I believed in myself.

With encouragement, you can achieve virtually anything you can conceive.

What’s your dream?

I believe in you.

Go for it!

Ao Akua,

Saxman Joe

PS — If you want someone who believes in you, check out Miracles Coaching.

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Whenever I’m asked what methods I personally use to clear myself of limiting beliefs, I always say three things —

1. Ho’oponopono. This simple prayer, described in the books At Zero and Zero Limits, is what I do daily (even right now, as I’m writing this).

2. Tapping. Whether you call it EFT or TFT or something else, I use the “tapping” method almost daily, for anything that feels “off” in my life.

3. Questioning. I question beliefs much like Sherlock Holmes investigated a crime or Socrates guided his students into clarity.

I’ve touched on this last method in various programs and books, but never really explained it here, on this blog. Today’s the day to do so.

Here goes:

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I first learned the power of questions from Barry Neil Kaufman, author of To Love Is To Be Happy With.

“Bears,” as he likes to  be called, teaches that you can explore any limits in your life with the right questions and the right attitude. I studied with Bears in 1985 and still reflect back on what I learned from him.

Later, I gained deeper insight into this questioning method from Mandy Evans, who wrote Traveling Free and Emotional Options.

I’ve often called Mandy the original Miracles Coach. She’s helped me off and on for almost thirty years. I owe much of my clarity to her, which led to much of my success.

At one point, decades ago, I was so fascinated with the power of questions that I made business cards calling myself a Socratic Dialogue Consultant.

I thought I might help people by coaching them through the right questions and the right attitude. Life redirected me into writing books and coaching people through words.

But those business cards foreshadowed what I later became: a coach through my work.

So what are the right questions and the right attitude to clear beliefs?

My approach to getting clear through questions goes like this:

First, an attitude of unconditional love is essential.

Any sense of judgment will shut down your willingness to explore. You really need the attitude of detachment, curiosity, and pure accepting love behind every question.

Second, I explore beliefs with the curiosity of a benevolent angel.

When I sense or hear a limiting belief, I want to get curious about it.

Remember, beliefs are not facts. Beliefs can be explored.

They may feel like facts, but beliefs are mental judgments we made up at some point for a variety of reasons. They can be explored and released.

“There isn’t enough money for me” or “I’ll never find the perfect love” or “Sex is bad” are all beliefs.

None are real.

None can be proven by science.

None are universally agreed as true.

Those beliefs can be examined.

Many people can’t find their operating beliefs because they are living them as truths.

To explore a belief, you need to know the belief.

That’s why having an objective person help you can be priceless.

But one way to locate a belief is to ask yourself what a situation means.

In other words, I often say, “The meaning you give an event is the belief that attracted it.”

Think about that —

“The meaning you give an event is the belief that attracted it.”

When you feel stuck or have a problem, how do you describe it?

“I’ve always been this way.”

“This always happens to me.”

Your explanation of the event is most likely the belief that helped create it.

If you really feel you can’t locate the core belief, then just guess at it.

If you knew the belief behind the troubling circumstance, what might it be?

Take a guess.

Accept whatever comes as your starting point.

Now that you have the belief, or at least a belief to begin this process, you are ready to clear it.

But how?

My first question of any belief might be, “Do I believe it?”

After all, upon questioning, I might see that I really don’t believe it.

If I don’t, we can stop there.

But if I feel I do believe it, then the next question might be, “Why do I believe it?”

That question is searching for the evidence of the belief. That of course can be anything, from what I heard to what I saw.

I then want to go deeper and ask, “Do I believe the evidence?”

Again, I may answer no, I don’t, and I’m done.

But if I do believe it, I want to ask, “Why do I believe it?”

Again, we are digging deeper, looking for more reasons or stories for the belief.

At some point I might ask, “What would happen if I didn’t believe it?”

The result of all this questioning is freedom.

I’m the first to admit that doing this “Socratic Clearing” on your own is tough.

You can do it, but you’re stuck in the world of your own beliefs, questioning your own beliefs.

It’s like being in a hypnotic trance and trying to talk yourself out of your own trance.

It’s possible, but not easy.

Results will be faster if you actually work with a coach trained to help you get clear of your beliefs.

Of course, I created Miracles Coaching almost a decade ago to help you do just that.

You can learn more at Miracles Coaching.

Ao Akua

Joe

PS – My approach to questioning beliefs is different from what Barry Neil Kaufman, Mandy Evans, and others in their field practice. If you want to know more, please look for their books. If you want to go really deep, learn from the man credited with coming up with the process both Bears and Mandy use today: Bruce Di Marsico. There’s a three volume set of books based on his work that you might enjoy at  http://www.dialoguesinselfdiscovery.com/?p=stores&cat_id=1&product_id=10 There is also a warm book about Bruce Di Marsico called The Guru Next Door. See http://thegurunextdoor.com/ Of course, there are many other belief clearing methods around. One of my favorites is from Morty Lefkoe. See http://www.mortylefkoe.com/ And, for the record, the “person” who got me interested in beliefs at all, many decades ago, was Jane Roberts’ Seth. Jerry and Ether Hicks, of Abraham fame, took up the ball that Seth started, but (for me and many others) it all goes back to Seth.

PPS – This free new e-book can help you, too: http://www.theabundanceproject.com/book.php?linkid=428600

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