Author: JC Heisler

To create an independent phrontistery of musical study and art-making that is peaceful, calm, and positive;

that serves people’s need to be valued and accepted while honoring their individual hopes through meaningful musical experiences of performance, study, and composition;

that gives people help, support, inspiration, and wonder in their own engagements with music;

that brings focus and definition to an indelible way of life in musical art;

that has a purposeful presence in community;

that has a rigid curriculum of clarity, rooted in the history and tradition of generous folk performance;

that incites and provokes the attentive process of creation in the deepening and ever sacred Present Moment;

that provides the freedom to amplify confident curiosity in the making of musical artifacts;

that is opposed to and disinterested in shame, guilt, career, contest, judgement, grades, and “professional” egotism.

– JC Heisler

Conceptualization is the key that unlocks technical facility and the inspiration that abounds poignant artistry.  

It is educed within the tradition of aesthetic.

It is exercised within the heritage of the art form.

It is a unique freedom to each individual.

– JC Heisler

Music must be “taught” by a rich experience through the Art Form.

Analogies may give intellectual, conceptual, and philosophical perspective by referencing relatable experiences to the pupil. This is NOT Music.

Therefore, any analogy may be considered to be a step further away from the actual experience of being formed by the Art Form.

– JC Heisler

Every inception within the performance act by virtue of its very nature, is original.

There is never a moment within the performance act at which any person can re-create anything.  Re-creation is a false premise.

The performance act is pure creation in the moment; no matter ability, intention, execution, or cognition.

The origin of all performance is submission to the absolute present. 

– JC Heisler

Do not practice in order to avoid mistakes.

In doing so, you will make avoidance and anxiety a performance habit; as they become part of your aesthetic.

Your weariness will always be arrested by hypotheticals and “someday” will never come.

Create.

Act decisively Through the Art Form with your essence and be arrested by the movements and flow of your attention.

– JC Heisler

Accept and learn through repetition, to unapologetically perform your unique sound with genuine abandonment, in pure honest expression;

so that the music arrests your complete attention, captivating true devotion to your own aesthetic, artistic inspirations, and developing abilities.

Be patient. Be kind. Be attentive and curious.

Settle to the simplest; Be Made.

– JC Heisler

Perhaps, every inception of the Creative Act, by its very nature, Is Original.  Perhaps, there is never a performance where one might re-create anything.

The Performance Act is Pure Creation of the Moment, within the Moment; no matter Ability, Intention, Execution or Cognition.

Performance is the ability to Live with Absolute Attention in the Present Moment; to Be Made, By an Act of the Creative Will, Unconditionally.

The Communication of Feeling in Sound through written music is merely a catalogue, a documentation of a particular moment of creation that has already been emoted. The truest ambition of the Performance Artist is to have Their Own Aesthetic be Entirely Open to the Present Moment of Performance through Study, Preparation, and Practice so as to Become an Audience to the previously emoted written music.

The intention to be original is a distraction of the Genuine Trueness of the Absolute Present Moment.  It is a selfish and commercial redundancy.

Originality is Inevitable; Genuine and Honest Expression of Intelligible Aesthetic is the  challenging process and never guaranteed. 

The essence of every picture is its frame; the essence of every performance is the Absolute Present.

You Are the Present Moment. You are Enough.

– JC Heisler

Where is the artist to go?

Deeper into Self, the Art Form, Nature, and the Mysterious Trials of Wonder.

– JC Heisler

To rise above illiteracy, and the shallow emotional milieu of “acceptable convention” satiated in the laziness of “mere taste” and “social utility”.

– JC Heisler

Your:

Presence of Attention – Objectifies Coordination

Patience –Sustains Focus

Impartial Scrutiny –is Creative Liberation

Vivid Aural-Imagination – Defines the Absolute Present

– JC Heisler

We learn how to speak before we can read or write.

“Students” need to know from the very beginning, they are talented musicians and artists. Their sound is valuable, unique, and cherished right away. Their sound is the music from the very beginning.

The skill of speech develops through our first 18 months of life by hearing and imitating. As infants, we learn how to listen and what to listen for.

We begin to learn the process of writing one letter at a time between the ages of 3 and 6.  This begins the very sophisticated and abstract processes of translation and phonation of written letter symbols. 

As we begin the processes of reading and writing sentences between the ages of 5 and 8 we may learn to write a word, then two words, then three, and so on.

It takes a definitive 7 years for these skills of literacy to develop as the coordination of independent competency develops; where we are able to participate freely and confidently, of our own volition, with great pride in our ability to perform the basic skills of reading, writing, and speaking.

This is a seven year process that coordinates the necessary skills of literacy, serving our independent day to day creation, expression, and experience.

Beginner 4th and 5th grade instrumentalists are in their infancy of literacy; a sacred and magical time that should be cultivated, nurtured, and cherished for at least 2 years through positive and creative development in service of their individuality and the discovery of their own unique voice through creation, imitation, experience, coordination, and competency of musical literacy skills.

“Formal”concerts can wait; performance should reflect a folk community “show and tell” celebration.

speak, write, read, write, speak

– JC Heisler

The body must only respond to the stimuli of the imagination’s ear.

The depth of intent and clarity of expression solely depend on one’s ability to respond to the solitary stimulus that actually matters; the creation and manifestation of music from within, before any note is ever played.

Therefore developing the imagination’s ear through refining the skills of musicianship is the artist’s truest, urgent, and most necessary work. It is in this way that technique is coordinated and maintained, freeing aesthetic to imbue.

– JC Heisler

One cannot rehearse tradition; one observes and LIVES a tradition…or not.

Tradition fashions by consequence of its boundaries, extolling awareness upon one’s unique personhood in THIS specific time and space.

To CREATE is an indictment, to DARE to DECIDE.

It is not to cajole, try, convince, preserve, nor replicate.

NO ONE, can stand in for you.

– JC Heisler

Trumpet Diatonics© orders technical advancement, while maintaining a prodigious emphasis on developing a clear aural literacy.

Heutagogy is a learner-centered educational thesis rooted in key principles of learner agency, self-efficacy, capability, metacognition (knowing how to learn), and reflection.

Learners are interdependent. They identify the potential to learn from phenomenal sense experiences as a matter of course, and they are capable of managing their own inspirations and curiosities through autonomous learning.

The guide (“teacher”) provides exceptional and deliberate resources and experiences that incite and empower the learner to engage through courses of action inspired by their own personal curiosities while fulfilling their unique inclinations for the learning.

Learning is not necessarily planned or linear.

Learning is based on the identification of the potential to learn in specific and meaningful situations relevant to the learner’s present skills, talents, capabilities, and facility to concentrate.

Learners can go beyond problem solving through Creative Pro-Activity rooted in the freedom of Confident Self-Efficacy through the realization of their own learning coherencies in the Creation of Artifacts.

Learners must exhibit an independent intelligence and aptitude for musical study and performance, exhibiting profound personal interest, there by exercising a responsible daily pursuit devoted to actualizing artifactual creation.

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A Community of Excellence in Musical Expression

1. Experience the Flow of Musical Intention as We Practice Together 

2. Learn Awareness through Musical Performance and Composition

3. Share and Create a Communal Repertoire

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Artists in The Studio have continued their musical instruction in their acceptance to the following institutions.

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Indiana University Jacobs School of Music

University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music

Cleveland Institute of Music

Frost School of Music University of Miami

Ohio University School of Music

The Ohio State University School of Music

Miami University College of Creative Arts

Xavier University Department of Music

Denison University

Otterbein University

University of Michigan School of Music