beth schafer

I've been doing a lot of writing lately (not music). The advantage to writing things other than music is that you can have music on!
I thought I'd try creating some mixes using itunes Genius feature. If you are like me, sometimes I forget what I have in my music library and end up listening to the same tunes over and over. So I based a mix on The Weepies song, Gotta Have You. Here is the Genius mix iTunes generated. A little heavy on Death Cab for Cutie, but for the most part, I have been in heaven all day listening. I'll post another mix later in the week for you. Happy listening!

Gotta Have You - The Weepies
Naked As We Came - Iron & Wine
A Lack Of Color - Death Cab For Cutie
Marching Bands of Manhattan - Death Cab for Cutie
One Sweet Love - Sara Bareilles
Closer To Fine - Indigo Girls
Across The Universe - Rufus Wainwright
Tied Down - Colbie Caillat
River - Joni Mitchell-
Keep It There - The Weepies
Heal Over - KT Tunstall
What Sarah Said - Death Cab For Cutie
Boy With a Coin - Iron & Wine
You Could Be Happy - Snow Patrol
Brothers On a Hotel Bed - Death Cab for Cutie
World Spins Madly - The Weepies
Galileo - Indigo Girls
Do You Remember - Jack Johnson
Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard - Paul Simon
Other Side of the World - KT Tunstall
Ice Cream - Sarah McLachlan
Make This Go On Forever - Snow Patrol
Love And Some Verses - Iron & Wine
Your Heart Is an Empty Room - Death Cab for Cutie
Breakdown - Jack Johnson
Miniature Disasters - KT Tunstall
Lovesong of the Buzzard - Iron & Wine
Wake Up - Arcade Fire
Bookends - Simon & Garfunkel
Hope - Jack Johnson
Where Are You Going - Dave Matthews
Big Yellow Taxi (Remastered) - Joni Mitchell
Melody - Kate Earl
Open Your Eyes - Snow Patrol
Pagan Angel and a Borrowed Car - Iron & Wine
Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes - Paul Simon
Sunny Came Home - Shawn Colvin
America - Simon & Garfunkel
Someday You Will Be Loved - Death Cab for Cutie
Tiny Vessels - Death Cab For Cutie
Universe & U - KT Tunstall
I Don't Want to Wait - Paula Cole
The Beauty Of The Rain - Dar Williams
Each Coming Night - Iron & Wine
Ghost - Indigo Girls
No Other Way - Jack Johnson

Last year I read Malcom Gladwell's book Outliers. It's an easy and quick read about successful people and the conditions and circumstances that made them successful. One of the things he documents is that people like Bill Gates, Yitchak Pearlman or even the Beatles, each have put in a certain number of hours before becoming a notable talent, or an expert. What's the magic number? 10,000 hours.

Most of us can only document 10,000 hours of sleeping, eating or maybe doing laundry. But to put in 10,000 hours of practicing something in order to become great at it, is a true commitment. Some would say it is a lifetime-commitment.

I bring this up because we no doubt live in a society where we want things to happen fast. We want them yesterday. We stand in front of the microwave and wonder, "When is this going to be done already?"

The real question is: What are we willing to put in 10,000 for? What do I want to be an expert at?

I want to be healthy. I better start putting in 10,000 hours of eating right, excercising and not overindulging in things that would keep me from being fit.

I want to be happy. I better find ways to log 10,000 doing things that not only make me happy, but contribute to the happiness of the world. If can create a happy world, there's a good chance I will get caught up in the happiness I create.

I want peace. I better start not only sincerely praying for peace, but I need to participate in 10,000 hours of peace-making activities starting in my home, my workplace, my place of worship.

I want to end hunger, I want prosperity, I want fulfillment, I want, I want I want I want......

To become an expert, to make it happen, I have to put in the time. There is no magic formula, just a magic number. Thanks for pointing that out, Malcom. I'm on it.

Last week I attended a terrific conference put on by emPower Music and Arts. The mission of this organization is to promote positive music. (They even award annual Posi Awards in categories like, best healing song, best personal transformation song, best social action song). It is a great group of people, an impressive array of talent and I believe, a very important cause.

As many of you know, I have been pushing my music toward positive thinking for a few years now. I try not to write songs that complain or sound desperate; and, at the same time, try not to sound fluffy and shallow (although I have suffered some of those accusations in various reviews). Anyway, as I listened to the music being performed at the PosiAwards, I was struck by a certain discomfort that I felt and didn't know how to deal with.

No matter how my music comes across, especially if it sounds secular, I write it through the spiritual lens of my Judaism. It is my only point of reference. What I didn't expect to feel was such a strong sense of purpose driven specifically from my Jewish beliefs. For example, when I listened to someone else sing a song about love (spiritual, not romantic) when they professed to have no religious beliefs, it made me feel awkward. How did they arrive at such a strong conviction? Why did I need them to have faith in order to hear their message? I have been a part of many interfaith events with not an inkling of discomfort; why then, when faith was taken out of the equation, did I feel so unsure about it all?

I realized that as much as I like to say I am against the dogma of religion, I, myself, have not been able to escape it. In fact, not only have I not escaped it, I subscribe to it!!! It was hard for me to take God out of the equation and talk about the universe as if God is only energy, or a force. I believe in a God who obligates me to conduct myself in a certain way, who expects humankind to abide by laws of right and wrong, who loves through teaching, who is the Source of Good in the world.

What I need to work on is grasping that there are many roads to the same destination; that as much as I love to study Torah, words are ultimately an invention. A human-made invention. No word can adequately describe the essence of God. Words can imply, and words can organize our understanding, but they cannot BE God. Organized religion, with all of its constraints, dogma and dysfunction has served me and millions of others well in that it has led us to love, peace, grace and humility. But peace and love can be arrived at through new thought as well as old religion. Wow, I have just stepped clearly out of my comfort zone.

I believe in God, and the only way I know how to live out those beliefs is through Judaism. However, now more than ever, I am firmly convinced that Judaism is one of many paths to wholeness. The lesson I learned from emPower is that all religion is dogmatic and the dogma is OK if it leads to wholeness and good. If the dogma causes us to be divisive, pitting one against the other, we have clearly mis-interpretted its (and our) purpose. Of all the things God created, I do not believe God created enemies. We have to take responsibility for that one. The failures of religion are not due to God's intentions, but to our lack of understanding.

Each human must find a path to peace and wholeness. As much as it makes me uncomfortable to say it, religion is invented, not created. Judaism is what I know best and how I have chosen to live--it's right for me. We must use the teachings of our religions or "new thought" to spiral upward and be aware that there are many paths to holiness, we need but walk one.

So in my quest for finding the best way to get new listeners of my music, I revisited a much looked-over internet music service, last.fm. Last.fm is basically internet radio. However, it has a wonderful feature if you download their scrobbling plug-in. A what? You ask? Scrobbling a song means that when you listen to it on your media player, the name of the song is sent to Last.fm and also added to your music profile. The scrobbling plug-in sends the name of songs you play in the media player of choice (e.g. iTunes, Winamp, etc) to Last.fm.

One advantage to scrobbling is that you can see what artists are really listened to the most. Songs you listen to will also appear on your Last.fm profile page for others to see in a type of limited, musical social networking.

The “Scrobbled” songs also create the data set that assists Last.fm in organizing and recommending music to other users and to create personalized radio stations, among other uses. These recommendations are picked using a collaborative filtering algorithm. What a neat way to find NEW music and share the music you love with others! And, for an Indie musician like myself, this is a goldmine of potential listeners.

I am loving last.fm. I listen to a lot of music using itunes and up until now I have occasionally Tweeted what I was listening to for others to check out. Now, I launch my scrobbler which runs in the background while I'm listening to itunes and my listening stats are automatically updated on last.fm. If you want to know what I'm listening to regularly, just check it out on last.fm. I hope to check out what you're listening to also because I love to get turned on to new music.

If I really get turned on to something new, I'll be sure to blog about it!

Happy listening,
Beth

This week I read two interesting posts from bloggers that I admire in the Jewish cyberworld. My favorite yenta, YoYenta, wrote the following (secular) New Year's resolution: "I will no longer participate in Judaism out of obligation....It’s not so much that I want to stop being Jewish (as if that were possible), I just want to stop pretending that the external rules and obligations are nourishing me when they’re not."

And a great, learned friend and prolific muser, Adrian Durlester, sadly wrote the following on his blog: "My passion is waning. I seek solace in the words of Torah and prophets to little avail. It is a crisis as much of lack of passion as it is a crisis of faith. Oh, that inner spark still burns – it is there, I can feel it. Yet the pilot light seems unable to light the big burner."

What would prompt two active and inspired Jewish minds to write such such desparate posts? This is something I have been grappling with for a few years and it sparked a writing project that I have been working on for over two years, not a piece of music, but some serious writing.

For generations we have educated our children in the rituals of being Jewish and walked them year-in and year-out through our calendar of major and minor holidays; all with symbolic rituals and observances that we hope to relate to our living scattered throughout the diaspora in a modern world. If we were lucky, we had someone inspire us to study Torah and other rich Jewish texts from Prophets or Mishnah. Over the last decade or so, even the Zohar (Jewish Mysticism) has come into the mainstream--mostly because of pop culture icons like Madonna, and internet-saavy gurus like Rabbi Michael Berg.

But for most, there has been a major disconnect between what we learned as kids, (and some as adults) and how we really apply our knowledge in day-to-day living. And that, my friends, is the key. When our Judaism becomes something auxilliary to our lives, it seems like an obligation (as in our Yenta's case). And when whole communities see their Judaism as separate from their day-to-day lives, we leave our leaders and scholars feeling desperate and uninspired (Adrian).

Something has to change. A bridge needs to be built. We need to provide our kids and our adults with a Jewish toolbox for living life. Judaism has nuggets of wisdom that can be applied daily. To that end, I began at the most basic (not easy, but basic) starting points of Jewish life to begin my writing. I began to reinterpret the 10 commandments in a collection of essays I call, "Positive Jewish Living, New Enlightenment from the 10 Commandments"

Do you know that when I googled those three words together (Positive Jewish Living) I got basically no substantive hits? The only website I got was something called "Your Jewish Fairy Godmother, " which was no more than an advice column by someone Jewish, no actual Jewish content there. How is it that a religion so old, with so many universal teachings is not associated with the words "Positive" and "Living" all at once?

Here in America where most Jews are not Hebrew-literate,we are detached from our sacred texts. Volumes of commentary elude us, even the most observant every-week Shabbat temple-goers, long for fulfillment during those days in-between our days of rest. Where is that being provided? What are the resources for the every-man who just wants some spiritual nourishment to fuel his every-day?

Please, if you have something you're reading, doing, listening to, post it here so I/we can be enlightened and uplifted. In the meanwhile, I am going to work on my Positive Jewish Living stuff to present to you to try and keep your fire stoked.

Hang in there, don't give up! I'm with you.
Beth

One year ago today, I wrote the song, Raise It Up. I was sitting at my freshly cleaned desk (can't start the new year with a messy desk), and thinking what I wanted to improve on in the coming year. The answer was EVERYTHING. A little daunting, yes, but I can't back away from a big challenge. I wrote on my little white board 3 words RAISE - IT - UP!!! It became my mantra for the year.

And the year happened. It was challenging on almost every level. My faith was tested, my hormones were tested, my stamina was tested, my patience was tested, my ability to lead was tested, my abiity to listen was tested, my finances were tested and my confidence was tested. I would say that by August, I was done with the tests, I wanted to move forward instead of being a 3-wheeled shopping cart going 'round in circles not getting anywhere. The enthusiasm I had on December 31st was long gone. I had to stop allowing the challenges to intimidate me and not just talk about raising my standards and expectations but really do it.

So, what did I do?
1. I started excercising--every day (I've lost 27 pounds too)
2. I started eating better--I had already given up caffiene two years prior, now I am eating better and drinking (alcohol) less
3. I changed doctors--just because you've been with someone a long time, doesn't mean they're right for you through every phase of your life
4. I stopped allowing things I can't control to get to me. If someone judges me for something I can't control it's their problem not mine.
5. I read. Sometimes breaking out of funk is as simple as looking at things from another's perspective
6. I prayed. I really prayed. I prayed for clairity, patience and understanding.
7. I softened my tone. Not so amazingly, my husband and kids responded in kind.
8. I laugh at myself...'cause when I think about it, I am really a character.
9. I enjoy the quiet of my own company...I always have and had to remember that.
10. I approach the things I have to do passionately because I am a passionate person.

So, now it is a year later. I am ready to retire 2009, and am glad that it didn't totally kick my tuchus; I prevailed. I am looking forward to 2010 with hope and joy. The CD whose title took last year's inspiration as its name is now out and I hope to bring others along for a great ride in the coming months.

Happy and Healthy New Year to all!

It has been 3 weeks that Raise It Up Bring It Down has been out and the reactions have been really terrific. I am grateful for the friends and fans who have embraced the new stuff. The band is busy rehearsing; locking down all the material so we can bring a fresh show to you on the road this year. 

Different from other releases, I have given myself 3 months to build an awareness campaign. Because half the material on the album is secular, I am marketing to a completely new audience than in the past. The one tool I am working with now that I really enjoy is Jango radio. Jango mixes Indie artists with mainstream artists of similar style to help attract new fans. In my first week of being on Jango, I have 150 new fans from all over the world who dig my music. How cool is that?

I've also entered a number of song competitions and contests to get some exposure from industry folks as well as the possible exposure that a win would bring. Prayer of the Workin' Man already placed in the Indie International Song Competition and I hope I Look Up has a chance to make some waves as well.

Twitter has become the newest tool in my arsenal of outreach tools and I'm still learning how to use it. Even itunes has ways to build awareness through reviews, ratings and imixes. I would encourage folks to do that just because it builds a strong music community.

So, that's where I am now. Lots to do and lots of people to hopefully help. I am open to suggestions, opinions and anything else you have to offer on the subject. 

This Biennial was special to me for many reasons. First and foremost, it marked the 10th year since my national debut in Jewish music (the 1999 URJ Biennial held in Orlando, FL). I also got to play opening night with my dear friend, Julie Silver, and my beloved bandmates who traveled a long day to do our show that night.

Since 2001, I have worked the Biennials as a guitarist in the house band playing for Shabbat services and songsessions. It gives me a unique insight into how a massive endeavor like this comes together. I appreciate the tons of work and thought that go into each decision; all made by a very talented group of clergy and other professionals who all have very strong convictions and directives. Although I do not necessarily agree with all of the musical decisions that were made for this conference, I can appreciate the process that they went through to arrive at the decisions they did.

In 1999, Rabbi Eric Yoffie spoke very strongly about how worship needed to be musically engaging and not a spectator sport. The conventions since then have definitely put that sentiment at the forefront and the services have reflected that very strongly. I am not sure that that was the case in all services for this convention--feedback from "participants" lead me to believe that some of them felt left out of the worship experience.

We cannot, under any circumstance, ever move backward on this point. Our congregants need to feel engaged and vital to the experience of communal prayer. There also have to be cantorial moments when the worshipper can retreat and listen and have the service wash over them, but those moments cannot dominate the service. Our culture has become too fast-paced and impatient to keep worshippers out of the loop for too long. For better or for worse, that's where we are and we have to adapt or risk losing them.

On a completely different note, I had some wonderful conversations with friends I really needed to catch up with and am grateful for rekindled relationships that only a Biennial could have fostered. The reconnections have filled me up with good vibes and hope and have inspired me to forge ahead with all of my endeavors and dreams.

If you have never experienced a Jewish convention of this magnitude, you must, at least once. It is very powerful and unlike anything else. I hope to see you at the next one--Washington DC, I believe--2011.

Well, today we finished mixing Raise It Up Bring It Down. We have been working steadily on this project since January. This is the longest we have ever taken to track or mix. This is also the most involved I've been in mixing. John did a great job. We changed up the toolbox this time around and mixed the whole project in the box. New to the set-up are UAD cards and Rascal Audio's Tonebuss. Both of those pieces of hardware really warmed up the mixes from the bottom. Looking forward to sending the tracks off to Bob Olhsson tomorrow for his mastering magic.

Kudos to our whole team for a project well done. Looking forward to sharing it with you--the CD should officially drop on November 19th.

The best being about being in the middle of your career is that a lot of the frantic networking you do at the beginning of your career is done. Certainly I am still meeting new people all the time, but at this point, I've established my circles of friends. We call on each other as friends and professionals, and it just feels good to know that people really know you and you really know them.

I got called on to play on Julie Silver's new CD, Reunion. I played a bunch of nylon tracks and a couple of acoustic tracks. The music was uplifting, touching and pure, well, Julie. I love her voice and her stories and it was such a pleasure to play on her stuff. I totally recommend you picking up the CD, which you can do through www.soundswrite.com.

One of my favorite things is when different circles of friends collide, and people I love from different areas of my life finally meet. People who were once only my stories of them are finally face to face with others I have spoken to and about. I get such a high from that. It is at those times that I realize how terrific it is to celebrate my relationships and connect people to one another both socially and through music. It makes the world smaller, and it makes my circles both broader and tighter. :)