Scales Of Success Podcast

#42 - Music’s Beauty and Burden with Christopher Guzman

• Marcus Arredondo

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What does it mean to dedicate your life to music? In today’s thoughtful episode, Marcus jives with pianist and professor Christopher Guzman to talk about passion, pressure, and purpose. From childhood wonder to world stages, Chris shares the highs, lows, and lessons of a life in music, plus a few moving moments at the piano you won’t want to miss.

Christopher Guzman, professor of piano at Northwestern's Bienen School of Music, is an international prize winner and classical concert pianist. He studied at the Juilliard School, the New England Conservatory of Music, and at UT Austin, and regularly performs around the world, including venues such as Carnegie's Weill Hall, David Geffen Hall in NYC, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Wigmore Hall in London, among others.

Learn more about Christopher Guzman:
Website: https://christopherguzmanpiano.com/
Email: guzmanpiano@gmail.com

Episode highlights:
(2:52) Advice for aspiring artists
(4:51) Music obsession
(10:51) Youth orchestra’s lasting impact
(17:15) How performance has changed over time
(21:33) When music becomes just a job
(28:00) Do composers’ lives shape their music?
(33:25) Teaching artistry and emotional blockages
(42:59) How performance anxiety is overcome
(49:42) Why quitting would mean losing a part of himself
(54:17) A joyful piano performance
(59:37) Do musicians think like mathematicians?
(1:02:07) Outro

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Note: The transcript was generated by AI and may contain errors.

Christopher Guzman

(0:00) Yeah, I guess the more that you put yourself in that situation, that fight or flight, the (0:06) more you learn how to deal with it, and some people don't deal with it, and they hate the (0:11) feeling, and I remember for years, I don't have it so much now, but I did have for years (0:18) the feeling of going up and at least once a concert, you know, being on edge, not feeling (0:25) comfortable and thinking you could just stop playing right now. (0:29) Today's guest is my friend Christopher Guzman, a renowned concert pianist and educator whose path began in a San Antonio mall, begging his mom for lessons after hearing a player piano.(0:39) From obsessive practice as a kid to Juilliard, and the New England Conservatory of Music, performing at Carnegie Hall and David Geffen Hall in New York, Sintori Hall in Tokyo, Wigmore Hall in London, and countless others around the globe, and finally, to teaching at Northwestern. (0:52) His journey reflects the discipline, artistry, and resilience required at the highest level. (0:57) Chris shares his views on the importance of failure and how that shaped his confidence, how teaching rekindled his love for music, and why staying vulnerable on stage is still the greatest challenge.(1:06) His story reminds us that mastery isn't just about skill, it's about rediscovering the joy that started it all. (1:11) Let's start the show. (1:13) Chris Guzman, welcome.(1:15) It's great to see you, man. (1:16) Thanks for having me. (1:17) It's been too long.(1:19) So you have such an illustrious background, and I'm really excited to have you on. (1:23) I want to make a bigger push into getting, we've had some authors and producers relative to film on the show, but I want to investigate more an artist's path, and there's a lot of reason I'm interested in that, which I'll sort of share as we go through it. (1:41) But one thing, by virtue of being an artist, you've traveled the world, which to me stands out as a couple of guys from San Antonio, Texas, going to a tiny school in San Antonio.(1:55) I think of what this, I want to say talent, but I think there's a heavy skill set that's applied here, which is a result of training and diligence and discipline and perseverance. (2:09) So I don't want to discount any of that. (2:11) That by virtue of both those things, it's opened doors.(2:14) So you're now a professor at Northwestern. (2:17) You have to excuse me because there's a long list, but you've performed in Tokyo. (2:22) It's in Tori Hall, Dave Geffen Hall, you've Carnegie Hall.(2:28) I mean, the list sort of goes on and on. (2:29) You've performed all over Europe, in Asia, South Korea. (2:32) I'm just curious to kick this off.(2:35) What would you advise someone thinking about going down this path of an artist and a highly trained artist, highly disciplined? (2:46) What would you prep them for in going down this road? (2:51) Oh, boy, that's hard because I'm constantly facing new challenges all the time that I didn't realize, but I guess one thing that I see in my students that I wish they would know is just about the human experience is that you're going to fail a lot more times and you're going to succeed.(3:19) And you have to be OK with that and you have to you have to anticipate that. (3:25) And I always, you know, I'm telling them, you know, sure, I have some plaques on the wall in my office about competitions that I've won. (3:32) But, you know, for every competition that I've won, you know, five times or more that I've lost.(3:39) And I think that goes for many pianists, many artists out there. (3:45) But yeah, I think kind of not accepting failure, but using it as a as a tool to help you succeed in the future or to to to build some sort of integrity and then to keep the drive going beyond it, you know, to not let that shut down any sort of fire that you have. (4:05) So there's a few questions that I have around that.(4:07) And of course, I'm going to you were an artist when we were in school. (4:11) I was an athlete and our lives, I think, at that point in my interpretation of the world seems so different. (4:19) But as I hear you speak about this, I'm realizing I never fully appreciated the commitment that you had at that point.(4:25) Right. (4:26) Which was hours and hours and hours of training and visualization and going through these competitions. (4:36) How did you have a clear vision of where that artistry would take you professionally?(4:41) I mean, was that I look, I didn't think I had hopes I'd be an NBA player, but realistically, I knew that was a low likelihood. (4:47) But you had probably different a different perspective. (4:52) I did, but I didn't know what the end was going to be.(4:56) I'm fortunate that what I what I wanted to do when I was in probably a middle school and in high school ended up being what I'm doing now, which is teaching at a university. (5:05) And I modeled that after people that I knew in San Antonio. (5:08) And I there's something I just admired about it.(5:12) I had I had no idea what it meant when I was that age and even really until I got my first university position. (5:22) But that's that's ultimately what I wanted to be. (5:26) I didn't have any visions of really being a concert pianist.(5:30) Even though that's what I was doing. (5:32) And I didn't know what that I just didn't know what that would be like either. (5:37) So I guess I didn't have any any goal for that, even though I ended up going to a conservatory where they're training people for that, basically, instead of training people to be educators.(5:52) Did you always have a like a passion for music or was this something that was, you know, you you got to take piano lessons as a kid and then you found it. (6:03) No, I mean, as long as I've known, I've really yeah, sort of an obsession with it actually. (6:13) My mom tells the story.(6:15) She knows it better than I do. (6:16) But I guess when I was six years old, we were in Windsor Park Mall, which doesn't exist anymore. (6:22) And there's a there's a music store, Alamo Music with a with a player piano upright and it was playing the Turkish march.(6:34) And I thought, oh, that's so cool. (6:36) I want to be able to do that. (6:37) You know, and I would go by and walk by the mall in the same the same Mozart be playing every every time.(6:43) And I asked my mom, she said, oh, you're just a kid. (6:45) You know, you just want to you just see it in a shiny. (6:48) You just want it.(6:49) You know, like kids want toys in stores. (6:51) So I guess after after some pressure from me over over a year, she got me lessons. (6:58) And so I started lessons.(7:00) I think it was a Christmas present. (7:01) So I started them when I was eight in January. (7:08) And yeah, I mean, I was just glued to the piano.(7:10) I had I started with a little Casio keyboard and, you know, eventually the teacher said, OK, well, he's he's growing out of this. (7:18) You're going to really need a real piano. (7:21) And then, yeah, I got an upright piano.(7:24) I was just on that all the time. (7:26) And anyway, I finally graduated to to other things. (7:30) But yeah, I was just completely involved with it.(7:34) I don't know where it stemmed from because I didn't have anyone in my family that was a musician and certainly not listening to classical music at home. (7:43) But I really just loved it. (7:44) I was like, yeah.(7:45) And I think I found I remember having some cassette tapes of Philadelphia Orchestra. (7:53) Eugene Normandy and just running it so much that the tape eventually deteriorated. (8:01) But but that was sort of my only my only outlet with work and a lessons in that.(8:10) But I yeah, I stuck to it. (8:12) What role I'm thinking about the teachers that you've had, because what year were you? (8:18) Did you get into the San Antonio Youth Orchestra?(8:20) I don't remember the exact year. (8:22) I was in middle school. (8:23) So 13, 14 years old.(8:25) So yeah, something like that's a 94, maybe in the 90s. (8:28) Uh huh. (8:29) And so that's a highly competitive process in order to get into that.(8:32) Yeah, I'm surprised that I did, actually. (8:35) I because I didn't have a cello teacher. (8:38) I played cello in the orchestra.(8:41) And I started with violin in fifth grade just to go up after school program. (8:48) And this is serving as as an addendum to your piano classes. (8:52) Exactly.(8:53) Right. (8:54) Right. (8:54) So I had piano lessons and then after school, public school, I have the school program.(8:58) There was orchestra and they just said, here's a violin. (9:01) You're going to play the violin. (9:02) OK, so I was playing violin.(9:03) I was horrible. (9:04) I mean, bad violin is just I mean, it's really the most miserable thing. (9:08) I love the violin, too.(9:10) So I but the teacher played cello and I really admired the way she played. (9:16) And I thought, oh, I want to do this. (9:18) And so she said, sure, let's pick up the cello when you go to middle school next year.(9:22) She was also the teacher of the middle school orchestra and picked it up again was rather obsessive about it like piano. (9:31) And yeah, I got to a level where I could could play at a level where I could join the youth orchestra. (9:38) And I did.(9:39) And they were I don't I remember them being surprised I didn't have a cello teacher. (9:43) And they said, you really need to get one now. (9:46) And so so then things started to get real.(9:49) Yeah, that was in the mid 90s. (9:51) What instruments did you end up taking up? (9:55) That was that was it.(9:56) And actually, cello became too much because I well, I was more advanced in piano, was more serious about piano. (10:04) And I started to just need to practice more. (10:09) And then I went to, you know, went to our high school, which was much more demanding academically.(10:15) Yeah. (10:16) And I started to not just I not have time. (10:18) So I didn't have time.(10:20) I think I quit the orchestra before senior year, well before senior year. (10:25) I definitely quit cello lessons. (10:27) I think I only had a year or so of that.(10:30) I just couldn't keep both things. (10:32) Piano and that up and and maintain a good level and sleep. (10:38) Do you think playing those instruments gave you any perspective on sort of the interplay within an orchestra in a way that you may not have acquired simply playing piano?(10:51) Yeah, absolutely. (10:52) I mean, I think it's actually really helped my career was that was joining the youth orchestra, not just playing in the cello. (10:59) But by joining the orchestra, I started to meet people that I'm still friends with.(11:05) And and by the way, the conductor of the youth orchestra, Gerardo Edelstein, that was one of his first jobs. (11:11) He ended up being the conductor at Penn State, which is where I taught for for 12 years. (11:17) So that was sort of it was yeah, crazy connection.(11:21) But music world is small that way, but that was a lot of fun to reconnect with them. (11:27) But, you know, joining the orchestra, I not just getting familiar with the instruments, but meeting people and learning about their the repertoire and being able to accompany them, play along with them, really helped me when I went to when I went to Juilliard and because I I started to read through a lot of music just with friends and I became pretty good at sight reading. (11:51) So you put a score in front of me and I could just you know, I could I could read what's there, you know, maybe 85 percent of what's going on.(12:00) Not completely accurate, but and then that helped me along and actually got me a lot of income at Juilliard because I was able to all the instrumentalists need a pianist to accompany them. (12:13) So it was the skill set that I built up. (12:16) Yeah, that just seems like it like it opens your doors.(12:18) The more you do it, the better you get at sight reading, I would imagine. (12:22) Yeah. (12:23) And, you know, just getting familiar with with famous pieces that I, you know, I continue to teach, I continue to play.(12:30) There's a piece, this French composer Cesar Frank, sorry, Belgian composer, who wrote a very famous violin Sonata. (12:39) And I, I accompanied it when I with a friend of mine when I was, I don't know, 16 years old, something like that. (12:47) And I, I mean, I've played it.(12:49) I want to say probably a hundred times. (12:51) I played it so many times now and I teach it. (12:54) And it's it's just part of the repertoire.(12:55) But it's it's so ingrained in me from from a young age. (12:59) And I mean, not just that piece, but of course, other other piano pieces. (13:03) But I wouldn't have been exposed if I didn't join the youth orchestra.(13:06) Can you place like one of your standout sections of that song? (13:11) Oh, gosh, I've got well, the last movement has this. (13:27) It's really gorgeous.(13:29) So there are four movements that I don't know, it's about a half hour long. (13:33) I usually have the music there, but I sort of memorized it after, you know, 30 years or playing it. (13:39) Well, as you turned and you sort of I could see your eyes moving and it's this is such a it's a joy to watch you.(13:47) I remember this. (13:48) I don't know. (13:49) We must have been.(13:51) Early high school, I would I would say. (13:53) And you had a recital or an actual concert. (13:55) And I remember like walking in and people were there.(13:57) And it was just it was just you. (13:59) It was just you playing. (14:00) And I think it hurt me if I'm wrong.(14:02) I think you played Rhapsody in Blue. (14:05) Oh, I did that with I played Rhapsody in Blue with San Antonio Symphony. (14:11) OK, you guys came to all my stuff.(14:13) That was great. (14:14) I but I remember sitting there being like, holy shit. (14:18) This guy isn't good.(14:21) He's just like on a different planet like there. (14:24) I realize like, oh, man, sure, I could commit a lot of time. (14:30) I took the adolescents and I could potentially get to a certain point.(14:33) But I acknowledged it was very difficult at that moment to think like, oh, like I I'm just I'm never going to reach that. (14:42) And I have always loved that song because of that performance. (14:46) I play some of that.(14:48) Yeah, maybe. (14:51) Let's see. (14:52) I know I'm putting you on the spot.(14:54) And I know you are a little bit. (14:55) I didn't expect a certain. (15:22) Yeah, it's until Delta hijacked it.(15:26) I still I still love that song. (15:30) But what I was thinking about when I was referencing your eyes is there's something unique about music to me in that there's a. (15:41) It provokes an emotion.(15:43) Right. (15:44) And I'm not saying anything profound here, but I've heard music that creates nostalgia for a time that like I don't really relate to. (15:52) It's like I can get nostalgic about something that I never experienced.(15:56) It also creates nostalgia for something that I do remember. (16:00) But there are the times that I do remember from that nostalgia are so vivid. (16:05) It's unlike anything other any other sense besides maybe smell, in my opinion, at least maybe for me personally.(16:11) And so when you turned, it was almost like I could see you going through. (16:16) And I'm curious if this is how you perceive it. (16:18) But there's there's a mental storage that I think is dissimilar to other memories as it relates to music, right?(16:27) It's it's when you go back, you're not you're not looking at the score of a piece. (16:34) You're actually sort of. (16:37) Internalizing it, no?(16:38) Yeah, yeah, it becomes that way. (16:41) I can't I can't separate into parts, really. (16:45) I mean, you can analyze it that way, but I'm not doing that while I play.(16:49) What difference do you think you have in your quality of play now as compared to two different times in your life? (16:58) One being immediately preceding going to Juilliard and then again after you got your doctorate? (17:06) Oh, wow, that's a good question.(17:09) Um, is it comfort? (17:11) Is it interpretation? (17:13) Is it intonation?(17:15) Well, I gosh, it's a lot of things. (17:18) I comfort is maybe one thing, but I I feel like I have more comfort now, but I also had more comfort then. (17:28) And I had more comfort then in that I was.(17:31) I was perhaps freer. (17:33) Yeah, because I didn't you know, I was I was a kid. (17:36) Yeah, and and almost fearless in some ways, you know, and you know, I getting into getting into these top music schools, it felt pretty good, you know, and so I felt like I was immediately preceding Juilliard.(17:54) I felt that way. (17:55) I felt, you know, on top of my game and, you know, probably a little arrogant because that that change when I got to Juilliard that pretty quickly. (18:05) And then, you know, after I got my doctorate, boy, I guess, you know, I I after I got my doctorate, I won this competition in France and this was just a year later or something.(18:20) And I had to play a lot of music that was written. (18:22) A lot of avant-garde music, music written after 1900. (18:27) And and I still go there.(18:29) I was just there playing there in in December. (18:33) Anyway, I won the competition and then I I ended up playing a lot of concerts with with just this music. (18:40) And so I was preparing a lot of it and it wasn't entirely me.(18:45) Some of it was and I had to drive, but some of it I felt forced to do it. (18:50) And I don't think I had that feeling necessarily prior to going to school. (18:56) I guess my my feeling is it was a bit more fun then.(19:00) And now it's now it's more my job and it's practical. (19:04) And not that I don't enjoy my job, but I just have a different relationship to it.

Marcus Arredondo

(19:09) Sure.

Christopher Guzman

(19:10) That I did that. (19:11) And there was I guess also then there was so much to to explore and so much to I don't know to look forward to, but it was just a very exciting time, you know, leaving York, going to Juilliard, playing with all these really great musicians, hearing the best music in the world on top of seeing, you know, operas and other shows that you don't see anywhere else in the country. (19:42) So that was very exciting.(19:44) For me as a musician, you know, it's just every day there was something to look forward to. (19:50) And yeah, anyway, now it's a it's more pragmatic, my relationship to the piano. (19:56) How often do you sit down and just just fuck around?(20:01) Like, do you are you constantly practicing or is it do you have time to do that? (20:07) I do have time to do it. (20:09) I don't usually do it that much sometimes.(20:12) In fact, this morning I did a little bit. (20:15) You know, over the summer, I'm not during the school year, I'm hearing piano all day long and even, you know, and this happens to other musicians. (20:21) I know when I'm driving home, I just turn off the radio.(20:25) I don't want to hear anything because I'm just hearing it all day long. (20:28) And I'm I have to think about it all day long, too. (20:30) I have to analyze it and it doesn't become something pleasurable or moving or but it's something I have to find ways to improve.(20:44) And so I I'm analyzing it and the person. (20:48) And then I find myself doing that on the radio, too. (20:52) And I try to keep in perspective that I'm doing that.(20:56) And so I I distance myself. (20:58) But at the same time, it's not like I don't enjoy music at all. (21:01) I'm going to hear it.(21:02) I'll go to the Met Opera in New York. (21:04) I go there, oh, at least once a year, the Lyric Opera in Chicago, the Chicago Symphony here and really enjoy great concerts without that feeling of of analyzing. (21:17) Do you feel like that skill set that you utilize so much?(21:24) Detracts from maybe some of the inherent joy you used to derive from either listening or creating it? (21:33) I think so. (21:34) I think from listening to it.(21:36) Absolutely. (21:38) It can be limiting. (21:40) And I just because I.(21:45) Maybe with the students, I'm trying to get them to play in a certain way. (21:50) And so I try to I try to treat the students as a blank canvas and and see what the overall musical effect is. (22:00) But sometimes you have to, of course, get to the nuts and bolts of the piece to really analyze it.(22:08) I think it can. (22:09) And I think it's certainly different, again, than than when I was when I was younger, I wasn't analyzing things. (22:16) I play things when I was when I was that age.(22:20) Again, I think, wow, I didn't know shit about what I was doing. (22:24) I really I. (22:26) It's incredible.(22:27) It's like, how did I get away with this? (22:30) I think about my my audition repertoire and I, you know, I teach some of the stuff now. (22:34) How did I miss this?(22:36) And, you know, just even thinking about the overall concept of things. (22:39) Can you give me an example of like the type of thing you might have missed that you're looking at? (22:43) You're listening to now.(22:44) Well, it's just there's a piece that I played on my audition for music schools when I was 18 by Chopin. (22:52) It's it's called The Barker Roll. (22:55) And I had this I had this recording of Mark Togerich playing it.(22:58) And I loved it again, obsessed, obsessive. (23:01) And I bought all our CDs and I love this recording. (23:04) And I listened to it for four years and years.(23:07) And I played the piece when I was 16. (23:10) And then, OK, I played it for my audition repertoire. (23:12) Thought I knew it pretty well, right?(23:15) And I come back to it, you know, teaching it. (23:17) I taught it a couple of times this past quarter. (23:21) And they're just things that I, you know, I think I know the piece after playing it for many years, especially when you're younger, you think you retain these memories.(23:29) But little analytical things about about phrasing and markings that he gives that I guess I just never explored and never made sense of and saying, oh, this is why this sounds this way, this is why this should feel this way. (23:46) For me, I wasn't not sorry, I wasn't imitating the performance that I was hearing on the CD, but I was sort of feeling it. (23:58) And I guess I was lucky in feeling it the right way.(24:03) But that doesn't happen all the time with students. (24:05) Sometimes they feel a certain way about something. (24:08) And it's, you know, maybe it's it's a wrong interpretation.(24:11) And then you have to go down and analyze why. (24:16) So, yeah. (24:17) Do you think that comes from just greater fluency within the language?(24:22) I don't know. (24:22) I think, well, part of it is I had a I had a good ear.

Marcus Arredondo

(24:26) Yeah.

Christopher Guzman

(24:27) And I had familiarity with your same fluency with the language a little bit like that, like familiarity with Chopin style.

Marcus Arredondo

(24:35) Yeah.

Christopher Guzman

(24:36) Yeah, that makes things a lot easier for sure. (24:41) And, yeah, and I did have a lot of classes on it with different people, not just my teacher, which helped, you know, but they can't go through everything in the piece. (24:51) How much does Chopin story, for example, weigh into your interpretation of the music?(24:56) You know, that has been changing a lot. (24:59) There's oh, yeah, I think plenty. (25:03) I read this biography, this new biography by Alan Walker.(25:08) Chopin is about 600 something pages long and about a person who who lived not even thirty nine years. (25:19) And but I mean, what a rich life he had. (25:22) And, you know, I had a French father and then half of his life in Poland and was basically forced to leave.(25:29) And the rest of his life in France and was basically sickly for most of his life, tuberculosis at the end of his life. (25:37) He he had to have a manservant basically carry him everywhere because he was so frail. (25:45) So I think that certainly plays a role in his pieces.(25:48) It's sort of like the pathos of of works that you hear in it. (25:53) And that's something you were talking about, you know, connecting to that it can sort of elicit a memory. (25:57) And I think that's that sort of whatever feeling it is in his works and even in the greatest works, I think that's the reason that they're so great.(26:08) But I think, yeah, going Chopin's story definitely plays a role. (26:12) I don't think that's the case all the time. (26:14) And maybe not for all of his works.(26:15) And it's not certainly not the case with all composers, you know. (26:20) You know, Mozart, his mother passed away. (26:26) And.(26:27) You know, people talk about how he wrote the the E minor violin sonata, which is the only sonata. (26:36) Violin sonata, he wrote an E minor. (26:38) It's this really super dark piece.(26:50) You know, it's almost like chance started off this way, the violins in unison. (26:55) And so perhaps he was affected and wrote this. (26:59) But then he also quickly wrote something very stunning.(27:07) So what do you say about that? (27:09) I don't know. (27:11) I think there's a danger in reading too much.(27:16) And the composer's lives in their music.

Marcus Arredondo

(27:19) Yeah.

Christopher Guzman

(27:20) And certainly it has affected the scholarship of certain composers. (27:23) Right. (27:24) Like a Schubert.(27:25) I don't know if you know much about him. (27:26) He also didn't live a very long life, but was also also very sick, penniless. (27:33) And then you can start attributing that to, you know, every single phrase in the piece.(27:37) OK, maybe the piece isn't about him, right? (27:40) You know, being destitute. (27:41) Well, there's got to be some room for the artistry.(27:44) Right. (27:44) Because even I mean, I guess I'm just comparing it to writers, for example, who write about some version of themselves, not the entirety of themselves or some experience or some representation of our interpretation of an experience that they may or may not have had. (28:00) Right.(28:01) Right. (28:02) There are other there are other pieces by Chopin. (28:04) There's a piece called The Raindrop Prelude.(28:08) It's a rather famous piece. (28:12) Excuse me. (28:25) And the raindrops are this that persists throughout the entire work.(28:31) And, you know, there's there's a story that George Song, his his muse wrote about, you know, it was raining and the the the sound of the raindrops inspired him. (28:46) And that's he wrote this piece when that happened. (28:49) There's if you do the research, you realize that that's all kind of BS.(28:53) And then raindrop is probably some something else. (28:56) But it makes for a nice story. (28:58) So yeah.(29:00) And and honestly, so what? (29:02) I mean, you know, it's a beautiful piece of music. (29:05) So you dream in sound.(29:09) No, I don't think so. (29:11) I do have it running in my head a lot. (29:13) Like one on a on a walk or driving around or on a run or something.(29:18) Yeah, you get it. (29:19) You know, you get an earworm just like anybody does. (29:23) And and I mean, especially I'm listening to pieces all day in certain well, certain great ones.(29:28) Yeah, it sticks with you all the time. (29:31) But no, no, I don't think I don't think I ever dream in sound. (29:37) So one last question that I actually wanted to address was, do you think good having a good ear is learnable?(29:46) Is that is that a skill that can be acquired or is that something that's just innate? (29:52) Well, there are things you can do to help. (29:56) A good ear, that's also pretty broad.(30:02) I, I think being able to, you know, match pitches something we had a it was a class called ear training at Julia are taught by this legendary pedagogue, Mary Anthony Cox. (30:17) She was from Birmingham, Alabama. (30:19) She had this really thick drawl, but she studied when she was a teenager with one of the most famous pedagogues in France that you belong to.(30:27) She went over there and studied with her. (30:29) Anyway, a legendary person sort of ran her class like military academy. (30:35) But she was I ended up being a air training TA for three years.(30:39) And she was convinced that everybody could match a pitch. (30:44) And so I think being able to recognize an A, which is what the oboe plays at the beginning of every orchestra concert for everybody to tune to everybody. (30:56) The orchestra kind of has that note, you know, in their ear.(31:00) So training the ear for that, you know, being able to match pitch. (31:06) Yeah, I think I think that's possible. (31:10) Fortunately, I'm not in a position to decide that because I play the piano.(31:14) So all these notes are just here for me. (31:16) Yeah, you know, so I don't have to I don't have to worry if my students have that in terms of you know, as someone could have also a good ear, but may not be able to bring it out. (31:31) And and that's challenging.(31:33) You know, they can hear deficiencies in their playing, but they don't have the equipment to to to show what what they really mean. (31:46) So let's talk about that as it relates to even being a pedagogue, as you're referring to. (31:50) And how do you because I just use that as a springboard, I sort of think that challenge for that student may actually rely be a result of something that's not physical.(32:07) It might be an emotional blockage of some sort or some fear, some something that might be intangible that precludes them from actually being able to process that. (32:20) Maybe I'm wrong. (32:21) You know, tell me if you think otherwise.(32:23) But how do you coach? (32:25) Teach somebody to and I think in a lot of these environments, it's not so much teaching, right? (32:33) They're these are learnable skills, but I don't necessarily think you can teach them to anybody, right?(32:38) They're they actually require some proactive behavior, some intuition on behalf of the student in order to actually pull it out rather than you pushing it into them. (32:48) Some talent, I think, right? (32:51) Yeah, right.(32:52) Yeah. (32:53) And I mean, yeah, that's required. (32:55) I mean, you could you could work as hard as you want.(32:58) But if you have no talent in what you're doing, you know, I'm sorry. (33:04) You're just not going to be at the level of somebody that that does have that. (33:08) I can't measure that talent, but I can hear it for sure.(33:14) Yeah, you can hear it for sure. (33:16) And you can hear. (33:17) Where do you hear it?(33:18) For example, I mean, I know that it varies, but can you give a sense to the layman how you hear that difference? (33:26) Auditions. (33:27) We have auditions for school.(33:29) Yeah, it's very it's very evident. (33:34) And also, it's maybe not talent, but someone who has an affinity for what they're doing, not just. (33:41) I've been practicing to do this, but I don't really love what I'm doing.(33:46) That also comes across to not just in body language, but it can come across in sound. (33:53) But, yeah, you you just. (33:56) It's so difficult to define.(33:58) Yeah, it's something about, you know, creativity and being able to be able or wanting to express something. (34:06) So my experience through through any academic endeavor has been more intellectual than artistic. (34:14) And that's not in any way a pejorative.(34:15) My suggestion would be that the artistic pursuit is actually more complex in that like a better word, I'm sort of thinking it's more feral. (34:24) It's more native to your soul, so to speak. (34:28) And I'm wondering if you encounter, you know, look, somebody writing an English paper analyzing Shakespeare is using logic to some degree, is trying to analyze something.(34:43) And that to me exists up here in the head. (34:46) But when you're teaching, especially and I want to go back to something you said at the beginning, which was relative to failure, right? (34:54) And even something that I know you've faced in terms of competition and maybe anxiety that you might endure preceding that or going into it.(35:06) How do you well, first of all, am I am I on point here where there's a more emotional component? (35:12) There's a more harder to define aspects. (35:17) Oh, yeah, it's it's subjective.(35:19) Certainly. (35:20) Absolutely. (35:21) So how do you how do you coach your students in those situations?(35:25) Because it would seem like there's not one size fits all. (35:28) You sort of need to get deeper with them. (35:31) You do.(35:31) And you have to use a lot of analogies to try to connect with. (35:38) And I think the great teachers can do that very well. (35:42) Can connect with students in that way and bring something out.(35:47) And Ali Boulanger is a good example of that. (35:50) Had all these amazing composers, conductors that studied with her pianists. (35:58) Anyway, there are many others, but yeah, but I think the very talented teachers can do that.(36:06) Yeah, I mean, because, you know, a lot of people think, oh, will you just go and just like play the piano? (36:10) And it's fun. (36:12) And and that's what you did.(36:14) How can you be part of a of a university, even people at I remember being on a college committee once, not at Northwestern, but anyway. (36:25) And people being shocked that, you know, that this was their class. (36:29) They said in one on one and and someone kind of scoffed at it.(36:33) So, yeah, I mean, it's not of course, it's not standard what we do. (36:37) And it is it is quite subjective, but it is. (36:40) It's an art form.(36:42) So, yeah, it's just it's a different way of of education. (36:47) I think you do have to be analytical, though, it is because you can't just go in and have someone play something and say, well, you know, make me feel something, right? (37:01) Make it more beautiful.(37:02) I mean, what what kind of teacher is that? (37:07) Sometimes that can work if a student is very talented. (37:10) You know, I could say I can say, you know, we're you zoning out right here.

Marcus Arredondo

(37:17) Yeah.

Christopher Guzman

(37:17) And then the student will think about it and know what they're doing. (37:20) But but sometimes you just have to really break it down, analyze it. (37:24) Sometimes students enjoy that and really connect with that style of teaching, I guess.

Marcus Arredondo

(37:31) Yeah.

Christopher Guzman

(37:32) Yeah. (37:33) Does your you what kind of music do you listen to? (37:36) Is it always classical?(37:38) Someone just asked me this the other day and no, it's not always just classical, not at all. (37:46) Again, in the car, I usually just turn it off on long drives. (37:52) Boy, I'll put on anything.(37:54) I like listening to I do like listening to classical. (37:57) I like listening to Bach a lot.

Marcus Arredondo

(37:58) Yeah.

Christopher Guzman

(37:59) Seems to make the time bath. (38:02) It's just always very enjoyable. (38:04) I connect with it.(38:05) Great sense of rhythm. (38:07) Classical in the car is hard because the quality is not very good. (38:10) You know, I'm at the gym.(38:12) I won't listen to classical. (38:14) I'll listen to whatever I'll put on my Apple Music House House selection and listen to that. (38:22) Yeah.(38:22) But you're like you have hip hop in there. (38:26) You got jazz. (38:27) You got indie.(38:28) You got regular pop coming through there. (38:31) Like any of those or is it more musical? (38:35) I like, you know, it goes through phases.(38:38) And are those are those just too mundane for you? (38:40) Like, is it just a boring? (38:43) I wouldn't say they're mundane.(38:44) No, because I think, you know, the people are very much influenced by them and listen to them. (38:53) And again, like the greatest songs are great for a reason. (38:57) I mean, listen to like Whitney Houston.(38:59) Incredible, incredible singer. (39:02) Right. (39:02) And and these songs are, you know, our voices is timeless.(39:07) Yeah. (39:08) Dolly, pardon the same way. (39:10) Michael Jackson.

Marcus Arredondo

(39:11) Yeah.

Christopher Guzman

(39:11) You know, that's not mundane. (39:14) I think there's a lot of sort of drivel out there, which I won't get into. (39:19) But but there is a saturation to people that want to produce this pop and sort of becomes a little bit generic.(39:26) But then you get somebody like you get somebody like, I don't know who's the latest, the latest pop person. (39:35) I have no idea. (39:36) But let's say I went and saw Lady Gaga in concert.(39:39) This was several years ago. (39:41) And I would do this. (39:43) And we had we had four.(39:44) So we're standing up and I was like kind of grumbling about it. (39:47) And I went, wow, this is an awesome concert.

Marcus Arredondo

(39:49) Yeah.

Christopher Guzman

(39:50) I mean, she really knows how to work a crowd of thousands of people. (39:53) And that's I mean, I know that feeling, you know, getting in front of people, not that many people, but, you know, to just be the center and control everybody. (40:00) I thought, wow, this is really there's electricity in there.

Marcus Arredondo

(40:02) Sure.

Christopher Guzman

(40:03) I saw you two recently. (40:07) Still going strong. (40:08) Again, it was several years ago.(40:09) It was at Hinesfield and Pittsburgh. (40:12) Wow. (40:14) Just just blown away by it.(40:15) It's not something that I put on.

Marcus Arredondo

(40:17) Yeah.

Christopher Guzman

(40:17) You know, for myself all the time. (40:19) And I don't recognize anything. (40:20) And my friends make fun of me for it.(40:24) You know, they're like, oh, yeah, this wasn't written after 1860. (40:27) So you wouldn't know anything about it. (40:32) But I do enjoy it.(40:33) I remember, you know, there are certain there are certain groups and singers. (40:38) I remember liking Latin music a lot, music from, I guess. (40:44) Well, Latin America, but also from Spain, like Gypsy Kings.

Marcus Arredondo

(40:47) Oh, yeah.

Christopher Guzman

(40:48) That was after Big Wabowski. (40:49) You know, the when they did Hotel California, they did a cover of Hotel California, which is better than the original, I think. (40:56) I would agree.(40:58) Yeah. (40:59) And so I just listened to I had I had two CDs. (41:03) I mean, really fiery music.(41:07) Love that. (41:08) Yeah. (41:09) How is your perspective on music in general changed as a result of being, you know, transitioning to more of the instructor?(41:17) My perspective of it. (41:20) You mean my relationship lost any of its luster? (41:23) Oh, in some ways, yes.(41:27) You know, I'm not. (41:29) Like I said, you know, I I know that I'm criticizing all the time, but I'm listening.

Marcus Arredondo

(41:35) Yeah.

Christopher Guzman

(41:35) My brain goes into that because I'm doing that all the time.

Marcus Arredondo

(41:38) Yeah.

Christopher Guzman

(41:42) And so in some ways, yeah, but I'm always in some ways, it's just because I'm more informed, I guess, about what the composer is doing and the genius behind it. (41:53) I'm struck even more than I was when I was younger. (41:59) You know, Beethoven, how many books have been written about his works and his life in addition to other composers?(42:07) But but just total genius that I want to understand Bach the same way.

Marcus Arredondo

(42:12) Yeah.

Christopher Guzman

(42:13) And, you know, I play to their pieces. (42:16) And often, I mean, maybe once a day I'm teaching and thinking, like, can't you see this genius? (42:20) You know, the students.(42:21) Yeah. (42:21) Yeah. (42:22) Yeah.(42:22) I mean, there's that part fascinates me and keeps me going. (42:27) I think that it's it's it's still very alive for me. (42:32) That music rather than a common feeling among people that it's oh, this is something that's old music.(42:38) You know, talk to me about your progression in competitions, how you related to it, how you processed being on those bigger stages and then getting into orchestras and controlling a crowd like you're referring to. (42:53) Is that something that you get jitter still now? (42:56) Or is that sort of old hat at this point?(43:00) Um, I think everybody. (43:02) Everybody gets a little bit of jitters. (43:06) Most people do, but I've learned to control it.(43:09) I used to have really bad nerves. (43:12) I remember specifically this, that piece I was talking about, the barcode by Chopin, I was playing at a music festival in North Carolina. (43:20) And I remember I, I don't know, I had a memory slip or something didn't go right.(43:24) And I remember just like I was bawling afterwards, like talking to my teacher about, you know, how do I apply? (43:29) Am I so nervous and this? (43:30) And sometimes you don't grow out of it.(43:33) You have to learn to control it. (43:35) The pianist I was talking about earlier, Mark Togrich, you know, she's 80. (43:39) I don't know.(43:40) What is she now? (43:40) Eighty four years old, still performing. (43:44) Still the best pianist.(43:46) I think look her up. (43:47) Incredible, incredible pianist. (43:50) And she talks about her nerves and she doesn't like to play solo.(43:55) And there's a couple of movies about her and she she professes this. (43:59) She talks about her knee shaking and and. (44:04) Yeah, sweaty hands and all that.(44:06) And yeah, I guess the more that you you put yourself in that situation, that fight or flight, the more you learn how to deal with it. (44:16) And some people don't deal with it and they hate the feeling. (44:20) And I remember for years, I don't have it so much now, but I did have for years the feeling of of going up and at least once a concert.(44:32) You know, being on edge, not feeling comfortable and thinking you could just stop playing right now. (44:41) What if you just stop playing and walked off stage? (44:43) You know, just the the little voice saying it and just me saying, no, I'm going forward, I'm going to do it.(44:51) Really, I mean, decades, I think that would happen. (44:55) I actually know somebody in a competition who did leave the stage. (44:58) Somebody didn't go out and he left the stage.(45:00) He came back. (45:01) So I want to have that feeling one time. (45:03) But but no, it's it's something you I don't know, it's something you you just learned to deal with.(45:10) It's harder with I think with piano than the many other instruments, because we're we're expected to memorize things as well, which also makes it extra challenging. (45:22) So not only just being in front of people and sort of this expectation, I hope I play well enough. (45:30) By the way, my students have this in their own lessons with me, you know, or I'll teach somebody for the first time, sorry, I'm really nervous.(45:37) Or it's like, what do you have to be nervous about? (45:39) You know, but it's this is part of it. (45:42) So, yeah, competition certainly help with that.(45:44) There also seems like there's a I mean, I've again, nothing compared to you, but I face my own nerves and failures and nothing. (45:56) There's no shortcut to reps, in my opinion, you know, just just going back at it. (46:00) But I think about somebody in your position that could have all the town on the world, but be plagued by this syndrome, where it really limits your ability to grow and take on these opportunities that allow the revelation of who you really are capable of being.(46:20) But it requires some chutzpah or maybe naivete or cavalierness or fearlessness because you don't know what you don't know. (46:29) I sometimes wonder if we as we get older and more confident, more comfortable with what we have will ever be able to go back to that lightness of being where you could just be free and really see what you're made out of. (46:42) Like, I sometimes wonder if we're holding ourselves back.(46:44) Wouldn't that be nice? (46:46) Yeah. (46:47) Sort of to unlearn what you you know.(46:49) Yeah, just not analyzing every single thing that I'm doing. (46:53) Yeah, for sure. (46:55) You know, I think I I know it's hypothetical.(46:58) You know, somebody with a lot of talent, you know, what can they do about it? (47:04) I mean, one solution they have is to just not play piano. (47:09) There are plenty of other things to do in the world.(47:10) I mean, what I do is not so important, I think. (47:14) But it's important to you. (47:15) It's important to me.(47:17) But it's you know, there are plenty of other wonderful things and enriching things that that people find in the world. (47:23) So but let's just take you as an example on that point, though. (47:26) Like, if you had just given up, think about and I don't want to put words in your mouth, but think about how much of you would be lost like you.(47:34) There's so much of you that comes from your conquering your ability to to share this part of yourself. (47:43) I mean, you are revealing as you play these pieces, a piece of you. (47:49) That I would I would imagine has to give you some sense of fulfillment.(47:54) You're producing. (47:56) It can be very vulnerable to. (47:58) Yeah.(47:59) Well, it's always vulnerable, actually. (48:01) But you're always subjecting yourself to judgment in some way. (48:07) Yeah.(48:07) Criticism. (48:08) Yeah. (48:09) How have you navigated that?(48:11) Oh, well, at this point, I don't. (48:13) It doesn't bother me anymore. (48:16) I mean, it's not that I feel so good about my playing.(48:19) Not at all. (48:21) Actually, but the contrary. (48:25) But I don't mind what people say as much anymore.(48:28) I think that's another thing that, you know, that comes with maturity, right? (48:33) Yeah. (48:35) And I've certainly faced that in competitions, you know, people saying some nasty things and, you know, happen to music schools and and also just getting bad feedback and not not connecting with that.(48:47) And but but yeah, no, I know what you mean. (48:51) You know, if I didn't do what I did, what I'm doing now, would that be would I still be myself? (48:59) I don't know.(48:59) That's such a hypothetical. (49:01) I can't really imagine doing anything else right now because it is such a grain of what I've been doing since I was a child. (49:08) Right.(49:09) I mean, I did consider not not going to music quite, you know, in my 20s, actually. (49:17) I remember I started studying for the LS that I thought, I don't want to do this anymore. (49:22) And it's it's hard.(49:25) You know, it's a lot of work. (49:26) And I was getting a little burnt out. (49:28) I was in a not a good place in my life.(49:33) And I was living in Boston and sort of lonely and it was cold there. (49:38) And anyway, a lot of factors. (49:41) But I have an older friend who's sort of a patron of mine and he's a music lover and he's an attorney.(49:51) And he said, you don't want to go into law. (49:53) That's not you. (49:54) Don't don't do this.(49:55) You know, a long talk with me, a couple of talks. (49:59) And I mean, I was doing it, too. (50:00) And I thought I'm just going to do this because I'm doing it.(50:03) You know, it's a it's this is a way to make a good income in the future. (50:09) But I did. (50:10) I wasn't excited about doing it.(50:11) So I have, you know, I teach mostly undergraduates and of those undergraduates, most of them are dual degree students. (50:20) Northwestern is a very good program for that. (50:22) It's a five year program.(50:24) And, you know, I I just tell my students, I have a student, for example, incredibly talented, just won the concerto competition at Northwestern. (50:36) And he just went to this piano Texas camp, which is this very prestigious summer festival in Fort Worth. (50:45) And he's going to law school next year.(50:51) And, you know, he has he has some regrets, but he I mean, he's very excited about what he's he's about to do. (50:59) But he just thinks, oh, yeah, I think about, you know, if things were different, that I would enjoy that as well. (51:05) And I just tell my students that, you know, music and what you're studying is always going to be that will be a part of you.(51:12) You know, it's not if you pick something else up that suddenly you're not a musician and you don't you can't appreciate and you can't play the piano anymore. (51:20) That's not it. (51:21) Yeah.(51:22) So I think if I weren't doing what I'm doing, I don't know if I would have regrets about it. (51:27) I mean, right. (51:28) That's really impossible to say.(51:30) But it would still be a part of me, I'm sure. (51:33) Yeah. (51:33) I think it's impossible to grow to the point that you are without the compounding benefits of that momentum over time.(51:39) Yeah. (51:40) You know, if you were to do it for 15 years, break for 10 and then pick it back up for another 15. (51:45) At the very least, you'd be different.(51:48) But the momentum from working at the craft over and over and over again. (51:54) Do you ever get sick of it? (51:55) Oh, yeah, absolutely.(51:57) Yeah, it becomes a job sometimes. (52:00) And then I have to I have to make sure it doesn't. (52:02) You ever write or compose?(52:05) That's something you've done. (52:07) No, you know, I did that when I was younger. (52:09) I think when I when I was freer to explore.(52:12) But no, I know I did. (52:15) I think the last thing I I composed was a I remember in school, remember the Nokia, the Nokia theme, it's actually some guitar piece. (52:31) Anyway, I wrote this little set of very it was it was an assignment for school and I wrote a set of variations on it and I had a performance.(52:40) I don't know where the piece is. (52:41) I don't know. (52:41) They took it.(52:42) They took my assignment. (52:43) But but I think that was the last thing I wrote. (52:45) It was fun.(52:46) It was, you know, cheeky. (52:47) How do you think you'd play in like an improv jazz band? (52:51) You think you could keep up?(52:52) You think that would be breezy for you? (52:54) Oh, no, that's a completely different animal. (52:57) Oh, no, there's no way.(52:59) That's a completely different language. (53:01) I admire those musicians so much because they have a freedom that classical musicians don't, I think. (53:09) And there's some that do both, like Chick Corea can do both.(53:12) Frederick Gouda, Herbie Hancock. (53:16) Sure. (53:18) And many others, right.(53:20) But no, absolutely not. (53:24) That's that's so challenging improvisation. (53:28) Some pianist are like this and, you know, I admire that so much.(53:33) And there's so much joy in that music as well. (53:37) Yeah. (53:38) So no, the answer is no, unfortunately.(53:41) I wish I could. (53:42) I'm going to put you on the spot here. (53:45) So if you're by yourself and you're you want to sort of tickle your own well-being, can you play something in the optimistic world?(53:56) Like one of your favorite pieces that's joyful. (54:01) Momentum building anything in that world. (54:04) You play something for us that is something you love playing.(54:10) And you can shift it to I mean, you can you can do another thing. (54:13) I'm just I just want it. (54:15) I want to tap that a little bit some more.(54:18) Well, you know, I don't know if there's I think my taste and everybody see they they change all the time. (54:26) And yeah, I'm constantly hearing music and I'm hearing different things that I enjoy. (54:30) And then I become obsessed with with certain ones.(54:33) But there are certain things that I played over the years a lot. (54:37) I'm just looking at something.

Marcus Arredondo

(54:37) This is Bob.

Christopher Guzman

(54:38) Yeah. (54:39) Yes. (54:40) OK, I'll do a little bit.(54:41) OK, let's see. (54:47) Let's see. (55:56) Oh, stop there, dude.(55:58) I got to tell you, man, it is a while. (56:01) It is such a joy to watch you play.

Marcus Arredondo

(56:04) Thank you.

Christopher Guzman

(56:05) I and to listen to it, obviously, in fact, just because of the video here, I may ask you to play one more thing if you've got it, because I want people to see your fingers while you're doing it up close, because it's it's not just mesmerizing, but it's, you know, like if it brings you any comfort, you already know this. (56:22) But that communication is so scalable in the sense that you're communicating so many different people and they're being touched simultaneously in their own unique way. (56:31) And through that, there's this.(56:35) Unparalleled relationship that gets developed between the audience and you individually. (56:39) It's unlike anything else besides, I don't know, maybe stand up. (56:44) Yeah, we're like, you know, there's just like a certain tickle bone that that gets sprung into action that it builds a connection.(56:55) That's just like I don't know how to describe it any other way. (56:59) Well, you know, it's interesting is that musicians can can also read an audience, too. (57:06) They can feel it.(57:07) Yeah. (57:08) Even when they're not clapping, right? (57:09) I mean, I'm assuming it's an energy.(57:12) If they're super quiet, it's the greatest feeling in the world. (57:15) Yeah. (57:16) It's like, wow, they're really engaged.(57:18) But if you hear a lot of this or a cell phone goes off and then you don't, you know, you're not you're not interested. (57:25) You think, OK, I'm I'm I'm just part of I'm part of the show, I guess, you know, but I'm not the main attraction. (57:35) But no, you could you could sense you could sense the energy in the halls, too.(57:40) So that's lovely. (57:41) You got we'll bring this into a close, but you got one more for us that you might be able to move the camera so we can see one more section. (57:48) Sure.(57:50) How about I just continue with that? (57:53) Yeah. (57:54) Can you lower lower the camera a little bit like that?(57:58) Perfect. (57:59) Perfect. (58:00) Pick up my watch.(58:02) You still use a metronome, I see. (58:04) Oh, yeah. (58:05) Yeah.(58:06) You got to got to practice, got to be diligent, right? (59:22) Thank you, man. (59:24) Yeah, thank you.(59:27) It's it's so great to see that. (59:30) I Chicago next time I will, man. (59:34) Two more questions as we wrap up, which I had alluded to before, and it's going to be a sort of a random one.(59:40) But do you find I've always thought I've found most of the musicians I know tend to have a math brain. (59:46) Do you think that there's any correlation in sort of the repetition, the the pattern recognition? (59:53) Or do you think I'm just making that up?(59:55) There must. (59:56) No, there must be. (59:58) And I have a lot of students that, you know, I engineering dual degree measures and computer science.(1:00:06) I think a lot of it has to do with I'm sure pattern recognition and, you know, all of thinking outside the box, too.

Marcus Arredondo

(1:00:13) Yeah.

Christopher Guzman

(1:00:15) And problem solving. (1:00:17) I think that's a big part of it, too, is the analysis.

Marcus Arredondo

(1:00:19) Yeah.

Christopher Guzman

(1:00:21) And so the repetition of what you're doing, I mean, this is what I'm doing. (1:00:24) The practicing, practicing, practicing, practicing. (1:00:27) And I think with something mathematical.(1:00:29) Yeah. (1:00:30) Sort of the same way. (1:00:32) There's a lot of correlation.(1:00:33) I don't think about it while I'm teaching. (1:00:35) But I do notice that with the students who are who do have sort of a math major, what percentage of them are left handed? (1:00:46) Do you find that?(1:00:47) Oh, have you? (1:00:48) No, not a lot of them. (1:00:49) Really?(1:00:50) OK, yeah, I would have thought more. (1:00:53) I would think it's more helpful, but I don't know if it is necessarily, which I guess is a good that I'm not. (1:00:57) So it this was awesome.(1:00:59) Thank you so much. (1:01:00) So before we wrap up, I just any final thoughts or things you think we might have missed? (1:01:08) No, I think that was that was good.(1:01:10) You know, talked about students and what they can what they need to think about, I guess, when they're they're growing up. (1:01:17) Yeah, I guess what everybody needs to think about, not just. (1:01:19) You know, yeah, I don't think the lessons here are unique to music alone.(1:01:23) I think they're applicable elsewhere, too. (1:01:25) Right. (1:01:25) Exactly.(1:01:26) It's just, you know, what I do is so niche. (1:01:29) And I I think for. (1:01:34) You know, for a young kid from San Antonio, this is the this is the thing he loves to do, you know, four hours a day.(1:01:42) Yeah, probably I couldn't see any other profession. (1:01:47) But I think there are possibilities. (1:01:48) I think a lot of students, you know, they work with more than that, for sure, every day and and then when they don't get into a certain school or they don't have a certain opportunity, it's sort of a part of them.(1:02:03) It's it's very hurtful because you've you've dedicated so much time to something and you kind of feel like you have no you have no value in that moment.

Marcus Arredondo

(1:02:13) Yeah.

Christopher Guzman

(1:02:13) But that's why it's so important to to experience that, actually. (1:02:17) Sure. (1:02:17) That's a whole nother topic.(1:02:18) About kids that experiencing failure. (1:02:21) Well, we'll have to explore that again. (1:02:24) Yeah.(1:02:24) That'd be fun. (1:02:25) Thank you so much, Chris. (1:02:26) It was.

Marcus Arredondo

(1:02:27) Yeah.

Christopher Guzman

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