California College of Music

Back in August I mentioned to you that I went 'Back To School' and told you that I'm now teaching at a college in Pasada 2-days a week. Monday & Wednesday. It's called the 'California College of Music' or for short 'CCM'. When I travel I sometimes need to get a substitute to sit in, but for the most part the Mon-Wed schedule works pretty well where I don't need a sub.

Since I'm working with upcoming vocalists I'm finding that quite a few of the students have the talent but mentally they lack confidence. What's interesting is you can teach the harmonies, notes, etc, but lacking the confidence is internal. I've been able to bring many of the students to a SWITCH rehearsal, so that they can see me in a different setting rather than a classroom, AND many of the students have seen me perform with Sheena Easton in a Live Performance. On my last trip to Japan I was able to see 5 of my former students who have moved back to Japan and they all came out to some of the shows. I want them to see, what they aspire to be and the things that I speak to them I also do on stage myself.

The confidence can be gained, like one of the my students for example, his name is Justin Smyley. Great singer and Rex Salas and I will be working with him in the very near future on getting some of his material out. But when we first started working together his range wasn't that great. After building up his CONFIDENCE, Justin has literally increased his range a whole Octave higher than when he started, this has all been done within a few months. He's now hitting high 'C's in his natural voice. It was already there, but I've been able to help give him the confidence that HE could do it. I'm always sharing litle tid-bits and quotes to help them.

One of the quotes I heard and have shared with my students about confidence is this: "If you realized how powerful your thoughts are, you would never think a negative one". As I said, many of the students I work with have the talent, but have these 'negative thoughts' or lack of confidence that can really help them to develop within this industry.

I'm having a lot of fun working with upcoming artists. Let's face it, when I was 18 years old and just signed the deal with Motown with the group SWITCH, my mentor was Jermaine Jackson and I learned a lot from him and have not only used that within my career but I've also shared what I've learned over the years with my students at CCM.

Until next time - Phillip