Teaching other people is one of the best and most powerful ways to learn. By having to articulate and explain a subject, you clarify the subject in your own mind. You stumble upon new connections and analogies. You increase your depth of understanding and achieve mastery. Here are a few ideas to apply this concept to your own musical growth.

Find ‘students’ and teach them about what you’re working on. Teach your parents, your little brother or your girlfriend. Teach your musical buddies and your friends about what you’re working on. Now a question you might be thinking is “what if they don’t know anything about jazz drumming, how am I going to teach them about it?” All the better. Some times a student with no background in your subject can be very advantageous. It means you will have to simplify down to basic principles and explain it with out the use of jargon. You’ll be forced to come up with creative everyday analogies that they can relate to.

By going through this process of explaining, simplifying and answering questions you will gain a deeper understanding of the basics and fundamentals of your subject. Their questions will bring to light the areas you are unclear about, thus informing you where to focus next.

Go into a lesson assuming or pretending that you are going to have to teach a class about that topic. Whether you are attending a class at the local music school, taking a lesson or simply watching an instructional DVD think about how you would teach the material to a student. This will help to keep you focused and give you a purpose. Having a purpose always intensifies the learning process. You will be searching for the principles and for ways to explain them.

Write a lesson plan. Create a lesson plan for what ever it is you are working on. Even before you completely understand it. Write down an outline with bullet points that you could use to present a lesson on the material to a student or class. Next write down all of the potential questions that your students may have. Simply going through this process of organizing the material will greatly increase your understanding and clarity. If you want you can go further and teach this lesson plan to someone (as mentioned above). Or you could record yourself giving the lesson, then listen back and decide if your points were clear and concise. Was your information clear and meaningful? Have someone else listen to it and critique it.

Using these methods will greatly increase your depth of understanding and mastery of any subject. It will also prepare you to work as a teacher. For many musicians teaching and performing go hand in hand. It’s a great way to supplement your income, help others achieve their goals and it’s an extremely powerful tool to enhance your own musical development.

Dedicated to your musical success,
Chris Punis
chris@learnjazzfaster.com

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Chris Punis is an active jazz musician in the northeast. He is founding member of the critically acclaimed group Gypsy Schaeffer and a member of renowned saxophonist Charlie Kohlhase’s group The Explorer’s Club. Chris is also an accomplished jazz educator and author of “The Monster Jazz Formula”. For more information about his teaching methods and to receive your free lessons, “21 Great Ways To Become a Monster Jazz Musician”, visit www.learnjazzfaster.com

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Your dreams, goals and musical aspirations are the most important things you have. They are what later become your life. In the big picture sense they are your life. They are your accomplishments and successes in the embryonic stages. They must be guarded, nurtured and cared for until they come to fruition.

Be very careful who you share them with. Be sure to only share them with people you are confident will be supportive and encouraging. This is especially important when you are in the early stages and if your goals are particularly ambitious. When you are going into new territory and aiming high you need people around you who believe in you.

Avoid negativity. Avoid negative people. Avoid people who tell you “you can’t,” or that what you’re aiming to do is “not possible.” At best this is simply energy draining. While you hold your ground, defend your dream and maintain a positive attitude you’re wasting energy that you could direct towards your goal. Conversely people who encourage you and believe in you actually give you energy and add to your momentum. At worst negativity can actually be dangerous and derail you from your path. It can cause you to second guess your self and choose security over success.

Seek out successful people. Seek out people who are already doing what you plan to do. Listen to their advice and emulate them. Success leaves tracks. Learn from those who have achieved it. Find the people who say “you can.”

Put on success blinders. Focus on what you want. Focus on results. Keep your eyes on the target. Anything is possible so long as it doesn’t violate natural law. If someone else has done it then you can too. Focus on the goal. Ignore the reasons why you can’t. Ignore the resources or advantages you don’t have. Instead focus on the reasons why you can and focus on what you do have. Obstacles will arise. Trust yourself, persevere and you will overcome.

Action Step: Take a look at your musical associates. Who are the people that you spend the majority of your time with? Are they positive and supportive or negative and discouraging? If you answered the later you may want to reconsider that relationship. Or least limit your time with them and guard your dreams. This is one of toughest exercises to complete. It’s not easy evaluating long standing relationships in this way. But if someone is keeping you down with negativity, you owe it to yourself to do something about it.

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Chris Punis is an active jazz musician in the northeast. He is founding member of the critically acclaimed group Gypsy Schaeffer and a member of renowned saxophonist Charlie Kohlhase’s group The Explorer’s Club. Chris is also an accomplished jazz educator and author of “The Monster Jazz Formula”. For more information about his teaching methods and to receive your free lessons, “21 Great Ways To Become a Monster Jazz Musician”, visit www.learnjazzfaster.com

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A successful future in the fashion design industry depends on the right choice of school to attend. Although fashion design is not one of the more popular careers to pursue, if your talents lie in this field, there is ample opportunity awaiting you. However, the first thing to hurdle is your choice of school.

When choosing a fashion design school, consider the following factors.

Area of Focus

Look into the nature of the school. Is it solely a fashion design school or does it offer other courses. Is this school well-known for its emphasis on fashion design?

Fashion design schools are few and far between. This makes it harder to choose one that fits your bill. Your first task will be to find a reputable school that will aid you in your training.

Also, look into whether the school participates in any fashion design competitions or has accomplished anything of reknown in the industry. This is a sure sign of their commitment to the fashion arts and its education among students.

Different schools have different strengths, find a school that plays to your strengths and has specializations in the field of your choice.

For example, you might choose a very well-known fashion design school only to find out that they specialize in childrens’ clothing, while the field of your choice is adult formal wear. This could diffuse your interests, and dull your specialization.

Make sure you know what field the school you are scouting focuses on. This will help you specialize in that area too.

Alumni and Job Placements

Does the college offer job placement assistance? And has the alumni from this school gone on to be successful professionals? Always learn from other’s previous experience. If you see that those that had gone through this school before you received proper training and are successful in their field, that is an indication of a good school.

Most of these reputable schools have numerous connections in the graphic arts industry. They usually offer job placement services. You may want to consider this when choosing a school.

It would do no harm to start looking at the educational background of your admired fashion designer. Checking out the schools they came from will give an idea of the sort of training these artists went through. From here, you may make decisions as to whether you would like to choose the same school as they did.

Curriculum

You must assess whether the curriculum is relevant to you field of study. You may want to compare the curricula of different schools to see which offers the best form of education.

It would also be wise to check the quality of the teaching staff at that school. Having established artists who teach at a fashion design school is also an indication of a good training program.

Student to Teacher Ratio

Ask yourself: how big are the classes and how many teachers and classes are available at this school before you choose it. The more the students, the lesser the efficacy of the teacher. However, if there are too few students per teacher, that could tell of a different problem – that of quality. If this is the case, it may be that the school is not popular or is suffering from anemic academic performance.

Accreditation

Accreditation means the school has passed certain standards of educational quality. Accreditation is performed by the U.S. Department of Education. Fashion design schools must be accredited to prove their level of competence.

Check with the State Postsecondary School Licensing Bureau to see if the college you are investigating is accredited. Also, check the National Approval and Accreditation for this concern.

Cost

Some people may proclaim that to obtain their education, they would spare no coin. Unfortunately, it also pays to be practical in your choice of fashion design school. If the school you choose has a tuition rate that is beyond your financial capability, you might find yourself working and unable to pursue your studies consistently due to the financial stress which may lead you to look for part-time work.

Scholarships

You might want to consider whether the design school you are looking at offers any scholarships. You also might want to know the terms to them too. Some schools offer scholarships based on academic performance. Some offer them based on fashion design competitions they hold regularly.

Your choice of school is an investment that will last you a lifetime. Proper care and investigation in choosing such is truly important. When you are comfortable with your choice of fashion design schools, you can now chart your path towards a successful career.

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English to French Translation may give rise to challenges rarely encountered with other language sets. It’s therefore, good practice to be familiar with these difficulties in order to easily conquer the majority of them without real trouble.

An International Language

Gaining knowledge of the facts regarding the French language is the first action to take in facing obstacles to English to French translation jobs. It is usually believed that there are about 128 millions of Francophones (French-speakers), residing on 5 continents. This basic information, although not exhaustive, is worthwhile to uncover much about the actual speakers, especially the fact that various ways of life are observed within French-speaking societies. Although all of these cultures present some characteristics of input from France, their customs remain divergent. A good example of the mix and separation of cultures is noticed in the fact that many natives of France are Roman Catholics. However, in Northern Africa, where French is the most usual second language, the ruling religion is Islam.

Multinational Melting Pot

The blending between the French ways of life and those of other lands and nations has led to a linguistic mixture of tongues, giving birth to a diversity of dialects. Taking into consideration the fact that Francophones inhabit all continents, individuals or groups who have a need for English to French translation should know that their targeted audience may be from Europe, Asia, South America, or Africa. This means that the election of a dialect is essential for the translation to truly reach out to the population for which it’s designated.

Québécois or Francais?

A few difficulties come into play in English to French translation even when having to do with francophone like cultures such as those of the region of Québec, Canada and France. The French language in Quebec is normally known as ‘Québécois’. It is one of numerous dialects whose speakers have expressed great enthusiasm in the conservation of the usage of French in the face of the highly preponderant English language. No matter how tenacious they were, they could not prevent the birth of ‘Franglais’ — a mix of French and English. English to French translation addressed to the Canadian public would do well to care for this area’s unique dialect. A similar intermingling of language can also be viewed in North Africa where Arabic terms and phrases have entered into French and vice versa.

International businesses can’t continue to stand without credibility with the people composing their markets. As a consequence, not just anyone can be entrusted with English to French translation jobs, instead a lot of care should enter every project calling for such a translation. This is the normal case with translations between language sets involving a high number of speakers. Still, how should managers be advised when their clientele’s specific location is not known? What dialect of French should be selected to render a ‘neutral’ translation that satisfies most all audiences? on this point it is generally recognized that the French of France, especially as talked in the area of Paris, is ’standard’. Therefore, this is the local speech which taught around the world in colleges and universities and the one to choose when an English to French translation is requested to stay ‘global’.

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Armando Riquier has been a translator and writer for over a decade. He works with Tectrad, a professional translation services agency specializing in English to French and web site translations.

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