What if I told you that for less than $10 and with only a few minutes a day you could improve your instrumental proficiency in a short period of time? Would you believe me? Does it sound too good to be true?

And to set the record straight …

• It’s not the total solution to all your problems.
• It will not magically make a master improviser out of you.
• It will not get you a multi-million recording deal.
• It will not guarantee you a stream of successive top-10 releases.

No such thing – but I do want to share this simple, fun way that helped me personally improve. I’m talking about juggling.

Sorry for the low resolution example. That clip is quite old, but the juggling in it is just insane.

Juggling? What’s juggling got to do with improving on your instrument? That’s not a music related activity – so what’s the point?

Well, think about it …

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I am not 100% sure but I think the first time I heard Albinoni’s Adagio in G Minor was in the late 70’s or early 80’s when I was a child watching TV commercials. Back then it was especially popular to use classical music as backdrop for TV ads, at least here in Austria.

Vivaldi’s Four Seasons for a coffee brand, some local insurance company (ab)used Mozart for their life insurance package  – what the Adagio was supposed to peddle, I don’t remember.

I do remember though, that this haunting piece somehow grabbed me and I couldn’t get it out of my head and would constantly whistle and hum the melody anytime I had seen the TV spot.

Over time, after the ad got canceled  I forgot about the piece, until…

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