Testimonials
Ben Rice
Guitarist, vocalist and educator
Before working with William, I was caught up playing and practicing the same things that I had been for years. Leftover concepts and ideas from studying music in school, but these weren’t necessarily things that I enjoyed playing or helped me achieve my own goals. They were things that I felt I “should” be doing or able to do, rather than anything that made me happy or excited to do. Practicing felt like a chore. I had ideas about what to do to get better but wasn’t sure where to start or in which direction to go. My initial thought was to start taking lessons again but at the same time I felt like I had all of the knowledge I needed to improve, but couldn’t get myself to apply or begin. William helped me open up that path for me. The path of creating, defining, and pursuing the vision I had for myself based on my own musical and creative goals. I knew self driven study was out there but didn’t know how to acquire it or begin.
Of the many realizations that I had was how to bring joy and happiness into my practice routine. Hearing the instrument for the first time again and returning to the point where my expression on the instrument was valid, accepted, and enjoyable. It was all that because I said so, and I was open to my experience being whatever I created it to be.
After my coaching from William, I am empowered in my musical exploration. Before I had a large sense of guilt about playing music that was for fun and not “productive”. Now I feel much more free and empowered to play what interests me because I want to, and that it is enough to put all my effort into whatever musically it may be. I also have structure in my practicing, a routine that is dictated by my own goals and musical interests. I also have the power to shift and change this plan as I see fit to suit my needs.
Playing and pursuing music has become a lot more fun because I have enabled myself to allow it to be on my own terms.
Joe Bazeghi
Guitarist, Vocalist and Songwriter
Music has been an essential part of my being since childhood. I’ve had a guitar since I was a wee lad yet always felt separated from “real musicians”. This programing was laid deep within my psyche, the result of mostly unintentional societal and cultural conditioning. Learning to let this go has been an incredible relief. The Musical Being method, and coaching from William has been the key to a whole new world for me. I understand that if I am intentional about my goals with music and relate powerfully to my word, all my dreams are within my reach. Instead of writing off my dreams as fantasies I am now walking the path: writing songs, improving my technical abilities and living the life I’ve always dreamed. I am collaborating with incredible musicians every day and I love my musical life. William’s method has helped me to stop comparing myself to others and start living into my power as a musician. It is freeing beyond all belief.
I have tried endless YouTube videos and online exercises over years and consistently achieved the same results: frustration, hopelessness and the endless plateaus. It turns out that understanding the power of mindset was the key to unleashing my mastery. I am present to expansion in so many musical realms now including theory comprehension, collaboration and self-expression. Feeling self-expressed is the most powerfully freeing experience. I began to tap into it the minute I committed to myself and began working with William and Musical Being. I cannot recommend this path enough to musicians of all skill levels, even those who are hesitant to call themselves such, just as I was. Sign up with Musical Being, open this box and take this trip; you’ll look back at it as one of the most important decisions you’ve ever made. I certainly do.
Esteban Anastasio
Guitarist, educator and coach
I was experiencing a sense of overwhelm and always feeling rushed. I was not relaxed and did not feel prepared for my gigs and performances. Sometimes, it just felt like I was going through the motions of playing music and not feeling like I ever nailed it or was being self-expressed.
I decided to work with William after hearing him talk about bringing intention into my practice and practice performing in a way where I bring my best and desired self to the moment of my performance. The way he described his relationship to time and language really resonated with me and I reached out to work with him.
The big "a-ha!" moment came to me in discovering how my relationship with words, how I speak, and how I define myself creates how I interact with the world and feel about myself in the present moment. The manner in which William described how I, as a musician can live, experience and be, in every moment, gave me that which I so desperately and formally strived for. I now bring to my performance what I, before working with William, was always struggling to find.
I now feel much more relaxed and prepared at my gigs. I no longer have that feeling of being rushed in my daily life. I have reached many peak-performance moments on stage after working with William. Before I was just trying to get things right and sound good. I've grown past that and truly have felt very expressive, powerful, and connected to my audience and am now feeling very self expressed when I perform. Music is much more fun and exciting and I literally feel like a badass on stage! I was a solid performer before, but now I feel that I really play without inhibition. Now when I am performing on stage I feel like a truly genuine and powerful artist.
Andy Page
Saxophonist, composer and educator
Prior to working with William, I was having a bit of an identity crisis as a musician. I found myself mostly engaging with music as a technician. I was fortunate to have plenty of work, but I felt like I had forgotten how to be creative and I had stopped enjoying a lot of the gigs I was on. This was never what I wanted out of music.
Through my work with William I was able to reconnect with the joy that brought me to music in the first place, as well as increase my creative output. Through our coaching sessions, I realized that I had attached a lot of unhealthy baggage to music; I was hung up on value judgments and comparative thinking that was limiting my opportunities in my career and preventing me from expressing myself to my full potential. Through meditation exercises I reconnected with my instrument in a way that sparked a newfound joy in simply playing. This lead to enjoyable, productive practice sessions. He helped me build a practice routine guided by my intended outcome, interests, and vision of myself. He also provided a really helpful spreadsheet to track my progress.
In the time since we’ve worked together my relationship with music has been so different. I no longer see practicing as a chore and I genuinely look forward to spending time on my horn. I’ve followed up with and reached out to community members and have a number of remote recording projects I’m working on. I’m more prolific as a composer and songwriter than I’ve been in years and I no longer let self-doubt stop me from sharing what I make. I think what William is offering is important for any musician and the industry as a whole.
Kristen Klehr
Percussionist, coach and founder of The Den Collective
My experience of myself before working with William within my musical career was one of "constantly navigating next steps" in an ever-changing world, in part due to COVID-19. It almost felt like each week brought a new set of challenges, and sometimes I felt like I was just trying to hold on for the ride. After working with William, however, I was reminded that I actually am holding the steering wheel, even through times of great uncertainty in my career, and it is my choice as to how I want to venture forward!
One epiphany for me was definitely the "kitchen/cooking" analogy - I really related a lot to the concepts of "working hard and doing well" but if there aren't clear-set intentions, it just tends to be a lot of hard work, without a sense of direction (or then also, realizing when you've arrived at your goal!)
My experience of my musical self now is much more free - proud to be now taking steps forward in my own marimba & voice writing projects, to the point where I completed three tracks now being mastered in one month. I'm excited to hear the finished product, not for the "need to share/promotion/career development" but for the joy of creating something that was of meaning to me.
McKenzie Stubbert
Composer and pianist
I am a composer who has been playing and thinking about music since I was a child. I went to music school and have forged a career, making my full-time living with music. I’m both a success story and a casualty of the modern age. I make a living, and have worked on some really cool projects that I’m quite proud of. I’ve also suffered from imposter syndrome and don’t feel like a competent performer. Most of the “work” has me sitting alone by a computer, often not even picking up an actual instrument. The further down this path I went, the more worried I got that I would be forever limited by what I hadn’t yet mastered as a musician. I am self-motivated with a lot of aspirations for the future but also have so many different things that I want to work on and improve that I can get bogged down into not doing anything. I’ve known William as a friend and professional colleague for over a decade. When he asked me to join his Musician Mindset Intensive, I had already found his mastery as a musician and graciousness as a communicator to be so exceptional that it was pretty easy to say yes.
I was previously skeptical of the idea of coaching, primarily due to my many bad experiences with teachers and mentors and, I’m sure, I had a bit of foolish pride in thinking that I can and should “do it alone”. This was a mistake bordering on monumental. As they say, when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. It took me a long time to understand what I even wanted for myself. A coach can’t tell you what you want but they help you articulate it to yourself. My big discovery in working with William was twofold. First, in realizing how little help I needed to spell out what I wanted for myself as a composer/musician and second, how fruitful it would be to have someone in my corner. It was like putting fuel in the machine that I had been struggling to keep running.
I now find myself with a concrete list of goals and steps to move forward with achieving them. In a way, I’m just getting started, despite being at this for over twenty years. But knowing that the road ahead is paved and comes with directions is inspiring.
Caleb Paul
Guitarist, vocalist and songwriter
I chose to work with William with the goal of self-assessing my artistic path as someone who no longer gigs and performs regularly.
In working with William, I was able to better understand how to engage my creative subconscious. In the triumvirate of singing, playing my instrument, and writing lyrics, I've typically spent the most time playing my instrument. Working with William helped me realize that writing lyrics is actually the foundational piece for me that drives me to engage creatively rather than mechanically, with the other two disciplines.