Jeff Miller, Trumpeter turned Furniture Maker.
This conversation features Jeff Miller, trumpeter turned furniture maker. Jeff shares how a major illness forced to career rethink, which led in turn to a portfolio career in another creative discipline.
SE Jeff, can you tell us about your life in woodwork because it sounds fascinating.
JM I have been designing building furniture for 37 years now. And started out fairly simply making beds and tables and things like that. And over time, things got more and more complicated when people wanted chairs, which are sort of the ultimate woodworking challenge.
And so, over the years, I’ve become a chair maker as well. fairly early on, I started writing about what I do, and teaching it and have now written I don’t know maybe 50 different articles and I’m working on my fifth book on woodworking. And I’ve been teaching all over the country.
I have been invited out of the country but I am on dialysis and travel is somewhat difficult to say the least. So I haven’t done any of that. And that kind of sums things up
SE It sounds Jeff as though you have the sort of the ultimate portfolio career in woodworking, with not only the furniture making, the chair making and the master craftsmanship, but also as an author and a teacher.
JM It’s a terrific combination of things, the teaching, the writing, and the doing all add up to so much more in each one feeds the other two, in very significant ways. Like couldn’t write or teach if I didn’t know what I was doing. But being exposed to students, lets me see what they understand. See what they don’t understand. And that informs the writing the writing means I have to be clear about what I’m doing. So that I can teach better and often enough that that also helps me in my own woodworking. So I find that the three, I guess, four if I include the design, although that’s separate from that sort of synergistic three, I find that everything supports everything else in very strong ways.
SE It’s I mean, it just speaks so strongly to your value in learning, the value that learning plays in your life. So before you were a lifelong learner in in the craft of woodwork, you trained and had a career in music. So could you tell us a bit more from the very beginnings about what that journey was?
JM From the very beginning, I started playing trumpet in fourth grade in in school and we had a spectacular music programme at the school that I went to our high school band was led by a director who is was just consummate musician. And I guess it was my sophomore year in high school, we were invited to an international music competition in Vienna, Austria and we won.
And music was just so exciting to me and I studied music in college and then went on to graduate school in music as well. And sort of interrupted my graduate training to go off to Singapore to play in Singapore Symphony Orchestra.
Came back finish the degree and then for relates to New York and then was invited to play with a brass quintet in Chicago. And we toured and recorded and did whatever else chamber music group does. And then things got interesting.
At 27, I came down with kidney disease and was really unable to keep playing. And, you know, so my transition. Ultimately, I think I just hit the wall of my talent. But the transition was very much a major life transition in that I had a, you know, a major illness to contend with as a 27 year old. And the medications made me all jittery. And performance was more or less out of the question.
And I had done some woodworking, musical instrument making to begin with, and felt like, I could design things simple furniture at first, but felt strangely confident as a designer, and just felt very at home with this. And in the change was, in many ways life saving, in that I had to deal with kidney disease, this this major illness, and also with the loss of what I had been training to do for most of my life. And the woodworking and the design were such an incredible comfort to me, at the time. And I have not looked back.
SE It’s such a powerful story, Jeff, that you share, and you use the phrase that the change was life saving. And I think although your transition was precipitated by a major illness, there’s many musicians working through injury.
And they are suffering, and they are really unable to perform at the best they can. And not only physical injury, but psychological and financial distress. And I think this, this notion that we can do something else, and that can be life making for us, is not, we don’t hear these stories very often. And that’s why, you know, we’re making this podcast and having these conversations is to say to others, if the model that you have is is damaging to you, or through choice or circumstances.
You need to not do the thing that you’re doing now that that’s okay, that as you said, comfort and creation can be found and artistry can be found in other ways. It doesn’t have to only be found through your musicianship. You mentioned Jeff about how you started making musical musical instruments was your first foray. Can you tell me can you tell us a little bit more about that, because I’m not imagining there were very many wooden trumpets.
JM You know, in the Renaissance, there were Coronet those which were wooden. There, they were sort of played with sack butts, which were really trombones. And that was one of my earliest fascinations was that night did also Renaissance and Baroque flutes, these were, you know, fairly. They’re not simple woodworking projects, but they’re fairly simple instruments. And I loved it. And I had to make my own pools and learn how to do that because you can’t go out and buy tools for making Renaissance and Baroque woodwind instruments. And that was a lot of fun and gave a great deal of confidence in my abilities to make things.
I want to get back to what you were saying though, in that having learned music, it seemed so much easier to learn something else. And I felt like I had such an advantage in learning something else because Learning to play on a professional level means you have to become so self aware. And and you’ve just learned to learn. And I think that that was very effective in woodworking it also meant that I understood what it was to practice and to get better at something which many woodworkers don’t seem to believe in. And I think all of that contributed very strongly to my success in doing something else.
SE And I think from from hearing what you were saying about the quality of the teaching, in your high school experience, you probably I’m making a bit of a leap here, but you probably had pedagogy that taught you how to learn and how to practice. And that, that that’s where, or maybe that came through your college teaching. But a lot of musicians are not not so lucky to have teachers who, who foster student led inquiry, and student agency and set up an environment where the students are required to take responsibility for themselves. Lots of music education is error detection and instruction.
And that’s what happens when musicians hit this further down the pipeline of this learned helplessness or it’s an institutionalised helplessness because they’ve never had to, as you so beautifully described, learn for themselves, developed a sense of self awareness.
And the other thing that you mentioned that I think ties really beautifully is you said, when you started making these Renaissance instruments, and you couldn’t go down to to the store and buy a medieval chisel, or whatever it was, you needed, that you needed to make that for yourself, but that confidence in that, firstly, the problem solving, being able to clearly identify what the problem is, and that sense of self sufficiency that “Oh, I could have a go at solving this problem” that comes from really good music teaching, because that’s what we should be fostering. And our students in the practice room, is this sense of them being having the tools, pardon the pun, to solve all the problems for themselves?
JM Yeah, no, I was very lucky. I had wonderful teachers. And that was, how I approached music, and certainly how I’ve approached everything I’ve done since.
SE So when you still do and I mean, that’s exactly what you the, the beautiful circular economy of your teaching, writing and doing is it’s this idea of being a lifelong learner.
I was reading some research, I’ll see if I can find it, and put it in the show notes, talking about transitions of other elite performers. And that this is across the arts primarily, who do a really good job with their elite performance and understanding that their elite performance is probably a finite resource. And the same thing with football players. And the training models that embed this notion of of lifelong learning mean that when the elite performers come to the end of their performance career and move on to the next phase of their lives, that they find that transition much easier. If they, if they self identify as a learner, rather than this model that we often have in classical music, which is “but I’m an expert and I’m a professional” which is a fixed mindset, there’s no space to grow and learn if you believe that that’s what you are, versus the mindset of I’m a professional and that means I’m continuing to learn.
Because we take so seriously in classical music ,our attention to detail and the specificity of what we do. This idea of thinking of ourselves as amateurs or beginners or learners is really a lot of people struggle with that idea. And then when when they might come to a point in their lives when things they choose or are required to change. They can’t see themselves being in that messy, beginner phase of something. But you’ve spoken so beautifully about how Was your the fascination that you had with the woodwork that really led you on this journey?
JM Absolutely. So two things that you said, intrigued me. One is dancers in their transition, because dancers have a very time limited career. For the most part, I mean, yes, I’ve been in touring orchestras with very old dancers who lead dance companies. But for the most part, you know, 30 or 35 year career is over. And so I think it’s very important that they teach beyond what, what the specific career is.
And the other thing I was going to say is, I mean, even now, 37 years into my career. A couple of years ago, I decided that I needed to expand what I know about woodworking and have been diving into completely different areas of what I do, because it’s just fascinating to be able to experience this learning and exploration of something new.
And at this point, I have the resources to soak things up very quickly. But I think, because I understood how to learn early on, that was also my approach as a very beginner in my first year, doing the same thing, and it’s just very exciting to be in my 37th year and feel just as excited about what is ahead here.
SE I wonder, Jeff, if you’ve used the word, which I love fascinating, so many, so many times. I wonder, are you a fan of Ben Zander’s work, Jeff?
JM I don’t know his work.
SE He uses the word “fascinating”. I wonder if there’s going to be a change in in the way that the college experience happens young musicians.
Over the last sort of 50 years been based on a certain canon of works. There’s been little space for fascination about what else there might be, because the fascination was limited to the symphonies of Beethoven “I must learn these nine” or, you know, it’s been really ring fenced to a certain candidate. And I’m wondering about the push that we’re seeing around the globe about uplifting marginalised voices and underrepresented voices. And the college’s responding to that by changing the programming of their repertoire and also being required to be addressing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion issues and their staffing, I wonder if this will actually start to open the eyes of our little of the little world of classical music, and help the students develop this sense of fascination and curiosity because their world is not limited to a slice of Western Europe, European culture from two decades ago.
I think it’s going be really interesting at once as as this the students who are living through this change now and seeing the change happen. And this this matriculation of the ones who are in the system now over the next five to 10 years, if we’re actually going to see and obviously COVID has significantly changed the way that musicians working models operate. If this is really the end of the way things used to be, and hopefully a dawn of a new age of musicians being much more globally aware and curious about what might exist for them rather than being passengers in their own experience and just being led to believe that walk that the phone will ring for them and things will magically be okay.
JM The programme that I was in I went to Eastman School of Music for graduate school, and they had wonderful jazz in particular. And I mean, the jazz musicians were supremely talented. People, of course, almost everybody was was rather talented there. But that, you know that to me was certainly a source of interest. But I was furiously studying the classical canon also. So I don’t know, I hope I hope those changes, do something in terms of fostering the creativity, and also fostering the curiosity,
SE I think that’s one of the key things, we’re starting to see some of the schools of music, having a clear set of values, and competencies that they want to foster in their students. And the schools that are thinking in this way are leading with things like a curiosity, self sufficiency, a sense of exploration and musical exploration.
So there’s a few schools who are really leading the way in this. Asking “How do we want to describe the humans who’ve had the experience of learning music with us?” Because we can’t prescribe what they do, but they’re starting to realise that actually a falsehood and really damaging. So therefore, how do we equip them with the tools to navigate for themselves rather than setting, here’s the cookie cutter expectation that you will achieve when you get out.
JM I always felt that in music and then also, in what I’m doing now with the design and craftsmanship, that your personality winds up being either a barrier or a help to what you’re doing. And you can’t get around that in no amount of practice gets you beyond your self. I and in that, that was something I ran up against the music, and I’m actually happier now. Doing what I do. To this day, all of my anxiety dreams have to do with music.
SE Oh, Jeff, that’s hilarious. I say that to all of the musicians that I work with is, as you were saying, No amount of practice gets you around yourself, is you can choose to be an “AND”person. So just great, he’s really reliable, AND he’s really professional AND he’s really great on the horn. That’s what leads to great building great relationships and opportunity. If you choose to be a BUT person, Jeff’s a great trumpet player BUT that’s the stuff that that leads to there. That’s carer limiting choices. So you’re going to choose to be an AND person, or you’re going to choose to be a BUT person. And once you get a BUT attached to you, it’s really hard to get rid of that part because everybody talks to everybody else in the sector.
SE Jeff, I would love to jump back to all those years ago when you were diagnosed with your illness, and you were you saying you were working you’re freelancing and you’re working with the brass quintet. I’m imagining that much of your social network would have been connected to music making. So what happened when you when those kind of collisions between your in your social network that you meet people at gigs and rehearsals, what happened when you are unable to do that about your social network?
JM Oh, I was still friends with the large number of musicians for a long time still am. But my social network started to grow based on doing new things and made completely different friends and you know what, it’s really interesting in that way. I have a number of friends who are woodworker or something else couples and dinner with that group is always much more fun. So, but I’m still in touch with plenty of plenty of woodworkers. And I’m sorry, plenty of musicians and plenty of former musicians also.
SE It’s fascinating because I think that’s a barrier. There are a lot of either freelance musicians or full time musicians that their social network is so tightly intertwined with their work, are really anxious about as well who will my friends be if I’m not seeing them at work every day?
Or, you know, in all the interactions we have in the, you know, in the coffee house next to the rehearsal hall, and all those places that we just bump into each other all the time? And I think that’s actually quite a significant issue for people.
Jeff, we’ve talked a little bit about all of the the incredible work that your life in woodworking has given you. But I’d love to hear maybe a little bit more about how you think your music training helps you in this work that you do now?
JM Oh, absolutely. I was never a composer, and music. But I definitely feel like as a designer, I’m a composer. And so many of the things that I learned in music theory and as a performer, dealing with line and motifs, and you know, the way things hold together, all of that impacts my design, in the making of the furniture, you know, the detail orientation that I had was a big deal.
I think of my work as music still. And incidentally, named many of my chairs after types of musical compositions. But it has a big impact, it also has an impact on how I teach.
Maybe I’m emulating some of my early and best teachers, but I tend to teach people how to use their body, to best express their ideas in furniture. And that’s how I learned to use my instrument. These are all just tools for expression, it’s not about technique that has to vanish into the background. So I feel like that training has been instrumental in so many different ways in what I do now. I don’t have any desire to pick up my instrument and play anymore, I love to listen to music on a daily basis. But I am still creating, in some ways creating musically.
SE I absolutely love all of what you just said, and that phrase about, that you knew you teach people to use their bodies to best express their ideas. And also, that they’re just tools for expression is everything.
Even if one person hears that comment and that’s their AHA moment, that they have a degree of mastery, what they have mastered and continue to strive to master is using different tools to express their ideas.
Then whatever your interest is, if that’s going to be a craftsman or you’re going to be a Java developer, marketing and communications expert or work for Netflix, that that’s what, whatever it is, that’s the thing that you have you’ve been doing it through your voice or through your instrument or through your compositions or through your research even. But that’s what you have is a honed set of tools to express your ideas.
SE Jeff you said that you listen to music every day. I wanted to ask you what to what role does music play in your life now?
JM At all times the local classical music station is on all the time, and I have my own music collection. I haven’t been to a concert in a little while although I have taken to watching the video concerts from the whole variety of orchestras and chamber music societies and chamber orchestras around the world and that’s been delightful. It’s still a huge part of what I do although I have I still have my instruments but I have no desire really to play anymore
SE That’s s what I have found fascinating in in my journey too, is that the more I do that across different domains in my work, the less obsession and I’m and anxiety I have about playing the instrument. I still play and I freelance professionally when I can but I have no desire to practice. Because I come from a community music making background, where music making was about sharing in the moment with others not about locking myself in a practice room striving for perfection.
What I find is the more avenues I experiment with in expressing my ideas, the better my relationship with the instrument and actually the better I play. I’m not match fit and couldn’t play through a Mahler symphony right now but the song line, storytelling, phrasing and quality of the sound of the stories that I’m telling through the instrument are so authentic and without filter now in a way that I never could have imagined when it was all I was trying to do.
JM That’s also as we get older and have heard so much more music and matures people and changes people. I think we just get better at some of those things. But I guess the last time I picked up my instrument was my adult son asked me about playing the trumpet You know, he was interested and so we sat down together and it was it was pretty appalling I mean trumpet is so physical it’s so it’s so much based on lip muscles in addition to whatever you’re intending to do. And it was atrocious. It really was.
SE But Jeff, did you have fun?
JM Oh, and it was it was great fun.
SE That’s the most important thing.
Imagine if all of us in classical music, where it is so much about perfection and attention to detail. If instead we said well The most important thing is that that I must be enjoying it even if it is a challenge and I must be expressing and connecting that joy to the audience. Because then all the tips and the flips, it just it goes by and we start to understand and accept that as being part of the process rather than being flaws and imperfections and focusing on that stuff.
Jeff, you are clearly you’re a gifted teacher and a gifted communicator. So whether it’s music or whether it’s wood work, what is something that you love to instill in the learners that you are working with in whatever discipline that is?
JM I guess I’ve said it already that there’s so much to learn. And it’s so exciting to learn it. And that’s my own personal sense of where I’m going. And that’s one of the things I try to convey is that this just goes on forever.
You can express yourself better, you can always be more perfect if you want. But but there’s so much more out there. And it’s so exciting to see that and explore it and attempt to get there.
LINKS
Interview with Jeff Miller from Lost Art Press
Retirement Experiences of Elite Ballet Dancers: Impact of Self-Identity and Social Support by Victoria Willard and David Lavallee Feb 2016
Broadening student musicians’ career horizons: The importance of being and becoming a learner in higher education by Guadalupe López-Íñiguez and Dawn Bennett Jan 2021
