Dear Musician,
My mentorship Program is designed to develop a practice regimen for you that makes sense. It will provide basic guidance for the journey and a way to monitor your progress every day. My program keeps you consistent and flexible and it teaches you valuable techniques which have helped me on the road to success.

The idea for a Mentorship Program came to me after I noticed that most of my private students had the hardest time staying consistent with their practice. The number one excuse was: “I got really busy at work” or “I wasn’t feeling well.” I then conducted an experiment. It consisted of requiring from students a five-minute-a-day minimal warm-up routine. To my surprise many of them couldn’t keep it up past a certain point.

I found that really odd and began to examine my own behaviour around regularity and commitment. Now I understand the reasons behind the reasons:
All of us have an arsenal of excuses for changing up before reaching a goal.
There is an invisible threshold you reach after a novelty wears off.
Moving past that threshold is what gets you there and opens a new horizon.

But instead what often happens is this:
Just before you are about to get over the hump, your mind will invent a new distraction, using all it’s seductive power to make you bail on your commitment. Then you start something else along with a new set of promises and expectations. Do that a few times in a row and you are on the road to depression. It’s a bubble, a lie, a let down and you are going around in circles.

There are reasons for the fear of thresholds. Fear of the unknown is one. In order for you to grow you must transform, change, stretch, shed! Old ideas and habits “die” to be replaced by new improved ones. And as they die they act up to call your attention. After all, the new hasn’t proven itself to work yet! Don’t get upset. It is natural. Just keep going and you’ll see for yourself…

This is how it works:

1. Write me an email and tell me about yourself. It can be long it can be short. I need to know three things : Your level of education, your experience in music and your goals. Ideally send me an mp3 of your music or a myspace link should there be one.
2. Based on what I get from you, I will put together a 30 minute practice regimen that you need to keep up for 108 days! (In India they say you don’t know it unless you’ve done it 108 times…) You will get an email from me.
3. You then choose an “Alias” (an anonymous code name). I will provide you with a username and password to a Gmail account as well as instructions on how to log on and find your alias.
4. Every day you make an entry after your practice. All you mark down is a number or a letter telling me how it went. Use only one of those characters to describe your practice: 1,2,3,4,5,B,N Explanation: 1= practice sucked / 2= practice was tough/ 3= practice was OK./ 4 = I had a good time /5 = I had a great time. B = I had a break through. N = No practice. “Breakthrough means you got to a new level of proficiency or had some profound realization. “No practice” means you didn’t do it at all. You are allowed 12 “N” during 108 days leaving you absolutely no excuse to go through the 108 days. In other words you need 96 days of practice to “graduate”. If you quit early, you need to start over or resign from the program (not recommended)
5. “Graduation” Once I see you have reached the 108th day, I will reward you with a certificate of completion along with a of a CD consisting of compiled rare Kai Eckhardt tracks that are very hard to get, some of them no longer commercially available.
6. After that you are welcome to go your own way or to continue to the next level. 7. Only contact me via email if you have a “B” entry or if you get more than 12 “N” and are about to drop the ball. I want feedback from you on day 108! We use the Karate belt system: After 108 days you will be a “yellow belt” in my book. Every new level of 108 days comes with a new evaluation and a change in practice habit.

How the payment works:

When you send me your email describing your education, activity and goals, tell me what your “Alias” or code name will be. When I respond, giving you a username and password, go and check if your alias is set up in the journal and your 108 day spread sheet is up and running. This means you are ready and set! Before you make your first entry, go to www.paypal.com and set up a free account. I will provide you with my paypal information and you can pay via credit card or straight out of your account. As soon as the money posts to my account , I will give you the green light and off you go on day 1 of 108. I hope you will enjoy this. I have been using this method since 2 years and my student really got something out of it after a while. Some even saw improvements in other areas of their lives due to the easier time with establishing consistency. True confidence in Music comes from your alignment with the natural ebb and flow of things paired with your abilities, to express, to tell a story. Your challenge is two-fold: Develop your perception to know what’s there and develop your craft so you have something to say once the door flies open! I have enjoyed the privilege to witness excellent musicians in their element at close range. I express my gratitude and admiration to Aydin Esen, Tiger Okoshi, Bob Moses, Rich Aplemann, Ernie Watts, John Mclaughlin, Trilok Gurtu, Zakir Hussain, Wayne Shorter, Billy Cobham, Patrice Rushen and Victor Wooten ( to all my other friends and colleagues in music I say thank you so much for bringing your unique perspective. I love you for that and carry you in my in heart and mind)