The Power of Music Thinking (Christof Zürn)
Explore every episode of The Power of Music Thinking
| Pub. Date | Title | Duration | |
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| 15 Sep 2021 | The Jazz Process to innovation with Adrian Cho | 01:01:58 | |
Why do people tip up to six times more than they already have paid? How do people deal with adversity? What do Jazz and Business have in common? Today we are in Canada talking to Adrian Cho, ex-IBM consultant, book author, wildlife photographer, artistic director of the Ottawa Jazz Orchestra, bass player and creative director of syncspace. We talk about how a damaged muscle brought Adrian to the piano and later to software development and IT consulting. He shares with us how jazz thinking can influence innovation and help embrace the unknown so that exciting things can happen. We discuss the essence of how people work meaningful together, how people deal with adversity in teams and what this means for team development. And we talk about his new endeavour, syncspace, and why audiences on this platform tip four to six times more than they already have paid. Show notes
More info The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION Learn more about The Music Thinking Framework, the Jam Cards and the blog on musicthinking.com or the Music Thinking LinkedIn page.
See the latest episode of The Power of Music Thinking
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| 13 Jul 2022 | The Sound of Nature with Hélène Seiyu Codjo - Shakuhachi | 00:52:33 | |
In this episode, you can listen to a conversation with Helene Seiyu Codjo and the sound of the shakuhachi. Helene is a shakuhachi performer, composer and teacher. "In the single tone of the shakuhachi, the whole of nature can be heard whispering its secrets." Dean Seicho Del Bene
We talk about the first memorable concert she heard as a child (there is one recital on Spotify with Miguel Ángel Estrella); how she came to the shakuhachi and how playing the shakuhachi has also something to do with 'letting go of your ego’. Hélène shares a beautiful story about playing the shakuhachi in nature. And we hear the Shakuchahi and a short recording outside in nature where we play together in a soundscape of birds, geese and men-made sounds.
Connect with Hélène:
More info The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION specialised in facilitating companies in making brand-minded and people-centred decisions.
Buy The Power of Music Thinking book
See the latest episode of The Power of Music Thinking
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| 16 Feb 2023 | A Sound Life with Dr Jen Palladino | 00:51:12 | |
From the wild Punk scene in New York and London of the 70s to a sound healing practice in Los Angeles, my guest today is Jennifer Palladino, also called Dr Jen, a Doctor of Chiropractic, the Regional Director of the You Rock Foundation and a holistic health facilitator connecting mind, body and spirit with Chiropractic Sound Therapy. Her musical experiences span from being a young performer wrangler at the American Ballet Theatre while Mikhail Baryshnikov was Artistic Director, to working in the music industry and a mastering studio in New York to the legendary Marquee Club in London, where she made friends with members of the Punk and New Wave scene. We talk about a rich life in music from the impact of the Beatles, the power of Punk, and an orchestra of instruments that she uses in her sound healing practice. Jennifer shares with us some music hacks, like how different frequencies resonate with our body, which contains 75% of water, and how she uses tuning forks with slightly different frequencies to produce binaural sounds in a sound bathing session. And she explains the full moon performances she is doing as “The Sound Healers” on the Hollywood cemetery, where Rudolfo Valentino and Judy Garland rest. Show notes
More about Music Thinking: a book, a blog and many more podcast episodes The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION specialised in facilitating leaders, teams and organisations in customer experience, change and innovation. Do you like books? Check out the new book: The Power of Music Thinking Please subscribe to the podcast and listen to the latest episode
Like this show? Please leave us a review — even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally! Thank you for your support; it helps the show!
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| 19 Jul 2023 | Sound Strategies and how things go together with Michael Spencer | 01:12:40 | |
We are in the in-between space, between music and business, education and performance, listening and understanding, and London and Tokyo. So, today we talk with Michael Spencer. Michael is the founder of Sound Strategies Ltd, TEDx speaker, Visiting Professor at Ueno Gakuen University (Tokyo), and the Communication Director of the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra. He was Head of education at the Royal Opera House in London and, as a member of the London Symphony Orchestra, worked with Leonard Bernstein, Deep Purple and on the Star Wars soundtracks with composer John Williams. Michael gives us a deep dive into why music functions and shares the elements and learnings he used, for example, in the townships in South Africa and his work with companies like Unilever, BASF, IHG (Intercontinental Hotels Group), Daikin, and Fujitsu. So, we talk about making better connections and how musical systems, timing, and structure help us to understand how things go together. And that music comes from the fact that it is some co-created system for creating relationships. There is a lot to learn today - not only about music, but also about business and society - so let’s get into it. Show Notes
The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION specialised in facilitating leaders, teams and organisations in customer experience, change and innovation. | |||
| 03 Jan 2023 | Are you a polymath? With Barbara Kleeb | 00:45:35 | |
In The Power of Music Thinking podcast, we have conversations with exciting people that are also musicians. They see analogies between music and the areas they are working. So what they do is combine knowledge and skills from multiple fields to make significant contributions to various areas. In The Power of Music Thinking book, I call them the AND-musician. I talk about this, especially in the Backstage chapter, where we dive into analogies to switch from one field to the other, like: Black is to white as off is to on. Or, conducting is to classical music as producing is to hip hop. But there is another expression for this: polymath. Think about people like Leonardo Da Vinci, Hildegard von Bingen, or any guest on this programme. All of them are masters in different fields.
So today, I speak with Barbara Kleeb, a trained photographer, a doctor of medicine, a leadership coach for polymaths AND-muscian. We speak about her personal journey, how studying multiple approaches leads to openmindedness and that every team or board should have at least one generalist to understand and connect different perspectives. And Barabara shares with us a tool she uses in her coaching practice: Ikigai. We also learn, for example, that most UX designers are polymaths, which resonated with me a lot, being in UX and service design positions in different companies.
Shownotes:
The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION specialised in facilitating leaders, teams and organisations in customer experience, change and innovation. Check out their website
Do you like books? Check out the new book: The Power of Music Thinking and get stories, explanations and exercises to apply music thinking. Buy The Power of Music Thinking
More like this Please subscribe to the podcast and listen to the latest episode of The Power of Music Thinking.
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| 05 Apr 2022 | Talking about the book with Xenia | 00:50:22 | |
Today we switch roles: Christof asked his daughter Xenia to ask him anything about the new book: The Power of Music Thinking. Because Xenia was already a collaborator on the Jam Cards, a pre-reader of the new book and worked with her dad for many years, she can ask questions no one else could or would. They talked about leadership, followership, Service Design, the difference between metaphors and analogies, and why a book? Be ready for a pleasant conversation between father and daughter about The Power of Music Thinking.
Show notes
More info The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION specialised in facilitating companies in making brand minded and people-centred decisions.
Buy The Power of Music Thinking book See the latest episode of The Power of Music Thinking | |||
| 14 Feb 2022 | Brands as Patterns with Marc Shillum | 00:54:03 | |
Today we speak with Marc Shillum, Designer, Creative Mind and trained musician. Marc was the founding Chief Experience Officer of Matternet, a pioneering transportation startup awarded World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer. In his role, he connected the dots between Customer Needs, Hardware Design, Software Design, User Experience, Visual Design, Business Strategy and Brand Building. Marc has written OpEds for The World Economic Forum and Virgin Unite, delivered keynotes at SXSW, the Lego Marketing Summit, Nike Design Summit, and others. And Marc is the author of 'Brands as Patterns', a white paper that opinion-makers like FastCompany, Contagious Magazine and PSFK have republished. We have a wonderful conversation about analogies between design, business, the human body and music. For example, Marc shares the various roles of a trumpet player in an orchestra and his early experiences with improvising musicians like Graham Collier and Derek Bailey. We talk about different leadership positions, from composing, orchestrating, and conducting and how different musical styles help us understand our business. And we discuss the difference between frequency and cadence in an agile workspace and how brands can orchestrate their business successfully with patterns.
Show notes
More info The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION specialised in facilitating companies in making brand minded and people-centred decisions.
Buy The Power of Music Thinking book (April 2022)
See the latest episode of The Power of Music Thinking
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| 27 Jun 2023 | Leading an Orchestra of Leaders with Harvey Seifter - Part 1 - Music Thinking | 00:36:08 | |
This episode is about art, innovation and leadership. What is the relationship between art-based learning, innovation and co-creation? How do you lead an ensemble of leaders? And why do people often use the metaphor of a conductor when discussing leadership? Or, is a conductor actually just a middle manager? So, today we are in New York and talking with Harvey Seifter. Harvey is the founder of The Art of Science Learning, a US National Science Foundation-funded initiative that uses the arts to spark innovation in science, technology, engineering and education. And Harvey is also a classically trained musician and formerly served as Executive Director of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. The only orchestra in the world that rehearses and performs without a conductor. Harvey shares with us insights on giving directions as a ‘decision maker of last resort’ - as he calls it - stimulating co-creation and what this means for the innovative power of the organisation. Well, you can say we have learnings here for any organisation. By the way: we recorded this episode via Zoom when Harvey returned just a few days from his Ted talk in Madrid; before the talk, he lost his voice and finally did the TED talk without repetition. To spare his voice and energy, we stopped the recording at a certain point and agreed to have a second conversation in the very near future. So listen to Part One with Harvey Seifter and how you lead an orchestra of leaders. Show Notes
Subscribe to the podcast. Leave us a review — even one sentence helps! I appreciate your support; it helps the show! There is more about Music Thinking: a book, a blog and many more podcast episodes. The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION specialised in facilitating leaders, teams and organisations in customer experience, change and innovation. Support usTell your friends about musicthinking.com and consider buying the book and/or the Jam Cards.
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| 02 Feb 2024 | Science and Music dialogue with Carolin Seiferth | 00:37:28 | |
Today, we are in Sweden, and we speak with Carolin Seiferth - a PhD student at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, where she does research on the island of Öland. Carolin combines scientific research with music to raise awareness about sustainability issues around the Baltic Sea. In this way, she inspires the audience to take action to address challenges related to a changing climate. Carolin shares some insights with us about her research and the creative production that led to the musical piece “Dialogues” as part of the Baltic Sea Festival Science Lab. We talked about her creative and dialogue-based approach with local actors in different workshops and how she transformed the results of her investigation into a poem that was a central part of the musical composition. We reflect on the different sound qualities of rainfall and her curiosity to explore other ways of combining art-based approaches with scientific research in the future to create opportunities for engaging with sustainability questions on a much deeper level. Show Notes
Show support
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The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION specialised in facilitating leaders, teams and organisations in customer experience, change and innovation. | |||
| 15 Aug 2022 | The Instrument with a smile with Dagan Bernstein - Ukulele | 00:54:48 | |
Today we are in Hawaii. We speak with Dagan Bernstein, a teacher and musician passionate about designing and leading innovative educational experiences. Dagan is currently serving as Capstone Coordinator at an independent K-12 international boarding school in Hawaii with additional expertise in mathematics, music, and digital media instruction. We speak about collaboration in the classroom, how to co-create with students and how this might be an inspiration for business people. And we talk intensively about the Ukulele, how he is using this in teaching, and some historical background, and we hear him play a tenor ukulele during the conversation like he would do at the farmers market at the weekend. And we learn new Hawaiian words and mindsets like Malama Kaiaulu, the act of Kilo and Ike.
Shownotes Here are some links to sources we mentioned in the talk.
Connect with Dagan
More info The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION specialised in facilitating companies in making brand minded and people-centred decisions.
Buy The Power of Music Thinking book to learn and find out more about Music Thinking and how to use this in your endeavour. See the latest episode of The Power of Music Thinking
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| 11 Mar 2025 | Everything about Orchestration with Robin Hoffmann | 01:00:43 | |
A few episodes ago, I asked the question What is Orchestration? This was because I saw a lot of different orchestrators, nota bene, non-musical orchestrators with job titles like Design Orchestrator, Value Network Orchestrator, Data Orchestrator and Innovation Orchestrator, just to name a few. This is an ongoing research, and I am writing a paper about what people do when they say they are orchestrating. But today, we flip the side and talk with a music orchestrator, or, shall I say, an original orchestrator? We speak with Robin Hoffmann, a prize-winning composer, arranger and orchestrator from Berlin. We talk about orchestration in music and the difference between composing, orchestrating, arranging and conducting in Hollywood films, games and concerts. This is a deep dive into the music industry and all its facets and an inspiration for everyone orchestrating something. Robin shares with us many insights and a great story.
Show notes
Show support Please choose one or more of the ‘three ways to support the show’:
Buy the book The Power of Music Thinking and/or the Jam Cards at a 20% discount using musicthinking20 at the check-out of the BIS Publishers website only.
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| 10 Aug 2021 | The Thrills of Business with Padraic McMahon | 00:53:10 | |
What are the similarities between the technology and the record industry? And what is situational leadership? In this episode, we connect with Padraic McMahon, Customer Success Manager at Hubspot, a software company that helps businesses grow. Padraic has worked in Management positions at Google and LinkedIn. Before that, he was the guitar player of The Thrills that had some major hits from 2003 on. Their first LP was going platinum in the UK and Ireland, and their top hit 'Big Sur' has more than 8 Mio plays on Spotify alone and is still growing. We talk about the similarities in tech business and the record business and the situational leadership of the producer role that brings a group of people to their optimum performance regardless of the circumstances. He shares with us what the Hubspot unplugged week means to the team and compares the studio analogy with the importance of the work-life balance in working for a technology company. And the insight that you need different leadership at different times. Like the difference of the first record, to the second and the third - or in my words from start-up to scale-up to selling the company. Padraic gives us an example of 'the art of remixing' where visual and sonic cues help make the mix's best decision. Quote: 'Where you invest, you need to divest!'
Show notes
More info The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION Learn more about The Music Thinking Framework, the Jam Cards and the blog on musicthinking.com or the Music Thinking LinkedIn page. See the latest episode of The Power of Music Thinking
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| 09 Nov 2022 | Gender equality with Gabriella Di Laccio | 00:43:58 | |
My guest today is Gabriella Di Laccio, public speaker, curator, activist, award-winning soprano and recording artist. She is one of the leading voices in the fight for gender equality in music. Listed as one of the BBC’s 100 most inspirational and influential women in the world, Gabriella is also the founder and curator of the charitable foundation Donne - Women in Music - dedicated to achieving gender equality in the music industry. We talk about the incredibly long list of woman composers and the unbelievably few plays they get in conservative classical music organisations. Gabriella shares with us the research and the numbers from the latest report: that in 2021, almost 9 in 10 compositions played by orchestras around the world are written by white men. But there is hope. At least in a different field. This year's Biennale di Venezia, invited 213 artists, among them 21 men. And here is an Exercise you can do very easily in a quiet moment: Check your playlists and count the artists that you are listening to (also the producers and composers) and find out how biased your musical taste is. We also made a start with a Top 6 of woman composers you should know and listen to:
Show notes and how to connect with Gabriella
More about Donne, Women in Music
The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION specialises in facilitating leaders, teams and organisations in customer experience, change and innovation. Check out their website
Do you like books? Check out the new book: The Power of Music Thinking and get stories, explanations and exercises to apply music thinking. Buy The Power of Music Thinking
More like this Please subscribe to the podcast and listen to the latest episode of The Power of Music Thinking.
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| 21 Dec 2024 | The role of emotions and rationality in research with Leonoor Opstelten | 00:48:59 | |
We end this year with Leonoor Opstelten, a young researcher who used improvisation and music as an experimental approach for her thesis on forest and nature conservation. With this approach, she won the Birgit Elands thesis prize just a few weeks ago. In her thesis, she included five piano pieces accompanying five different storylines - patterns and themes that resulted from her research. Let's listen to the research, its story, and the beautiful music. Show notes
Show support Please choose one or more of the ‘three ways to support the show’:
Buy the book The Power of Music Thinking and/or the Jam Cards at a 20% discount using musicthinking20 at the check-out of the BIS Publishers website only.
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| 03 Feb 2022 | Listening walk | 00:17:59 | |
In this short episode, we look back on some conversations from last year, share tips and short exercises like a 1-minute ritual before a brainstorm and the listening walk.
Show notes
•Podcast playlist on Spotify
•The Power of Music Thinking Book, pre-order
•Latest Episode
More info
The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION
Learn more about the Book that will be published in April 22, the Jam Cards and the blog on musicthinking.com or the Music Thinking LinkedIn page.
See the latest episode of The Power of Music Thinking
Podchaser
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| 02 Dec 2023 | How Music Can Make Your City Better with Shain Shapiro | 00:26:41 | |
Today, we are in Nashville, and we speak with Shain Shapiro - a globally recognised thought leader at the convergence of music, culture and urban policy.
Shain is the CEO of Sound Diplomacy - a global research and strategy consultancy, and he also leads the non-profit Center for Music Ecosystems, which commissions research to help solve local, national and international challenges using music as a tool.
Shain has authored reports on the role of music in cities, tourism, the nighttime economy, real estate and recovery, including the most extensive guide to music and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in partnership with the United Nations.
We are talking about his brand-new book, This Must Be The Place: How Music Can Make Your City Better, which was published in September 2023.
Note: Unfortunately, there was a very poor Wifi, so please excuse the quality. Show Notes
Show support
Please choose one or more of the ‘three ways to support the show’!
The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION specialised in facilitating leaders, teams and organisations in customer experience, change and innovation.
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| 11 Sep 2023 | Sonification with Mike von der Nahmer | 01:16:38 | |
Mike von der Nahmer is a sound researcher, music therapist, scientific collaborator at the German Aerospace Center and composer.
With over 30 stage works and 100+ compositions, he holds international recognition. He has collaborated with GRAMMY, Kenwood, Sony BMG, Rolls Royce and BMW, and his music has been featured in TV series like NOVA.
Mike shares with us some sonification projects in various domains, such as weather patterns, language, the brain, and sound design in autonomous vehicles. For example, he gives us insights into his work at the German Aerospace Center (the German NASA), where he works on the sonification of air traffic control.
Today, you will not only hear us talking but also experience different sound worlds. Because Mike brought some sound files to the conversation, we hear different sound layers from an air traffic game and examples of what he calls 'mood compositions' for Rolls Royce, BMW and Mini that are central in the sound strategy of these car brands.
We end the conversation with a longer piece of about five minutes of sonification of curves that Mike co-created with two outstanding mathematicians in Luxemburg.
So be prepared to hear about pioneering thoughts connecting sound, science, and human experience. Show Notes
Show support
Please choose one or more of the 'three ways to support the show'!
The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION specialised in facilitating leaders, teams and organisations in customer experience, change and innovation.
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| 24 Mar 2024 | Music and Astrophysics with Dr Mariana Wagner | 00:38:20 | |
Dr. Mariana Wagner, an astrophysicist, songwriter, podcaster, and composer of immersive live shows about sound and space. We learn about her journey that led her from studying oceanography, working as a songwriter for German Schlager stars and becoming a doctor of astrophysics. Mariana also brought some sound examples to the show. We hear a conversation between Saturn and one of its moons, an excerpt from the sound files on the famous golden record that has accompanied the Voyager since 1977, and the grooving sound of moving plasma from the sun. Show Notes
Show support Please choose one or more of the ‘three ways to support the show’:
The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION specialised in facilitating leaders, teams and organisations in customer experience, change and innovation.
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| 04 Oct 2023 | Standing still with Alexander Refsum Jensenius | 00:51:34 | |
What is the use of standing still for 10 minutes? I was asking myself when I saw a post on social media. It was a double picture of a man with a mobile phone around his neck displaying some data, and another picture showed the view he saw at that moment. I learned that he stood there for 10 minutes without any movement, listening to the sound that was already there. There were many pictures like this, and I decided to get in contact. So, today, we are in Oslo. We speak with Alexander Refsum Jensenius, a professor of music technology at the University of Oslo, a book author, a music researcher and researching musician working in the fields of embodied music cognition and new interfaces for musical expression. Alexander shares with us his experiences while performing and testing with artistic methods of embodied listening and how people experience music and sound. This goes from experiments with and without the conductor of a Symphony Orchestra to the sounds of our kitchen appliances. We talk about his motion capture lab, where a person’s exact location and micro-movements can be detected while they hear different kinds of music, and how the researchers can understand what moves them. Alexander shares insights about the Norwegian Championship of Stand Still, where until now, 1000s of people have participated, and the winner is the person with the lowest average velocity on standing the stillest over some time. Alexander explains the interplay of body and mind and reveals some secrets on how to move people, for example, on the dance floor or to calm them down. It all has to do with our bpm, the average heartbeat of about 60 beats a minute. Show Notes
Show support
Please choose one or more of the 'three ways to support the show'!
The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION specialised in facilitating leaders, teams and organisations in customer experience, change and innovation.
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| 01 Jun 2022 | Green Listening and how green vinyl records is revolutionising the vinyl business | 00:17:14 | |
Special edition: Today, we reflect on the changes in the music industry and how we listen to music, from live concerts to streaming - via vinyl, CD, and download. And we think about the impact of our choices, the impact on the environment and what medium and behaviour fits best to your listening experience. Further, we visit Green Vinyl Records in the south of the Netherlands at their factory; we hear the sounds of production of a revolutionary approach to making the vinyl record business a green business. And learn from them why their approach to producing vinyl records - that is, chemically not vinyl anymore - is 90% less energy-consuming than the traditional way of pressing vinyl. That is also the reason why the BBC, ZDF, NOS, The Guardian and The Power of Music Thinking :-) visited the factory in the last month. Watch out when you see GVR on the sleeve of your next vinyl record. Links:
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| 19 Sep 2022 | Modular Strategies with Rikkert Achtereekte | 00:41:55 | |
My guest today is Rikkert Achtereekte, customer director of sales and electronic musician. Rikkert works for the IT engineering company Schuberg Philis, which focuses on mission-critical processes. And Rikkert is a composer and performer of electronic music and gets together with some friends for a bi-monthly improvisation session on modular synthesizers. Rikkert shares insights about his company that builds solutions for business problems, for example, with a collaborative approach they call 'system in the room'. And they are pretty successful in what they are doing; they now got the Giarte XLA award for the 16th time. And he shares with us a workshop lab setting where he uses modular synthesizers to let people collaborate better and be more creative. And precisely, that way of thinking - giving output and receiving input in a connected system of elements - is the essence of the Music Thinking Framework, with all the cues connected. So if you are at home or in the office while you hear this, you might want to download the framework first and then listen to this episode. But if you listen to it while driving a car or walking in nature, relax and enjoy the conversation with many life sounds from a modular synthesizer that Rikkert brought to the show. Show notes and how to connect with Rikkert
Do you like books? Check out the new book: The Power of Music Thinking and get stories, explanations and exercises to apply music thinking. Buy The Power of Music Thinking
More like this Please subscribe to the podcast and listen to the latest episode of The Power of Music Thinking.
Meet our sponsor The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION specialised in facilitating leaders, teams and organisations in customer experience, change and innovation. Check out their website
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| 30 May 2023 | Listening to the Field - Special Episode | 00:24:34 | |
This is a special episode about listening in the field and some activities I did last month. Hear more about a short field recording in the middle of the most dangerous roundabout in the Netherlands, about the visit to my birth town in the South of Germany, where I have recorded the Turmbläser, which are performing a sonic ritual since 400 years high above the belfry on all four balconies every Sunday. And I also share some news, development, and info about the Listening Day at the Design Academy in Eindhoven.
Special thanks to the Turmbläser for allowing us to listen high above the belfry and Cordula and Onkl Hanzl for all the info.
Show notes
Subscribe to the podcast. Leave us a review — even one sentence helps! I appreciate your support; it helps the show! There is more about Music Thinking: a book, a blog and many more podcast episodes. The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION specialised in facilitating leaders, teams and organisations in customer experience, change and innovation. Support usTell your friends about musicthinking.com and consider buying the The Power of Music Thinking or the Jam Cards.
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| 12 Jul 2021 | Music and the Brain with Artur Jaschke | 00:50:27 | |
Did you know that music can help you to rewire your brain? This episode is about the working of music on the brain and behaviour. My guest today is Artur Jaschke - neuromusicologist and professor for music-based therapies and interventions at the ArtEZ University of the Arts in Enschede and he also works at the neonatal intensive care at a hospital in Groningen, the Netherlands. We talk about how you can use music and sound for the advantage of healthcare, wellbeing and brain stimulation. We elaborate on themes like empathy and listening to unknown music or music that you might not like in the first place and the effect on your thinking and the basics of innovation and improvisation that can also be applied in a business setting. And we also speak about the joy and benefit of learning a musical instrument and the impact it has on the wellbeing and self-therapy of everyone in a stressed-out busy workplace.
Show notes
More info The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION More about The Music Thinking Framework, the Jam Cards and the blog on musicthinking.com
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| 05 Nov 2023 | The Sound of a Toy Dolphin - Special Episode - The Power of Music Thinking | 00:24:50 | |
Listen to an incredible sonic project by a Design Academy Eindhoven (DAE) graduate: Louis Moeckel. Hear the story about the supply chain of the production of a Toy Dolphin and the creation of research into an artistic Vinyl record. If you like Techno and the Berghain Club in Berlin you will like this. See the show notes to pre-order this unique Vinyl record. Show support to the Podcast
Please choose one or more of the ‘three ways to support the show’!
The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION specialised in facilitating leaders, teams and organisations in customer experience, change and innovation. | |||
| 01 Feb 2023 | What Music taught me about political journalism with Matt K Lewis | 00:42:55 | |
What has political journalism to do with music? Well, quite a lot. My guest today is Matt K Lewis from West Virginia, a political columnist for the daily beast, former CNN contributor, TV commentator for MSNBC’s morning show, a podcaster on Matt Lewis and the News (pun intended) and musician.
Matt shares with us that he started his career, or better, the foundation of his later career, in the basement rehearsing with his band. Years later, when already a political journalist, he reflected on his music years and wrote an essay about the lessons he learned from playing in bands and how they helped him to understand his work in political journalism today.
We talk about his musical upbringing, country music, steel and slide guitars. And make many analogies between music and journalism.
Here are the five lessons from his article that he explains in the show:
1. Having an audience of “followers” is vital.
2. Music, like TV commentary, involves performing.
3. Playing music (and being a political commentator) isn’t nearly as glamorous as people think.
4. Not every song (or blog post or column) is a hit.
5. Collaboration is key. Show notes
The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION specialised in facilitating leaders, teams and organisations in customer experience, change and innovation.
Do you like books? Check out the new book: The Power of Music Thinking
Please subscribe to the podcast and listen to the latest episode
Like this show? Please leave us a review -- even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!
Thank you for your support; it helps the show!
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| 22 Mar 2023 | How Music Speaks with Ben Pelzer | 00:57:41 | |
Today we are in Singapore; we talk with Benjamin Pelzer, Assistant Professor of the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information at Nanyang Technological University.
Ben is trained in Music Theory and Psychology. He works as an assistant professor and scientist with expertise in the methods of cognitive neuroscience, machine learning, computational social science, and empirical psychology.
And Ben is teaching a one-of-its-kind course in the world of research on music as a sort of socio-cultural phenomenon and is using techniques from the field of communication and applying them to the field of music. Our Conversation
We talk about how music and sounds can drive a particular scene of a film in two opposite ways, using a positive or negative valence soundtrack. And that music is almost uniquely powerful in its deeply emotional impact and ability to evoke complex or more profound, lasting emotions.
Ben shares with us that there are some universal features of music, like low tones are connected with sinister or aggressive emotions that are part of the evolution when big animals were a severe threat. A little survey
And he conveys insights from a little survey he did with the multicultural students of his music course for The Power of Music Thinking podcast about how they listen to music in the context of Asia.
In his music course, Ben also reflects with his students questions like If you were alive 1000 years ago, what role would music have played in your life? And the realisation that for people outside of wealth and royalty, it would be folk instruments or just the human voice.
Ben shares with us some strategies of music; for example, if you use happy lyrics with happy music, you get less happiness than if you have happy lyrics with neutral music.
Good to know
For some themes we talk about, I have put links in the show notes, and if you have a look at them, please consider subscribing, make a comment and give us a rating. This will help a lot to get the show going.
We had some connection issues, so please excuse the little dropouts near the end.
Show notes
Like this show?
Subscribe to the podcast. Leave us a review — even one sentence helps! I appreciate your support; it helps the show!
There is more about Music Thinking: a book, a blog and many more podcast episodes
The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION specialised in facilitating leaders, teams and organisations in customer experience, change and innovation.
Do you like books? Check out the new book: The Power of Music Thinking
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| 18 May 2021 | Steve Keller, Blend sound science with sound art to make sound decisions | 01:03:27 | |
Today in the programme we have Steve Keller from Oakland California and we learn more about sound art, sound science and sound business. Steve has a great title: Audio alchemist and Sonic Strategy Director, Studio Resonate at SXM Media. We talk about audio-only and audio first strategies in what he calls ‘the platinum age of audio’, how COVID has changed our listening habits, the rise of clubhouse and how leaders can foster the ability to listen inside their companies. We have a conversation about the relationship between visual and sonic identities and what brands with a conscience can do to use sound for sustainable business in a multisensory world. We learn about his research on sonic racism and he shares with us a little ritual that he uses before brainstorming sessions that matter.
The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION | |||
| 29 Sep 2021 | A Sound Facilitation Business with Gerry Scullion | 00:51:29 | |
How do you design for inclusivity? How do you get the right people on the team? What would a studio look like for a service designer?
Today on the show we have Gerry Scullion. Gerry is the founder of This is HCD, the global human-centred design podcast and international design community of change-makers, and he is founder and CEO of This is Doing.com In a ‘previous life’, he was a musician and songwriter who released two albums under the moniker: Minus Circus and worked with 13-time Grammy-winning producer Rafa Sardina. A few months ago, I was a guest on his podcast, and we talked about the interrelationship of music and design and what design can learn from music. So today, we talk about how the shared mindset comes back in the daily life of a facilitator, service designer and change maker. Gerry gives us insights into how it was like working with a top-notch producer that had the experience, knowledge and ability to drill down and zoom in on a detail and then drill the whole way out to see the whole. And we talk about bringing vulnerability and laughter to co-create innovation and engage people to be their very best. (The instrument you hear in the beginning is the Theremin we talked about in our first conversation.)
Show notes
More info The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION Learn more about The Music Thinking Framework, the Jam Cards and the blog on musicthinking.com or the Music Thinking LinkedIn page. See the latest episode of The Power of Music Thinking | |||
| 06 May 2021 | Trailer - The Power of Music Thinking Podcast | 00:02:09 | |
The Power of Music Thinking with Christof Zürn takes you inside the minds of some of the world’s most exciting people AND Musicians. Professionals that in some or another way use music, musical principles, instruments and techniques to work meaningful together. Or in short, the podcast for People with a musical heart and a wicked job. | |||
| 29 Jun 2021 | Deep listening with Sharon Stewart | 00:53:12 | |
This episode is about listening - deep listening. My guest today is Sharon Stewart - creator of sound works, musician, poet, researcher, piano teacher and deep listener. We learn about the Center for Deep Listening at Rensselaer and the retreats that were held by composer Pauline Oliveros and the many ways to listen, for example like listening in dreams, embodied listening and that deep listening is about doing, writing, practising and experiencing. We talk about text scores, guiding principles, and using this in a non-musical context. We also chat about the listening presence of leadership and that we all might benefit when this would shift from just ‘listening to’ to ‘listening with’. And Sharon shares with us her contribution to the ‘Listening guide for quarantine’ that was published at the beginning of the pandemic and an exercise of harmonious human interaction with sounding and listening that we also could do in a workshop situation.
The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION More about The Music Thinking Framework, the Jam Cards and the blog on musicthinking.com | |||
| 03 Aug 2024 | Sound Walk in the Summer with Christof Zürn | 00:52:03 | |
Today is a special episode of the podcast, not just because of the 50th episode anniversary but because there will be no guests today. Instead, you'll be immersed in a unique sound walk experience, a journey of sound I recorded in July in Italy. This is not just a regular episode; it's a sonic adventure.
Open your mind and listening brain because, as we learned in the last episode with Professor Nina Kraus, you can only hear what you know.
But now let's get on our trip or, better yet, the sound walk of the summer.
Every two years, my wife and I, visit the Art Biennale of Venice. It's not just a visit, it's a learning experience, an inspiration, a ritual about creativity in the broadest sense. It's about un-learning, re-learning, and encountering new things that make you rethink. And this time, I brought my recording device with me on a sound walk through the Biennale of Venice.
Be my guest while I was walking with my ears and microphone open on this unique sound walk.
Show Notes
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| 20 May 2024 | Sound Buildings with Ron van Leeuwen | 00:54:50 | |
Today, we speak with Ron van Leeuwen, who straddles two creative worlds. By day, he is an architect and urban designer, shaping physical spaces. By night, he transforms his creative energy into music, composing pieces that the 55-piece Metropole Orkest has recorded. His newest composition, Architones, is also available on Spotify. We discuss the relations and differences between working in these two fields, the metamorphoses of buildings and music, and the challenges of delivering a feasible building. During our discussion, Ron generously shares his compositional insights and the creative process behind his homage to the Vredespalais (Peace Palace) in The Hague. He reveals how he began with a waltz rhythm, a choice that adds a unique musical dimension to the architectural masterpiece. Show Notes
Show support Please choose one or more of the ‘three ways to support the show’:
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| 27 Jul 2021 | Cross-pollination in leadership with Ilkka Mäkitalo | 00:56:02 | |
Can we be successful in more than one field? What about the multiple me’s we have developed in different areas? Today we are in Finland, my guest is Ilkka Mäkitalo - musician, teacher, CEO, Co-Founder of Howspace and Conductor of Jyvaskyla Big Band. We chat about instruments, jazz and how to inspire young talents to compose for a big band. And we talk about organisational memory, organisational learning, organisational dynamics and how to change the world with a digital platform for facilitating dialogue in different contexts, supported by AI. And we are talking about different meanings for AI when engaging people like artificial intelligence, applied improvisation and appreciative inquiry. Ilkka shares his vision on leadership in a digital and remote world and how to grow an organisation above 17 people and raise venture capital of about 12 Mio with strong cultural guiding principles. Show notes
More info The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION More about The Music Thinking Framework, the Jam Cards and the blog on musicthinking.com
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| 05 Apr 2023 | Sound pictures with Charles Brooks | 01:25:31 | |
Today we touch base on the intersection between music and photography, and that in many different ways. My guest today is Charles Brooks, an exceptionable photographer and musician, that for the last 20 years has been New Zealand’s most successful orchestral cellist. Charles held principal positions in Australia, China, Chile and Brazil, with concerts worldwide. He also gives us insights in the organisation and culture of professional symphony orchestras and shares personal stories about the life of an orchestra musician that played with Lang Lang and for celebrities like Tony Blair and Arnold Schwarzenegger. While his music career took him around the globe at an early age, photography was always there. Charles refined his photographic craft of making musician portraits, astrophotography and landscapes until National Geographic took notice in 2011. In the pandemic, he prototyped and developed a spectacular new way of photographing the inside of a variety of musical instruments, literally opening up a new space and visual world that give insights in the craft of the most formidable luthiers and instrument makers. And these got picked up worldwide by magazines like The Telegraph, classic fm, Domus, France Musique, Daily Mail, and just recently Die Zeit in Germany. Please find a selection of the photographs on the episode page of the music thinking website: https://musicthinking.com/sound-pictures-with-charles-brooks-photography Now, sit back, relax and be prepared for a long episode on all things creative. You will also have a chance to navigate through the different chapters, give it a try and let us know how this works. Show notes
Subscribe to the podcast. Leave us a review — even one sentence helps! I appreciate your support; it helps the show! There is more about Music Thinking: a book, a blog and many more podcast episodes The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION specialised in facilitating leaders, teams and organisations in customer experience, change and innovation. Do you like books? Check out the new book: The Power of Music Thinking
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| 16 Jan 2023 | Healthcare, Sound Healing and Mantras Rasa Priya | 00:33:39 | |
Rasa Priya in conversation with Christof Zürn. Rasa Priya describes the concept and advantages of sound healing, especially the vibrations behind the chanting of mantras, which are essential in his teaching of vocal empowerment, like the word 'Om' that, besides the sound, also has a healing effect on our facial muscles, creating possibilities of experiences. Rasa also introduces us to the work of the Japanese water photographer Masaru Emoto who visualises different styles of music but also words like hate, love, and guilt with his water crystals. And he explains to us how everybody can be a drummer and get involved in right and left brain stimulation to nurture creative thinking and break the moulds of our limitations. Show notes
If you love society and culture, music and technology, documentaries, and business podcasts, take a second to follow The Power of Music Thinking. Listeners of The Power of Music Thinking podcast will learn from some of the most exciting people in the world with practical tips and inspiring stories that will inspire your personal and business life. Listen to The Power of Music Thinking here: https://musicthinking.com/podcast or on your favourite podcast player. Like this show?Please leave us a review -- even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!
Thank you for your support; it helps the show!
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| 10 Oct 2022 | Conducting Design with Raf De Keninck | 00:49:27 | |
My guest today is Raf De Keninck, executive member, director of education, research, and organisation of the Design Academy Eindhoven - one of the world's leading design schools. And Raf is also a performing musician, clarinet player and conductor. He played, for example, at the beginning of the 2000s, 300 concerts a year. We start with sharing the incredible dreams he had as a child and a unique ritual he did in his adolescent years. And we get some insights into his leadership skills, for example, the advantages of having an outside view, combined with excellent listening skills and the practice of 'not knowing' and how to let inspiration flow in two ways. So, when you are open, then people will also be open. We talk about leading and following, and Raf explains what it means as a conductor to have a total overview and a well-defined score and how you can lead without explicitly leading. And there is another story of a conductor shouting at an orchestra and how the musicians were teaching him a lesson. “Every time you play, rehearse or perform, you learn something.”
Show notes and how to connect with Raf
Do you like books? Check out the new book: The Power of Music Thinking and get stories, explanations and exercises to apply music thinking. Buy The Power of Music Thinking
More like this Please subscribe to the podcast and listen to the latest episode of The Power of Music Thinking. The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION specialised in facilitating leaders, teams and organisations in customer experience, change and innovation. Check out their website
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| 14 Dec 2022 | Every Noise at Once with Glenn McDonald | 00:54:08 | |
Well it's this time of the year. And I am not talking about the countdown until Christmas and the holiday. I am also not talking about ‘the word of the year’, or any other review compiled and curated by air quote “specialists”. I am talking about you, or better about your data, or even more close about your musical behaviour, taste and most played songs. Yes, it is the time when all Spotify users get their personal wrap-up of the year. But this episode is not about the making of the wrap-up. This episode is about musical genre types, technology and research with musical behaviour. My guest today is Glenn McDonald, Data Alchemist of Spotify and founder, programmer and producer of the Every Noise at Once website, which holds and updates examples from all genre types Spotify is tracking. We talk about personal music algorithms, genre categorisation, subsets of listening, what you can learn from listening data, and how listening behaviour shapes communities that can be the start of a new genre. Glenn shares with us how he compiled playlists on his Spotify account and a memorable sonic experience when he heard the band Low for the first time live ‘opening up a door’ to a transformational moment. Shownotes:
The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION specialised in facilitating leaders, teams and organisations in customer experience, change and innovation. Check out their website.
Do you like books? Check out the new book: The Power of Music Thinking and get stories, explanations and exercises to apply music thinking. Buy The Power of Music Thinking
More like this Please subscribe to the podcast and listen to the latest episode of The Power of Music Thinking.
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| 22 Apr 2024 | The Art of Freedom with Jennifer Roig-Francoli | 00:47:09 | |
How are your habits getting in the way of being more creative? How does self-observation make you a better performer? And how can touching from a distance help you with performance problems?
Today, we speak with Jennifer Roig-Francoli - violinist, healer, coach, author and creator of The Art of Freedom Method for Conscious Living and Masterful Artistry.
We discuss methods like the Alexander technique, the Suzuki method, the mother-tongue method, NLP (Neurolinguistic Programming) and how they benefit everyone who has to rehearse and perform, whether in music or business.
And Jennifer shares her experiences as a solo artist, the challenges of keeping up great performances, and insights from her #1 Amazon bestseller, Make Great Music with Ease! Where She provides deep insights and lasting solutions to the challenges musicians face, including pain, performance nerves, and emotional stress.
Show Notes
Show support
Please choose one or more of the ‘three ways to support the show’:
Buy the book The Power of Music Thinking and the Jam Cards at a 20% discount using musicthinking20 at the check-out of the BIS Publishers website only.
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| 21 Oct 2024 | What is orchestration? | 00:15:09 | |
What is orchestration? And What is an orchestrator? What do they do? Is everybody now a musician or music thinker? Is it important? And Why should we care?
What challenges around orchestration are there in different fields and can music, music thinking or the grandmaster of orchestration, Rimski-Korsakov, help? In this short episode, I discuss a pre-research concerning orchestration in different fields. If you are an orchestrator or use orchestration to explain your work, please fill in the form below. Show notes
Show support Please choose one or more of the ‘three ways to support the show’:
Buy the book The Power of Music Thinking and/or the Jam Cards at a 20% discount using musicthinking20 at the check-out of the BIS Publishers website only. | |||
| 06 Mar 2023 | World-building and empathic storytelling with Eelko Lommers | 01:15:22 | |
What are the links between daily work for a multinational company, an omnichannel fantasy story and playing in a band? My guest today is Eelko Lommers, Global Director Product Experience Design at IKEA, creator, designer, writer of a (not yet published) novel and a musician in a post-hardcore band. We talk about empathy with clients, personality in a brand context and global operations that need adaptations in different markets. And that a lot of a country's culture is directly related to its original music. We discuss the endless loop of listening, tuning, playing and performing, how stories change while we tell them to the world, and how the audience plays an active role. Eelko shares with us the strategy of promoting his band with a limited budget and how this relates to a global design strategy because every data has a context of delivery for the right moment and audience under the right circumstances. And he conveys with us some details about the novel he just finished writing, a fantasy story about magical places in Germany and mythological creatures that live in a parallel world. As an extension of the book, he plans a whole ecosystem of multichannel media like locative art, TikTok videos and a 3D omni verse. Every chapter has an emotion, including colour and a song that connects with the essence of the chapter. He explains this world-building and how he uses generative AI to build his characters to brief and guide an illustrator to make the final design. So technology, content, storytelling and design are not separate activities but an integral part of the total product experience and customer satisfaction. True satisfaction and customer delight happen when all of it comes together to create experiences that solve people's needs in a way worthy of praise, remembrance and advocacy.
Show notes
The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION specialised in facilitating leaders, teams and organisations in customer experience, change and innovation. Do you like books? Check out the new book: The Power of Music Thinking Please subscribe to the podcast and listen to the latest episode
Like this show? Please leave us a review — even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally! Thank you for your support; it helps the show! | |||
| 20 Dec 2023 | Rewind 2023 - The Power of Music Thinking - Podcast | 00:43:30 | |
Welcome to the Rewind 2023 of The Power of Music Thinking podcast, where I have conversations with extraordinary people from all over the world who are also musicians or use music in the broadest sense of the word to learn, teach, inspire and collaborate meaningfully. This year, we had 15 episodes, and virtually, we travelled from Nijmegen in the Netherlands, where all podcasts are recorded, to Berlin, Braunschweig, Zürich, London, Oslo, New York, West Virginia, Nashville, Los Angeles, Hawaii, Singapore, Tokyo, Mumbai and New Zealand. What were the themes? The overarching themes were leadership, co-creation, creativity, and how music can be used as an analogy to explain the world and work more meaningfully together. We had some unique themes and zoomed into subjects like health, sound healing, city policy, political journalism, sonification of data, sonic branding, storytelling, AI, and photography. more on musicthinking.com
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| 30 Nov 2021 | Rules of engagement with Jim Kalbach | 00:52:25 | |
How do you bring humanity to work? How do you connect with your team on different levels? Today, we are in New York, and we talk with Jim Kalbach. Jim is a noted author, speaker, musician, and instructor in design, customer experience, and strategy. He is currently Chief Evangelist at MURAL, the digital online whiteboard designed for remote collaboration and visual problem-solving. Jim studied music theory and composition with 12-tone composer Charles Wuorinen, and that gives us a kick-start to discuss the differences between fixed instructions, lead sheets and free improvisation in music and our daily work. We talk about systems thinking in a 12-tone composition where every note is equal and how this connects to design thinking. And we chat about the difference between rhythm, beat and cadence in agile development. Jim shares with us his CEO playing guitar and singing in a meeting and how this brought in playfulness, opened things up and made it meaningful.
Show notes
More info The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION Learn more about The Music Thinking Framework, the Jam Cards and the blog on musicthinking.com or the Music Thinking LinkedIn page. See the latest episode of The Power of Music Thinking
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| 23 Jun 2024 | A Love Letter to Sound with Nina Kraus | 00:51:16 | |
We don't just hear; we engage with sounds. Our hearing is always on, and we can't close our ears the way we close our eyes, yet we can ignore unimportant sounds. Making sense of sound is one of the most challenging jobs we ask our brains to do. But how does this work? Today, we speak with Dr. Nina Kraus, scientist, inventor, book author, Professor of Neurobiology at Northwestern University, and Director of BrainVolts. Nina's research reveals that our daily lives, filled with sound, play a significant role in shaping how our brain interprets the sounds we hear. This influence can be both positive, as seen in musicians and bilinguals, and negative, as in the case of concussion, hearing loss, and language disorders. Sound, therefore, leaves a profound imprint on our identities. Nina talks about the partnership of sound and the brain and how sound processing drives many of the brain's core functions. To give you an idea of our conversation, there is a short, surprising sound example in the intro of the episode that will make you wonder! Because we only hear what we know, we have to hear and listen a lot to better understand our world and ourselves. So, relax and join our conversation about exploring sound and listening! Or how Nina also talks about her work and book: It is a love letter to sound.
Show Notes
Show support Please choose one or more of the ‘three ways to support the show’:
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| 18 May 2021 | Michael Hendrix and Panos Panay, A mindset for entrepreneurship, leadership and design | 00:55:06 | |
Today on the show we are in Boston and in Cyprus, we talk with Michael Hendrix, Partner and Global Design Director at IDEO and with Panos Panay, Vice President for Strategy & Innovation at Berklee College of Music. Michael and Panos talk about their experience as entrepreneurs, leaders, and executives and the interviews they did with musicians like Björk, Justin Timberlake and many others. We speak about the creative mindset that designers and musicians share, the importance of emotional diligence and what David Bowie and Nokia have in common. We speak about what leadership can learn from music production, and that leaders in these times should rather look in the direction of a producer than a conductor. We hear that Design Thinking is less effective when used as a formula and that the musical mindset is applicable to everyone. And we talk about that the value of creative education and a musical mindset can have a great impact on business and innovation. If this resonates with you, you should definitively check out their new book Two beats ahead.
The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION | |||
| 18 May 2021 | Christof Zürn, Who, what and why this Podcast | 00:08:22 | |
In this very first episode of the brand new podcast The Power of Music Thinking, your host Christof Zürn will tell you about the background of this podcast. Who he is, why he started a podcast and what you can expect every two weeks. Christof is a seasoned professional in accompanying individuals, teams and organisations to make the step from iteration to innovation and transformation. To find patterns and analogies between business and music is his passion and his mission is to combine these to meaningful collaboration in whatever field you are operating. More from Music Thinking:
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| 29 Nov 2024 | Thinking Music - Music Thinking - special epsiode | 00:38:18 | |
Christof Zürn talks about music thinking, the music thinking framework, and JAMMIN’ before SCORE and what this means in the context of co-creation in the business. How does this sound? It sounds marvellous; we hear a lot of musical experts from the new (digital) album of MRZ - an ambient improvisation trio - and get an explanation of how this relates to the music thinking practise. Show notes
Show support Please choose one or more of the ‘three ways to support the show’:
Buy the book The Power of Music Thinking and/or the Jam Cards at a 20% discount using musicthinking20 at the check-out of the BIS Publishers website only.
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| 15 Jun 2021 | Innovation patterns and improvisation in organisations with Wolfgang Stark | 00:56:35 | |
This episode is about Innovation patterns and improvisation in organisations. Today, my guest is Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Stark - teacher and researcher specialised in organisational and community psychology and visiting fellow at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. With natural sounds, like birds and wind in the background, we talk about how to co-create the sound of a company based on the processes of the organisation and how a jazz band can bring organisational scores to life. We also talk about the reactable an electronic table that can be played by non-musicians like an instrument to learn co-creation.
We also chat about the difference between learning and organising and the meaning of improvisation in business and society. And we learn how patterns of success translated to a card deck can be used in co-creation, innovation and change. In the end, we hear about the innovative invention of ‘the music box on a garden fence’ that started in corona times.
The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION More about The Music Thinking Framework, the Jam Cards and the blog on musicthinking.com | |||
| 22 Aug 2023 | Musical Mind Hacking with Jeena Earthiva | 00:47:44 | |
Today we are in Mumbai. We talk with Jeena Earthiva. Jeena is a Transformational Coach, a Producer with a master’s in Computer Science, an ex-Bollywood singer, the Founder of Conscious Music Code, and a ‘Mind DJ’. Jeena conveys her story of a successful Bollywood singer who lost her voice at the top of her singing career and how she found and developed the ‘Conscious Music Code’ that helped her get back on track and start a new career as ‘Mind DJ’. We talk about the broad field of music between India and the West, and analogies between music and business. And the Koan of her mentor Dr Daisaku Ikeda, which became her life motto: “Transforming the life state of humankind”. And, ta-daa, – this is a first – Jeena is singing live in this episode a Bengali folk song mixed with a Persian poem. And be also prepared for a 6-minute musical mind hack exercise at the end of the recording that Jeena is performing for us. So, lean back and enjoy; if you are listening in from your car, we suggest you take a break or do the exercise at another moment. Show Notes
Please choose one or more of the ‘three ways to support the show’!
The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION specialised in facilitating leaders, teams and organisations in customer experience, change and innovation. | |||
| 24 Aug 2021 | Multi-sensory storytelling with Jasper Udink ten Cate | 00:52:22 | |
How can you tell a story through food and music? Are all chefs drummers? Should prominent leaders start a band together? In this episode, Creative Companion meets the Creative Chef. We have a lively conversation with Jasper Udink ten Cate, artist, designer, futurist, keynote speaker, book author and drummer. He worked worldwide on exhibitions like London Design Week, Dubai Design, Metropolitan Museum New York and the World Expo in Milano and for companies like Nike, BASF and Google. Jasper shares his approach to collective storytelling with food, music and design. And we talk about different tastes and diets and how to give goosebumps from natural vegan food to inspire people to create their own identity. He shares the story of the unripe peach and how reframing can be the start of new product innovation. We chat about how you can listen to yourself to create your own beautiful story, shape your personality and make decisions in consuming music, books, food and life.
Show notes
More info The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION Learn more about The Music Thinking Framework, the Jam Cards and the blog on musicthinking.com or the Music Thinking LinkedIn page.
See the latest episode of The Power of Music Thinking
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| 08 Sep 2024 | Strings between MBA and AI with Anna Filochowska | 00:54:17 | |
join us in our conversation and hear more about the journey from Poland to Germany and the US, from playing violin in a top-notch orchestra to getting an MBA at Stanford University Graduate School of Business and writing a white paper about AI and music. Show Notes
Show support Please choose one or more of the ‘three ways to support the show’:
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| 18 May 2021 | Roy Scheerder, Blockchain Philosophy and Collaborative Transformation for Change | 00:57:27 | |
The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION Today on the show we have Roy Scheerder - co-founder of the dutch cooperative Faebric. In this episode we speak about Roy’s journey from hospitality to the lean and mean asset machine of the airline business and how to start as an entrepreneur with a cooperative. We talk about the blockchain philosophy, the concept of tokens and starting a cooperative with a joint goal and purpose. And we learn more about collaborative transformation, how to start a strategic change project and the value that the music thinking framework has for him in client projects and how he uses the Jam Cards in workshops. Roy is the first interviewee of the power of music thinking podcast.
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| 25 Feb 2025 | Inspiring Books on Music Thinking | 00:48:08 | |
Let’s talk about books today. What was the last book that inspired you? Was it a novel, a non-fiction book, a design book, a music book or a cookbook?
In this episode, I share three books that inspired my sound way of thinking, experiencing the world with an open ear and what has led to developing music thinking, the framework, the jam cards, the book and the podcast. I will briefly discuss Nada Brahma by Joachim Ernst Berend, The Soundscape by R. Murray Schafer, and The Glass Bead Game, the prize-winning novel by Hermann Hesse. These three books directly and indirectly influenced the ideas in The Power of Music Thinking. But my book also influenced another author, and he used parts of the music thinking framework described in the book to explain his idea of rebels in digital development in Belgium. Today I speak with Geert de Mol, a CDO for the leading Belgian Bank for 16 years, during their development of ‘the best app in the world’. Geert is a music lover of rock and pop, and he shares with us how music thinking and the book helped him to pen his story.
Show notes
Show support Please choose one or more of the ‘three ways to support the show’:
Buy the book The Power of Music Thinking and/or the Jam Cards at a 20% discount using musicthinking20 at the check-out of the BIS Publishers website only. | |||
| 04 May 2022 | Finding your Side B with Paula White | 00:38:45 | |
Today we are in New Albany, Ohio. We speak with Paula White, a globally recognized sales leader, leadership coach and author of the book Side B: Remix Your Leadership Style. We talk about how music can (re)charge the way you are leading and how leaders can work on their behavioural traits based on music principles. Paula shares with us the ten archetypal instruments that are based on a scientific survey. And Paula explains more about the saxophone type that came out of the survey I did before the conversation. Show notes
More info The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION specialised in facilitating companies in making brand minded and people centered decisions.
Buy The Power of Music Thinking book See the latest episode of The Power of Music Thinking
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| 27 Feb 2024 | Better English with Jam Cards and Anita Prestidge | 00:38:57 | |
How cool is this? You develop a multisensory product to let people experience your ideas about music thinking and then someone comes along and uses your product for something completely different.
So today, we speak with Anita Prestidge, an English trainer with experience in theatre, directing, and education. When Anita picked up the cards, she had another idea of what to do with these cards and developed her own unique method. So, if you want to speak better English while using the Jam Cards, connect with Anita online. Show Notes
Show support
Please choose one or more of the ‘three ways to support the show’!
The Power of Music Thinking is brought to you by CREATIVE COMPANION specialised in facilitating leaders, teams and organisations in customer experience, change and innovation.
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| 01 Jun 2021 | Nifemi Aluko, Music as a Catalyst for Change | 00:57:36 | |
We talk with Nifemi Aluko - Founder and CEO of kpakpakpa and author of the book Press Play, Music as a catalyst for change. Nifemi is a traveller between California and Nigeria and - as he calls - a Youtube inspired bedroom producer. We talk about his journey from a chemical engineer to an advisor for companies that want to enter the African market. We learn about the size and the diversity of Africa, the high energy of woman entrepreneurship and the many languages, dialects, and communication between people across the continent. And we chat about the different pace in doing business and establishing relationships, and how the technique of sampling can bring new styles of music and nurtures the ability to collaborate with people from different places.
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| 31 Jan 2025 | Sonic Branding with Willemijn van Hussen | 00:51:29 | |
Today we speak with Willemijn van Hussen - a trained concert pianist, strategy consultant - co-founder and owner of Sonic Branding agency TAMBR. We talk about the power of our senses and how sound can make a difference in recognising a brand and what it stands for. Willemijn shares with us insights from an audio branding project, with a sonic logo, brand anthem and different sound assets that are used strategically. Among others, we hear the brand anthem of Lazy Vegan and how this might be different from other brands in the industry. Willemijn gives tips for students who work on sound assignments and for brands that want to make a start with sonic branding. Show notes
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| 16 May 2022 | Performing in Japan with Bjoern | 01:29:32 | |
Today we are in München, Germany, talking to Björn Eichstädt, Managing Partner & Co-Owner of Storymaker and publisher of the digital magazine “J-BIG – Japan Business in Germany”. He studied Neurobiology and was active in experimental music in the 1990s and 2000s. Björn takes us on a trip to Japan. From J-Horror Films, Japanese Spirits, Film music, audio innovations, sound aficionados and the Sound Design of the Tokyo Treinstation (note: I added the Yurakucho sound after the conversation). And he shares the business habits and the harmony aspect in collaboration, the ‘performance thinking’ of meetings in Japan and ‘the customer is god’ attitude. But let’s start with a warning, this is by far the most extended podcast in The Power of Music Thinking history, so if you are prepared to listen to 30 minutes podcasts, you might want to pause and listen further the next day. All right let’s dive into it.
Show notes
Extra links to Films and Music mentioned in the conversation Toru Takemitsu - Woman in the dunes Un Uomo da Rispettare (Complete) - Ennio Morricone J-Horror and Sound: Kayako Saeki sound J-Horror and Sound 2: Ringu Sound Design Vocaloid: Hatsune Miku - World is Mine ~【手描き】ワールドイズマイン【Erich von Däniken / Peter Thomas: Chariots of the Gods: Peter Thomas Sound Orchestra - Chariots Of The Gods ℗ 1970 - YouTube Stockhausen: Sounds in Space, Osaka 1970 Pedestrian crossings with sound in Japan! - YouTube Gate Sounds for Boarding. - YouTube Yamanote Line - The Comprehensive Eki-melo Database
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