The Secret of Sensualization

My high school rock band, “Brandy Station” was playing the sold out talent show.

I was lead guitarist and at the high point of the song the lights would go to spotlight on me, I would slide out on my knees, strobe lights would flash, and I would just ROCK this solo!

This was… MY MOMENT!

So the song started and the audience was totally into it… 

I felt the moment coming… 

The solo arrived… 

The lights dimmed to a spotlight on me…

The strobe light lit up… 

I slid out on my knees and…???

I botched it! 

My fingers tripped over themselves in the weight of the moment and I fumbled through muffed and wrong notes. (True story)

Have you ever done that? Had “your moment to shine” and botched it? 

Why did that happen?

I was a good player. I’d played it right a hundred times in rehearsal. 

Did I buckle under pressure? Let the spotlight go to my head? 

Well, maybe a little of each but the answer is actually a lot simpler: I was doing something I’d never done, meaning, on stage in front of a big crowd. 

How many times do you do something perfectly the first time? 

Almost never. 

Neither do I. We have to learn it. Make it familiar, get the feel, understand how it’s going to work.

Well guess what… There is a way to become familiar with an activity or event, even without doing it… read on.

Fast forward about 25 years: I’m playing Carnegie Hall… yeah, like THE Carnegie Hall.

On one hand this was a chance to shine on the most prestigious stage in the world!

And on the other… hmmm… do you think memories of my botched high school talent show were at all playing in my head? 

For sure. 

But this time there was a difference, other than 25 years of experience. 

I call it Sensualization (my expanded form of “visualization”). 

(go to https://www.mikerayburn.com/virtuoso-success-secrets)

It’s my own specialized process for first relaxing or self-hypnosis, followed by not just visualizing but hearing, smelling, tasting and feeling this event happening perfectly.

And I did.

60 times.

That’s right, approximately 60 times before it ever happened I imagined that performance at Carnegie Hall going perfectly! 

Sensualization overview…

I relaxed and then imagine the nerves warming up backstage, heard the sold out crowd filing in, heard the stage manager over the crackly dressing room speaker announce “five minutes to curtain.”

I watched the promoter walk on stage, heard him introduce me and the kind applause that followed. 

I felt the intimidation of walking onto a stage where everyone from John Lennon to Thelonious Monk to Leonard Bernstein to Tchaikovsky himself have performed.

Then I imagined my set, every single piece, joke, every note sounding the best it ever had! I heard myself play the intimidating “false harmonics” of a classical piece - a series of high, thin, single notes that would be the only sound heard in that sacred hall packed with 2804 people, orchestra and four balconies - ringing clear and articulated perfectly. 

More than anything I imagined the audience response… (always picture your results). They were surprised, overwhelmingly excited, totally captivated and blown away by my unusual show.

And of course… the standing ovation, at Carnegie Hall… something few have ever experienced.

That’s right, I imagined all of that about 60 times laying in my bed in the months leading to the show.

So… how did it turn out? 

Exactly as I imagined it! 

In fact, once the standing ovation happened I was so used to it I started to walk away. 

But then I thought, “I’m getting a standing ovation from a sold out crowd at Carnegie Hall, I’ll stand here for a second and enjoy it.” 

And I did. 

One simple technique made the difference between a botched performance in high school, and a standing ovation at Carnegie Hall.

If you would like to learn my Virtuoso Practice of Sensualization, as well as at least a dozen more powerful Virtuoso Success Secrets, from me personally, check this out… 

I am presenting my brand new “Virtuoso Success Secrets” virtual workshop May 10-11, 2021 5-7:30PM Pacific, 8-11:30PM eastern. 

These are the tools of the great masters in business, music, athletics, and the arts. 

There’s no shortcut for doing the work.

But… what if you could streamline the process? 

These are your keys to working smarter, not harder.

https://www.mikerayburn.com/virtuoso-success-secrets

Live truly, truly live,

Rayburn

PS Here are some examples of what you will learn at Virtuoso Success Secrets!

• The “Virtuoso Decision” (exercise and implementation)
• Programming your subconscious mind for optimum performance.
• Thoughts to change your brain
• Compete with yourself (in small ways)
• Leveraging your language, mantras and affirmations
• Eat your sacred cows
• The “Sigmoid Curve”
• The Morning Power Hour
• The “One-More” club
• Succeed Anyway
• Becoming a category of one
• Write Music You Can’t Play
• No “B” show
• The act of benign negligence 
• Focus on the important, which is rarely urgent
• Teach it to learn it
• All out dedication to GSD/MSH (I’ll explain)