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Billy Joel and Me

Before I start this short story I must make it clear that I’ve never met Billy Joel in person, he doesn’t know I exist.
Maybe you’re thinking “So, why should I read this stuff?”.
Who is this John van whoever, and what’s all this going to do for me?

What I’m about to tell you has happened to millions of people in some way or other and you could be one of them. I’m going to show you how reading Richard Brooke’s “Mach 11 with Your Hair on Fire” has changed my life.

And, I’m going to give you the book too, so just hang in there OK? I need to go back in time just briefly so this whole thing makes sense. I was always a confident kid even though for the first couple of years in school my English skills were poor (my family emigrated from Holland when I was 6).

By Grade 5 I loved music and badly wanted to be the lead drummer in the school marching band. I practised for hours and then cunningly asked the principal if I could fill in if the other drummer was absent or sick.

The principal who was about to teach his grade 7 class asked me to get the drum and play in front of his class. I did it without hesitation playing it precisely and with more flair than he’d heard it before. At the end he said, “Good, you can start tomorrow, the other guy can fill in for you”.

In high school I was influenced  by the super cool dudes of that time: James Dean, Marlon brando, and Elvis. It was cool to be rebellious and NOT to go with the flow.

After high school I spent many years as a musician travelling around the country, still very confident and somewhat of a legend in my own mind, as so many Rock Musicians seem to be.

Suddenly after years of Rock ‘n Roll bands, I decided it was time to change direction. I needed something new, exciting, challenging, something where I would be totally responsible for my own success, rather than depending on the rest of a band’s  input, ideas and perhaps dedication.

I chose to play piano, and practised furiously for 5 yrs, about 3 hours a day and WOW, I discovered Billy Joel. I played every BJ record I could get 1,000 times, knew all his lyrics, could practically see him walking around Manhattan or Long Island.

I could visualize the kind of place he would have played in when he started out. An end of year concert came up at my piano teacher’s music school. I convinced my teacher I could play and sing Billy Joel’s “She’s Always a Woman”.

My first public performance and doing that!!! I must have been crazy . I got about a third of the way through and looked out at the audience that were staring back at me and FROZE.

I was used to being on stage as a lead singer, surrounded by lights, smoke machines, sound crew and other band members. But now, there was just me! After trying to kick start the piece 3 times,

I stood up and lifted the lid on the piano and said laughing. “Jim get outta there” (trying to pass it off as a joke). After that, I walked off the stage with half the audience After this experience, I went into a shell type of existence, lost a lot of confidence and after 2 years of semi enthusiastic practise, gave up piano all together.

Since that performance, that one REAL performance, I have re-lived it 1,000 times at least. I could remember the line where I blew it, I could still see my teacher’s face feeling so bad for me when at last I walked off. I could still see my fingers on the keyboard not responding.

That was 15 years ago. Recently, I read Richard’s book and realized how much that one performance affected my life and music career. I found it impossible to stay away from music (what is life without music, I can’t imagine) and now I play and teach Classical Guitar.

It’s the hardest thing I have ever done, man it’s sooo hard, but so beautiful I can’t resist. Believe it or not, I have performed at my student’s concerts, which I held in the same hall and on the same stage I demolished my piano career.

I felt very very nervous on those same floor boards, with this little voice inside my head saying “remember this stage”? “Do you really want to do this, do you?” “Are you nuts”? “What are your students going to think when you stuff up”?.

Now comes the amazing part of my story! I read Richard Brooke’s “Mach 11 with Your Hair on Fire”. I read it again and then again, and slowly it started to sink in.

This one bad performance, affected me, my personality, confidence, self-esteem, and even my attitude towards other performers for all these years. Richard Brooke talks about focusing on those good movies inside your head, and eliminating the bad ones.

Since reading his book, I now focus on the people who say my playing is great, not that one poor performance. I just find some positive movie to put inside my head and forget the others.

It’s a great feeling, and it’s allowing me to do the things I have always wanted to do. We come to the link for Richard Brooke’s book. You can read it online or print it out. But, please read it more than  once , keep reading it until it sinks in!!

Just click below to read the book:


I hope the book changes your life like it has mine!

Bye for now,

John (and Julieanne) from Down Under


” If you Don’t Have a Dream,

How you Gonna Have a Dream Come True?”

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