Marching to the beat of his own drum, Ian T. Jones joins our quest!
Ian is my brother. Literally. That aside, he is also deeply caring and sensitive, he is passionate about his pursuits, and he has an unhinged appreciation for absurdist humor, which I will never get enough of. Though he’s the baby of the family, I’ve always looked up to Ian, and I don’t know that I’ve ever been mad at or truly upset with him.
It won’t come as much of a surprise to anyone who knows Ian that his word is of a percussive influence. Ian has been a percussionist from about the age of 2 when he received a LeapFrog Learning Drum as a present. To this day, I am not sure if Ian was destined to be a percussionist or if he was brainwashed by the frogs at the toy company. Either way, we’re all better for it!
I’ve gotten to watch Ian develop his musicianship from LeapFrog to a quick-lived trumpet stint to fascinations with Animusic and Drum Corps. to marching drumline to performing in All County, All District, and Governors School ensembles to composing and performing his own work, with many musical moments in between. Now, Ian is three years into his collegiate music career, studying music composition and performance, and he is also assisting a local high school marching band – instructing their front ensemble – and taking performance gigs on the side.
It’s often simplest for me to mark Ian’s path in musical milestones. But he is certainly more than a musician.
Ian and I are six years apart (seven school years). In a way, we are sort of a bridge between generations, as he is very Gen-Z while I am [redacted]1. We have many shared experiences, having grown up in the same town, but we also have had many experiences unique to our generations.
Because of our age gap and our exploratory natures, we haven’t spent much time together since I left for college in 2013. This saddens me a bit – as quality time is my main love language – but it also makes me cherish the time we do get to spend together, and it encourages me to find ways to connect with him and to collaborate2.
Ian has always been supportive of my work (partially because, as the baby, he was dragged to all of my concerts, competitions, and performances), so I knew I not only wanted him to create the music for LMP but also to one day be a guest. However, I didn’t immediately have a word for him. It proved challenging to find a noun that represented Ian authentically and also nodded to his musical ability in an innocuous way.
One might say, I was lost for words.
So, I tapped into my curiosity and simply considered what I wanted to know about Ian, aside from his musical endeavors. And it occurred to me that I just wanted to know what it was like to be in his shoes; I just wanted to hear his cadence of the moment he was living in.
It proved to be the perfect word. And naturally, it brought us this delightful conversation. It also got me thinking about the cadences I’ve fallen into.
I’ve always been especially fond of patterns and routine (which explains my fascinations with Irish dance and marching band), and I tend to fall into rhythms wherever I go. Creating these routines for myself assures me that I’ll feel productive having done them, and it gives me something to look forward to because I know, more or less, what to expect.
Conversely, I tend to catasrophize if one part of my plan doesn’t work out. For example, if I sleep in and miss my morning training, I might spend all day on the couch instead of simply picking up my preplanned schedule with afternoon training, errands, or chores. And, if I do this too many times in a row, I fall into a cadence of self-sabotage, almost purposefully putting things on my to-do list, day after day, just to prove that I didn’t complete them.
We don’t like it here.
It’s very tough for me to change the plans I’ve laid for myself if the only thing holding me back from completing them is me. I think this sensitivity is probably rooted in perfectionism/maximizing because I often feel a deep shame when plans change; I feel it is a threat to my integrity.
However, now that my living stakes are higher (high lifestyle cost vs. low income vs. no job stability vs. chasing fulfillment), I have become increasingly sensitive to this sensitivity, and I think now I finally understand the meaning of “don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.”
In order to keep moving forward, I need to make each day and all its adventures work for me, instead of the other way around. So, while it can still be very disappointing if I sleep in and miss training, I now try to remind myself that I probably need the rest if I’m forcing myself to wake, and I can rest knowing that I am not going to sacrifice my health, my safety, or my performance longevity just to show up for one moment; I also try to remind myself that I can choose to train play the rest of the day, which will later energize me to work or to run errands or to create.
If life is like an orchestra, I am challenged to conduct in such a way that each section works in service to me and not against. While I have a long way to go in making my own life more musical, I am very grateful to have people like Ian as part of my ensemble who inspire me and encourage me to keep moving forward at my own, unique pace.
My heart sings as I see Ian blossom as a musician and a person. I can’t wait to see where his life of many cadences takes him. And, for as long as I live, I’ll always look forward to hearing his heartsongs.
To learn more about Ian, check out his website and listen to the podcast he cohosts, The Lotus-Eaters, on Spotify. You can also find his published work, Meditation, on Tapspace.
Select referenced people and materials:
Stars and Stripes Forever March by John Philip Sousa
And if you didn’t hear the first hundred times, Ian T. Jones lovingly created all the music for the podcast.
Technically, I guess, I am a Millennial. But I don’t feel like I identify with them. But I don’t identify completely with Gen-Z, either. So, I usually just say I’m a “Cusper.”
Ian asked me for scoring notes on his composition competition submission and also had me on as a guest on his podcast. He was my first pick for LMP’s theme!
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