Five Steps to Mastering a Piece of Music

Here are five steps to mastering any piece of music.  If done correctly, it will work every single time.

1. Record yourself.
2. Listen to it.
3. Analyze it.
4. Change something.
5. Repeat.

How do you know when the tomato sauce you're making from scratch has the right amount of salt? You taste it.  If it needs more you do two things: add a little salt and then taste it again.  Too often as musicians we record something, hear something that needs changing, change it, and then we're done with it.

Always taste the musical sauce before it is served.

Pharrell Williams' Happy - Trombone Loop: Monday YouTube Fix

This is a spectacular example of someone starting with a creative idea and through technology and the internet, sharing it with the world.  Trombone player Christopher Bill put together this brilliant version of 'Happy' by Pharrell Williams using nothing but his trombone and his body for some percussion. In a little over a month this video already has over 400,000 views and there's a reason for that: It's unique and it's cool as hell.  This thing made my day.

Enjoy!

Oscar Peterson Trio: Monday YouTube Fix

If I could play the piano like Oscar Peterson, I would never get off the piano bench.  His ability to solo both vertically and horizontally in such a fluid manner was truly stunning.  I love listening to him periodically sing along with himself in this clip. Ray Brown has always been one of my heroes, someone whose playing I try to emulate when playing bass lines on the tuba.  You then throw in the sweeping phrasing of Ed Thigpen on the drums and you've got one hell of a band.

This version of C Jam Blues was recorded live in Denmark in 1964.  Oh to have been in the crowd on this occasion.  It makes me happy to see that this video has over one million views.

Enjoy!

Using Vibrato as a Crutch

"Be able to play a love song with and without vibrato." -Arnold Jacobs (via @JacobsQuotes)

Vibrato is one of the best tools we have at our disposal as musical storytellers, but it can frequently be either overused or predictable.  As Mr. Jacobs stated above, it is very important to be able to play something like a love song without any vibrato at all.

A great exercise is to record a love song or melody with the vibrato, then without.  If you have the ability to make the second version just as convincing as the first, you will have gone a long way towards conveying a clear story to your audience once you add it back into the equation.

Be sure to use vibrato as an enhancement, not as a music crutch.

(A fantastic performance a year ago by Harry Watters inspired me to write this blog post with lots of thoughts on vibrato.)

Scheherazade/Vienna Philharmonic: Monday YouTube Fix

Here is the Vienna Philharmonic under the direction of Valery Gergiev performing Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade" live at the Salzburg Festival in 2005. Enjoy!

Making Your Own Opportunities

"The man who grasps an opportunity as it is paraded before him, nine times out of ten makes a success; but the man who makes his own opportunities is, barring an accident, a sure-fire success!" -Dale Carnegie

These words were uttered many decades ago and had nothing to do with the music business but could not be more true today.  Most music schools are churning out graduates without teaching them how to make their own opportunities in the music business.  And if you take a look around, the vast majority of people "making it" in the music business these days are the ones that are doing just that.

What have you done today in an attempt to create an opportunity for yourself?

Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet: Monday YouTube Fix

This is a live performance of Carl Nielsen's Wind Quintet, Opus 43, played by the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet.  This was performed on October 5, 2012 at the Samobor Music Festival in Croatia. The Performers:

Michael Hasel, Flute Andreas Wittmann, Oboe Walter Seyfarth, Clarinet Fergus McWilliam, Horn Marion Reinhard, Bassoon

The Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet is everything I look for in a chamber ensemble.  Each member is playing every note like a soloist and yet the most important line or lines are always stepping to the foreground.

I instantly fell in love with the music of Carl Nielsen when I performed his Fifth Symphony at Tanglewood as a high school student.  He was a brilliant composer and his Wind Quintet is simply fantastic.

Enjoy!

Paco de Lucia: Monday YouTube Fix

Last week the world lost one of the greatest musicians of all time, Paco de Lucia.  This performance of Joaquin Rodrigo's "Concierto de Aranjuez" for guitar and orchestra, will leave you speechless.  If there is a musician who phrases with more relentless passion than Paco de Lucia did, I am not familiar with them. The second movement of this live performance is spellbinding.  When commenting on this melody, Miles Davis once said  "That melody is so strong that the softer you play it, the stronger it gets, and the stronger you play it, the weaker it gets." I've never heard it played better than Paco does here.

We lost a truly great one last week.  RIP, Paco.

Imagination and Air

"The instrument will play itself when your imagination is in gear and you let your air do the talking." -Sam Pilafian

Wise words from my mentor, Sam Pilafian.  When you've got your imagination steering and your air providing the fuel, you can take a musical journey to absolutely anywhere.

Links That Make Me Think

I am starting a new feature, Links That Make Me Think, which will simply be a collection of things from around the web that I find thought provoking.  Please feel free to contact me with anything you find (or wrote!) that you feel I might find interesting.  You can contact me through my Facebook page, via Twitter, or email me at hitztuba@gmail.com.  Here's the first set of links: -----

Seth Godin, as usual, nail it with one of his recent blog posts titled "Framers and Polishers". In about 100 words he shows why I would argue you should not necessarily look for people with similar skill sets when forming a chamber ensemble or any other kind of musical venture.

Here's a great article by Dr. Noa Kageyama (from the Bulletproof Musician) where he discusses the benefits of taking "creative pauses" and how they can help you in the practice room: "How to Reduce Practice Room Angst (and Boost Creativity)".

Gerald Klickstein of The Musician's Way discusses what he calls "The Peak-Performance Myth".  He talks about how thorough preparation helps you to overcome and adapt to the varied internal and external situations that are encountered during a performance.

My jazz piano playing friend Ron Davis found a gold mine of piano videos on YouTube.  If you need some inspiration in the practice room, chances are one of these 150 videos of the greatest pianists throughout history can provide you with some!

If you use social media to promote yourself or your ensemble (and if you aren't what are you waiting for?), this article by fellow Phish fan Jon Ostrow from CyberPR gives some great insights into the six biggest platforms: Five Facts About Your Favorite Social Media Platform [Part 1].

Finally, Joe Guarr (who runs weekly music ed chats on Twitter using the hashtag #musedchat) spotted a website that enables you to upload a score and it will auto-generate parts! This seems like science fiction to me.  What a great resource for music educators!