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A blog about performing music, teaching music and the business of music.
"You've got to start thinking outside the box. When you have a problem (with your playing) really admit it and address it. You have to be honest about it. You are only as strong as the weakest link in your playing."
-Marty Hackleman
That's how you end up playing your instrument as well as Marty Hackleman plays his.
I stumbled onto this video which is not in English and doesn't list the players or what they are playing but it features a number of members of Mnozil Brass, Gábor Tarkövi (Principal Trumpet - Berlin Philharmonic), and many others!
It is a long video with some of the finest brass playing you will ever hear. It opens with a performance of Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man" that will blow you away.
Enjoy!
“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.”
— Maya Angelou
— Daily Zen (@dailyzen) April 14, 2015With an attitude like that, I think Maya would make a great freelance musician.
Warren Deck: “The difference between a good player and a great player is not a couple of big things. It’s often 100 little things.”
— Andrew Hitz (@HitzTuba) April 10, 2015Yes one thousand times over! The difference between someone who advances at an audition and someone who doesn't is almost never missed notes or missed rhythms. It is 100 little things that make the music simply sound "right."
Excruciating attention to detail is the key to success in the music business.
I firmly believe that more comedians should do their standup with a Sousaphone in tow. Tom Wilson (otherwise known as Biff from from the Back to the Future movies) did some Sousaphone standup on Carson and it is pretty darn funny.
Enjoy!
"If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?"
-John Wooden
I can't get enough of John Wooden quotes. He was a wise man and gifted communicator. His quotes are so insightful into learning music that you'd swear that he was a master music teacher.
But alas, he just taught basketball.
“Short cuts make long delays.”
-J.R.R. Tolkien
In the practice room, you will save an awful lot of time by practicing something slowly and correctly the first time. Whenever we learn a passage with a wrong note or wrong rhythm, it takes a lot longer to unlearn the mistake than it ever would have taken to learn it right in the first place.
The ability to have the in the moment intelligence to know that practicing something slowly and correctly is always the correct path rather than seeking instant gratification is what separates great practicers from everyone else.
Short cuts never pay off in the practice room.
A small portion of this video of Lincolnshire Posy made the rounds on Facebook a couple of weeks ago but the whole thing is even better. Frederick Fennell is of course one of the greatest band conductors of all time. The amount of information he is communicating to the US Navy Band in this clip is stunning. His stick, his facial expressions, his shoulders, his hands, everything.
This clip is a master class for all conductors on how to convey a clear idea of how you want a piece to go to an ensemble.
Enjoy!
Your instrument is dumb. It doesn't know a half step from a hamster. We need to be sure to be issuing commands and not be getting feedback from our instruments while we play.
Exclamation points, not question marks.
Here is a thought-provoking article by Tony Plog about the realities of making it as a professional musician:
"But in music performance, good or comfortable is not good enough. Sometimes it’s not even close to being good enough. This may sound brutal, but in fact it’s brutally honest."
There are some hard truths in that brief blog post that all of us who "made it" in music were taught as some point along the line. Thank you for putting it into words, Tony!