Inside the Practice Room with Julie Landsman

Want to take your practicing to the next level?

What better way to do that than by learning from the best players in the world exactly what they do day in and day out in the practice room.

Don’t miss this opportunity to hear Former Principal Horn of the Metropolitan Opera Julie Landsman do a deep dive into the practicing routine that made her a legend.

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Use offer code “julie” to get $10 off for a limited time only!

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Here’s an excerpt from Julie Landsman’s Inside the Practice Room where she discusses how she helped Nathaniel Silberschlag successfully prepare for his audition for Principal Horn of the Cleveland Orchestra:

Topics Julie Covers:

• The two most common problems she sees musicians make in the practice room and how to fix those problems

• Her intense level of self-awareness when practicing 

• How she used mediation in the semis and finals of her successful audition for Principal Horn of the Metropolitan Opera

• How she uses meditation and visualization before practicing, performing and teaching

• The danger of giving yourself technical instruction while performing (and how it kills creativity)

• Her approach to warming up and how she changes it for different situations

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Use offer code “julie” to get $10 off for a limited time only!

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Quotes from Julie Landsman’s Inside the Practice Room:

• “Practicing a lot doesn't mean you're getting the work done. Practicing efficiently with clear goals and what you're working on and how you're doing it? Go for it. That's just smart. Be smart!”

• “Constantly beating up the music and repetition and hitting that wall of frustration… it doesn't help me. I think it's not a creative process. I think it's a self-defeating process.”

• “Let's go back to the word efficient. I'm killing two birds with one stone. I'm doing my Snakes (exercises) because they're good for register breaks and I'm practicing tonguing because my tongue needs exercise and I'm practicing double tonguing. So I'm going through all my register break exercises and my articulation exercises just in a very methodical manner. I love that efficiency. I love getting a lot done without wasting a ton of time.”

Also Available from Hitz Academy:

Jeff Nelsen of Canadian Brass

Don’t miss this deep dive by Jeff Nelsen of Canadian Brass into his daily practicing routine!

Take me inside Jeff’s practice room!

Free Masterclass on Groove

The main thing that separates good brass quintet players from the great ones is not just having good time but having a great sense of groove.

One thing that all great conductors share is a great sense of groove.

All players who regularly do well in orchestral or military band auditions play with a great sense of groove.

The best soloists across all styles perform with a great sense of groove.

Groove is one of the nonnegotiable keys to excelling as a musical storyteller.

Released 50 years ago today, this album is a literal master class in groove. Close your eyes. Get lost in not just the time but the weight of the downbeats. The heaviness of the groove juxtaposed with a constant feeling of moving forward. Immerse yourself in how various articulations are used to create the groove.

If you go deep (Sam Pilafian's take on deep listening - headphones, eyes closed, phone on airplane mode) and truly get lost in it, I *guarantee* you that your Fountains of Rome or your Bolero or your whatever will be better on the other side of it. Full stop.

Inside the Practice Room with Rex Richardson

What better way to improve in the practice room than by joining the best musicians in the world while they practice?

Join trumpet superstar Rex Richardson for an intimate look into how he approaches practicing!

During this workshop Rex described in detail the very intentional process he uses every day in the practice room: 

• The trick he uses to be nicer to himself in the practice room

• How to be objective and detached emotionally when practicing

• How attention to detail ends up leading to a set of goals in the practice room

• Implementing structures into your practice sessions

• The importance of knowing where you are right now when establishing goals

• The importance of focused listening to yourself and others

• Ask yourself “Is this my best playing today?”

• Knowing when we sound our best is how we set our current standards

• The importance of noticing when you sound good

• If he gets frustrated while practicing he steps back and makes sure he isn’t just having an emotional reaction to the session

• The danger of tackling music that is too difficult, too soon when you are young

• The powerful combination of humility and fearlessness

• Why he starts practicing at the same time each day

• His first session is the most structured of the day which is usual about an hour

• Why he doesn’t practice past the point of exhaustion

• Why his practice journal is the most important tool that Rex uses in the practice room

• His setup for recording himself and why he does all the time

• Why he also records video so he can see whether he’s doing anything inefficiently

• Why Rex thinks it’s important to take time off of the horn from time to time

• Why practicing must be viewed as a living process

• Plus an sneak peak at his upcoming book, 100 Days of Trumpet Practice

Purchase long-term access to this workshop for only $29!

Tom Hooten on Finding the Sweet Spot When Practicing

This video is by the incredible Tom Hooten, Principal Trumpet of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

He talks about practicing in the sweet spot, which he defines as "having the conviction and patience to practice from a happy place." He then explains how to do that.

He packs an insane amount of insight into a video that's less than 10 minutes. Enjoy!

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Monday YouTube Fix: Yo-Yo Ma Masterclass

I recently stumbled onto this very cool concert/master class with Yo-Yo Ma. The first 25 minutes is him performing Schelomo by Ernest Bloch with the Tel Aviv University Orchestra. The performance is predictably wonderful.

But he then puts the cello down and conducts a master class that lasts well over an hour. He touches on some very thought-provoking stuff like which spots in the music were the most emotional and gets the students to put into words why they thought so.

I love finding things like this on YouTube! Enjoy!

Practicing Tool: Drone Tone

I am a big fan of practicing with a drone. I regularly do scale and arpeggio work with a drone. I much prefer using my ear to tune things rather than using my eyeballs to look for a green smiley face or something like that.

Speaking of green smiley faces, the drone feature on the Tonal Energy Tuner is wonderful. I’ll write about that another time. But today I wanted to talk a little about a less known site called Drone Tone.

Drone Tone is not anything fancy. It only does one thing: it plays drones.

What I love about it is the tone it produces. The drones are comprised of real cellos recorded in octaves. It is a rich sound that is quite easy to tune to. It is also a sound that will cut through a loud instrument (like a tuba!) but still with a pleasant sound. It also has a built-in metronome.

I use the web version but there is also an app for both Android and iOS: Drone Tone

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Take Your Practicing to the Next Level

Workshops, masterminds and resources to help you unlock your true potential in the practice room.

Learn More

Inside the Practice Room with Patrick Sheridan

What better way to improve in the practice room than by joining the best musicians in the world while they practice?

Join tuba superstar Patrick Sheridan for an intimate look into how he approaches practicing!

During this workshop Patrick described in detail the very intentional process he uses every day in the practice room: 

• The routine he starts every day with

• The he leaves time at the end of his routine for fun which he calls “playing in the sandbox”

• His relatively random post-routine practice schedule that he refers to as “random acts of music” and how he regularly finds the time to practice even when he is very busy

• The dangers of practicing self-hatred and judgement in the practice room rather than practicing music

• He chooses at least one thing each week that he is intentionally trying to move forward in a measurable way

• Why he regularly asks himself “Could I have played that with any less tension? Was there any tension at all?”

• His “Practicing in Trios” concept and how he applies that to everything he learns

• The need to develop a love for repitition

• Why copying someone else’s practice schedule is idiotic (Spoiler: You need to come up with what works best for you!)

• Patrick’s mental approach that there’s nothing difficult in music - just familiar and unfamiliar

• The tools he uses to help him practice on a daily basis

• How he deals with both boredom and frustration in the practice room

Purchase long-term access to this workshop for only $29!

Inside the Practice Room with Michael Sachs

What better way to improve in the practice room than by joining the best musicians in the world while they practice?

Join Principal Trumpet of the Cleveland Orchestra Michael Sachs for an intimate look into how he approaches practicing!

Michael took a deep dive into a number of different aspects of practicing during this workshop: 

• His preferred warm-up and why he has many different versions of the same routine (including one that's only 5 minutes long!)

• How long he practices in any given day (probably not as long as you might guess!)

• His advice for someone who needs to improve their focus in the practice room

• What tools he uses to help practice

• How he gets great results in the practice room to translate to performance

Purchase long-term access to this workshop for only $29!

An Example of Stunning Musical Storytelling

If you’ve ever seen me give a clinic or taken a lesson with me there is a very good chance you’ve heard me talk about storytelling. The whole reason we put in thousands of hours in the practice room is so we can better tell our story.

Every once in a while you come across a performance that is so good that it makes you a better musician just by listening to it. Like something transfers from that performance into your playing on the spot like some kind of magic.

Those performances are quite rare.

Here is one in case you haven’t heard it before. Prince’s While Guitar Gently Weeps solo during the 2004 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony has been the stuff of legend for the last 17 years.

This newly produced clip just surfaced for the first time last week and it is stunning.

Even if you don’t like the Beatles or Prince or his interpretation of this solo you will be blown away by the conviction. He commands a room full of superstars like few in the history of the music business have ever been able to do.

I’m going to go practice now…

TEM232: Don't Focus On Growth

TEM232: Don’t Focus On Growth

Why growth is just the byproduct of continuing to show up every day.

Listen Now

On Today's Episode of The Entrepreneurial Musician:

• A quick shout-out to the remarkable city of New Orleans

• The Inside the Practice Room workshop with Jeff Nelsen of Canadian Brass that inspired this episode

• Why growth is not the thing you should be focused on in the practice room or in your career

• The magic of showing up in a meaningful way day after day

• The danger of turning any one negative result into a narrative in your head

• This week’s quote is from the wonderful Brené Brown

• The all new Hitz Academy

Show notes for all episodes of TEM including topics discussed, links to all books and websites referenced can be found at:

http://www.tem.fm/shownotes