If you want to succeed in music, how important is talent?  I shared a strong opinion on this way back on Episode 3 of this podcast.  I've thought about it a lot since then, and have since changed my mind about some of it but still feel strongly on other points.  With the 2024 Summer Olympics being a recent event that featured a lot of developed talent, I thought this would be a great time to revisit the topic.  Talent is a real trait that has a real say in what opportunities there are for you in music, but how much?  Also, listen to why using "You're so talented" as a compliment to young performers is potentially harmful.

Let me know your thoughts on this episode as a voice message to possibly share on a future episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit 

If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can find all episodes of this podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

The final core performance skill to explore is the ability to improvise.  This is a skill that is very natural to some musicians (and even non-musicians) and very mysterious and perhaps even scary to others.  And yet, it's the oldest of all the skills, the earliest way to create music.  It's also essential for every genre other than classical (and there was a time it was expected there as well).  Finally, it's the most pure way of learning how music works by disassembling it and putting it back together based on your own experience and understanding.  As with the previous episodes in this series, there are 10 exercises to get you started with improvisation.

This is the 5th of a 5-part series.  If you missed it, check out the previous episodes in this series:

The Four Core Skills Part 1: An Overview of the Skills

The Four Core Skills Part 2: Sight Reading

The Four Core Skills Part 3: Playing by Ear

The Four Core Skills Part 4: Transposing

 

ALSO MENTIONED:

Composing Your Own Practice Etudes | Ep37

Piano Improvisation Live in Concert

Let me know your thoughts on this episode as a voice message to possibly share on a future episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit 

If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can find all episodes of this podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

As David Lane shares, an attempt to create a true master calendar, accounting for all 168 hours in a week, is a sobering lesson.  Chances are that you, like he, have too many interests, too many obligations, and/or too many goals.  It's also easy to crowd out the main thing that drives you as a musician - whether that be playing your instrument, conducting, or composing - because it might not be a significant source of income.  If you want fulfillment as an artist of any kind, it's important for you to make time for the main way you define yourself as a musician.

Let me know your thoughts on this episode as a voice message to possibly share on a future episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/.

If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

Paul Baron is an active performer on the trumpet.  He is currently touring on the Broadway National Tour of Disney's Frozen.  He has also appeared on many albums by world-famous pop and rock artists such as Aerosmith, David Lee Roth (from whom he learned an important musical lesson), Michael Buble, INXS, and many more.  In this episode, we talk about what it's like to be a session musician and also recap a conversation from the Life in the Pit podcast where we focused on Paul's extensive work in the musical theatre, and talked about one of his books.

Links (YouTube audience, please go to source link at top of description for full links):

Interview from Life in the Pit

Paul's books

Paul's website

Trumpet Diagnostics FB Group

Let me know your thoughts on this episode as a voice message to possibly share on a future episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/.

If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

It's human nature to want to learn all the music, listen to every album, read every book, watch every movie, and visit every city.  However, there's not nearly as much time as we'd like to do even a fraction of any of this.  And since we can't do everything, it's much more powerful to savor than to sample.  Listening again and again to music that inspires you, reviewing music you learned a while back, or re-reading a meaningful book several times is going to be much more enriching than just collecting as many experiences as possible.

Let me know your thoughts on this episode as a voice message to possibly share on a future episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/.

If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

If you're having trouble progressing as much as you'd like when practicing music, you might like this extreme but very focused approach.  Instead of practicing on something for 10 minutes and thinking about how much progress you can make in 10 minutes, consider how much progress you could make minute-by-minute for 10 single minutes.  This episode will help you learn why this strategy can really work for you right away, and how you can apply it.

You can also let me know your thoughts on this episode as a voice message to possibly share on a future episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/.

If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

It's one thing for a musician to state a goal, even a big one, but it's useless until you've given it some legs.  What's the difference between saying you plan to write a musical and getting that musical staged in an official production?  The difference is that the first scenario takes virtually no effort, and the 2nd takes a lot of steps, work, and perseverance.  Every big success starts with an idea but prominently features a series of attainable and actionable steps to get you closer to your goal.  This episode uses writing a musical and landing a chair in a professional orchestra as examples of how you can go from goal to achievement.  Also, you can learn the 9 pillars of an idea in action.

More or fewer episodes like this? Let me know your thoughts at: https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact

You can also let me know your thoughts on this episode as a voice message to possibly share on a future episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/.  If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

The skill of observation is a crucial skill for all musicians.  However, it's also a skill that most students have not come close to developing when they're early in their lessons for learning their instrument.  Observation helps you find patterns, to identify structure, to see how one part of the music connects with another, not to mention more basic things to notice such as dynamics and articulation.  In the digital age, paying attention and developing the skill of observation is not only more challenging, but more important than ever.  Check out this episode for ways to improve this important skill.

The YouTube video that is featured as an audio-only portion of this episode can be watched here:

https://youtu.be/AsNTSP7DxXk?si=CqlRmhNhcVK0mHNW

More or fewer episodes like this? Let me know your thoughts at: https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact

You can also let me know your thoughts on this episode as a voice message to possibly share on a future episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/.  If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

Jazz is a genre that serious musicians at least take time to explore.  Whether it's classical musicians, film composers, rock musicians, pop artists, hip hop artists, even country artists like Willie Nelson...it's hard to find accomplished musicians in any genre who are ignorant of the world of jazz.  While this episode won't get into the nuts and bolts of the genre, this is an introduction to 10 albums that will give you an idea of the versatility of the genre.  All of this is from host David Lane, someone who resisted fully exploring jazz until he was nearly 40.

Sound clips from the following albums occur in this order:

Time Out (Dave Brubek Quartet)  (Blue Rondo a la Turk, Take Five, Everybody Jumpin’)

Sketches of Spain (Miles Davis) (Concert do Aranjuez: Adagio, Will o the Wisp, Soleo)

The Modern Jazz Quartet & Orchestra (Divertimento, England’s Carol, First movement)

Getz/Gilberto - Stan Getz and joǎo Gilberto (The Girl from Ipanema, Desafinado)

Far East Suite (Duke Ellington) (Ishafan, Depk, Mount Harissa)

Let My Children Sing (Charles Mingus) (Adagio Ma Non Troppo, Don’t Be Afraid, The Clown’s Afraid Too, Hobo Ho)

Rosetta (Stephan Crump) (Were It a Loss, Rosie, Our Survival)

Chamber Music Society (Esperanza Spalding) (Little Fly, What a Friend, Inútil Paisagem)

The Epic (Kamasi Washington) (Change of the Guard, The Magnificent 7, Clair de Lune)

Finding Gabriel (Brad Mehldau) (Born to Trouble, Striving After Wind, Proverb of Ashes)

Previous Episodes mentioned:

Episode 5 - Two Approaches to Listening to Music

Episode 6 - Jazz Piano 101 (with Federico Pivetta)

More or fewer episodes like this? Let me know your thoughts at: https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact

You can also let me know your thoughts on this episode as a voice message to possibly share on a future episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/.  If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

 

Composing and Improvising are essential tools for every well-rounded musician, but they are different skills.  Quite often, when someone decides to become a composer, they are making up something from their instrument and then writing it down on staff paper.  This is actually more of a transcribed improvisation than it is true composition.  There's nothing wrong with that, but it is an incomplete look at the craft.  Composing a 2-part canon is a simple exercise that will force you to think like a composer and less like an improviser.  In this episode, David Lane composes an easy canon from scratch.  You can download that canon on the link below, and follow along.

Link: Sample Canon from this Episode

More or fewer episodes like this? Let me know your thoughts at: https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact

You can also let me know your thoughts on this episode as a voice message to possibly share on a future episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/.  If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

 

Many professional musicians and music teachers struggle with charging what their worth, or even what they need to charge to make even a decent living.  Brian Witkowski of The Lucrative Artist helps musicians and other artists to develop their "money voice", to change the way they think about money.  In this episode, we chat about a variety of ways that you can charge more while also creating something incredible and memorable for those you serve.  We also talk about how to make a decision on whether or not to take a gig.

Links:

The Lucrative Artist

24 Ideas to Charge More in 2024

More or fewer episodes like this? Let me know your thoughts at: https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact

You can also let me know your thoughts on this episode as a voice message to possibly share on a future episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/.  If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

Even after you've scheduled your practice time each day and planned what your focus is during that time, the mindset you bring to your practice will absolutely affect how well or poorly you do during your session.  There are 5 common types of practice mindsets, 2 which are helpful and 3 which are not.  Which one or ones do you gravitate towards the most, and might a shift be helpful in improving the effectiveness of your practice time?

More or fewer episodes like this? Let me know your thoughts at: https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact

You can also let me know your thoughts on this episode as a voice message to possibly share on a future episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/.  If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

Transposing is unique among the core skills in that it's the only one that is dependent on one of the other skills.  Being able to play well while reading music or by listening is required to give you a starting point.  The ability to take a piece of music from any source and change it to any of the other keys is a distinctive skill because it focuses on understanding music from a relative sense rather than absolute.  It requires you to think about WHY you're playing a certain note or chord rather than just WHAT to play.  As with the previous two episodes, there are 10 steps you can take to developing your core skill of transposing.

This is the 4th of a 5-part series.  If you missed it, check out the previous episodes in this series:

The Four Core Skills Part 1: An Overview of the Skills

The Four Core Skills Part 2: Sight Reading

The Four Core Skills part 3 - Playing by Ear

Let me know your thoughts on this episode as a voice message to possibly share on a future episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit 

If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can find all episodes of this podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

If you're an independent teacher, there are a number of important steps to go from being a hobbyist to becoming a legitimate business.  Andrea Miller of Music Studio Startup talks about all of this including making a decision about becoming an LLC and what steps go with that if you choose, making quarterly tax estimates, deductions, and other general information to help you be a thriving music studio.

Find out more about Music Studio Startup (including Andrea's podcast with the same name) at: https://www.musicstudiostartup.com/

Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/.  If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

This is a follow-up to Episode 17 from last year, where this podcast introduced 25 pieces of classical music, not necessarily the best or most acclaimed pieces, but 25 that you should know even if classical music is not your genre of focus.  Even after 25 more pieces, there are so many that were left out, but this plus the previous episode in this series will give you 50 pieces you should know no matter your genre as a musician.

Previous episodes mentioned:

Part 1 of this series

Listening Approach for Classical vs Non Classical Music

This episode uses excerpts from the following pieces in this order:

Pieces: Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from “The Nutcracker” (Tchaikovsky) - London Philharmonic  Concerto for 2 Violins (Bach) - Issac Stern, Itzhak Perlman, New York Philharmonic, Zubin Mehta Music for Stringed Instruments, Percussion, & Celesta (Bartok) - Cleveland Orchestra, Christoph Von Dohnányi Sonata Op. 27, No. 2 “Moonlight” (Beethoven) Daniel Barenboim Suite No. 1 from Carmen (Bizet) Lamoureux Concert Associations Orchestra, Antal Dorati Etudes Op. 12 (Chopin)  Vladimir Ashkenazy The Sorceror’s Apprentice (Paul Dukas), Cincinnati Symphony, Jesús López-Cobos Pomp and Circumstance No. 1 (Edward Elgar) - English Symphony Orchestra, William Boughton String Quartet Op 76, No. 3 “Emperor” (Haydn) - Kodály Quartet Symphony No. 4 “Italian” (Mendelssohn) - Cleveland Orchestra, George Szell Serenade: Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (Mozart) - I Musici Carmina Burana (Orff) - London Symphony, Andre Previn Canon in D (Pachelbel) - London Baroque  Romeo and Juliet (Prokofiev) - London Symphony, Andre Previn William Tell Overture (Rossini) - National Symphony, Riccardo Chailly  Carnival of the Animals (Saint-Saens) - George Prêtre Stars and Stripes Forever (Sousa) - US Marine Band On the Beautiful Blue Danube Walzes (J Strauss Jr) - Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan The Firebird (Stravinsky) - Phiharmonia, Robert Craft Overture to Romeo and Julet, 1812 Overture (Tchaikovsky) - Russian National, Mikhail Pletnev Why Fumeth in Fight (Tallis) - Chappelle du Roi, Alistair Dixon Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (Vaughan Williams) - London Philharmonic, Leonard Slatkin The Four Seasons, Op. 8 mp 1-4, (Vivaldi) - I Musici Ride of the Valkyries (Wagner) - London Philharmonic, Adrian Boult Lohengrin: Prelude to Act 3 and Bridal Chorus - Vienna Philharmonic, Rudolf Kempe

Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/.  If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

The Instrument Spotlight series within The Musician Toolkit is meant to introduce instruments as possible primary or secondary instruments, the challenges, the repertoire, and the capabilities.  Kate Warren is a freelance hornist and educator who also serves as Yaffe Post-Graduate Teaching Fellow for the Yale School of Music's Music in Schools Initiative.  In this episode, we talk about the horn, types of motivation, transposing, and practice organization.

Kate Warren can be followed at https://www.katewarrenmusic.com/   Music excerpts are featured in this order: Mvt 2 from Symphony No. 1 (Gustav Mahler) - Chicago Symphony, Georg Solti | "Poppyfields" from The Shadow original soundtrack (Jerry Goldsmith) | Incommensurable (Christopher Biggs) - Kate Warren, horn and Amer Hasan, clarinet | "The Escape to Sherwood" from Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves (Michael Kamen) | Excerpts from Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi (John Williams) - London Symphony Orchestra | "Andante Cantabile" from Symphony No. 5 (Peter Tchaikovsky) - London Symphony, Igor Markevitch | "Allegro Vivace" from Sextet for Piano, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, and Horn (Francis Poulenc)  - Alexandre Tharaud, Phillipe Bernold, Oliver Doise, Ronald Van Spaendonck, Laurent Lefevre, Herve Joulain | "The Anvil of Crom" from Conan the Barbarian original score (Basil Poledouris)   Full clip for Incommensurable on Kate's YouTube channel   Previous Episode in Instrument Spotlight series: The Clarinet Family (with Kania Mills) | Ep18   Also mentioned: Episode 7 - The Overtone Series  

Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/.  If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

This episode is primarily meant as a primer for music students.  It gives a very broad overview of music history from the Medieval era through what we might call modern classical music.  This episode is limited to Western civilization and some of the common composers.  This episode also offers David Lane's suggestion that we should rethink how we've classified musical eras since 1900.  Let us know what you think.

 

Music excerpts occur in this order:

O virga ac diadema (Hildegard von Bengen), The Shoemaker’s Wife (John Dowland), Canzon 12 (Giovanni Gabrieli), Spem in Alium (Thomas Tallis), Erbarme Dich, mein Gott from “St Matthew’s Passion” (Johann Sebastian Bach), String Quartet op. 76, no. 2 mvt III (Franz Joseph Haydn), finale of Act 4 of Swan Lake (Peter Tchaikovsky), Symphony No. 2 (Gustav Mahler), “Nuages” from Nocturnes (Claude Debussy), and Part 2 of Daphnis et Chloe (Maurice Ravel) Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact 

 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/.  If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

Dr. Ronnal Ford has learned to play, on a professional level, all of the woodwind and stringed instruments of the orchestra in addition to a few others.  He talks about how he approaches learning a new instrument.  He also talks about the challenges of being a musician of color in the classical community, and some of the recent opportunities that help him and similar musicians to be featured more prominently.

Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact 

Links:

Ronnal Ford's website: https://www.ronfordmusic.com/

Ronnal Ford's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@RonFordMusic/featured

Life in the Pit episode featuring Ronnal Ford

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/.  If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

Should you strive for big and hard goals, or safe goals that are fairly easy to attain?  What do you do when it becomes obvious that you won't reach a goal by the deadline you gave yourself?  This episode talks about these questions, along with the importance of balance, grace, pivot, and the importance of failure and discomfort.

Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact 

Previous episode referred to here: Goals, Motivation, and Organization with Melissa Slocum, Ep59

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/.  If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

If you're studying music and find yourself unable to progress, or are progressing too little in your opinion when considering your practice time, don't despair.  You are experiencing something very common in music and in plenty of other skill areas: the intermediate plateau.  This episode discusses why it exists and 7 things you can do to break through the barrier to becoming a great musician!

Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact 

Past episodes mentioned here:

What's Keeping You From Being a Great Performing Musician (Ep. 9)

Music Theory Checklist (Ep. 31)

Circle of 5ths and All It Reveals (Ep. 58)

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/.  If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

Anyone who seeks to become better a better sight reader will find a lot of information on what your eyes should be doing as you play, but there has not been nearly as much focus on what your hands should be feeling.  If you play the piano or other instrument that involves a lot of movement with the hands, can you manage steps and leaps with accuracy without ever looking at your hands? David Holter has a system called SPARK that helps pianists to develop this skill of kinesthetic awareness, and we chat about that for this episode.

Links:

David's Sight Reading SPARK course

Piano Sight Reading Community on Facebook

Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/.  If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

 

Whether it's composing a big piece, trying to master difficult repertoire, or wanting to build a full-time  teaching studio when you don't even have your first student, it's easy to see the target far in the distance.  Learning how to build and climb a staircase will help you accomplish absolutely any goal you have, big or small!

Previous episode referenced: Episode 40

Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/.  If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

 

If you've had a music teacher at any point in your life, you've probably heard the advice to "slow down".   It is truly excellent advice...if you approach it a certain way.  If your idea of practicing slowly is to make everything proportionately slower (as if someone filmed you full speed and then put the video in slow motion), this is only one way, and usually not the most effective in most cases.  Check out this episode to hear what good slow practice should look like.

Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/.  If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

The 4 Core Performance Skills are the big skills that every musician should strive to master to be the most balanced and well-rounded musician possible, and to have success as a performer in EVERY situation.  The second of these core skills is playing by ear, or playing music with accuracy after hearing it played elsewhere but having no written score.  Whether you're a professional or a dedicated amateur, playing by ear is freedom.  You don't HAVE to find sheet music in order to play something you've heard.  Playing well by ear obviously involves time in ear training, but this episode discusses this and the other things you want to develop in order to be able to play something well just by listening.

This is the 3rd of a 5-part series.  If you missed it, check out the previous episodes in this series:

The Four Core Skills Part 1: An Overview of the Skills

The Four Core Skills Part 1: Sight Reading

Let me know your thoughts on this episode as a voice message to possibly share on a future episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit 

If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can find all episodes of this podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

Whether you're a teacher or a performing musician, you'll only go as far as your goals, your system for dealing with lack of motivation, and your organization.  The guest for this episode is Melissa Slocum - piano teacher, business coach, and podcaster.  We talk about a variety of topics in this episode, including better ways to think about goals, a different approach to the idea of work/life balance, the important 1-word question you should regularly ask yourself, 2 nightly routines to keep you organized and motivated, a challenging take on the concept of the "ideal client" and more!

Follow Melissa at https://musicgro.com/ 

Her podcast, Sounds of Encouragement, can be found on any podcast app or here: https://musicgro.com/podcasts/

Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/.  If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

No single visual aid shows more aspects of how music works than the Circle of 5ths (sometimes called Circle of Keys and Circle of 4ths).  Besides its more widely known uses for showing the order of sharps and flats along with the keys in sharp and flat order, it also shows scale degree frequency, primary and secondary triads, chord groupings, and more.  From the basic to the obscure, this will get into the Circle of 5ths and all that it reveals.

Click here for the specific visual referred to throughout this episode:  Circle of 5ths Image

What else have you discovered about music because of the circle of 5ths?

Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/ . If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

So many musicians sit for hours a day, or perform a similar motion repeatedly, or maintain their arms in a fixed position...or some combination of those three, and they lead to injuries or fatigue in more than 90% of musicians at some point in their career.  The majority of issues are correctable and even preventable.

The guest for this episode is Angela McCuiston, a personal trainer and founder of MusicStrong, and focuses on helping musicians develop a physical fitness routine to help them play injury-free.

Links mentioned on this episode:

Sign up here for MusicStrong membership.

Become a Founding Member of the Wellness Center.

Facebook group for Music Strong.

Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/ . If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

 

Basic classical music education introduces students to a major scale, 3 types of minor scales, and a chromatic scale.  If you continue a little deeper, you might get a passing introduction to the modes (such as dorian and phyrigian), the whole tone scale, pentatonic scales, and maybe the diminished scale, not to mention non-Western and even synthetic scales.  But how many of these do you really know well in terms of theory?  Further still, how many of these scales have you committed to practicing in all keys?  This episode will introduce you to all of these scales and hopefully encourage you to really expand the variety of scales you have been learning.

Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/ . If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

On Episode 53, we offered 12 areas you want to consider reducing or eliminating in order to clear room on your slate.  This episode follows up to offer 10 specific musical goals that you can add to your own goals in order to become a better more well-rounded musician this upcoming year!

Prior episodes mentioned:

New Year's Goals Part 1: Letting Some Things Go | Ep53

Designing a Website That Works (with Taylor Rossi) | Ep40

 

Other helpful relevant episodes:

The Benefits of Score Study (with Andrew Callo) | Ep16

Basics of Studio Recording (with Liz May) | Ep26

Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/ . If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all our listeners!  This short episode is an introduction to David's 3 favorite pieces of Christmas music:

Samuel Barber: Die Natali

Benjamin Britten: Ceremony of Carols

Les Brown & His Band of Renown: Nutcracker Suite

*In the episode,  Episode 54 is promoted as part 2, but that episode will be a special Christmas episode.

Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/ . If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

This week's episode and next offer some suggestions on New Year's goals.  Episode 55* will deal with suggested goals for getting things done or accomplished, but this week's Episode 53 is important to check out first.  Before you can really get things accomplished that matter to you the most as a musician, you have to make room in your life by auditing various aspects of your life to see if you can minimize or completely remove some of the things filling up your time and space.  This episode offers 12 ways you might consider for removing clutter.

*In the episode,  Episode 54 is promoted as part 2, but that episode will be a special Christmas episode.

Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/ . If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

David Lane is about to celebrate 24 years of being a private teacher for piano, composition, and theory. He offers 8 tips for becoming a better teacher, some easy-to-apply things that he was not doing from the very beginning, each of which has made him a better and happier teacher.

Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/ . If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

Sherri Chung is a composer of numerous television and streaming series, including Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai, Kung Fu, Riverdell, Based on a True Story, and more.  We talk about her career but also about creativity, the importance of a full education in music composition and orchestration (rather than just specializing in one type of music) and more. 

Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/ . If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

To become a great musician, it's helpful to spend time studying scores, reading books, getting guided instruction, and other things that cost a lot of time and/or money.  However, there are two mindset skills that are free and don't require an expert to teach them to you, and those skills are gratitude and curiosity.  In this episode, I explain why these two skills are crucial to not only guiding you to bigger success as a musician, but also why they are pillars of good mental health.

Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/ . If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

The 4 Core Performance Skills are the big skills that every musician should strive to master to be the most balanced and well-rounded musician possible, and to have success as a performer in EVERY situation.  The first of these core skills is sight reading.  Sight reading not only gives you essentially a head start on learning new music, it is ESSENTIAL for many jobs such as accompanists, studio session players, and theatre musicians.  Orchestral musicians get such little time with their music before a concert that without good sight reading skills, they will be way behind.  However, much like other core skills, learning it is often over-simplified into advice like "Just play new music" or "Keep your eyes moving ahead."  These are all fine approaches, but without addressing other aspects of your practice, it will be hard to become the best sightreader you can be. This episode offers actionable practice tips to improve your sightreading.

This is the 2nd of a 5-part series.  If you missed it, check out the previous episode in this series: The Four Core Skills Part 1: An Overview of the Skills

Past sight-reading episodes on this podcast: 

Sight Reading Maverick (with Erica Sipes)

Improving Sight Reading By Touch (with David Holter)

Also check out

Deciphering Written Rhythms (with David Krosner)

For improving your speed and confidence in recognizing written notes, you can watch this tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3a0tgr-X-0

Let me know your thoughts on this episode as a voice message to possibly share on a future episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit 

If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can find all episodes of this podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

If there's something big you want to do like learning a challenging piece, writing a large-scale work, starting a band, opening or expanding a teaching studio, or something else that you keep putting off...it sometimes seems like you just can't even get started.  All you have to do is get the ball rolling.  It's a combination of finding the simple first steps and stacking as needed, and finding a way to leverage your accountability to the point that, before you know it, you've gone from seeking a goal that's impossible to one that is inevitable!

Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/ . If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

 

Conner Cherland is an L.A. based musician who left a job in the tech industry 7 years ago to become a full-time musician.  He talks about his tools to success, including his commitment to high-volume creation with the understanding that not all songs are keepers, a great networking tip he's used to get big wedding and party gigs, and also the work that went into his latest album, Lake, from creation to raising money to distribution.  He also talks about becoming a student again and what he's learning.

You can stream the album Lake on any music streaming app.  You can find the direct links and find out more about Conner at: https://www.connercherland.com/

Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/ . If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

 

In Episode 42, we talked about the importance of memorization as a musician, but didn't really talk about HOW to memorize music.  Like almost every musical skill, memorization is very easy for some musicians while very difficult for others.  This episode talks about the importance of getting your eyes in the right place, mindfulness, engaging your senses, and other tactics that will help you become better at memorizing music.

The article from Disc Makers that is referenced in this episode can be found here: https://blog.discmakers.com/2023/09/memorizing-music/

Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/ . If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

Frequency and consistency are 2 hallmarks of great practice for musicians.  That is to say: If you practice often, and you play your music the same way every time, you have the most important fundamentals of practicing well!  5 X 5 Practice is an easy-to-remember template that combines both frequency and consistency.  In essence, you choose a technique or musical passage to focus on, practice it to the point where you can play 5 times in a row with complete accuracy.  Repeat this for 5 days.  It might only be a fraction of your total practice time, but it adds up.  In this episode, we'll get into the details and examples of how this practice can be a simple solution for improving the quality of your performance!

Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/ . If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

It's not uncommon for a teacher to hear this from a parent who is discontinuing lessons.

"They won't practice unless I tell them to do it."  Sometimes we're talking about a 7 or 8 year old child.

Parents and, sometimes, teachers can have unrealistic expectations for how much children should CHOOSE to do the challenging work with practicing their instrument.  There's a lot going on here, not the least is which a faulty correlation between not choosing to practice and not liking their instrument.  Real practice is WORK, and even adults have trouble with making it a priority.  This episode also talks about the 3 opinions of self-starting that many adults tend to hold, preventing them from realizing the truth: Self-starting is a myth.

Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/ . If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

Whether you're a composer, a teacher, or a performer, having a good music notation program that you know how to use well is a great tool!  If you're convinced of that but don't have one already, one of the questions that everyone There are a lot of music notation programs to choose from, but there are 3 big ones: Finale, Sibelius, and Dorico.  Jason Loffredo is the creator of the highly acclaimed Conquering Finale video tutorial series, and he helps answer the question of which program is right for both you based on multiple factors.  And, of course, some good amount of Finale Talk, including Jason's Top 5 tips for improving the efficiency of your work flow!  Check out this episode for some very helpful info no matter how advanced you are with your software.

Links:

Conquering Finale Series

Finale

Sibelius

Dorico

Jason's website is: https://jasonloffredo.com/home-page

Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/ . If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

 

Here's a motivational episode for you for when you feel like your opportunities are too small, or nothing you do really matters.  A great exercise for when you have any kind of success is to write down, step by step, all the opportunities you accepted that led to this point.  Step by step.  Not just what you did as a child studying music that led to your most recent success, but what did you do 3 months ago?  Where did you send a resume?  What party did you attend, and who did you strike a connection with?  What competition did you prepare for?  What video did you put on YouTube that might have been seen later by someone else?  Then...what did you do before that?  And before that?  Success often comes after a long chain of little, and sometimes seemingly insignificant opportunities that all add up!

Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/ . If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

Geoff Westley is an active international performer, a pianist with a unique approach to programming.  His concerts are 100% his own original music, and he doesn't write any of it down.  In this episode, we talk about his approach to these concerts, thoughts on improvisation in general, how improvisation is a "lost art" among many classical musicians, and how that skill seems to intersect with the skill of memorization.

Find out more about Geoff Westley at https://www.geoffwestley.com/

Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/ . If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

David Lane shares 10 of his favorite books that aren't about music, but they speak to a mindset or a strategy that absolutely will help musicians in their quest to be better at practice and be better at improving themselves in every way.

The books discussed:

Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway

The Right Call

The Infinite Game

Effortless

Grip

Atomic Habits

Range

The One Thing

The War of Art

So Good They Can't Ignore You

 

Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/ . If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

One tool every musician should have in 2023 for getting gigs or students is a good website, one that actually generates leads and revenue.  Taylor Rossi is a musician as well as a web designer.  She talks about the things that musicians are doing too much of and what they're not doing enough of to have a better website.  We also talk about SEO and generally changing how you see your website from a client's perspective, and what really matters.

Taylor's business: https://www.nicolericcardo.com/cyc

Follow Taylor on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetaylorrossi/

Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/ . If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

There are many skills you need to become a great musician such as developing good technique, being good at ear training, and having a good knowledge of music theory.  None of these are the Core Skills but they help improve all four.  The 4 Core Performance Skills are the 4 types of situations that you might be expected to do in a performance.  Most people are better at one than the others, and only a small percentage of musicians take the time to become excellent at all 4.  If your practice leads you to develop all 4 skills as well as you can, you are going to find that you understand music from every angle and are the type of flexible musician who will be extremely valuable!

This is the 1st of a 5-part series.  In this episode, learn what the 4 skills are and why I chose them.  The next 4 episodes will each focus on one skill at a time.

Previous episode mentioned: Music Theory Checklist | Ep31

Let me know your thoughts on this episode as a voice message to possibly share on a future episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/.

If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

This podcast is committed to exploring all the traits that the most successful musicians around the world tend to cultivate, whether it involves the skills associated with making and understanding the music, or the mental, emotional, and social skills that go into having a successful career.  There are so many great examples to emulate, but there are also more than a few musicians who seem to be successful as far as getting work in spite of one or more trait that puts off their colleagues:  things like showing up late, talking negatively about other musicians, monopolizing rehearsal time for reasons that could have been addressed beforehand, and more.  With the help of contributions from more than a dozen colleagues, this episode looks at the practices from some musicians that you should strive to avoid, and WHY their outlier success is harder to sustain.

Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/ . If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

One of the tools of musicianship that was mentioned in Episode 1 is the ability to play well any written rhythm.  Why so specific? Why WRITTEN rhythm instead of just saying that we should be good at rhythm.  It's because they are completely different skills, and you're probably already good at one of them whether you know it or not, but the other one needs training.  My guest is long-time friend, percussionist, former band director and educator for all ages, Dr. David Krosner.  We talk about how to quickly dissect written rhythm into something you can sight-read with success.  We also talk about the importance of memorizing entire rhythmic patterns (not just individual notes), playing polyrhythms, and more.  This is an essential episode for an essential tool!

Click here for David Krosner's book as mentioned in the episode: https://www.beatinpathpublications.com/DKrosner/home.html

Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/ . If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

 

This is a full episode response to a listener question.  On an earlier episode about practice, it was mentioned that composing an etude based on a tricky measure or group of measures is a good way to not only conquer that measure, but passages like it that you might face in the future.  A listener asked David Lane: How do you compose your own practice etude?  Using 2 specific examples from the listener, a French hornist, he shares some ideas on how this might sound as various etudes.  This episode will hopefully help give you some ideas of how to get started, as well as answer why it's a good idea.

Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/ . If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

If you're a working musician, chances are that at least once in your life, you'll move to another area.  You're moving to an area with established musicians and trying to get your foot in the door.  What are some of the things you can do?  Robonzo is a drummer who has established a working network in the areas of Fort Worth/Dallas and San Francisco, as well as towns in Panama and Mexico, and shares a few things to do and don't to get started in a new area.

Robonzo is the creator and host of The Unstarving Musician podcast.

Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact 

You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/ . If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.