Attend a live performance to get your mojo back!

What happens when things get hectic and you miss a few nights? Have you ever gone through a difficult time and just didn’t feel like practicing? Whether you aren’t ready to play in a group yet or are a seasoned veteran between gigs, this just happens. How do you boost your motivation when you are feeling just a bit lazy? 

I was going through one of these periods lately when our youngest was scheduled to solo with a local orchestra. Her piece was extremely difficult (Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen), but she was ready…and the orchestra was, too. She played beautifully, and the music made by both daughter and orchestra filled my heart with joy and my eyes with tears. How can we, as musicians, so quickly forget the inspiration our music offers us?

Years ago I read of the motivation that comes from attending live performances. It’s important to go whenever you can, but it’s especially important to do so when you’re going through a “dry spell”. Feeling down? Lazy? Frustrated with life in general? Find a performance and go to it. If it’s your favorite kind of music, that’s a nice bonus…but if not, go anyway! You’d be surprised at the lift it can give you.

Once the performance is over, try to tell the musicians how much you appreciated their performance before you leave. You’ll probably be thinking about it the rest of the evening: the selections, the style(s), any particularly impressive technique, the musicians themselves, how much they appreciated hearing your heartfelt congratulations…and you’ll be itching to break out your instrument to play.

So go ahead! Find a performance, go enjoy it, and then break out that instrument! And let us know when you will be up there next, so we can come see you play, too. After all, we all can use a little inspiration from time to time. 

Keep playing,
Mark

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Seven low-pressure venues to improve your playing

As I mentioned in a previous article, one of the best ways to improve your playing quickly is to have to play. But regardless of where you are in your path as a Part-Time Musician (PTM), that can be a frightening thing. Here is some good news for you: it doesn’t have to be!

There are a number of venues that offer low-pressure opportunities for you to perform. Sure, you’ll likely get a few butterflies, but they can be more like those you get when being introduced to someone new rather than being interviewed on CNN.

Here are some low-key performance opportunities you may have overlooked.

Family

Your family is a built-in audience that is ideal for any level of PTM. If they live with you, they listen to you every day anyway; why not put on a small concert for them? Your extended family might like to hear what you’ve been telling them about for the past several weeks/months/years as well. Family will love you, even if you miss that one accidental that’s been giving you fits…and they often won’t even notice.

Church, religious gatherings

Your church or other religious institution is like an extended family, and they are similarly encouraging. Most worshipers appreciate the sincere effort as much as the music you’ll provide. Share your gift, and you’ll be surprised how much you “get back” as you give it.

Nursing homes, retirement facilities

You’d be hard-pressed to find a more appreciative audience than at a nursing or retirement home. Many residents can’t get out and about to see performances any more, and just as you and I would, they miss it. Some of my most treasured performance memories are our ensemble’s visits to a local nursing home and a Convent for retired/infirm Sisters.

Fairs, themed gatherings

If you enjoy playing music of a particular type (e.g. Celtic) or from a particular time period (medieval, early colonial, Civil War/WBS, etc.), you have some additional options available. These can be the lowest-pressure of all, especially if people can walk by as you play, stop for a bit to listen, then move on. In that type of environment, just being able to play a few tunes adds so much to the feel of an event…and even if you start the day struggling with a piece, you’ll probably have the kinks worked out after you’ve played it several times.

Pubs, restaurants

A friend of mine plays with a PTM Celtic group that performs at a local pub. Between playing as a group (vs. solo) and the ambient noise in the room, the pressure to perform “just so” is dramatically reduced…and once again, music that befits the location adds a great deal to the patrons’ enjoyment.

Libraries, community events

Our local library is always looking for people to give performances/demonstations of any kind and ability, from origami to poetry readings to music. If you know something about the music you’re playing, or if you are willing to show eager kids your instrument and the basics of how to play it, your library will hook you up! And there are few things as gratifying as lighting a spark of interest in music in the heart of a child. You’ll be smiling for days.

Schools

Like libraries, there are many low-pressure ways to “perform” at a school. If you can talk even a little about early American music, Scottish fiddle pieces, the role of the clarinet in jazz, or whatever your interest is – and play even basic musical examples – your local schools would love to hear from you.

Give it a try!

Audiences want you to do well. Think about it for a moment: do you ever go to a performance hoping the musician will make a mistake? Of course not. You want them to play well for all to enjoy. Your audience really is filled with people who want the best for you.

Performing, at any level, will make you better. It will also encourage you beyond your imagination. Give it a try, then share your experience with the rest of us by leaving a comment! We look forward to sharing in your victory.

Keep playing,

Mark

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Five Secrets to Rapid Improvement in Your Playing

At some point, every part-time musician (PTM) reaches a point of frustration with their progress. Whether this occurs early or later on your path, it’s almost certain to happen. The way to break through this barrier is to build your momentum…but how?

I hit this obstacle early in my “second childhood” on the trumpet. Things that used to be easy for me two decades prior (yes, two decades!) were unreachable. The “good ear” I had as a high school and college trumpeter was gone. My range was gone. My endurance was gone. I was beginning to wonder if I simply wasn’t cut out to play any more.

After reading a great deal, practicing as much as I could, trying every different approach and piece of advice I could find, buying various methods and study manuals, I finally distilled what worked for me. After running it past several other PTMs, I’ve concluded that this is a decent framework for just about anyone playing just about any instrument. There may be more things you’d add to the list, and if there are, I’d love to hear them! But these are what worked – and work – for me.

1. Practice every night – even if it’s only five minutes

There are evenings (days or nights if you work shifts) where you just don’t have time for a good solid practice session. But there are almost no days when I can’t spare five minutes. I find that keeping lips-on-mouthpiece, fingers-on-strings, or whatever applies is the greatest key to rapid improvement. Why? Muscle memory for one reason, but I think there’s more to it than that. If you set it as a priority to play every day, you take it more seriously. Granted, you can’t play only five minutes every day and get very far, but it does keep you in the habit. And you’d be surprised what you can accomplish in only a few minutes of concentrated effort.

2. Start with scales

I’m convinced that running scales every day will do more to improve more aspects of your playing than almost any other effort. You can work on your dynamics, expressiveness, tonguing/breathing/range (for winds), fingering, picking/plucking/bowing patterns (strings), endurance, and several other areas important to mastering any style of music. It also helps you master your scales (duh!) and learn your keys (one flat = key of F, two flats = key of Bb, etc.). You can run through all of the major scales in a matter of a few short minutes at the beginning of your practice session once you’ve gotten into the routine and believe me, you’ll notice the difference it makes.

3. Use etudes/studies

These musical “exercises” are more entertaining than scales, but they help you polish certain areas of your playing by focusing upon them in a more isolated manner. Some etudes help you gain expressiveness, some work on developing clean attacks, some help refine bowing techniques (strings)…well, you get the idea. When I wanted to learn to double- and triple-tongue on trumpet, I cracked open the method books and the Arbans manual to the sections on multiple tonguing. Someone else had already done the legwork of selecting those exercises; I could go straight to practicing them!

4. Join a group as soon as you can

While trying to join a band, community orchestra, or ensemble is probably not the best idea after only a few lessons, at some point, you’ll have mastered the basics and will be getting reasonably comfortable with your instrument. As soon as you feel that you are “getting the hang of it”, start looking for a group to join. You may not be ready for the big time, but there are numerous groups out there that don’t expect you to be a pro…just that you’re not too bad and improving as you go. Frankly speaking, there is nothing that will make you work to improve quickly than knowing you are on the hook to play somewhere, even if it is in a large group. (Caveat: Don’t reach TOO far beyond your current capabilities or playing will suddenly become “un-fun”. The key is to stretch without breaking!)

5. Finish each practice session by having some FUN

Is there a particular style of music (or two, or three) that you really like? Finish each practice session with a fun piece, even if it’s a simplified version. Envision yourself playing that with a group someday, and play it like you already are. I love many styles of trumpet music, but my favorites are probably Dixieland Jazz and Mariachi music. Early in my re-learning period of trumpet playing, I found a simplified book of Dixieland Jazz music with an accompaniment CD that was on sale, and I bought it. What a great find! Each night – and especially ones when progress seemed elusive – I would finish with one of the songs in that book. What a lift! I’d put away the horn happy and ready to do it again the next evening.

What do you think? Do you have any additional secrets you’d like to share? Please do so by leaving a comment or sending us an email. And above all, keep playing!

Mark

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