THE Two Keys to Success in Music (and Life)!

I was chatting with a friend of mine recently and he passed along some advice so simple, yet so profound, that I felt it just had to be shared. With all of the excellent advice out there for the current or aspiring Part-Time Musician (PTM) – and I’d like to think we’ve passed along a good deal of it! – it just doesn’t get much better than this.

It’s Never Too Late to Start

However old you are now, whether 8 or 88, you’re at the perfect age to start playing an instrument. If you don’t already play the instrument you’d like to play, for Heaven’s sake, START NOW! What is holding you back…really? Fear of committing to…doing something you’ve always wanted to do? Fear of…not being very good until you’ve progressed a bit? The cost of…investing in your personal growth and fulfillment? Short of physical inability (five year old + double bass = bad idea), there is no good reason for putting it off. IT’S NEVER TOO LATE TO START PLAYING THE INSTRUMENT YOU LOVE!

Something is Better Than Nothing

We’ve written previously about “micro-sessions” for practicing (click here to see article), but to cut straight to the chase, any quality time is better than no quality time…even if it’s just a few minutes each day. You won’t get to Carnegie Hall on five minutes a day, but you could learn a few tunes over the course of a few months, work on tuning and intonation, throw in a few embellishments, and amaze just about everyone you know – including yourself – with your progress in less than a year’s time. Yes, you’ll improve faster with more time and thought invested; but begin with whatever you can and adjust as appropriate. SOMETHING REALLY IS BETTER THAN NOTHING!

These same principles apply to anything in life (fitness, learning a language, reading, etc.), but they hold special importance for us as PTMs. Remember these keys and apply them, and someday, you just might amaze yourself with what you can do.

All the best,
Mark

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Welcome new advertiser: Making Music Magazine

Please welcome our newest advertiser, Making Music Magazine! If you haven’t already, you can check out their ad in the right column of this (and every!) page here at PartTimeMusician.com. It looks like this:

Making Music Magazine is a print publication that caters to people who play music as an avocation, not as a vocation. Many of us PTMs fall into that category, and for those who do, MMM is an excellent (additional!) resource.

Our goal here at PartTimeMusician.com is to provide quality information to those who “work a day job to support their playing addiction”, and this extends to our advertisers. Our bar is high on your behalf, and we feel MMM fits right in.

Please let us know how we’re doing! After all, this is your site, too. 

All the best,
Mark

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What is holding you back? No, it isn’t!

The response to yesterday’s article was amazing, and the feedback mirrored my own thoughts and feelings. There are those who overcome so much to play their music…and by comparison, very little stands in our way.

If yesterday’s amazing demonstration didn’t jar you into action on your instrument, perhaps this one will. PTM reader Dan Kieffer turned me onto the story of Patrick Henry Hughes, a talented and inspiring young man who has just become my hero. He and his family exemplify the values of music, love, family tragedy and triumph, and everything else that we all talk about at length, but so seldom demonstrate with any conviction. The video tells it best.

To Patrick and his family: thank you for all you do. Without even trying or intending to do so, you are an inspiration. Play on!

All the best,
Mark

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Play along to enjoy playing!

Whether you’re learning a new instrument or returning to an old one, you want more than anything to play music. Scales and etudes are necessary and helpful things, but they weren’t what inspired you, spur-of-the-moment or after years of vacillating, to pick up that instrument. No, it was the music you heard – the music you decided you were going to play.

So how did you get to this point? Night after night of scales, etudes, technique drills, exercises. You can see improvement, and that’s good…but it just aren’t as fulfilling as you might have hoped. What now?

Enter play-along music. Many brands exist from various publishers (Music Minus One, for example), but they all provide a book with the “lead sheet” for you to play along with an accompaniment CD. Accompanists range from piano or synth to full orchestra, and books of play-along music are available for wide-ranging musical genres and ability levels. For anywhere from $10 to $30, you can have a group of great musicians back you up while you play your favorite pieces – all in the comfort of your own home!

When I returned to the trumpet a few years back after a couple of decades away from it, I bought a Dixieland jazz play-along book and CD combo to encourage myself. Although my primary playing has always been in “legit” band and orchestral environments, Al Hirt and Herb Alpert first inspired me to play the trumpet so many years ago, and the light-hearted fun of Dixieland jazz and Mariachi music still calls to me. Play-along books have given me opportunities to play various types of music when an actual group is nowhere to be found.

You can find play-along books/CDs online and (hopefully) at your local music store, but SheetMusicPlus has a selection that’s hard to beat. If you do decide to order your music, be sure to follow the “smart PTM” advice for buying music mail-order to get what you want quickly!

For those times when a string ensemble, jazz group, or orchestra is nowhere to be found (or if you’re just not ready for that yet!), play-along music fills the gap beautifully. Give it a try and let us know what you think!

Keep playing,
Mark

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Get some rhythm and hold the blues – three great reasons to use a metronome

Whether you play only for fun or for the occasional paid gig, you want to play your best. One simple way to take your playing up a notch is to establish a consistent sense of rhythm, and there is no better way to do that than with a metronome.

Metronomes are not straightjackets; they are tools, and like many other tools in your musical toolchest, they are a very cheap investment in you and your lifetime enjoyment of music. Here are three things a metronome can help you do:

1. Develop a strong sense of tempo(s)

If you’ve practiced various pieces at a particular tempo – say, 100-120 Beats Per Minute (BPM) – you’ll be able to pick up a new piece of music with that tempo marking and know pretty well the desired tempo. This is a huge help when you’re sight-reading, but it comes in handy at other times, as well…like on the night of a performance when you’re distracted or have a really bad case of nerves. 

2. Be a better ensemble/section player

This goes hand-in-hand with the previous point, but it has more to do with keeping the tempo rather than establishing it. As your group/section is playing along, it’s very easy to drag or rush, depending upon any number of factors…or even drag and rush in different sections, if you’re accustomed to hearing your favorite performer/group playing it that way. But what if your favorite artist’s version differs from someone else’s? Practicing occasionally with a metronome, especially when learning a new piece, can help you establish a consistent tempo. This doesn’t restrain you; it liberates you, because now you can choose when it’s appropriate to change tempos, rather than follow the dictates of “that’s how so-and-so plays it”!

3. Master your part

One of the key ways a metronome helps you as a musician isn’t physical; it’s mental. While all of us know that we can master difficult passages by practicing them at a slower tempo, then speeding them up once we’ve worked out the kinks, our own minds often work against us, especially on selections we’ve heard before (and perhaps even played in the past). Have you ever tried to slow down the Barber of Seville? It’s hard to slow Bugs Bunny down, isn’t it? 

Playing at a reduced tempo along with your metronome helps you start slow and finish slow…thus mastering that tricky passage more quickly than you might have otherwise. Once that is accomplished, a metronome allows you to increase the tempo gradually and retain the ground you just gained.

What we use

There are many good metronomes available, but we have two and can offer a few thoughts on them specifically.

If you like the look and operation of a “traditional metronome” – like the one your piano teacher or music director likely had when you were a kid – something like the Wittner mahogany metronome is a good choice. Tempo is set by sliding the weight up or down the pendulum, and the Wittner’s wind-up operation means never having to buy batteries. Well-crafted and beautiful, it’s both a metronome and a classy decoration for your home studio. Priced at around $100, it isn’t cheap…but it will likely last you a lifetime.

One of the best all-around metronomes money can buy, in my opinion, is the Korg KDM-2 Digital Metronome. It functions as a pitch tuner as well (providing a note to which to tune your instrument), but as you’d expect, it really shines as a metronome. It’s speaker can be heard over even a small group’s playing – you can use it with earphones, if you prefer – and it includes a flashing bulb on top for a visual cue as well. Tempo markings are on the front, and tempo can be set or adjusted via up/down buttons or a quick rotation of the large wheel on its face. You can even tap the button a few times to have it determine the tempo! And at less than half the price of the Wittner, it’s feature-packed and wallet-friendly. If I could only have one metronome, this would be the one.

Bottom line

Using a metronome helps you learn your parts better; it also helps you begin and play them more consistently. As a result, you’ll likely notice that it makes you a more respected member of any group(s) in which you play. There are few things more frustrating than trying to play with someone who can’t hold a tempo, and those who can “keep the beat” make playing that much more relaxed and enjoyable.

Break out your metronome tonight, or if you don’t have one yet, get one! You’ll be glad you did.

Keep playing,
Mark

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