Musicianship Mastery with David Lane (David Lane)

There are dozens and dozens of genres, but there are really 2 ways of learning music (with small variations of each).  One way can be helped by strong skills of sight reading, knowledge of music theory, and the ability to read written rhythms.  The other way can be helped by a well-developed ear, improvisation skills, and great applied knowledge of music theory.  I call it the Classical vs Jazz approach but (again) I'm not talking about the genres.  For example, you can use a classical approach to learn jazz repertoire and a jazz approach to learn classical repertoire.  Check out the episode to hear the pros and cons and each, and which one I recommend.

If you have a question or feedback after listening to this episode you can leave a voice message 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 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 the first of what will be many episodes in the Instrument Spotlight series for The Musician Toolkit, occurring once every few months.  This series is for anyone wanting to choose the instruments as either a primary or secondary instrument, as well as to inform composers and arrangers about the capabilities, challenges, and limitations of such instruments.  Kania Mills is an active performer in band, orchestra, chamber music, and as a featured soloist in North Carolina.  She teaches woodwinds at Livingstone College and Catawba College.  She will help us navigate the clarinet family, how to get started, the challenges with playing well, maintaining the instruments, and also some repertoire.

Check out teaching and performance clips of Kania from TikTok below:

https://www.tiktok.com/@kaniamills/video/7212036578632404267?_r=1&_t=8bPCRVdlHCc

https://www.tiktok.com/@kaniamills/video/7206732376855022891?_r=1&_t=8bPCU4zojoR

https://www.tiktok.com/@kaniamills/video/7196109017037737262?_r=1&_t=8bPCQcFR8oQ

https://www.tiktok.com/@kaniamills/video/7201345060041002286?_r=1&_t=8bPCbLUJoEQ

 

List of Musical Excerpts Used in this Episode

 

12:00 "Scent of Death" from Interview with a Vampire original soundtrack (Eliot Goldenthal) 12:40 "Desert Music" from Sicario original soundtrack (Jóhann Jóhannsson) 34:42 Symphony No. 4 "Italian", mvt 1 (Felix Mendelssohn) performed by Chicago Symphony,;cond. by Georg Solti 35:18 Scherzo from A Midsummer Night's Dream (Felix Mendelssohn) - The Cleveland Orchestra; George Szell 52:46 El Salón México (Aaron Copland) - New York Philharmonic; Leonard Bernstein 53:34 Symphony No. 5, movt. 2 (D. Shostakovich)  - Berlin Symphony; Kurt Sanderling 55:54 Clarinet Concerto, mvt 1 (W. A. Mozart) - Mostly Mozart Orchestra; Gerard Schwarz 56:23 Clarinet Concerto No. 2, mvt. 3 (Carl Maria von Weber) 58:09 Clarinet Quintet, mvt 1 (J Brahms)  - Karl Leister; Amadeus Quartet 58:33 Quintet op. 39, mvt 1 (S Prokofiev) - Kammerensemble de Paris 59:29 Contrasts for Violin, Clarinet, and Piano (Bela Bartok) - The Rogue Ensemble 1:01:17 Black Dog (Scott McAllister) - Robert Spring, Clarinet 1:02:56 Clarinet Concerto, mvt. 1 (Gerald Finzi) - Robert Plane; Northern Sinfonia; Howard Griffiths 1:03:31 Concerto for Clarinet and String Orchestra (Aaron Copland); Benny Goodman 1:04:33 Solfeggietto/Metamorphosis (Eddie Daniels) 1:07:22 Rigoletto (Luigi Bassi) - Han Kim, Clarinet  

Do you have a question about the clarinet family or any additional suggested repertoire? Let me know by telling me directly 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 graduation season!  30 years ago, host David Lane graduated from high school.  Like so many adults, he's learned quite a bit since then, with some lessons harder than others.  From advice about practicing his instrument, finances, health, marketing, networking, and more...here are 30 things he would tell himself 30 years ago if he could go back in time.  If you're a high school graduate or still in college, or have a musician family member or friend in a similar situation, this episode may help give them a head start!

Adult listeners, what important lesson would you tell the high school graduate version of yourself?

Let me know by telling me directly 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.

 

When it comes to practicing music, sometimes the problem is that we don't always know what the process feels like when practice is good.  There are actually two halves to the practice, and not recognizing this leads students to occasionally either mistake the halfway point for the finish point or to rush the process in a way that the prepared piece is sloppy.  Listen to learn the 2 phases of practice, how neglecting the full process shows up in your practice, and finally... a picture of what good practice actually looks like.

You can see the graphs I explained on YouTube or on the blog version of this podcast found here: https://www.davidlanemusic.com/post/what-good-practice-actually-looks-like

From this episode, what most resonated with you, or what do you think I should have included?  Let me know by telling me directly 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 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.

 

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 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 composer or an arranger, it is invaluable to have plenty of references to help you study and improve your craft.  I share 4 types of books that I think every composer should have on their bookshelf, and my personal favorites of each kind.

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 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.

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.

When you work on music, there's so much to think about: rhythm, notes, fingerings, dynamics, articulation, tempo, and so on.  If the piece challenges you, and you're having trouble getting better, you may be trying to do too many things at once.  Hint: 2 things is too many things.  This episode offers 20 examples of how you can reduce your practice challenges down to 1 task.

If you have a practice tip specific to your instrument related to "one problem at a time" that you'd like to share, please consider leaving a voice message at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit

If you're not comfortable leaving a voice message, you can send me a message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact

*Episode note: I mentioned that you should increase tempo on a metronome by 1-2%.  It should be 5-10%.

If you loved this, please share with your friends, and please leave a 5-star rating and review!

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

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.

 

Problem 1: Not having long-term goals puts us in the trap of focusing only on day-by-day or week-by-week tasks.  We get things done, but we're not moving towards anything bigger.

Problem 2: Long-term goals can be overwhelming, exhausting our patience and our discipline.  Something that's going to take 2 or 3 years or longer can be very tough for staying the course.

Solution: Quarterly planning and review!

In this episode, David Lane shares why he loves quarterly goals and how they hit that sweet spot of short term productivity and long term ambition.  He also explains the critical addition of the review process at the end of each quarter so that you're constantly learning from both your successes and your failures to always be creating better goals.  There are also suggestions of how you can implement this system as a musician.  Check out this episode right way, just before Q3 begins, and plan out a great 3 months!

What has been your experience with quarterly goals?  Are you inspired to get started? 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.

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.

How can you plan a music rehearsal that is efficient and effective?

In the world of musical theatre, the music director is responsible for planning music rehearsals to teach all vocal parts to a cast where not everyone sings on every song.  There's also only a few rehearsals available to teach everything.  Planning good music rehearsals requires organization and creativity.  In this episode, I use recent productions of INTO THE WOODS and ROCK OF AGES as different examples of how I prepare for music rehearsals.

Technical note: The microphone sound is not quite as good as normal.  I will hopefully improve the issue for the next episode.

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 it involves practicing, composing, or any other creative goals you have, there's a way that I've found that actually works to allow you to accomplish everything you wish.  It's called batching, and it satisfies the brain's need to get and maintain a flow state.  Check out this episode to find out how batching can make a real difference in your productivity!

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.

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.

One of the great ways to learn how music works is to study written scores.  There are different ways to approach this but, in this episode, we're mainly talking about orchestral scores and improving the knowledge of harmonies, orchestration, development of melodic material, ear training, and more all directly from existing pieces of music from the composers themselves.

Our guest is Andrew Callo, a composer and arranger who has done a lot of work with the Air Force Band and a number of other concert works.  We talk about the benefits of score study to improving the ability to compose and arrange music.

Music Excerpts in this episode are:

(18:10) Beethoven: Symphony No. 1  (mvt I)  - performed by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Herbert Von Karajan

(48:42) Holst: The Planets (Mars) - Berlin Philharmonic; Simon Rattle

(55:53) R. Strauss: Aus Italien (III. Andantino) - Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra; Ondrej Lenard

(1:01:18) R. Strauss: Don Quixote (var. VII) - Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Fritz Reiner

(1:02:28) Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 (I) - Berlin Philharmonic; Von Karajan

(1:03:07) Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 (IV) - Berlin Philharmonic; Von Karajan

(1:06:00) Stravinsky: The Firebird (Introduction) - Philharmonia Orchestra; Robert Craft

 

Andrew's additional notes are located here: https://www.davidlanemusic.com/_files/ugd/8c856b_addc1e9b18ca471a81a5747d3d6caf67.pdf

From this episode, what most resonated with you, or what do you think I should have included?  Let me know by telling me directly 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.

"I thought this would be easier."

"I can't believe how much I had to practice just to learn this!"

"I thought I'd be much further along by now."

If any of these statements describe your learning experience with your instrument, you're not alone.  In this episode, I'll offer an explanation for why you're feeling this way and give you 5 steps you can take to stop feeling like you're behind and to thrive once again in your practice!

Musicianship Mastery is formerly known as The Musician Toolkit.

The video on practice that is referred to in this video can be found here: https://youtu.be/cymxVceIgCY?si=8-k-Y1gLgPEuwCHz

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.

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.

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.

 

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.

 

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.

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.

Have you ever thought you had a piece memorized only to play it for someone and you start having memory slips?  This is one of many common problems that can be solved through a process of troubleshooting, the same that an auto mechanic or computer technician might use.  Dr. Larry Weng of Wake Forest University talks about this approach of problem solving for your practice to find out what is really going on when surprises happen.  We also discuss a common question of high schoolers:  "SHOULD you major in music?"  In addition, we talk about philosophies of memorization, an inspirational story of someone who only took music seriously to become a professional after the age of 40, the complexities of a music career, and why you need to become your own teacher.

Links:

Dr. Weng's website

Icarus Quartet

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.

 

On Episode 90, I chatted with Bob Moore about the tools of being a church music director.  At the time, I was 20 months removed from being a church music director myself.  However, one day after this episode releases, I will be starting a new job as a church music director.  In this episode, I share my goals and action lists to help ensure that I get off to a great start.  Hopefully this can give you ideas as well if you're looking to do similar work.

Episode mentioned:

The Tools of Church Music Directing (with Bob Moore)

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.

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.

Professional musicians often have to confront obstacles from job changes...to a piece they're practicing that isn't getting better...to possible existential threats such as streaming services and AI.  To be a successful musician for a long time requires knowing when and how to pivot.  Hopefully this episode will help you answer both questions.

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.

John Williams recently celebrated his 91st birthday.  He's rightfully considered the most popular and perhaps the greatest film composer of all time!  His too-many-to-list credits include Jaws, Star Wars I through IX, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones series, and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.  What are the tools of John Williams' craft?  What are some of his composition techniques and his creative influences?  What are the various musical experiences aside from being a film composer that have helped shape his musicianship?  Besides discussing his early background, we will be focusing on 2 very different and seldom discussed scores to explore his style through his scores to Sabrina (1995) and Images (1972)

To help me discuss this is my guest, Dr. Frank Lehman, an associate professor of Tufts University.  He is a music theorist and a film musicologist who has specialized in study of John Williams, Hans Zimmer, and film score music in general.  His many articles and peer-reviewed papers, including his massive ongoing catalog and commentary of all Star Wars themes can be found through his website at https://franklehman.com/

What is your favorite John Williams score or theme?  Let me know by telling me directly at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact

This episode uses several musical clips to accompany our discussion of the music. (Note: these music clips play on the podcast feed only, not on the YouTube video.) In order of appearance, here is the full list of clips.  All music is composed by John Williams except where otherwise noted.

10:05 "Hedwig's Theme" from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone 12:32 "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" from The John Tanner Touch 13:28 Opening from "You Are Welcome" a documentary about Newfoundland 14:35 "Pajama Game" from Not With My Wife, You Don't 16:00 Main Title from Tarantula - music by Henry Mancini 16:31 Theme from Peter Gunn - music by Henry Mancini 17:26 Theme from To Kill a Mockingbird - music by Elmer Bernstein 18:27 "Good-bye Willy" from Death of a Salesman - music by Alex North 19:30 "The Swamp" from Psycho by Bernard Herrmann 20:37 "The Nightmare" from Vertigo by Bernard Herrmann 21:30 Overture to the School of Scandal by Samuel Barber 21:55 Commando March by Samuel Barber 28:37 "Theme from Sabrina" from Sabrina 29:40 ("Theme from Sabrina" from Sabrina) 30:12 ("Theme from Sabrina" from Sabrina) 31:47 "Moonlight" (with Sting) from Sabrina 32:45 "How Can I Remember" from Sabrina 33:33 "Nantucket Visit" from Sabrina 34:29  "Linus' New Life" from Sabrina 40:13  Amériques by Edgar Varese 42:03 "In Search of Unicorns" from Images 44:36 "Killing Marcel" from Images 45:51 "Blood Moon" from Images 47:52 "Reflections" from Images 48:44 "Miracle of the Ark" from Raiders of the Lost Ark 49:35 "Barry's Abduction" from Close Encounters of the Third Kind 50:08 "Diving Away from Trouble" from War of the Worlds 51:17 "The Mecha World" from A.I. Artificial Intelligence 53:40 "The Imperial Attack" from Star Wars 54:06 "Map Room: Dawn" from Raiders of the Lost Ark  

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.

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.

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.

 

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.

Where are you in your knowledge of music theory?  It all starts with the fundamentals (a very broad category that takes a while to master) and there are multiple levels of each branch to know before you move on to other areas such as part-writing skills, analysis, and counterpoint.  This episode will give you a checklist of skills and experiences.  Check off what you know, and write down what you need to learn.

For the written list, go to: https://www.davidlanemusic.com/post/music-theory-levels-a-checklist

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.

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.

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.

This is the first of an epic 2-episode look at the genre of heavy metal, both in terms of music history and theory.  This first episode compares how heavy metal came to be and developed throughout the '70s and into the early '80s, and then compares its attributes with Baroque through Romantic era concerti, as well as what metal offers that distinguishes itself as a genre.  Leading us on this journey is Eric Schwartz, a classical musician and lifelong metal fan who is a co-host of the podcast Heavy Metal 101.

Be sure to check out part 2 next week when we dive into heavy metal since 1980, the variety of subgenres, and our own personal favorite albums.

Eric's podcast, Heavy Metal 101, can be best enjoyed here: https://open.spotify.com/show/1tjsy3NgM063tlvMOv9PQR?si=4cba8bafc3f84dd4

These are the musical examples played in this episode:

9:40 Black Sabbath: The Wizard

11:24 Judas Priest: The Ripper

12:10 Judas Priest: Deceiver

18:37 Soundgarden: Loud Love

19:41 Alice in Chains: Man in the Box

20:05 Nirvana: Smells Like Teen Spirit

22:31 Black Sabbath: Iron Man 28:12 Van Halen: Eruption 29:02 Vivaldi: Summer (III: Presto) perf. by I Musici 29:40 Vivaldi: Winter (I: Allegro Non Molto) perf. by I Musici 30:15 Van Halen: Eruption 32:30 Black Sabbath: Black Sabbath 33:06 Gustav Holst: The Planets (I. Mars) Montreal Symphony; cond. Charles Dutoit 33:47 Black Sabbath: Black Sabbath 36:42 Spinal Tap: Hell Hole 38:30 Deep Purple: Lazy 41:02 Judas Priest: Tyrant 47:12 Metallica: Battery 50:08 Tool: Schism 51:56 Meshuggah: Bleed  

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.

Creating music on acoustic instruments (ones that don't require electricity to produce the sound) are operating on properties of physics.  Sound waves have attributes, and each pitch on an actual instrument is producing multiple sound waves at once, with the fundamental (the sound you actually hear) and overtones, which create resonance.  Overtones are inaudible unless you isolate them, which you can do on most instruments.  This is a topic that intimidates a lot of musicians, but it's important to try to dive in.  It not opens your mind to new instrumental effects, but it helps you understand the secrets to creating RICH harmony, and explains why some chord choices just don't work as well as others.

This episode is meant to work in podcast format only.  However there are a number of videos, charts, and sheet music examples that might make the video version of this a better choice for some of you.  You can find that here: https://youtu.be/_fNUPW-l5YM

Special thanks to Jennifer Lane and Harlan Feinstein for their contributions!

If you have a question or feedback after listening to this episode you can leave a voice message 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 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.

 

It's such an easy thing to do.  You're impressed with a great musician or other artist, and you talk about or get to compliment them, and out comes this word that seemingly everyone uses as a 1st choice...and that word is "talented".  Talent is certainly worth having, but it shouldn't be THE quality that gets the praise.  To quote the title of Geoff Colvin's wonderful book, Talent is Overrated, it's not because talent has no value, but as a tool it is VERY limited. As a first choice of compliment, especially to a student musician, there is the possibility of hugely negative consequences, as David Lane explains in this episode

Has the label "talented" been a roadblock for you or someone you know?  If you'd like to share a brief account of your story, you can at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit

If you're not comfortable leaving a voice message, you can send me a 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/

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.

Andrew Synowiec is a session musician, primarily as a guitarist, who has appeared on recordings of a variety of artists and bands, including The Who, Barbara Streisand, Megan Trainor, and M83.  He's also performed on the soundtracks of several films and television series, including Cobra Kai, Frozen, Coco, A Good Day to Die Hard, Little Fockers, and more!  Andrew talks about moving to LA from Miami, becoming a session guitarist, the process of working with a variety of composers, and...of course, the tools to be successful in this line of work.  He also talks about some of his other projects as a performer.  This is a great conversation that you won't want to miss!

Find out more about Andrew Synowiec at https://andrewsynowiec.com/

Musical excerpts in order of appearance: "The Final Countdown" arr. Pinar Toprak (from The Lost City soundtrack)

"Sam and Robby" and "Quiver" by Leo Birenberg and Zach Robinson (from Cobra Kai soundtrack)

"Let It Go" by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez (from Frozen soundtrack)

"Triple Vodka Rhapsody" by Marco Beltrami (from A Good Day to Die Hard)

"Dia de Los Muertos" by Michael Giacchino (from Coco)

"Triad Days" and "Late to the Party" by Andrew Synowiec

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. Frank Lehman, film music scholar and professor at Tufts University, returns to chat with David Lane about a score that is often lauded as the greatest of all time, The Empire Strikes Back composed by John Williams.  This episode is a discussion along with musical examples of the themes, harmonies, and orchestration choices that make this a masterpiece, along with a comparison to the 1st Star Wars series, and a little on the legendary performance from the London Symphony Orchestra.  May the force be with you as you join us as we tackle this ultimate Jedi of scores!

If you missed it, be sure to catch the 1st episode with Dr. Lehman, where we discussed John Williams more generally as well as some other scores here: https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit/episode/7d49eeaa/episode-8-the-craft-of-john-williams-with-frank-lehman

Frank's marvelous catalog of Star Wars themes and analysis is located here: https://franklehman.com/starwars/

Do you have something to add to our discussion?  Let me know by telling me directly at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact 

Musical Excerpts.  All tracks by John Williams and from The Empire Strikes Back except where noted.

18:39 King's Row Main Title (Erich W Korngold)

19:30 Theme from Ivanhoe (Miklos Rozsa) 27:14 Darth Vader Motif from Star Wars 29:02 The Imperial March (2 clips) 34:16 Yoda's Theme 34:47 Yoda's Death (Return of the Jedi) 37:10 Yoda and the Force 39:58 Han Solo and the Princess 40:51 Princess Leia's Theme (Star Wars) 42:20 Rescue from Cloud City 43:55 The Rebel Fleet/Finale 45:12 End Credits 46:36 Droids Theme 47:25 The Wampa's Lair 48:28 Main Title (Luke's Theme) 48:53 Force Theme 49:50 Rebel Fanfare 51:25 Lando's Theme 52:41 Boba Fett's Theme/Attack Position 53:18 Darth Vader's Trap 54:17 Dark Side Motif/Magic Cave 54:46 Yoda and the Force 56:04 The Asteroid Field (2 clips) 59:54 City in the Clouds 1:01:11 Mynock Cave 1:02:16 End Credits (Raiders of the Lost Ark) 1:02:30 End Credits (Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade) 1:04:48 Mynock Cave 1:08:22 The Battle of Hoth (5 clips) 1:15:08 Carbon Freeze (2 clips) 1:18:48 Hyperspace 1:22:37 End Credits  

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 took 13 episodes since this podcast began with the premise of exploring 20 tools of musicianship that every musician should have in some proportion.  Finally, there's a 21st tool to mention: the skill of active listening.  This is different than passive listening, a fine activity where you just enjoy the music, but it is essential to becoming a great musician!  In this episode, we review listening strategies while giving some special mention to classical simply because how you become familiar with the music is different than how you would approach other genres.

Download the checklist of What to Listen For here: https://www.davidlanemusic.com/_files/ugd/8c856b_2d89c0432f4b45239fcd410f7b4e356b.pdf

From this episode, what most resonated with you, or what do you think I should have included?  Let me know by telling me directly 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 performing musician who uses sheet music, sightreading is one of the skills that you want to prioritize in developing, so this is the first of many times that this podcast will likely talk about this tool.  Erica Sipes is a pianist with a live show on her channel called Sightreading Maverick.  We touch on some of the physical tools needed to sightread well, but primarily we talk about the emotional and mindset tools that often get neglected when discussing this skill.

Check out Erica's services at https://www.beyondthenotescoaching.com/ and subscribe to her YouTube channel as well as watch past episodes of Sightreading Maverick (and tune in on Sundays at 1pm Eastern) at https://www.youtube.com/@EricaSipes

From this episode, what most resonated with you, or what do you think I should have included?  Let me know by telling me directly 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.

Every musician should know a little about conducting.  But what does a conductor really do, especially when working with professional musicians?  How do they prepare for rehearsal and for a performance?  Our guest this episode is Michelle Merrill, a conductor who previously served as Associate/Assistant Conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra under the supervision of esteemed maestro Leonard Slatkin.  She is the music director of the Coastal Symphony of Georgia, and just recently was appointed as the new music director of the Winston-Salem Symphony Orchestra.  She talks about the importance of networking, the craft of score and rehearsal preparation, the importance of making sure your physical style suits you individually, as well as her short and long term plans with the Winston-Salem Symphony.

For single tickets to the WSSO 2023-24: https://wssymphony.my.salesforce-sites.com/ticket/#/

For more on Michelle Merrill, visit: https://www.michelle-merrill.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.

 

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.

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.

When it comes to practicing music well, there may not be any better incentive than the power of residual effects.  For example, when you learn how to play a 2-octave scale really well, you've not just learned it for that one time.  You've learned it for the next time you need it and will at the very least be a lot further along when you come across anything similar.  Much like saving or investing money early and often, the effects of residual practice compound the more you learn and get a lot accomplished in your sessions.  Listen to this episode to hear what those benefits are, and how to maximize your practice so that you're gaining those residual effects.

Does this tip resonate, or do you have anything related to these suggestions? 

Let me know by telling me directly 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.

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.

Episode 21 is a brief challenge to be mindful in your decisions, understanding that choosing to do something means that you're choosing NOT to do something else.  Sometimes that something else you're NOT doing is practicing challenging music or technique, or composing, or doing something that feels like work, but you can apply this to any decision you make in life.

Today's episode is sponsored by The Unstoppable Singer Summit, a free virtual event for singers who want to overcome the starving artist mentality.  There are 45 speakers over 3 days (May 15-17).  Registration is required and you can do so here: https://thesingersummit.com/toolkit/ref/51/

Do you have any comments on today's topic?  Let me know by telling me directly 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 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.

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.

Is it your goal to become a great musician?  Are you already a working musician, but want to strengthen your craft?  Are you a music student with strengths and weaknesses, and not always sure how to address that which needs improvement?

Do you need to learn how to be a better sight-reader?  Do you need help playing by ear, transposing, or memorizing music?  Do you sometimes struggle to know how much to practice a piece of music or skill, or what approach to take?  Are you wanting to get better at improvisation, composing, music theory, learning 2nd and 3rd instruments?

If so, it sounds like you need to check out... The Musician Toolkit!

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

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.

Planning is good, but doing is better!  Whether it's composing your next piece, practicing something hard or accomplishing a career goal, it's possible to become a doer and not just a planner even if that hasn't been your natural inclination.  In this episode, I share what has worked for me.

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.

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.

There's a simple solution for making progress as a musician, and it's what's known as "skin in the game".  If you don't give yourself stakes, it's hard to expend the energy required to get yourself to the next level.  This episode will give you 10 ideas for things you can do to give yourself those stakes to give yourself some real progress!

Musicianship Mastery is formerly known as The Musician Toolkit.

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 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.

There are so many things a musician must develop to be a success.  There's technique, fluency in music theory, composition and arranging skills, the skill of marketing, the skill of networking, staying up-to-date with the industry, and much more.  However, there is ONE SKILL that is important for you to develop first that makes all of these other skills more manageable, and this is our topic in Episode 81.

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.

Reading for self-improvement is a common habit among successful people in all kinds of fields, and this is definitely true for musicians!  However, good reading is more than just staring at words on pages.  Besides types of books, it's important to invest time, energy and techniques to get the most out of what you're 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.

This is the 2nd of an epic 2-episode look at the genre of heavy metal, both in terms of music history and theory.  This 2nd episode takes more of a look at the history of heavy metal since 1980 through the lens of subgenres.  Leading us on this journey is Eric Schwartz, a classical musician and lifelong metal fan who is a co-host of the podcast Heavy Metal 101.  For the final segment of this episode, Eric and I each offer up 5 of our all-time favorite heavy metal albums.  Be sure to play this episode loud!

If you missed part 1, we talked more about the origins of heavy metal and got more into the music theory side.  You can find that episode hereL https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit/episode/7e14ef9d/heavy-metal-101-part-1-with-eric-schwartz

Eric's podcast, Heavy Metal 101, can be best enjoyed here: https://open.spotify.com/show/1tjsy3NgM063tlvMOv9PQR?si=4cba8bafc3f84dd4

The top 10 albums that we discussed, and 10 more we considered, can be heard in their entirety here: 

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0zrwEkboZKE5eLcikCdxdg?si=84415f3fa70a4d77&pt=e95433e2fc7ed6227c31035d7374dd5a

These are the musical examples played in this episode:

04:39 Iron Maiden: The Prisoner 05:51 Van Halen: Runnin' with the Devil 06:34 Motorhead: Overkill 06:57 Metallica: Master of Puppets 08:31 Death: Scream Bloody Gore 09:51 Emperor: Toward the Pantheon 10:24 Helloween: I'm Alive 11:02 Pantera: Walk 12:02 At the Gates: Cold 12:44 Dream Theater: Pull Me Under 13:51 Black Sabbath: Supertsar 16:41 Mastadon: Crack the Skye 18:12 Zeal & Ardor: Children's Summons 20:13 The Prodigy: Firestarter 22:16 Nine Inch Nails: Heresy 24:47 Def Leppard: Rocket 27:01 Queensrÿche: Speak 27:18 Queensrÿche: Spreading the Disease 27:51 Queensrÿche: Suite Sister Mary 29:18 Black Sabbath: Symptom of the Universe 29:58 Black Sabbath: Megalomania 30:43 Black Sabbath: The Writ 32:07 Megadeth: Sweating Bullets 32:32 Megadeth: Foreclosure of a Dream 33:39 Beetlejuice the Musical: The Whole Being Dead Thing 36:23 Slayer: Angel of Death 36:42 Slayer: Raining Blood 38:23 Anthrax: NFB 39:01 Anthrax: Got the Time 39:20 Anthrax: In My World 41:47 King Diamond: A Mansion in Darkness 42:15 King Diamond: 7th Day of July 1977 44:42 Avenged Sevenfold: Unbound (Wild Ride) 45:21 Avenged Sevenfold: Dear God 48:07 Judas Priest: Painkiller 48:40 Judas Priest: Hell Patrol 49:02 Judas Priest: A Touch of Evil 50:22 Nightwish: The Poet and the Pendulum 51:03 Nightwish: The Islander 51:22 Nightwish: 7 Days to the Wolves 54:40 Death: Spirit Crusher 55:08 Death: Voice of the Soul 56:09 Death Painkiller  

What's your favorite heavy metal band or album, and why that choice?  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 a new year, and you probably have goals as a musician, but are you underestimating the time and intensity you need to invest in order to make real progress?

The easiest way to work on music or any skill and "feel" like we're making progress is to consistently dabble in it.  A few minutes here, a few minutes there.  A little practice is better than none, right?  This is an approach to keep you running in place.  If you want to really grow as a musician in 2025, it's time to stop dabbling and time to get serious!  In this episode, we talk about why and how.

Musicianship Mastery is formerly known as The Musician Toolkit.

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.

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.

Welcome to The Musicianship Toolkit with David Lane!  This podcast is dedicated to helping you improve your craft of musicianship.  First, we need to discuss what goes in the toolkit.  The skill of sight-reading, the ability to play by ear, the ability to practice effectively and efficiently, knowledge of music theory, and 16 more tools will be introduced here.  Give yourself a rating of 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent) of each tool as it's introduced to see where you are right now.  What tool do you need the most help with?  What tools did I leave out?  Send me a message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact

If you loved this, please share with your friends, and please leave a 5-star rating and review!

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

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.

Not every music student or even professional musician has explored classical music, much like not necessarily every classical musician will know something about jazz or any other genre.  However, each genre has certain pieces that one should know from each genre regardless of your preference.  These are 25 of many possible choices, not necessarily "the best", but some pieces you should recognize by title and composer upon hearing.

Musical examples used in this episode:

06:53 P. Tchaikovsky: "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" from The Nutcracker - (Montreal Symphony; Charles Dutoit) 12:49 J.S. Bach: Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565 (Hannes Kästner, organ) 13:15 J.S. Bach: Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565 (Czech Philharmonic; Leopold Stokowski) 17:26 S Barber: Adagio for Strings (New York Philharmonic; Thomas Schipps) 19:48 Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 (Vienna Philharmonic; Carlos Klieber) mvt 1 and 4 24:03 Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 (Berlin Philharmonic; Von Karajan) mvt. 4 and 2 28:33 Brahms: Hungarian Dances 4, 5, 6 (Vienna Philharmonic; Claudio Abbado) 30:56 A Copland: "Hoe-Down" from Rodeo (St. Louis Symphony; Leonard Slatkin) 32:33 F Chopin: Grand Valse Brillante op. 18 (Valentina Lisitsa) 34:22 Debussy: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (Royal Concertgebouw; Bernard Haitink) 36:01 Dvorak: Symphony No. 9 "From the New World" mvt 2 (London Philharmonic; Charles MacKerras) 38:16 Grieg: Peer Gynt and Peer Gynt suite no.1 (San Francisco Symphony; Herbert Blomstedt) 40:13 Handel: The Messiah "Hallelujah" (London Symphony; Colin Davis) 40:43 Handel: Water Music selections (English Chamber Orchestra; Raymond Leppard) 41:30 Holst: The Planets "Mars" - (Montreal Symphony; Charles Dutoit) 42:13 Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 (Marc-Andre Hamelin) 43:22 Mendelssohn: Overture and Wedding March from A Midsummer Night's Dream (London Symphony, Andre Previn) 45:11 Mozart: Overture to The Marriage of Figaro (Academy of St Martin in the Fields; Neville Marriner) 46:16 Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition - Promenade and Great Gate of Kiev (Berlin Philharmonic; Claudio Abbado) 48:25 Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2 (Vladimir Ashkenazy; Moscow Symphony; Kirill Kondrashin) 49:38 Ravel: Bolero (Boston Symphony; Seiji Ozawa) 51:42 Ravel: Daphnis & Chloe (Rotterdam Philharmonic; Yannick Nézet-Séguin) 52:46 Rimsky-Korsakov: Flight of the Bumblebee (Berlin Philharmonic; Zubin Mehta) 53:08 Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherezade mvt IV and III (London Symphony; Charles MacKerras) 55:06 Schubert: Ave Maria (Barbara Booney) 55:31 R Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra (Chicago Symphony; Fritz Reiner) 57:15 Stravinsky: Rite of Spring (from Part 1) (New York Philharmonic; Leonard Bernstein) 58:21 Tchaikovsky: Russian Dance, Arabian Dance, Dance of the Reed Flutes from The Nutcracker (Montreal Symphony; Dutoit)   Do you have a different recording of these pieces that you'd recommend? 

Let me know by telling me directly at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact 

The blog post that goes with this episode can be found here: https://www.davidlanemusic.com/post/25-essential-classical-pieces-to-know

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 the corporate world, it's customary to receive a performance review from your supervisor.  A good review is objective, noting what you're doing well already and what needs improvement.  When you're a solo musician or private teacher, a performance review is an important step that often gets ignored because...well, you're by yourself.  However, by simply recording video and audio of yourself at work and making observations during playback, you can separate your roles of the the employee and the supervisor.  In this episode, you can hear how a performance review can greatly improve your practice, your progress on a piece, your effectiveness as a teacher, your goals, your finances, and so much 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.

Eric Perrotti is primarily a guitarist, but with a passion for learning as many instruments as possible, enough so that he has collected over 200!  However, he has done so with a very modest budget.  He talks about the approaches he has taken to learn all of these instruments in a self-taught way, as well as his strategies for finding great deals and building his instrument library without breaking the bank!

Follow Eric at https://www.instagram.com/ericperrotti/

What are your tips for finding or learning new instruments? 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 every great musician should have in their toolkit is knowledge and experience of studio production.  If you use a professional engineer in your projects, you'll be able to understand the process and communicate better.  Often, you may be doing a DIY recording project, and want to get the best final product that you can.  This is a huge topic, and this episode is limited to just a few basics: choosing the right microphone, microphone placement, minimal gear requirements, planning a production session (even when it's just you involved), and a few finishing touches.

Our guest, Liz May, is a professional audio engineer with a pianist background, is very active as a live sound engineer and also owns a recording studio called Soundlizzard Productions.

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.

Recently, I spoke for 5 episodes about the four core performance skills, the musical skills that will allow you to play well in any situation for any genre.  If you're a beginner or you teach beginners, how early can you get started with these skills?  Check out why I think that not only can you start right away, but you actually should.  Also listen to find out how you can begin practicing the core skills with no prior musical training.

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.

On this episode, we take a look at composing the score for a big-budget documentary series such as Prehistoric Planet, currently streaming on Apple TV+ with a 2nd season due to come out soon.  Series composers Anže Rozman and Kara Talve talk about working at Bleeding Fingers Music with Hans Zimmer, collaborating with each other in creating the score, and everything about the process from spotting the episodes, to deadlines, to preparing the score to be recorded by a live orchestra, in addition to commissioning and learning to play some of the custom-built instruments for this score such as the Raptor Violin, Hadro Cello, Petrified Wood Xylophone, and many more.

All music clips in this score are from the Apple TV+ Original Series Soundtrack for Prehistoric Planet, Season 1 - available for streaming or download on all major outlets.

Check out these two videos about the unique instruments for this score:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CrkE-r2uV9N/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CrcFJ9HsIVt/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Do you have any comments on today's topic?  Let me know by telling me directly 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 is a generation of students that is, generally speaking, not as equipped for the professional world that follows school as previous generations.  In this episode, I chat with Dr. Kinard Douthit, a flutist and professor at Winston-Salem State University, about the obstacles and challenges of today's college students.  This is certainly a broader topic than music, but could be clarifying for students, parents, and teachers of this age group.

Musicianship Mastery is formerly known as The Musician Toolkit.

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.

There's nothing wrong with being average at anything.  As I once heard another podcaster say, "Most people, on average, are mediocre at most things".  To go from average to good takes some effort, but it's a smaller and seemingly less daunting step than to go from good to great.  If you're stuck on being average or good as a performer, one or more of the 7 reasons that are mentioned in this episode might be why.

The YouTube clip mentioning the performance of the Hammerklavier Sonata can be found here: https://youtu.be/yRDcgjvjj2E?t=17

From this episode, what most resonated with you, or what do you think I should have included?  Let me know by telling me directly 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.

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.

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.

 

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.

Whether you're a student pianist or you're already accomplished when it comes to classical music and reading fully notated scores, it's a different experience to take a lead sheet (with just a melody line and chord symbols) and perform it with accuracy, creativity, good voice-leading, and then add some improvisation.  But if you're a well-rounded musician, this world shouldn't be intimidating.

Federico Pivetta is a great pianist who is comfortable in both the classical and jazz worlds, where he is in local and regional demand as one of the best jazz pianists in the area.  He helps us learn about the harmonic language of jazz, how to work with a lead sheet, the basics of improvisation and some exercises to develop this skill, and an intro to some of the various rhythmic styles.

If you have a question or feedback after listening to this episode you can leave a voice message 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 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 August 26, 2024, the long-time popular notation app called Finale announced that it would be permanently discontinuing all of its software, leading to very vocal anxiety and panic among its many veteran users.  Professional composers and arrangers, as well as educators all need a good notation app, but Finale is no longer a choice.  Jason Loffredo of Conquering Finale returns to chat about what steps Finale users should take to migrate as well as how to navigate the other choices, primarily deciding between Dorico and Sibelius.

Links:

Jason's personal site: https://jasonloffredo.com/

Conquering Finale: https://www.conqueringfinale.com/

Previous episode with Jason

Scoring Notes blog: https://www.scoringnotes.com/

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.

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.

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.

Bob Marks has been a renowned vocal coach for well over 4 decades.  His former students is a wall of fame roster and includes: Ariana Grande, Britney Spears, Sarah Jessica Parker, Lea Michele, Laura Bell Bundy, Ashley Tisdale, Debbie Gibson, Natalie Portman, and more.

In this episode, Bob talks about what his role is as a vocal coach in contrast with a vocal teacher, and how those two roles have blurred in recent years among the elite teachers of each field.  We also discuss the importance of singers having realistic goals, and we go over a few of the many misconceptions about the voice.

Links:

Bob's website

Book: 88 Keys to Successful Singing Performances

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.

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.

 

Simply put: you can't play music well unless you're subconscious mind is driving the bus.  If you're aware of having to think about each note, each rhythm, each aspect of the music before you play it, then you're still practicing with your conscious mind.  When you train your technique and repertoire beyond the point of awareness where your hands just seem to play by themselves, you have entered the subconscious zone with your music, and this is where the fun begins!  In this episode, learn how these two minds work and how to practice in one mode so that you train the other.

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.

Most aspiring composers have narrow goals, seeing film (or video game) music or being a concert composer as the way to go, but if you can create music on paper, you actually have many options to contribute original music and add at least some income in the process.  One of those ways is composing for publication that is marketed to schools and churches: music for school bands and orchestras, music for church choirs and handbells ensembles, and more.  It's a tricky world that requires a flexible but creative composer who can still write very good music that is specifically tailored to various ages and levels.

Bruce Tippette is a composer with dozens of published works through Alfred Music, Hal Leonard, C. Alan Publications, Carl Fischer, FJH, and more, many of which have been honored as J.W. Pepper's Editors Choice.  Bruce talks with us about the skills needed to become this type of composer, how to navigate the sometimes intimidating grading system of school ensembles, strategies to getting published, and how all of this can lead to building relationships and getting commissioned work.

You can explore Bruce's music and contact him through his website at https://www.brucewtippette.com/

If you have a question or feedback after listening to this episode you can leave a voice message 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 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 was recently asked, "What gave you that idea?" in regards to this podcast.  In this episode, he offers some insight into when he noticed these traits of musicianship, and how it developed before becoming the basis of this podcast.

 

From this episode, what most resonated with you, or what do you think I should have included?  Let me know by telling me directly 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 not a harpist and wanting to compose, the harp can be a mysterious instrument.  It can play all of the notes of a chromatic scale, but only 7 in a time across all octaves.  It has a similar range to the piano with a similar 2-staff system, but the harpist uses fewer fingers and approaches the notes from a different angles.  There are pedal diagrams, pedal change instructions, special effects in tones, and so many other things to consider.  If you've ever thought about composing or arranging for the harp, it's very helpful to have someone like Danielle Kuntz to help!  Danielle is a harpist with a passion for new music, and her business is to help composers balance creativity with practicality to write great harp music with clarity.

You can get in touch with Danielle at https://www.daniellekuntz.com/

The resource for notation programs and harp notation is here: https://mola-inc.org/resources/20141

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 possible part-time or full-time job for many musicians can be as a music director for a church.  Bob Moore is a composer with much experience as a music director for Catholic and Episcopalian churches.  David Lane is a composer with much experience as a music director for Baptist and Methodist churches.  In this episode, we chat about the musicianship tools needed to do the job well.

Bob Moore's website is: https://www.bobmooremusic.com/

Technical note: The microphone sound for the host is not quite as good as normal, especially in the intro and outro.

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 ability to practice well is an important tool for every musician.  So why not put that skill to use on useful aspects of your life other than music?  Here are 10 things you can practice to improve that will either make you more efficient with your time, leave you better prepared to do the important work, or improve your relationships and your marketability as a musician.  If you want to be a successful well-rounded musician, make sure you're exploring these non-musical skills with as much intention as your instrument.

From this episode, what most resonated with you, or what do you think I should have included?  Let me know by telling me directly 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 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.

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.

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.

Whether it's a virtual metronome or tuner, notation software, games to improve your music theory or ear training, or more...musicians have plenty of choices and sometimes the need for apps to help them have a better practice experience, to learn skills, or simply to make the music.  This is far from a comprehensive list, but includes categories of apps and some suggestions for each musician to consider.

You can find a written list of the apps mentioned in this episode here: https://www.davidlanemusic.com/post/what-kind-of-apps-do-musicians-use

What kind of apps do you use as a 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 

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.

 

It's hard to truly understand the full expressive power of music unless you sing.  This is true especially if you're primarily an instrumentalist.  Depending on your instrument, you might be missing out on a chance to sharpen your skills of intonation, tone, breath, vibrato, and expressive details that some instruments lack.  More and more, innovative instrumental teachers include singing in their lessons for beginners to create this more intensely personal connection to music.

Our guest this week is Katie Muhlenkamp.  She is an experienced vocal performer in both the worlds of classical and musical theatre, as a soloist and as a choral member.  She also is a private voice teacher, and is here to talk about the basics of vocal production, some of the myths associated with singing, how to choose a teacher, and how to get some free opportunities to practice singing.

From this episode, what most resonated with you, or what do you think I should have included?  Let me know by telling me directly 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.