How can I handle the Stress???

Stressed Out?

Face it…life is stressful. In fact if we didn’t have any stress at all in our life at best we would be bored and at worst we would die at an early age. We need a certain level of stress in our lives. The problem is that much of the stress that we encounter day to day is a result of our own choices and decisions.

What I find to be the biggest offender is the lack of margin in our lives. As an example…

Are you barely making it on time to that gig? You didn’t leave an extra “margin” of time to get there…to allow for the unexpected.

Are you strapped financially and living month to month—day to day? We’ve all encountered periods of our lives that are like this. Is this your lifestyle? If so what margin can you create in your life to have some extra set aside. How about an emergency fund or a few months of expenses set aside. I know that it is hard to do. As a matter of fact it took me nine months to get a $1,000 emergency fund set aside. But piece by piece that gives me some margin and some peace of mind.

How about margin in your relationships? Are you taking time to nurture the relationships that mean the most to you?

These are all areas that I am working on. It is a daily process and really helps to refocus and change the levels of stress that you encounter. Let’s just put it this way…by creating margin in all of the areas of your life you will move from an unhealthy level of stress to a healthy level that will actually give you energy and joy!

Also don’t forget that many people that have a strong religious faith (a close relationship to God and a church home) are much more likely to have a better handle on stress and live a healthier life as a result.

There’s a fantastic book on this that I recommend highly by Richard Swenson.  The book is Margin:  Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives.

I’m going to address this more in future posts with ideas and helps specific to the life of a musician.  More to come!

When Illness Strikes…

What do you do when you are sick?

It happens to all of us. We are about to go out on stage or get in to the pit to do another show or play a few services in church and sickness strikes.

Many people have a nervous kind of sickness that they have to deal with on a regular basis. Sometimes it is a flu or a cold that you just can’t shake. You have a fever or are having trouble breathing. These things don’t typically add to the quality of your performance.

More often than not performing through a sickness or illness is a must. For a freelance musician it is often difficult finding a substitute that you can trust to do well at the last moment. For an orchestral player there may be a bit more flexibility if you have an extra player who can step in.

In my career with only couple of exceptions I have just had to push the sickness aside and proceed.

For me this has worked with varying success. Often my performance is diminished and I am in survival mode (play as well as I can and get home and to bed!). Strangely in some of my more intense performancs when I was under the weather my mind and body were in a genuine state of relaxation (or exhaustion) and I’ve had some of my best performances.

Whatever the case I am a big believer in proactive care. That would include good rest and diet, exercise, and a daily routine of natural/homopathic care including a Good Multivitamin, Extra Vitamin C, D, E, Fish or Krill Oil, Colloidal Silver, and Garlic. When you start to feel symptoms of cold or flu utilize ColdCalm and/or Sambucol.

Much more on this in future posts!

Raising Your Profile

When I work with musicians both professional, part-time, and amateur more often than not they all have something in common.  That is they are not marketing themselves to the outside world.  Sure, some carry their business card and a few have a website.  There are a few with a demo or even a CD they have recorded.  The real problem is that they do not have a cohesive plan for raising their profile to meet their own goals.

A professional musician does not automatically get playing jobs.  The phone isn’t ringing off the hook for their services.  More often than not the person hiring the musician has people that he or she works with and knows.  Going with an unknown or a new player is often not the first choice for the music director or contractor.

A part-time or amateur musician can really benefit from raising the profile especially if they want to acquire more playing jobs or move from volunteer work to paying jobs.

Word of mouth has its place and can be very helpful.  The bottom line is that the musician needs to take steps to get out there and make themselves known to the world at large.  That means developing and implementing a cohesive marketing plan and implementing it.

I have recently launched a service to address this very important need in the musical community.  The service is called Musician Advice.  I work individually with each artist (professional or aspiring) to create a cohesive marketing plan tailored to their specific goals and offer a full suite of services including website design and implementation, business card/postcard promo design and print, demo and full CD production, and one-on-one consulting on a wide variety of related subjects.

Please feel free to visit the website:

www.musicianadvice.com

You can also contact me at:

james@trumpeter.com

How to Practice Part I

Perhaps the most perplexing thing that I come across as a professional musician and trumpet teacher is how lacking we are as musicians in our abilities to practice our craft effectively.

Poor practice habits and direction are certainly very prevalent among those who are learning the instrument.  This is not such a big surprise because so many students are not taught what practice time means and how to do it most effectively.  The perplexing thing that I see is that there are many out there playing for a living who still struggle with practice and how to practice with effectiveness.

Fortunately, learning about private practice and the most effective methods are something we can all beneffit from.  There have been many who have written on the subject.  For our purposes I will be drawing on the wisdom of several different sources to help shed light on this subject.

In today’s post I am going to start off with a very easy formula for structuring your time and then talk about how to execute it most effectively.  This is only a sketch—each player will likely need a modified version of this.

Goal: Goal-Directed Private Practice 6 days a week (between 30-45 minutes each day).

Daily Routine:

10 minutes Warm-up/Maintenance:

Includes Lip/Mouthpiece Buzz, Flow Studies on Trumpet, Scales, Flexibility Studies, Articulation Warm-up

10 minutes Technical Study:

Includes a single target area for the day (for instance multiple tonguing, slur/tonguing mixed articulation, interval studies, awkward finger combination studies, special articulations, etc)

10 minutes Musical Study:

This includes doing lyrical songs and etudes, mixed etudes, solo, church/hymn music, etc.

Throughout all of this session sound quality needs to be a major focus.  Additionally you need to work to unify everything musically—play with a purpose.

During the next few posts I will expand on different practice methodologies, ideas to keep practice fresh, and literature/resources to utilize.

Get out there and perform!

I’m encouraging all of my students to get out and perform. There are so many opportunities for you! Here are some ideas:

• Talk to your church music director—play in some church services or special events!
• Grab a friend and play duets at the local nursing home for the residents.
• Join a youth symphony, community band, or jazz ensemble.  Some possibilities in the greater Chicago area include Chicago Youth Symphony, Elgin Youth Symphony, Midwest Young Artists, Aurora Youth Symphony, and Jazz/Community Bands all across the area!
• Play a song/piece for a group you are involved in (Scouts, 4-H, etc)
• Get some musical friends together and start a band!  A few of my students have started their own ska or alternative bands  that utilize a brass section.  You can also do a rock cover band that uses horns—ie. Chicago, Tower of Power, Springsteen, etc.

The important thing to consider is that music is all about communicating and sharing with people—your audience.  A benefit of performing more often is that you will condition yourself and you will have a better handle on any nervousness that you may experience.

For more ideas and opportunities please contact me and I’ll be happy to help find opportunities for you to perform.

Keeping in shape over the upcoming break

December has become for so many of us a very busy season. Whether you celebrate Christmas or not is hard to avoid the busyness and sometimes frantic nature of the end of the calendar year.

For my students they all have a break from school that lasts anywhere from two to four weeks. Often our first reaction to a break in schedule is to slow down and take a break. I subscribe to this philosophy but with a caveat. You see most of us are creatures of habit and we do better if there is some structure (or for some a lot of structure) to our days. This is true for breaks and vacations as well.

As for the trumpet (and virtually all musical instruments) it is vital to have a plan to remain in good shape for when things start up again in earnest.

I recommend taking the first day or two off completely if you can. If you are a professional or a working college major than you will need to take a different path. For those first couple off days get extra sleep but also remain active and take part in some leisure. I’m not a big advocate of TV or Video Games so I’d encourage you to spend time outside, go for a bike ride, go sledding, go for a walk or run. Inside how about a good read? A novel? What about helping someone in need? You can volunteer to ring the bell for the Salvation Army or help at a soup kitchen. These things take initiative but they are much more fulfilling.

I recommend a great book called: Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations. This is a fantastic book.

As for practice ideas and time during break here are my suggestions:

Beginners: 10-20 minutes daily (yes-daily we need daily time even over break). For my students split the time between the toolbox/warmups and the assigned music I give you. Remember to say the note names and press the fingerings on the trumpet before you play each song!

Middle School/Junior High/High School:
20-45 minutes daily (yes-daily we need daily time even over break). For my students split the time between the toolbox/warmups and the assigned music I give you. Remember to say the note names and press the fingerings on the trumpet before you play each song! Also remember to use the pre-play checklist before you play the musical pieces.

As for content please take time to play music that you enjoy. It may be to learn that new movie theme or jazz song. Maybe there is a church hymn or song that you want to learn. For musical ideas and actual music please let me know and I will be happy to help!