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!

Congratulations to the following trumpet studio students that won IMEA audition in to the IMEA district bands or orchestras:

Stephanie Sundberg-Band
Jessica Runyon-Band
Sam Copeland-Orchestra

Congratulations to all of you for your hard work! I’m so very proud of all of you. There was a lot of stiff competition this year.

Congratulations to my students who are auditioning for IMEA this year. Best wishes to Stephanie S, Jessica R, Sam C, and Robby H who are all auditioning at the High School level this year. These students will be auditioning this week and next week.

The way the IMEA auditions work…

Students are selected and recommended by their high school band director(s) usually through auditions. These students go and compete at their district.

The audition consists of four different rooms per instrument. One room for the IMEA scales, another for sight reading, another for the slow etude, and the last for the fast etude. The auditions are blind (the judge in each room does not see the player—for fairness) and scoring/judging is done real-time.  Some districts are different like District 1 in Chicago area.  They have a more relaxed approach where there is no screen and the judge can interact with the players.

The top players are selected and then they go later in the year to the IMEA band (a festival band). From that group the All-State group is selected as well.

A good musician is prepared for all sorts of things! You never know what to expect while on the road or going from gig to gig. I’ve had to play gigs in the dark due to power outage (good thing I had a couple of flashlights) and a wedding ceremony in Nor’easter weather.  I’ve been caught in a blizzard and 10 inches of snow getting to a Christmas-time gig (Good thing I had a shovel and a pair of boots in the trunk!).

What kinds of things should you keep on hand with you as a performing musician?

Flashlight, Extra Water, Snacks/Food (We like some of the freeze dried foods/snacks), cell phone, camera, lip balm

I always keep some basics in the car as well (especially during the winter season).  I have a sleeping bag or bivy sack, extra water and food, extra set of clothes, extra pair of socks, winter gear, car repair gear, Important contact names and numbers, and a portable jumpstart battery.

Also a good idea to have roadside assistance (AAA) and be equipped to change a tire or do basic repairs in a pinch.

Here is a place that you can get lots of items that will help you be prepared on the road and at home for those litlle emergencies that happen!

http://preparednesspantry.blogspot.com

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!

The personal website has become 21st century version of the business card.

For performing musicians having a place on the internet where you can send people to learn more about you and your services is becoming more and more vital.

In many circles it is simply expected that a working musician has a web address.

The important thing to remember is that it does not have to be a large and complicated website. Start with yourname.com or some variation and do a single page that tells people about you and how they can contact you.

Beyond the basic site you can then build in audio, video, pictures, bio, contact page, links to your colleagues, blog, podcast, and much more.

More details to come in the next post…

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

Here is my recommended schedule for trumpet cleaning for my trumpet studio:

Every 2-3 months give your trumpet a bath.  Full instructions can be found at this link:

http://www.musichem.com/articles/trmp_car_for_students.htm

Every year take the trumpet in to the shop and get a full chem-clean/ultrasonic treatment on the trumpet

A few tips…

When giving it a bath DO NOT use hot water.  Hot water tends to damage plating finishes….also do the valves separately in plastic cups (be careful with the valves…they can get bent or damaged easily).

Questions?  Let me know and I’ll be happy to help

Well everyone it’s been quite some time since I’ve posted.  I’m going to aim for a post each week during the late Summer and through the Fall.  I’m also developing a page on the blog to help my students hear and see good quality examples of repertoire courtesy of links to youtube and other media sharing sites.  I have just begun work on this and will keep you posted on the progress.  Hopefully it will be a helpful resource page that you can refer to regularly (especially if I keep adding new links to it regularly!)

It is Summer and I seem to be busier than during the rest of the year.  Performing quantity is down some due to the economy but Fall and beyond are beginning to really fill up.  My teaching load is more concentrated and many of my students take longer lessons.  I am seeing several of my college students this Summer and some recent grads as well as my regular studio load.  Great to se all of you!

We are also gardening a lot this summer and are selling at the local farmer’s market on the weekend.  We are learning a lot and enjoying fresh organic produce daily.

Well, more soon.  Look for another post next week!

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.