Category: Performance

Thoughts and advice on performance techniques, theories, etc.

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Weekly Roundup 6/16/15

Reading: This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession by Daniel J Levitin. (still reading)

Arranging: A nice little reprieve from arranging, although I’ve got a mischievous little idea in the back of my head…stay tuned.

Practicing: Reading through the Blazhevich book, looking for fun etudes to work up. Speeding up my multiple tonguing.

Rehearsing: Metro read through new charts on Sunday. Some good stuff for our performance at the Hudson bandshell on July 23rd.

Performing: Midnight in Moscow, July 1st at Driftwood Char Bar. I have a new performance calendar! Bookmark it, subscribe to do, do what you gotta do- see you at the gig.

Listening: War on Drugs, Sleater-Kinney, Tame Impala (I’m painting the bathroom this week).

Teaching: Intonation across the partials on lip slurs- particularly up to the 7th partial.

Relaxing: Went tubing down the Cannon on Sunday. Picked up our first box of CSA goodies last week and have been cooking up a storm. Also- painting. Am I weird? I find it soothing.

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Weekly Roundup 6/9/15

Oh man! I totally spaced last week and forgot to do a roundup. Not even sure what I was doing. Not blogging. Whatever. I’m back!

Reading: This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession by Daniel J Levitin. (still reading)

Arranging: Editing old arrangements for the Satellites. Still doing this, too. Endlessly. Arranging feels like it’s never done.

Practicing: Satellites charts, lip trills, double and triple tonguing, slurs into the trigger register.

Rehearsing: Satellites have their first rehearsal Thursday so those charts better be ready, missy!

Performing: Midnight in Moscow, July 1st at Driftwood Char Bar.

Metro put on a stellar concert last week. Really well-attended and liked. Da Pacem Domine (my arrangement) was a particular hit!

Listening: Best Coast (saw them live last night at First Avenue!), Tame Impala (give me the new record asap)

Teaching: How to manage your summer practice schedule.

Relaxing: Reading outdoors in the sunshine. Drinking iced tea. I love summer.

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Weekly Roundup 5/26/15

Reading: This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession by Daniel J Levitin.

Arranging: Editing old arrangements for the Satellites.

Practicing: I’m so close to having a real lip slur I can taste it (or maybe that’s blood).

Rehearsing: Midnight in Moscow this week- we have our first gig in over year in July!

Performing: Metro Brass: June 4th Variety Concert! Can’t wait to conduct Da Pacem Domine in the round.

Listening: Surfer Blood. Brahms Piano Quintet. Vampire Weekend.

Teaching: Probably overdue for a series of lessons on good practice habits, what with summer being here and all.

Relaxing: MAD MAX WAS SO GOOD. Tonight, seeing Surfer Blood at 7th Street Entry. Tomorrow I’m getting a MASSAGE and it’s all I can think about.

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Weekly Roundup 5/19/15

Reading: n/a this week- still waiting on books from the library! Arranging: Love Letter by Clairy Browne and the soul version of 7 Nation Army by Ben L’Oncle Soul (both for the Satellites). Practicing: Double and triple tonguing needing a review this week. Rehearsing: Metro Brass on Sunday night. We put in some serious effort on Da Pacem Domine and it is going to sound fantastic! Performing: Metro Brass: June 4th. The Satellites: June 13th. Midnight in Moscow: July 12th. Metro Brass: July 23. More information under “Upcoming” on my homepage. Listening: Janelle Monae is my queen. Teaching: Feels like everyone’s stressed out about finals and AP tests and life this week. So I’ve been teaching less instrument-specific things and more about time and stress management- and how music can help! Relaxing: MAD MAX. Tonight. Art-A-Whirl, this past weekend. Feeling like my weekends are planned out with festivals and gigs for the rest of the summer.

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Weekly Roundup 5/12/15

Reading: Requested a few books on musical acoustics from the library. Thumbing through my old ear-training texts.

Arranging: In the editing stages of charts for the Satellites. We have a gig! June 27th. Details to follow. A few changes to make to Da Pacem Domine before Metro’s concert on June 4th.

Practicing: Metro Brass charts, lip trills, and a review of alto clef because I am rusty!

Rehearsing: Midnight in Moscow met last week and we had a productive rehearsal revamping some of our favorite charts. Our next gig on the books is July 12th!

Performing: Metro Brass: June 4th. The Satellites: June 27th. Midnight in Moscow: July 12th. Metro Brass: July 23. More information under “Upcoming” on my homepage.

Listening: Brandi Carlile, a little bit, but mostly silence has been nice this week.

Teaching: Two students are trying out for Minnesota Junior Winds, so I’ve been prepping them for that and helping them record. Other students are diving into learning tunes by ear, and working with the Intonation Helper.

Relaxing: Spent lots of time at Eloise Butler this weekend, volunteering. It’s so gorgeous there, you guys. Go check it out.

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Weekly Roundup 5/5/15

Reading: Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, Oliver Sacks

Arranging: Sam Smith’s I’m Not The Only One is done for The Satellites. I’m out of things to arrange- unless I finally get around to that instrumental version of David Bowie’s Fame that I’ve always wanted to do…

Practicing: Red Dragonfly, Annie Laurie, Elegy for Mippy II (to keep up with a student who will perform it for his MYS audition next month).

Rehearsing: Metro on Sunday had a long rehearsal in preparation for our June 4th concert. We dove into Da Pacem, which I arranged for the group a few weeks ago.

Performing: No gigs currently booked until end of May.

Listening: A friend invited me to see Lady Lamb the Beekeeper tonight at 7th Street Entry, so I’ve been rocking out to her smart, heavy lyrics.

Teaching: I may have finally found my metaphor for airflow- at least, it’s worked with a few students so far! I want air to ‘flow’ like water, I’ve talked about putting your foot on the gas pedal, I’ve asked students to move their air like a solid brick of sound. The other day I reversed the concept of control, and asked a student to imagine I was pulling the air/sound out of him, like a string. It worked immediately. And it worked again with another student. Teaching. Win.

Relaxing: Avengers: Age of Ultron! Minneapolis MayDay festivities. Long hikes along the Minnesota River. Bike rides. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I love spring.

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Weekly Roundup 4/28/15

Reading: Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, Oliver Sacks

Arranging: Arranging went on halt last week as I undertook a new project: revamping my studio welcome packet.  Just today though, I got back on track and finished I’ve Never Found a Man for The Satellites. Tomorrow I’ll take on Sam Smith’s I’m Not The Only One and then, unless Alan picks some new tunes, I’ll be done for a while!

Practicing: Red Dragonfly, Annie Laurie, chromatic scale patterns, lip slurs up to the 9th and 10th partials.

Rehearsing: Midnight in Moscow had a great rehearsal last Wednesday- it was much needed after a stressful day for me. We have a gig on the books and are working on more- stay tuned!

Performing: No gigs currently booked until May.

Listening: Sleater-Kinney absorbed much of my weekend, being the most excellent soundtrack to clean the house on a sunny day.

Teaching: Several of my students have asked for help with intonation issues, so I’ve prescribed lots of slow scales and tunes with the Intonation Helper. Intonation isn’t something your slide does. It’s something your ears do.

Relaxing: Biking, eating tacos, petting kitties, reading in the sunshine.

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Weekly Roundup 4/21/15

Reading: Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, Oliver Sacks

Arranging: Charts for The Satellites are almost all done! I have two more to do: I’ve Never Found A Man (Lavelle White) and I’m Not The Only One (Sam Smith). Never Found is actually done- but our previous arranger wrote a different horn soli that isn’t as hip as the one on the track. So basically I’m just going to redo that part of it.

Practicing: Red Dragonfly, Annie Laurie, chromatic scale patterns, lip slurs up to the 9th and 10th partials.

Rehearsing: Midnight in Moscow this week!

Performing: No gigs currently booked until May.

Listening: Went to see the University Opera perform Marriage of Figaro on Saturday night. My friend Sophie was singing Susanna, and she was incredible! I’m also giving the new Sufjan Stevens album a spin.

Teaching: Lots of folks prepping for auditions. And it’s time again to do some serious intonation/tone production work. Sit tight for that.

Relaxing: 21 days into #30daysofbiking! Doing great so far- averaging at least 5 miles a day, 25 at the most! Also, reading some excellent non-music related fiction and non-fiction.

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Weekly Roundup 4/14/15

Reading: Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, Oliver Sacks

Arranging: Da Pacem Domine, by Arvo Pärt. Originally for choir, I am transcribing it for Metro Brass’s 11-piece lineup. We will be performing it on June 4th. Concert Details.

Practicing: Red Dragonfly, Annie Laurie, chromatic scale patterns, sight-reading

Rehearsing: Metro Brass had a great rehearsal Sunday night.

Performing: No gigs currently booked until May.

Listening: Have had a little break from consuming anything new, musically. Taking in the sounds of spring as it develops instead.

Teaching: Preparing folks for contest performances as well as upcoming auditions.

Relaxing: The Garden is open again! For those who don’t know, I volunteer at Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden in Theo Wirth Park. It’s my favorite place on the PLANET (besides my bed) and you should defintely come visit if you haven’t ever been, or if it’s been a while. Right now, the spring ephemerals are coming up- don’t blink or you’ll miss them!

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What top practicers get right

The Creativity Post: 8 Things Top Practicers Do Differently

Dear Students,

Read this article carefully. Think about what I may have told you in the past about practicing, and what my expectations for your performance in lessons are. (Hint: it’s never about speed, or agility, or knowing the whole thing).

Here are 2 things I’d like you to pull from this (although all of it is important):

1. Musicians who repeatedly practice something incorrectly will repeatedly play it incorrectly. Musicians who up the number of times they play a passage correctly will have a greater chance of performing it correctly.

(Further translation: let yourself play things the right way. If you make a mistake when you’re in the learning stages, go back and fix it. Go slowly. Speed up slowly. Take your time.)

2. The top performers in this study were found to have practiced musical intention and inflection early in the learning stages. This means that they created a total concept of what the music said to them and incorporated this into how they learned it. This accessed a deeper part of their learning and embedded the passage in a way that makes it harder to forget.

Now, what’s the difference between this and when I ask you to go all the way through a piece as if you’re performing it?

Performance is also a practice, and when you’re performing, you can’t stop and fix things. What goes wrong will just be wrong, it’s over, move on, focus on the remainder. It’s difficult to let go of mistakes and I respect the desire to fix errors. However, we also have to be able to develop the ability to keep going, i.e. keep our eye on the prize. If you are practicing a performance, you can make a mental note to go back and fix a section in your next session.

Happy practicing!

“The slower you go, the faster you’ll get there.” -John Link