Even though Ohio State is a rival of my alma mater, Wisconsin, I have to hand it to their band. This is one of the most creatively executed halftime shows I have ever seen.
On Working
This weekend was busy busy busy.
But oh so good.
On Saturday, I had the immense privilege to perform in the backing orchestra for international superstar baritone Josh Groban. He is a class act- not only a talented singer but a professional one. He introduced himself to his local musicians and kept everything on a tight schedule without fuss. His touring band- seven mind-bogglingly talented individuals- was also exceedingly nice and made us feel like part of the ensemble. I also had the pleasure to share the stage again with my good friend Melissa Morey, and if you’re looking for a horn teacher, look no further! Taking the stage for an audience of 8,000 people is an experience beyond exciting.
On Sunday, Winona State University professor Donald Lovejoy’s labor of love, Festival Brass, did a reprise concert to last week’s, this time at WSU itself. We played some fantastic music for large brass ensemble, including a spine-tingling rendition of Alfred Reed’s Symphony for Brass and Percussion. Performers included members of the Musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra, faculty at local colleges from the U to UW River Falls, and then there was little old me.
I mention it thusly because on top of luxuriating in the musical experiences I participated in this weekend, I got nothing short of an education in the world of professional playing- both on a large, international scale, and on a local one. It’s not often I get to play with such top talent, and it’s definitely a goal of mine to make it a more regular thing.
People are often curious about how the process of booking and getting jobs in the music industry works. Auditions are indeed a part of the puzzle, especially for players hoping to land an orchestra gig. But for freelancers like myself, getting gigs is all about visibility and word-of-mouth. Groban’s gig came to me because Melissa gave my name to the booking agent; Dr Lovejoy found my website when searching for local players for a concert last year. Most gigs come into my hand because of other gigs- a perpetuating cycle- I played here and so-and-so liked me and thought of me when the next concert for X group came up. I play in Metro Brass because of my time with Sheldon Theatre Brass Band- and I can’t even remember how I got that gig anymore.
This is often a tenuous lifestyle, I won’t lie about that. And there are downsides to the ‘word-of-mouth’ method of booking gigs. Music and especially the brass world can be a bit of an old boys club, and not just in a sexist way. Friends book friends book friends and no one else gets a chance. Luckily, you have two very important tools at hand to combat this.
1. Be a reliable player.
Notice I did say phenomenal, or outstanding, or anything- but reliable. It’s so boring, I know. And you should always strive to be the best performer you can be. But if you’re reliable- not only can you hit the notes and rhythms and play in tune, but you can also be counted on to show up on time, dress appropriately, and act professionally- people will book you again.
2. Be a good person.
Bring the drama? Act aggressively to criticism? Can’t be nice to your fellow performers? Don’t expect to work much. Like anyone else, musicians like work to people who are pleasant and easy to get along with. Most of us are pretty nice people- I’m speaking for my studio, of course- so this shouldn’t be too much of a problem for anyone. Just remember that acting maturely, calmly, and friendly at a gig is a sure fire way to impress the powers that be.
Got it? Now go practice. You still have to know how to play all your scales.
Preparing for a Big Gig
Since I have a pretty cool show to do tonight that has required a moderate amount of preparation and promises to be one of the bigger concerts I’ve ever played, I thought it would be an appropriate time to do a little post on gig preparation.
I think maybe a lot of my students are really ‘too young’ to be nervous, and by that I mean you haven’t gotten to a point in your lives yet where it occurs to you that performing music is a thing that can ‘go wrong’- i.e. seem so important any wrong note is an unmitigated disaster. It’s fun to play- or it’s just another thing you have to do in a long line of things they make you march through in grade school (man, I hope no one feels that way!).
More power to you! Keep the fun mentality. I can’t count the number of times I’ve allowed what I heard to be a poor performance affect my mood and rule my next few days.
And then there’s performance anxiety. Far more than just nerves, facing down anxiety on stage can cause you to freeze up, forget what you’ve learned, and dread every second on stage. I’ve been there- it’s not pretty.
So if you do experience an excess of nerves or severe anxiety? Buck up, little camper! You CAN fix it.
Nerves are not inherently a bad thing. Being nervous means you have an excess of adrenaline helping you out at that point in time. And all adrenaline does is heighten your senses and give you strength to overcome whatever’s in front of you. Like the tiny woman who can lift a car to save a trapped man after an accident, or a sprinter at the Olympics who’s run the best race of her life, a little adrenaline on stage can make your performance that much stronger. You just need to know how to use it.
It would take a long time to get into all the ways you harness you nerves here, and many people have said it better than I can. Here’s a good start: http://www.bulletproofmusician.com/how-to-make-performance-anxiety-an-asset-instead-of-a-liability/
In the practice room, we tend to zone out. It’s boring, repetitive, and there are distractions both mental and in our surroundings. It’s always Friday afternoon in your brain and you’ve clocked out. But as I’ve touched on before, if you utilize deep practice, you’re actually practicing performance.
It’s true! You can practice performance. And you should. Being on stage comes naturally to a very few people, and I would wager that many of those people had to work at it a little bit as well. In the more than 15 years of stage experience I’ve had, it only gets more natural as time goes by. When I sit down and really learn a part, finding the connections between notes and phrases, and really hearing what I’m playing so that my technique is left to my motor functions, I’m practicing how I will perform it. And if I can’t perform it, why am I practicing it?
What if, you shout, terrified, you HAVEN’T PRACTICED? At all? Not even a eeny little bit?
Well, my first thought, is why the heck not?
But my practical advice to you is: Fake it.
Fake the confidence you need to put on a good performance. Come on stage, empty your water valve, give a big grin to the audience, and proceed to pour your heart and soul into whatever you’re playing whether you know it or not. Leave that overanalyzing, over-worrying, OCD little Left Brain out of this. Right Brain’s in charge and it’s time to rock.
Now, it’d probably be better if you’d practiced. But have you ever heard the saying, “it’s 10% what you say and 90% how you say it” that people pick up on when you speak? That’s a phrase that’s so immersed in the popular parlance I can’t find a source for it. Never mind that, it’s true. We pick up on confidence and control. We like people who make us think they know what they’re doing, regardless if they actually do or not.
I would say about 75% of the compliments I get after a show contain some variant of the phrase “Wow! You sure looked like you were having fun up there!” (60% of those same comments still come from folks whose cognitive functions have all but ceased because OMG A GIRL IS PLAYING TROMBONE and I seriously hope to whatever higher deity you believe in that your generation is the last of those idiots because I am not an anomaly, people, look it up). What does that really mean? Honestly, I think it’s a little bit of jealousy, a little bit of awe, and a lot of the shared joy of giving and experiencing live music. People don’t go to a show to judge how bad it is. We want to be entertained.
So go entertain. Practice first, but practice with the intention of pure, unadulterated performance.
Recent Discoveries: Dawn of Midi
I am an unabashedly loyal fan of RadioLab, the monthly WNYC podcast that explores everything from blood and poop to colors, sounds, textures, and grand ideas, all through the lens of science and social humanism, and then filtered again through experimental sound and music techniques. They’ve introduced me to so many new ideas, and I can’t even begin to pick my favorite episodes (but you can start here: Colors, or a classic: Goat on a Cow).
They also use original music in their episodes, either from bands they’ve discovered or from composer’s who’ve contributed for a single purpose. They put on live shows and it was through one of those broadcasts that I discovered Glenn Kotche’s amazing solo percussion career (Kotche is better known as the drummer for indie rock pioneering band Wilco).
Recently they did a short about Dawn of Midi, a three-piece Brooklyn outfit that takes minimalist music (see: Steve Reich; Philip Glass) into this generation and has created mesmerizing, beautiful sounds with their latest album, Dysnomia.
Perfect for listening while drinking tea, cooking a pie, or just staring at the ceiling. Listen, support, and enjoy.
Practice Deeper
Deliberate practice.
http://lifehacker.com/5939374/a-better-way-to-practice
If there’s one thing I try to get across to my students as often as possible, it’s the concept of deep practice. Every one of you has worked this way in lessons with me. We pick out a passage, maybe it’s two lines long, maybe a bar, maybe it’s only three notes long but regardless, we slow it down, pluck it out on the keyboard, listen carefully, and play. Then we speed up- only a little bit- and play. We keep listening.
The end result is deep practice. You’ve trained your muscles to respond to what you hear by only telling them what something should sound like, and not how to do it. Ultimately you’ve got two lines or a bar or three notes of music that you’ll never forget how to play, and you’ll always play correctly, because you programmed in the right coordinates.
I want all my students to be accomplished, but more so than that I want your accomplishments to sound effortless despite the hours of work put into each passage. Because with deliberate practice, the end result is pure performance.
Will Studying Music Make You Successful?
This one’s been making the rounds lately. All I can say is…well, duh. Of COURSE music makes you smarter. Ahem.
Classical Music is not always so polite.
We think of orchestral concerts as well-mannered, upper class affairs these days. You get dressed up, you choke back your coughs during pieces, you hold your applause until the end of the entire piece.
But art music has a long history of back-stabbing, drama, cruel affairs, and dark enigmas to go along with its storied history. Here’s just a little taste of how composers, critics, and performers have thought of each other across history.
http://www.classicfm.com/discover/music/composer-insults/
Just for Fun
Enjoy.
Food for Thought in a Digital Age
The ever brilliant and talented Mr David Byrne offers up some harsh realities in his latest piece for The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/oct/11/david-byrne-internet-content-world
Most of my students are younger than the internet, and so I’m particularly curious to get that generation’s take on Byrne’s thoughts. For me, the article brought up the larger issue of how we treat folks who make and distribute art in our culture. In general, there is an expectation that artists, and musicians in particular, are so inspired to create and perform that they love to do so regardless of receiving compensation for their work. So moved by the muse that guides them, artists put beauty into the world freely and gladly.
Those of us at work in the industry know better, and struggle against this misconception everyday. I wouldn’t give up the joy of performing for anything, and I am blessed to have chosen a career that makes me happy. But it is, ultimately, a career, and I need to be able to support myself using my hard-earning skills or I will founder.
To get back to Byrne’s point, though, we are very quick to snap up musical content when we can get it cheaply and easily. Services like Spotify and Pandora allow us to broaden our scope and tastes. I find them useful for that purpose, but whenever possible I purchase music, and preferably through a local agent or directly from the musician whenever possible.
And on another note, to my students who don’t know who David Byrne is, allow me to give you a little more education:
Most recently, Mr Byrne has been collaborating with the fantastic St. Vincent.
He’s had a long solo career.
But once upon a time he gained fame with the group Talking Heads.
Welcome!
Hello and welcome to my studio blog! This page is intended as a supplement to my professional webpage, http://laurenhusting.com. Gigs, media, and news will continue to update there, but this is a space for me to share knowledge with my students!
I’ll be posting relevant articles, videos, and links in hopes that students of all ages will find new wisdom into music-making.
Enjoy!
Lauren Husting, trombone 