Tag: practice

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3 Famous Tuba Players Talk Audition Preparation

A doctoral dissertation by tubist Golden Lund from the University of Nebraska takes a look at one of the biggest challenges facing any perspective orchestral player – audition preparation. In his document, he examines how different (successful) teachers prepare their students for auditions – looking for similarities and differences that may account for their success…
Be Your Own Motor

It’s been about a month since my last blog post mentioning Seth Godin, so it’s about time to bring him up again. This blog post from August 1 of this year sums up one of the biggest casualties from our increasingly reactive environment: self-motivation. Many things we do now put us squarely in the passenger…
Another [Great] Julie Landsman Interview!

It looks like Julie Landsman is making the rounds to all sorts of different musical blogs, and her insights continue to be both interesting and energizing! A few weeks ago I posted about several different interviews that Julie Landsman has done – two different Horn Hangouts with Sarah Willis, an interview at BrassChicks.com, and her…
Book Review: The War of Art by Steve Pressfield

Since I’ve become a bit of a productivity nut, one new thing I’m going to try out over the next few months is adding some reviews of some of the best books that I read that I find insightful, inspiring, or just plain useful. I’m going to start this off with Steven Pressfield’s . Overview…
Scales, Caring, and Cursing

If you’ve been in band or orchestra for any length of time, then the constant badgering from directors, sectional coaches, and private teachers to “practice your scales” is probably very familiar. If you’ve taught band, orchestra, sectionals, or private lessons, then the almost-automatic eye roll from students when you tell them to learn their scales is…
App Review: Hz Intonation

Earlier this year I got an email from a developer, asking me to review a new tuner app. It looked interesting, and while I am just now getting around to it (sorry!), here is my look at the available on iOS. Hz Intonation Images Hz Intonation At-A-Glance Review Pros: Simple and attractive minimalist design Very…
Can You Practice on Vacation WITHOUT Your Instrument?

It probably comes as no surprise, but being a professional musician comes with a lot of compromises to a “normal” lifestyle. Odd working hours, working on holidays, needing to maintain a high baseline level of playing; the behind-the-scenes of a musician is not always glamorous. For me, at least, that includes the need to do some…
Looking to Remove Bad Habits? Two Strategies You May Not Have Tried

Too much pressure. Incorrect mouthpiece placement. Too much “smile” in the embouchure. Lousy right-hand position. Too little attention to intention. These are some of the bad habits I’ve had in my playing over the past 20+ years of playing the horn. These bad habits weren’t learned overnight, and moving past them also didn’t happen overnight.…
What do “playing musically” and the mellophone have in common?

Nothing. Well, almost nothing (I kid – mostly). John Ericson, Horn Professor at Arizona State University, and one of the founders of the French horn website HornMatters.com, has a book about playing the various marching horns called A Mello Catechism: A Guide to the World of Mellophones and Marching Horns. This book discusses the history, technique,…
Being (or Feeling) Rushed Can Hurt Your Practice

Carrying on from my post a couple of weeks ago about finding time to practice (and just about anything else you need or want to do), this post from Bulletproof Musician illustrates some of the downsides of being rushed. The Iowa Gambling Task The article goes into more detail (definitely check it out), but basically…