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A blog about performing music, teaching music and the business of music.
This is a quick chat I streamed on The Entrepreneurial Musician YouTube channel.
It is on the difference between motivation and inspiration (and why motivation is NOT the first step but the end result.) It applies just as much to practicing and performing as it does to the business side of my career.
And it features about 30 seconds of me laying down some tuba at the very beginning of the video.
Enjoy!
"A mentor is not someone who walks ahead of us and tells us how they did it. A mentor is someone who walks alongside us to guide us on what we can do."
—Simon Sinek
This was a photo from night when I got to hear Sam Pilafian play the tuba live for the final time. I miss him.
This is really profound and perfectly describes my relationship with Sam Pilafian.
The very first time we spoke he made me feel like I was on the same journey as him even though I was a starstruck 12-year-old tuba player who was just in awe.
I didn't leave that Empire Brass concert and brief conversation with Sam believing I could do what he did someday.
I left *knowing* I could do it. And there's a big difference.
He seemed just as excited to meet me as I was to meet him. Equal footing from the jump.
He treated me that same way throughout our entire relationship.
From that 12-year-old kid he'd never met to his graduate TA to eventually being his brass quintet colleague touring the world myself he treated me the same.
Just walking alongside me and guiding when needed.
Not sure what I did to deserve having such an incredible mentor dropped into my lap. It's certainly nothing I did.
But every single time I think about Sam I am overcome with appreciation for having such an example walking next to me for 31 years.
TEM243
A reminder from Simon Sinek that you need to plan on your plan changing.
I stumbled onto a killer quote from Simon Sinek that applies just as much to our time in the practice room as it does to the business side of music:
“Always plan for the fact that no plan ever goes according to plan.”
I talk about the constant that is plans changing in short episode plus share my thoughts on this incredible quote from Brené Brown:
“I can't be paralyzed anymore by the critics. My new mantra is, if you're not in the arena getting your ass kicked on occasion, then I'm not interested in your feedback. You don't get to sit in the cheap seats and criticize my appearance or my work with mean-spiritedness if you're also not in the arena.”
That quote had me doing fist pumps! You can listen below or wherever you get your podcasts (including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher and a whole bunch of other places.)
Show notes for all episodes of TEM including topics discussed, links to all books and websites referenced can be found at:
Some serious wisdom here from Roger Bobo in Episode 174 of The Brass Junkies:
"And I think that I would also advise people to allow themselves to be unique. Allow yourself to be different. Take the chance and do something different and it may go for you...
It's so important I think to have the courage to be unique. Because if you're following somebody else's MO, then you're going to be a shadow of somebody else."
YES!
We are taught to blend in from a very early age.
No one gets sent to the principal's office for blending in.
It doesn’t take courage to wear the same clothing as everyone else.
It doesn’t take courage to play a senior recital that looks and sounds exactly like every other senior recital.
It does take courage to be unique. And that is what gets traction in the world today.
Do whatever it takes to muster the courage to be unique. Because blending in is a sucker's bet.
Thanks for the reminder, Maestro Bobo.
You can watch our entire interview with Roger Bobo on YouTube below or listen on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Are you putting in what feels like countless hours in the practice room but still frustrated by a lack of success at auditions?
Learn exactly what Hiram Diaz of The President’s Own Marine Band did to win the big audition and how you can apply to your own audition prep.
Hiram shares a ton of actionable advice including:
👉 Why in spite of having world class teachers and spending hours and hours in the practice room he wasn’t winning any auditions (and what he figured out that changed that)
👉 How he was able to get brutally honest with himself about what he could and could not play
👉 Why it’s okay to make a mistake in an audition if you continue to have a convincing musical product throughout
👉 Why he swears by recording yourself and listening to it immediately rather than while walking home from your practice session
👉 Hiram’s use of visualization in preparing for his audition (he goes into this with a level of detail I’ve never heard before!)
👉 His method of recording yourself while watching a tuner but without trying to fix anything and what that reinforces
👉 And much more!
Purchase long-term access to this workshop via the Hitz Academy Library for only $29!
Between The Brass Junkies and The Entrepreneurial Musician I have done close to 400 interviews and this was one of my favorites.
Nathaniel Silberschlag is a true mensch. His energy and approach to both music and life left me in the kind of good mood that sticks around for a while afterwards. He is a gift.
You can watch the episode on YouTube below or head over to Pedal Note Media for all of the links to where to find it.
Enjoy!
Being the 10th member of his family to go to Juilliard
The specialized horn he started playing on when he was three years old
How Julie Landsman told his parents she wasn’t available to teach him as a 12-year-old but gave him one Skype lesson and then was so impressed that she agreed to teach him anytime she came to DC
How Julie introduced him to Sylvia Alimena who he studied with through high school and was a major influence on his life
The one thing that each of his four private teachers all focused on
His use of specific images and colors to get a clear idea of what he’s trying to sound like
The importance of painting your picture away from the horn through things like singing
Jen Montone’s Process Cues
How his approach to sound has informed his teaching
The specific visualization he uses when performing Mozart concertos
How the best teachers teach you how to teach yourself (and how to be teachers)
The value of watching great teachers teach
The experience and pressure of trying to become a peer to brass legends who you’ve looked up to your entire life
What it was like to win the Kennedy Center Opera House audition even though he fully didn’t expect to win it at the age of 19
“I can only be the best me on a given day.”
How his dad was waiting for him in the car while he kept advancing through the Kennedy Center Opera House audition
All that he learned from sitting next to Geoffrey Pilkington including how and when to use your Assistant Principal
His experience of playing Mahler 5 in Carnegie Hall in his first full week as Principal Horn of the Cleveland Orchestra with almost everyone he knew in the audience while being sick
Okay, if I were you I would probably be asking myself why the hell there’s a video on the Hitz Academy blog of two different ways to cook an omelette!
The truth is I’m not particularly interested in omelette technique and while I enjoy cooking, my YouTube history is not exactly riddled with a bunch of cooking videos.
So why share this video with you?
Because it’s a wonderful example of the beauty of simplicity and of how much an outcome can change with just a slight tweak to our technique.
I see a lot of parallels between these things and the creative process.
First, let’s talk about beauty in simplicity.
Our tendency as musicians is to add things to the music in order to make it more exciting.
When in doubt, a young improviser will almost always add more notes to their solo. Composers will often make the orchestration thicker. Singers of the national anthem almost always add embellishments and melismas (as well as popping octaves!)
But sometimes less is more.
When that same young improviser learns to add space and utilize longer notes, the magic starts to happen. My favorite composers know that one way to create excitement and tension is by utilizing unusual instrument combinations and not just writing higher/louder/faster. And the best singers of the national anthem, for my taste, are the ones who embellish like Paul McCartney singing Hey Jude (when he waits until halfway through the song to add a sing embellishment and just lets that incredible melody do the work!) rather than using it to show off their technique.
This video is also a perfect example of how small changes in a process can produce big differences in results. It features one of the best chefs in history making two different traditional omelettes using only three ingredients.
These two omelettes are quite different in appearance, consistency and taste. And they use virtually the same ingredients! As you can see in this short video, there are just a handful of minor differences between the two techniques and each produces a very different result.
This inspired me to think about how this could be applied to my playing.
One minor tweak that can make a huge difference is note endings. In my experience, both performers and teachers tend to focus much more on the beginnings of notes than the ends of notes.
And yet the best players in the world have a lot of ways to end notes at their disposal.
The exact same phrase can sound quite different when changing one, some or all of the note endings. Listen to multiple recordings of any solo piece and listen for how the soloist ends their notes. If you listen close enough, you will hear differences and you will have a preference.
Note endings are just one of countless ways to change some small aspect of your playing that can produce a big difference on the musical storytelling front. You just have to spend the time to experiment enough to find them.
Hopefully you’ll find this short, random omelette video as inspiring as I did!
What better way to improve in the practice room than by joining the best musicians in the world while they practice?
Don’t miss this opportunity to hear trombonist Weston Sprott of the Metropolitan Opera do a deep dive into the practicing routine that has made him one of the best trombone players in the world!
Purchase long-term access via the Hitz Academy Library.
Want to take your practicing to the next level?
What better way to do that than by learning from the best players in the world exactly what they do day in and day out in the practice room.
Don’t miss this opportunity to hear Former Principal Horn of the Metropolitan Opera Julie Landsman do a deep dive into the practicing routine that made her a legend.
Here’s an excerpt from Julie Landsman’s Inside the Practice Room where she discusses how she helped Nathaniel Silberschlag successfully prepare for his audition for Principal Horn of the Cleveland Orchestra:
Topics Julie Covers:
The two most common problems she sees musicians make in the practice room and how to fix those problems
Her intense level of self-awareness when practicing
How she used mediation in the semis and finals of her successful audition for Principal Horn of the Metropolitan Opera
How she uses meditation and visualization before practicing, performing and teaching
The danger of giving yourself technical instruction while performing (and how it kills creativity)
Her approach to warming up and how she changes it for different situations
Quotes from Julie Landsman’s Inside the Practice Room:
“Practicing a lot doesn't mean you're getting the work done. Practicing efficiently with clear goals and what you're working on and how you're doing it? Go for it. That's just smart. Be smart!”
“Constantly beating up the music and repetition and hitting that wall of frustration… it doesn't help me. I think it's not a creative process. I think it's a self-defeating process.”
“Let's go back to the word efficient. I'm killing two birds with one stone. I'm doing my Snakes (exercises) because they're good for register breaks and I'm practicing tonguing because my tongue needs exercise and I'm practicing double tonguing. So I'm going through all my register break exercises and my articulation exercises just in a very methodical manner. I love that efficiency. I love getting a lot done without wasting a ton of time.”
Also Available from Hitz Academy:
Jeff Nelsen of Canadian Brass
Don’t miss this deep dive by Jeff Nelsen of Canadian Brass into his daily practicing routine!
The main thing that separates good brass quintet players from the great ones is not just having good time but having a great sense of groove.
One thing that all great conductors share is a great sense of groove.
All players who regularly do well in orchestral or military band auditions play with a great sense of groove.
The best soloists across all styles perform with a great sense of groove.
Groove is one of the nonnegotiable keys to excelling as a musical storyteller.
Released 50 years ago today, this album is a literal master class in groove. Close your eyes. Get lost in not just the time but the weight of the downbeats. The heaviness of the groove juxtaposed with a constant feeling of moving forward. Immerse yourself in how various articulations are used to create the groove.
If you go deep (Sam Pilafian's take on deep listening - headphones, eyes closed, phone on airplane mode) and truly get lost in it, I *guarantee* you that your Fountains of Rome or your Bolero or your whatever will be better on the other side of it. Full stop.
