Do you ever get frustrated doing the same ol’ same ol’ musical stuff year after year? I sure do. You know what I mean: Masterclasses. Practice. Auditions. Lessons. Winning. More lessons. Exams. Rehearsals. More practice. Losing. Recitals. Lesson planning. Teaching. Competitions. Marking. Writing. Job applications. More (fill in the blank). Be one of the few […]
20 Fill-in-the-blank questions to help you get clear with who you really are (+ where you’ve been) as a musician
Is the current musical story that you like to tell about yourself full of your awards, your previous teachers (from 20 years ago), the festivals you played at in 1991, and the numerous fancy degrees you’ve earned? First, well done on that. Secondly? –and I am going to be blunt here– please spare us, even […]
The one simple sentence that’s probably getting in the way of your flute playing (+ no, practicing has nothing to do with it)
“I used to be so goooooood on the flute!”, exclaimed a British client of mine I’ll call ‘Julia’. “Now I hardly remember my scales, my tone sounds awful and I think I sound rubbish– it’s really depressing to hear myself now compared to how I used to play when I was younger”. Julia, age 41, was at […]
What Musical Burnout (+ finally getting real with yourself) can teach you about having a flute career
With phrases slung around like ‘music must be your blood!’ and ‘she was born with her instrument in her hands’ and ‘she would be so lost without her music!’ rife in conversations about musicianship, let me share a truth of mine with you: Possessing a flute career is not the centre of my world and […]
5 questions to ask yourself before you give up on improvising altogether + 5 ways to get the most of your next session.
What’s that? You’re struggling with your musical improvisation? No matter which genre you play, ask yourself these 5 questions next time you keep banging into Your Resistance: 1) Have you accepted that your fear of it is part of the process of learning how to improvise? It’s not just you who is scared. In Argentina, tango […]
The Top 10 Online Tango Resources to Check Out if You Want to Play Tango Music Better Than Ever
By now you might have found out that unless you venture to Buenos Aires, resources for playing/ finding tango music scores can be slim-pickings-sorry-charlie if you don’t know where to look. That’s why I am thrilled to help. Here are my all-time top 10 (in no particular order) http://www.todotango.com This bilingual website allows you to to view many […]
Why you will never be an ‘authentic’ tango musician–and why you (+ Yo-Yo Ma) shouldn’t take it personally
You have Piazzolla’s 6 Etudes/ Libertango/ Le Grand Tango in your hot little hands. You love playing the score. In fact you revel and delight in it. You think you could become a tango musical Jedi equivalent if you just knew how to play more authentically. So you dream about venturing to Buenos Aires to immerse […]