Need clearer direction in your career?

Do you ever wish someone could help you see all of your options as a professional musician, and help you successfully achieve your full potential?

That's what musician's coaches are for! Here are some of them.

• Valerie Kampmeier: Has testimonials and offers complimentary evaluation session.
  
  
• Rick Goetz: Specializes in strategy and business planning for musicians.
  
  
• Kelli: Explains what coaching can do for you, and she gives a free sample session.
  
  
• Chris Coward: Helps performers as well as songwriters and composers, and provides a free coaching session.

Photo from http://www.truenaturewellness.com/s/individuals/2/

Are you a victim of value attribution?

Let's imagine that you're hoping that one day someone important notices you so that your career can take off. What if it actually happened, and you didn't recognize the opportunity?

If you take in information differently depending on who delivers it, you're setting yourself up for missing a ton of opportunities. Doing so is called "value attribution," "which simply means the inclination to superimpose or imbue a thing with certain qualities or characteristics based on our initial perception."

Let's say you have a master class with a great Broadway star and his pianist. At the end of the masterclass, the pianist takes you aside and tells you that he is involved with a great project that needs someone just like you. The only thing you have to do is send an email to the producer with your resume, headshot, and a video of you.

What would you think?
"Oh, I don't know anything about this project, it might just be a waste of time, we'll see...," or "wow, this pianist has connections, noticed me and even though I still have to audition, he will put in a good word for me which can really help me get a foot in the door."

Now imagine that it was not the pianist but the Broadway star himself that tells you about the project and suggest you audition for it.

What would you think then?
"Oh, I don't know anything about this project, it might just be a waste of time, we'll see...," or "oh my God, this super star just noticed me and will tell the producers about me. I am so in! Can't wait to audition and prove them all that I'm great! I'm so lucky! I better not screw that one up!"

Here is the thing, both the pianist and the Broadway star noticed you, and with both of them you get a leg up from anyone else auditioning. Next time you get an offer, don't judge where it comes from. If you already have something going on, be incredibly grateful and thank the person for the offer, no matter who offered it. Because next time, they might contact you again or suggest your name, unless you act like they're a nobody and you don't even have the time to say thanks and mean it. Don't make yourself a victim of value attribution.

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6 basics of music directing

Here are the six basic aspects of music directing.

1. Be a vocal coach. Merely teaching the songs to the cast does not qualify as being a vocal coach.
   
   You have to help a singer understand why they're not reaching that note, or why it cracks, or why they don't seem to have enough breath for that phrase, or any of the thousand things that make singing hard. You have to know why and be able to fix it.
   
   
2. Be a musician. You have to decide what the dynamics should be, make sure that diction is clear and that the ending consonants are perfectly together and make sure that the cast uses the same diction on vowels.
   
   You have to decide where the accents are, and what words matter for the action and decide what style of singing the singers should use (belt, mix, head, etc.).
   
   
3. Be a teacher. Understand the level of the cast and use the appropriate vocabulary with them. If most people in the cast can't read music, don't start talking about key changes and chord progressions and analyze the music in a theorist way, it will confuse them and you will waste everyone's time.
   
   Rather, use your hands to show where the pitches are, and if the rhythm is tricky, make the cast speak the line in rhythm before adding the pitch onto it.
   
   If your cast is made of brilliant musicians with perfect pitch or great ear training ability, teach quick and don't start singing along everything with them. Get out of the way, and they'll be grateful for it.
   
   
4. Be a conductor. Sure, when you're in front of the orchestra you can fake your way through, and after a few rehearsals all of it. Simple things matter before then.
   
   You have to be very clear when you count off to start in the middle of song. This is very important as to keep things moving quickly and clearly during staging and dancing rehearsals. Be consistent with what you do.
   
   Singing the being of the phrase and hoping that people will join in won't do it. If you have a pianist during rehearsals, don't "conduct" her by counting out loud every single beat of the measure. Give her the correct tempo to start with, conduct with your hands and don't sing along.
   
   
5. Get what theater is. You have to put your musician and vocal coach hats on the side and understand that the role of the music and of the singing is to enhance the story. You've got to let singers play with different character voice choices and help them figure out which one works best for both their voice and the story.
   
   You have to appreciate the importance of some of the singing being purposefully not "beautiful" in order to make it more efficient and clear in order to tell the story; know not to fix those moments, because they are perfect theatrically.
   
   You have to be able to offer solutions if music needs to be cut or added, and to know how to do so in a way that keeps on enhancing the story.
   
   
6. Be available for rehearsals. Some theaters will hire you even if you can't make most of the first weeks of rehearsal, because they think that having a rehearsal pianist there will allow for the process to carry on. It is tempting to say yes to the gig because hey, that's money. Don't do it.
   
   Once you're back, you won't be given the time you need to teach the music because singers will have already kind of learned the songs on their own, but it will drive you nuts that you can't seem to be able to create an ensemble out of them without rehearsals.
   
   You will have missed a ton of important information: when music is cut or added, important change of tempi in some songs, acting and directorial choices that influence the music, etc. The music won't sound good in the end, and you will be blamed for it.

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Do you have an excuse?

When we someone asks us to do something different or to correct something in our interpretation, we don't need to explain why we didn't do it in the first place.

We just need to do it differently.
That's all.

8 tips to be a successful performer

In a lecture I watched on Ted.com, speaker Richard St. John explains what it takes to become successful and why people experience failure once they're successful. Here are the eight things he lists that people need to do in order to become successful, and that once people have achieved they stop doing. Let's see how they relate to performing, and which one we really need to remember.

1. Passion: this is is pretty much a given in the arts, otherwise we would probably have chosen a simpler lifestyle!
2. Work: I don't know any musicians or actor that doesn't overwork. We got this one covered too.
3. Focus: This one can be tricky at times because we tend to overwork, making ourselves tired and less focused. Work is quantity and focus is quality. We have to make sure that they go hand in hand, and that one doesn't take over the other.  
4. Push: I think that we do that after every bad lesson, every bad rehearsal and every bad performance we have. We do it every time we doubt ourselves and wonder if we'll ever be good enough.
5. Ideas: We often practice for technique, but for success we always want to have our own ideas on how to be musical, how to be theatrical. This one is our art itself, and our how we express ourselves through it.
6. Improve: I think this one is a combination of all of the previous. It's maturing as an artist and a performer and learning how to balance all aspects of our jobs.
7. Serve: That's the one that I think we need to remember the most. We need to remember that everything we do is to please our audience. It's hard to remember that when you're playing in an orchestra, singing in a chorus, playing a piece you don't like, playing on a poor instrument; all of this that happen frequently to professional performers. But this one is key. We have to serve our audience, serve the conductor, serve the music. Not ourselves.
8. Persist: No need of an explanation here. Just good luck!

What are your tips for success?

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The REAL job of an actor

Actor Monica Flanagan and I had a discussion about how different it is to be auditioning as an actor v. being the person making the calls. No kidding right? But the reason why that's important to remember is that actors for sure will learn valuable and practical things about their job after spending time on the other side. Now, you can do that by being an intern in a casting agency, working as a stage manager or maybe an assistant manager, etc, but not everyone can find the opportunities to do that, or has the time and energy to do so. And that's what I'm here. To tell you what Monica learned from being on the other side. Here it is.

You are judged by your physique. Sure, you knew that, but it's even more than being a type. It's about the angles of your face, about the energy that gets through your headshot, about the actual color hair you have (no wig on tv), and definitely your weight (tv will make you look fatter for sure). It's about being cool and in style, and understanding how the clothes you wear can be in style and match the character you're auditioning for all at once, while standing out (it seems obvious, but in practice it's almost contradictory).

So, Monica's conclusion is that if average actors get parts because they look the parts, and that good actors don't always get the part because they don't quite look the part, her job as an actor is not only to act great but as importantly, to:

• Be in style: as in this month's style, not last month's. Make sure to wear clothes that fit your body, no matter how much not-average your body is (I'm short and I have to sew each pair of pants I ever buy).
• Be in shape: not only for tv,  but also for tours and Broadway. Even if you know that you're overall fine and that you could get hired for a job that requires you to get even more fit, do it before they give the gig to somebody who already has the abs. 
• Take care of yourself: clean, legs or face shaved, make up on, etc.

Let's face it, we would all love for our art to be the only thing we have to be responsible for, but if the only to get to do that is to put up with some other more annoying things, well it's up to us to make that call.

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Two tips on how to handle taxes as an artist

It's this time of the year again when taxes are due, which means that most people get money back, but for artists you consider yourself lucky if you don't have to pay anything. Here are the two most important things you need to do year round to avoid taxes freak out: use a credit card for all your job related expenses, and put 20% of each paycheck on a separate account.

1.  Use a credit card for all your job related expenses: no, it's not about building your credit or spending money you don't have. It's about easily creating a file of all the things that you can write off at taxes time. You're buying scores? It goes on the credit card. What had to repair your instrument? You'll get that counted off later. What about that fun video camera you used to tape on of your concerts? You bet, it counts too! A year is a long time, but if you use one specific credit card all year round for only your job related expenses, you'll just have to check it out come taxes and write it off. And of course, make sure you don't use that credit card for any other expense. So easy!
2.  Put 20% of each paycheck away: create a savings account or a checking account separate from your regular accounts, and put on it 20% of what you earn as soon as you get a paycheck (that didn't already take back taxes). Come taxes time, even with all the 1099, you'll already have a good idea of how much you'll need to pay, and you'll be able to pay it right away with no sweat and tears. Otherwise, if you try to save your money in your regular bank account, you'll soon forget how much money you're supposed to have aside, or you'll be tempted to use it, etc. 

Easy steps towards tax control!
Share your own tips in the comment section.

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The 2 kinds of stressed musicians on stage

Have you ever performed and screwed up where you normally never screw up? Or started thinking so much ahead of time that you forgot what to play at the moment? Or froze and couldn't remember what as coming next?

In the book What the Dog Saw, Malcolm Gladwell (the author of Blink, Outliers and The Tipping Point, and writer for the New Yorker) explains how nervousness shows up in one of two different ways: chocking or panicking. Here is the difference, and how it translates into performance.

• Panicking
  
  
  
  
  That's when you stop thinking. For example when you forget where you are in the music and you can't think of options to get back into it, or when you do a rhythmic mistake and you can't think of what beat you're on or what makes a beat (quarter note, half note, eight note?).

• Chocking
  
  
  
  
  That's when you think too much, the same way you did when you first learned how to play your instrument or the piece; when the technique of a piece had become a habit, that happened mechanically, and that in performance you start thinking of every single note and gesture and rhythm and emotional content and phrasing, etc.
  You lose your instincts.

By thinking back on stressful past performances, we can see what the pattern is, and if we tend to chock or panic. Once we know that, we are better able to anticipate a response for the next time that happens, and we are more prone to understand what is happening as it is happening, helping us to fix it rather than letting it control us.

More power to us!

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10 tips on how to be a great teacher

The collaborative piano department at Boston University had a master class with Dr. Andrew Campbell, from Arizona State University.

Here is what makes Dr. Campbell an example to follow for anyone who wants to teach in an inspiring way:

1. He shared his own personal struggles with the music. My friend Ling played the Kreutzer sonata by Beethoven. After congratulating her on her playing, he explained how she might find ease technically by mentally stripping the texture from its business down to the actual musical theme.
   
   He also talked about the difficulty of being together with the violinist and ways he had discovered to solve those problems with visual cues after playing it many times with his wife, a violinist.
   
   
2. When he talked about phrasing, he never imposed his own ideas on anyone. He offered a few suggestions, but never seemed to think that he had the right answer. He shared what he heard, which was a lack of phrasing, and trusted the student to find their own way.
   
   
3. He explained why teachers pick on what's wrong instead of focusing on what's right. "If a violin player plays out of tune the whole time, well, too bad. But if a violinist plays in tune 80% of the time, then the 20% that is not in tune becomes really annoying."
   
   Just by saying that, he made the entire room understand that the performer had done 80% of right thing. How comforting!
   
   
4. When a problem happened in the performance, he called it a "booboo," turning it into a lesson instead of something shameful. For example, when a singer forgot the words to a song and that her and the pianist had to start again from where they left off, many teachers would have made a big deal about it.
   
   He simply said that it was life and that that king of things happen often enough, and took that opportunity to teach us about what to do if that situation was to happen on stage.
   
   
5. After he asked performers to change things, he complimented them on their ability to make an adjustment so fast, which many teachers take for granted.
   
   
6. He talked about the piano with detachment, making the instrument itself the reason of difficulties and challenges in the performer's playing, instead of the performer's playing itself.
   
   
7. When he mentioned more than two points to a performer, he summarized all of them one last time right before the performer try the piece again.
   
   
8. He asked a few times if the performer's playing was enjoyable to them, either during the first time performing, or when performing with adjustments. This was a good reminder that originally, we all came to music for fun, and that even when working, enjoyment is to be found.
   
   
9. He was conscious of the impact he could have on students. When he asked more of someone than of someone else, he asked he was being too mean, or he mentioned that he was being very picky at that moment. That way students focused on the work at hand, and did not take things personally.
   
   
10. He seemed to want to learn from the students. He asked many questions, and was happy to discover that some students had thoughts of things that were new to him.
    

My personal favorite moment of the afternoon was when after hearing two students of the collaborative department perform, he told our teacher: "you are a lucky lady hearing this level of playing very day."

In the end, what I think this all comes to, is, to be a great teacher, one has to be a great human being.



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