As a musician, what is your definition of success?
A performance which moves someone.
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Interview: Greg Morris, Organist
MUSICIANS
Thelonious Monk’s 25 Tips for Musicians (1960)
Transcription:
Just because you’re not a drummer, doesn’t mean that you don’t have to keep time.
Pat your foot and sing the melody in your head when you play.
Stop playing all that bullshit, those weird notes, play the melody!
Make the drummer sound good.
Discrimination is important.
You’ve got to dig it to dig it, you dig?
All reet!
Always know
It must be always night, otherwise they wouldn’t need the lights.
Let’s lift the band stand!!
I want to avoid the hecklers.
Don’t play the piano part, I am playing that. Don’t listen to me, I am supposed to be accompanying you!
The inside of the tune (the bridge) is the part that makes the outside sound good.
Don’t play everything (or everytime); let some things go by. Some music just imagined.
What you don’t play can be more important than what you do play.
A note can be small as a pin or as big as the world, it depends on your imagination.
Stay in shape! Sometimes a musician waits for a gig & when it comes, he’s out of shape & can’t make it.
When you are swinging, swing some more!
(What should we wear tonight?) Sharp as possible!
Always leave them wanting more.
Don’t sound anybody for a gig, just be on the scene.
Those pieces were written so as to have something to play & to get cats interested enough to come to rehearsal!
You’ve got it! If you don’t want to play, tell a joke or dance, but in any case, you got it! (to a drummer who didn’t want to solo).
Whatever you think can’t be done, somebody will come along & do it. A genius is the one most like himself.
They tried to get me to hate white people, but someone would always come along & spoil it.
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[News] Berlin Philharmonic Is Auditioning Amateur Musicians
BE PHIL Orchestra at the Open House in the Philharmonie on 21 May 2018 – a large amateur orchestra plays Brahms’ First Symphony, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle
The Education Programme of the Berliner Philharmoniker calls on all interested amateur musicians to apply for the BE PHIL Orchestra, which will perform during the Open House in the Philharmonie on 21 May 2018. Johannes Brahms’ First Symphony will be presented together with members of the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Karajan Academy under the baton of chief conductor Sir Simon Rattle. Stanley Dodds and other members of the Berliner Philharmoniker will conduct the rehearsals.
We are looking for 100 amateur musicians from all over the world to participate in this event. Applications must be submitted by video from 3 to 10 January 2018 on the project website. A jury made up of musicians from the Berliner Philharmoniker will select the members of the BE PHIL Orchestra from the first 1,000 entries. The successful applicants will be announced on 1 February 2018.
The rehearsals and concert will take place in the Berlin Philharmonie from 17 to 21 May 2018. The concert will be broadcast live in the Digital Concert Hall. Complete information is available on the project website: www.berliner-philharmoniker.de/bephil
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7 Things Every Musician Should Do Before Releasing a Single
1. Set a timeline and be patient
2. Don’t promote until your fans can take action
3. Find the hook and make everything swirl around it
4. Find different ways to repeat the message
5. Get all your ducks in a row before the release
6. Consider another angle to entice beyond the primary hook
7. Be ready to do the grunt work
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Interview: Julian Rowlands, Bandoneon Player
What have been the greatest challenges of your career so far?
I think the biggest challenge has been finding techniques and strategies to deal with the mental pressure of performing in a professional schedule. There are certainly other challenges, such as the physical problems – strains and injuries – that most musicians have from time to time, and the challenge of approaching the preparation of passages that initially seem impossible to play. But behind all this is the necessity to develop a higher level of concentration, which means an ability to negotiate distraction, and ways to cope with non-optimal outcomes – the sort of mortifying failures that can sometimes trip us up because we are human and fallible. My experience is that mindfulness meditation has been very beneficial in mitigating stress and improving brain function in performance situations, and there is some research that backs it up, which I think is very important. Nowadays I would always choose to go with evidence based practices because that guarantees a better probability that I am devoting time and energy to something that will work. I also think that the more we can learn about the psychology of performance, the better able we are to manage ourselves. Noa Kageyama’s Bulletproof Musician blog is a great resource for information on the latest research. But there’s always a certain mystery about the whole business, no matter how scientific we are.
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What Made Freddie Mercury the Greatest Vocalist in Rock History?
23-Year-Old Eric Clapton Demonstrates the Elements of His Guitar Sound (1968)