Gerald Klickstein

“Amassing the know-how of a professional musician takes time and diligence, but the personal investments you make will bring rewards beyond measure.”
–The Musician’s Way, p. 314

This week marks the one-year anniversary of the launch of MusiciansWay.com and The Musician’s Way Blog. My book The Musician’s Way debuted in August of 2009.

I invite you to join me as I commemorate these occasions.

1.  I want to express my heartfelt appreciation to all of you who have purchased copies of The Musician’s Way and frequented this site. I’m gratified by your support and look forward to continuing our relationship.

2.  Speaking of support, The Musician’s Way has been receiving glowing reviews worldwide in prestigious publications such as Clavier Companion, The Strad, Notes, and more. Visit the Reviews page at MusiciansWay.com to read excerpts.

3.  I envision a world in which all young people can receive high-quality music instruction. To that end, in addition to my volunteer work for the American String Teachers Association and the National Task Force on the Arts in Education, I’m striving to make The Musician’s Way available to students of modest means. And that involves getting the book onto library shelves. If you’d like to participate in this effort, please email an acquisition request to your local library. The ISBN of the hardback library edition is 9780195343120; the ISBN of the paperback is 9780195343137.

4.  I hope that you’ll visit MusiciansWay.com often because I regularly update the site. For example, sources for online scores continue to expand, and I now include more links than ever. Ditto for technology resources. Also check out my roster of Instrument-Specific Resources, the For Singers page, as well as developments on the Creativity, Music Careers, and Wellness pages.

5.  My next information-packed newsletter will be dispatched on August 1st. Among other things, it will introduce a strategy whereby rising performers can get their music played on Internet radio. If you aren’t yet a subscriber, stop by the Subscription page on MusiciansWay.com to sign up.

6.  The material on this blog is burgeoning. Here are some ways to navigate this site and explore the articles:

• Use the search window at the right of the header to query for keywords.
• Subscribe to the RSS feed to receive summaries of new articles as they’re published – click on the red RSS button located beneath the search window for instructions. To view or subscribe to comments, click on the green button.
• I now feature the Google Translate application at the top of the right-hand column. The translation software has undergone upgrades of late and is remarkably effective. If you know music lovers who prefer to read in languages other than English, feel free to send them a link to this blog.
• Immediately beneath the translator, I list the titles of the 15 most recent posts. Click on a title to view an article.
• To read posts dealing with particular topics, click on a term in the ‘tag cloud’ or select a category from the dropdown menu at right.

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I welcome your comments regarding how The Musician’s Way, MusiciansWay.com, and this blog have impacted your creative life.

© 2010 Gerald Klickstein
Photo by Steve Davis Photography