The Musician's Way Blog

“By taking the appropriate steps, you can acquire the ability to get up in front of people and unleash your musical soul.”
-The Musician’s Way, p. 153

I’m pleased to announce the debut of the MusiciansWay.com page on Facebook. Continue Reading

Louis Armstrong

“What we play is life.”
–Louis Armstrong, trumpeter and composer

Would many musicians dispute Louis Armstrong’s words? I doubt it.

With each turn of a phrase, we performers spin out some of the essence of being alive, and we relish every moment.

But we don’t create music for ourselves alone. Music is a social art that peaks in the interaction between performers and listeners.

And through our relationship with the public, we achieve both artistic and financial success. Continue Reading

“Playfulness and creativity go together like music and dance -
one sets the other in motion.”
-The Musician’s Way, p. 312

I just sent out the August 2010 issue of The Musician’s Way Newsletter.

My most extensive issue to date, it highlights online and technology resources for musicians and introduces a cutting-edge way that rising performers can get their music played on Internet radio alongside the tracks of established artists. Continue Reading

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.

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“In order to be creative
you have to know how to prepare to be creative.”
-Twyla Tharp, choreographer (The Creative Habit, p. 9)

Even though musical expertise results from persistent practice, it can be tough for us musicians to stick to our practice schedules over the span of months and years.

What’s more, when we arrive at the practice studio, it isn’t always easy for us to make inspired music.

Nonetheless, I believe that all of us can be consistently and deeply creative. But the key to our doing so lies in our ability to plan and otherwise prepare our practice sessions. Continue Reading

In recent years, sources for free online classical music scores have blossomed on the Web.

Here are a six outstanding sites.

Additional websites offering free and low-cost downloadable sheet music can be accessed via MusiciansWay.com under Practice, Instrument-Specific Resources, and For Singers. Continue Reading

I’m pleased to announce that MusiciansWay.com will be a major sponsor of prize money for the junior division of the prestigious American String Teacher’s Association (ASTA) biennial National Solo Competition taking place in 2011. 

The ASTA National Solo Competition has helped launch the careers of many eminent performers, among them, superstar violinist Joshua Bell, who won the Grand Prize in 1981.

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True story: A percussion professor was concerned about the sound levels at his music school, so he purchased a sound meter and sampled the levels in various rooms. He took readings during ensemble rehearsals, private lessons, and practice sessions.

In one of the teaching studios, he asked a horn professor to play an excerpt, and the reading rocketed to 100 decibels.

The percussionist knew that, at 100 dB, a person’s maximum safe exposure would total 15 minutes. Yet the horn teacher often taught and rehearsed in that room all day.

Alarmed, the percussionist asked, “Do you ever have trouble with your hearing?” To which the hornist replied, “What?”

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Welcome to The Musician’s Way Blog.

In this, my inaugural post, I want to explain in a few words my motivation for writing my book The Musician’s Way (Oxford, 2009. 360 pages), creating MusiciansWay.com, and launching this blog.

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