The Musician's Way Newsletter

Welcome

The Musician's Way Newsletter explores music making, creativity, career building, technology, and diverse aspects of living the musician's life. Enjoy! Gerald Klickstein

Forward to a friend or add a New Subscription.

From The Musician's Way Blog

7 Music Career Myths. An exposé of common myths reveals true paths to success.
Inner Smile. A gentle technique that ignites creativity.
Building Technique. “The purpose of technique is to free the unconscious.” –David Mamet
Playful Practice. 4 ways we can bring playfulness to deliberate practice.

Beethoven with Your Beer

Do formal classical concerts leave you feeling flat? An article on Economist.com describes how musicians from the Cleveland Orchestra are adding fizz to the local music scene by performing in a pub.

Women in Jazz

In a March post on the Oxford University Press Blog, author Ted Gioia writes about five women songwriters who helped shape the sound of jazz.

Collaborative Songwriting

Speaking of songwriting, Keppie Couts offers valuable insights into the process of collaborative composing in her piece The Secrets of Successful Collaboration, posted on the ASCAP blog.

Play What You Hear

Guitarist Chris Standring publishes a widely praised jazz guitar course titled Play What You Hear. Newly updated, it's now better than ever.

18G on Dropbox

Our pals at Dropbox now offer up to 18 gigs of free storage. Accounts start at 2G and grow with referrals. Indispensable!

Embracing the Unknown

"Everything you know is important," advises poet W. S. Merwin. "But you shouldn't assume that the poem or music you create will come from what you know; it comes from what you don't know."

Classical Music's Future?

Greg Sandow proposes Four Keys to the Future that classical musicians should consider if they're to grow their audiences.

Orchestra Jobs in Europe

Orchestral musicians aiming to perform in Europe can discover job openings via the new site muv.ac. Additional job search tools for musicians are posted at MusiciansWay.com.

House Concerts

At the site ConcertsInYourHome.com, musicians can find presenters worldwide who host house concerts. A great way for performers in all genres to earn extra revenue and win fans!

Resources for Scholars

Harvard librarians have compiled links to more than 400 resources for music scholars on the Harvard library site. Numerous additional resources can be found on the Practice page at MusiciansWay.com.

Zoom to Better Practice

There's no better portable digital recorder than the Zoom H4n, and Amazon recently put it on sale at more than 50% off with free shipping. The less-expensive H2n is marked down too. For thoughts about how self-recording boosts our musicianship, see "Self-Recording in Practice" on The Musician's Way Blog.

Commissioning Grants

Chamber Music America offers generous Classical Commissioning Grants, but hurry - proposals are due April 8. Jazz grants are available as well. Three cheers for new music!

Bring on the Feedback

The screeching sort of feedback usually isn't helpful, but the other kind is vital to teaching and learning. In her newsletter, The Brilliant Report, Annie Murphy Paul illuminates ways to improve the quality of our feedback and become better teachers and colleagues as a result.

Mistakes without Fear

Daniel Coyle, author of The Talent Code, recently posted an inspiring story about a coach who guided young athletes to overcome their fear of mistakes. On The Musician's Way Blog, the article "The Meaning in Mistakes" similarly describes how musician's can neutralize fear by viewing errors as information.

Innovation 101

Education guru Tony Wagner argues in the The New York Times that what today's students need most is the ability to innovate and self-motivate. Yet most schools heedlessly emphasize standardized testing and other creativity-squashing practices. How can music schools better prepare graduates for the innovation economy? I offer 6 suggestions in "Music Education and Entrepreneurship".

view email in browser | newsletter archive | unsubscribe | forward to a friend