Success Beyond The Score

Our online community for emerging musicians, Time For My Music, is preparing their first ever live concert in the city of Birmingham, UK. It’s been an exciting and inspiring process so far. The participants have brought a lot of energy, ideas and dreams to the table. For example, they’ve suggested music pieces that they’ve always wanted to have in their repertoire. Without revealing the whole set list, we can say that Stevie Wonder’s Superstition and Bob Marley’s One Love are among the selected songs. They’re sounding great already!

In regard to the date, we’re aiming for some time in November. Besides the music, though, there are many things we have to figure out first. One of them is how to pay for the expenses of the event. While we will sell tickets, we’d only be able to cover all the costs if we did so for a price that we consider too high. This means that we need to compliment ticket sales with other forms of...

Xdinary Heroes is a South Korean rock band that debuted in 2021. All six members are involved in writing, composing, and producing the music of the band, which might sound like a given, but isn't actually always the case with music groups. A good communication between the members of a team is always important, but it becomes even more so when everybody is involved in a creative process that goes beyond words.

Through their YouTube account, Xdinary Heroes give us charming insights of their life and work as musicians. In the topic of communication, this short humorously illustrates how the members of the band explain their ideas to Gun-il, the drummer: 

This is, arguably, how all musicians convey their ideas to percussionists. It's just the most logical way to do it, both accessible and efficient. Of course, this doesn't negate the fact that the isolated sounds, out of context, become a tad alien and quite entertaining!

Kudos to...

Angela is a long time member of Time For My Music, our online community for emerging female musicians. She plays the alto saxophone, delving mostly into jazz, although she's a versatile interpreter that's open to other genres as well. 

Last year, motivated by the workshops and discussions that take place in the T4MM community, Angela took an important step in her journey by creating her own YouTube channel.

This is her testimony about it:

T4MM has helped me in many ways. The workshops are excellent. One of the workshops that
has really helped me was the one about setting up a YouTube channel.

I used to choose a few friends to share my songs with and leave it at that, but I considered creating a YouTube channel for a while —I just didn't have the confidence to do it. However, I really wanted to do a gig to celebrate the Jamaican Independence in 2023. For doing so, I told myself: "I am going to start my YouTube Channel." I recorded two songs in one...

Here is the transcription of episode 11 of season 3 of the podcast "Success Beyond The Score". Happy reading!

- Watch the video of the episode here: YouTube

- Listen to the audio of the episode here: Kajabi

INTRO:

Hiya! Hope you are well and [that] you can hear me okay. I'm ready to share a fantastic 11th episode of my Success Beyond The Score. Now, a couple of things to say before we get cracking about the sound engineer.

One is: I did it. I have got to 11 live shows on YouTube. At the beginning, I didn't think I'd manage it, but I did, and I want to thank you so much for being with me, for giving me those questions, and for just rocking up, and liking, and sharing, subscribing. Thank you so much for that. Going forward, just make sure you put the bell on, so you're notified of any future broadcasts I will be doing.

Now, the second thing —before I get cracking on the sound engineer topic— is to remind you that, if you're new here, there have been ten other...

As one of the best-selling jazz artists of all time, Kenny G is a widely known name in and out of the genre. His work is an essential reference of "smooth jazz", a radio-friendly type of jazz that crosses over to popular genres like pop and R&B. As it's unfortunately unavoidable, a sector of the jazz community sees Kenny's formidable commercial success as something negative, criticising him for not staying true to the genre, among other things.

This is what he had to say when asked about it during an interview with The Hang Podcast:

His words ring true and apply to the experience of all musicians, or in a wider sense, to all artists. There's always someone who won't like what you do, and a few more people who won't like that you're successful doing what you do. Part of growing as an artist is to learn from whom to accept criticism, and how to tell the difference between constructive and destructive criticism.

If you're visited by the "jazz police", the...

Here is the transcription of episode 10 of season 3 of the podcast "Success Beyond The Score". Happy reading!

- Watch the video of the episode here: YouTube

- Listen to the audio of the episode here: Kajabi

INTRO:

Hi! I hope you are well. Let me just do my little buttons here, and hopefully you can hear me. If you can, please put a message in the chat. That would be really, really good. Oh dear. Okay, so I'm going to crack on as I wait for those replies. Hi Gary! Good to see you. Lovely to see you there.

Today, I've got a topic about putting on your own show. Actually, before I dive in, let me do a proper welcome. This is my 10th episode live. If you've been with me from the first one, I said that I'm here for 11 days on YouTube, and my 11th is going to be [on] Monday. It's just great. It's just gone really, really quickly. But I want to thank you so much for showing up, for liking, subscribing and sharing and just commenting. Thank you. Thank you so much. It means a lot that...

Labour Day is an opportunity for workers across the globe to pause. Whether you use the day to rest and recover, to reconnect with others, or to think about ways to improve the conditions of your trade, the day is about having a breath and look at the reality of labour without the rush of the race for success (or survival).

In a landscape where 71% of music makers and professionals are freelance, however, the date can easily be dismissed and pass unnoticed. This is highly detrimental, given that freelancing is a particularly hostile and challenging model of work. The specificities of freelancing make plenty of room for abuse, exploitation and intimidation. It's vital that we push together for increased standards of protection for freelancers all across our sector, and for that, we need information and perspective.

Last year, Black Lives in Music worked to inform the Women and Equalities Committee (WEC) report on Misogyny in Music, which found wide-scale...

Here is the transcription of episode 9 of season 3 of the podcast "Success Beyond The Score". Happy reading!

- Watch the video of the episode here: YouTube

- Listen to the audio of the episode here: Kajabi

INTRO:

Hi, how are you doing? Just checking my little things here. I think I've got everything ready. I hope you're having a lovely day and I hope you can hear me. Okie dokie. Then, today we've got a really, really interesting topic. Firstly, I just want to thank Phil, Angie Lee, Morgan Genus Sports, for dropping those questions in advance, because it got me thinking, and I'm looking forward to answering them.

So: we've got a really good session today. I'm Millicent Stephenson, your podcaster, your host, and I challenged myself to come onto YouTube Live to do my podcast because usually I pre record. I'm on the... What day am I on now? The 9th day. Tomorrow's the 10th and then next week, the 11th. So far, I've covered:

"The 7 stages of a gigging musician," that was my first...

Here is the transcription of episode 8 of season 3 of the podcast "Success Beyond The Score". Happy reading!

- Watch the video of the episode here: YouTube

- Listen to the audio of the episode here: Kajabi

INTRO:

Hello! I'm so pleased you're here with me again. It's a lovely day. It's cooler than it's been for a couple of days, I've got to admit. I'm still sweating, but hey-ho, that's the life of a gigging musician, menopausal musician, you name it. 

Now, today I've really got a very interesting topic, and it might be one that you're already familiar with, but I think maybe I can put a twist on it. So: this is why you should video record your gigs. 

There are a lot of benefits for video recording gigs, and it's something I have a lot of experience with, but it wasn't something that came easy. Maybe you're the type of musician that's thinking: "What? Video recording my gig? Nooo, wait, I ain't doing that!" You know, because you don't like the way you look, or maybe you're...

This is the era of streaming. There's no doubt about it. However, the radio, especially that from independent stations, still has a lot to offer. While algorithms risk to trap users in an echo chamber, radio programming is a human endeavour. Listeners are presented new sounds and information, they are questioned and challenged.

The radio is also important for musicians. Algorithms push everything that isn't already well known to the bottom of the playlist, while the social component of the radio allows for unknown artists to share space with big names of the industry. Topping the charts is still an important indicator of success, and achieving this feat remains very rewarding.

A radio station that has been very helpful to our director, Millicent Stephenson, is Affinity Xtra. Besides her music, they have also played different seasons of her podcast Success Beyond The Score through the years. Right now, they’re playing season 3 every Friday at noon, UK time. Theirs is an...