Success Beyond The Score

You need only claim the events of your life to make yourself yours.
—Florida Scott-Maxwell, in ‘The Measure of My Days: One Woman's Vivid, Enduring Celebration of Life and Aging’ (1972) 

Florida Scott-Maxwell was an American playwright, author and Jungian analyst. When she was in her eighties and living in a nursing home, she turned her journal into the memoir ‘The Measure of My Days’ , where this quote comes from. The title of the memoir itself might come from psalm 39:4, which reads: “Oh Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!" 

• What does this mean to you?
• What influence could this have in your music?

As always, you can share your thoughts here.

As we have discussed before in the blog, New Year's Eve is not the only point in time where we can stop, look at what we have done, think about where we want to go, and make plans. In fact, to reach your goals, you should most definitely be tracking your progress and adjusting your actions way more frequently.

The beginning of September is a good checkpoint. Summer vacation is mostly over, kids go back to school. The demand for gigs decreases slightly, and the uninviting weather of early autumn is a great excuse to sit down inside and focus. Also, there is still enough time before Christmas to assess your situation at different levels of your life (family, music, finances, etc.) and make a solid plan to tweak what you need to tweak.

Dust off that list of new year's resolutions you made in January and evaluate. First, acknowledge any and all achievements and progress you have got so far. Good job! Then, in regard to the goals that are still pending, ask yourself why that is and answer...

A few weeks ago, there was a xenophobic incident in the area where I live. A hotel that hosts asylum seekers was surrounded by an aggressive crowd that hurled abuse and shouted at them to go back to their places of origin. Leaving one’s home and life behind due to the threat of violence is traumatic enough. The asylum seekers should be helped, not attacked! I reached out to the city council and my MP to tell them about the incident, and got their opinion. However, to effect real change, we need many, many voices.

The Ella Baker School of Organising knows the importance of community. For this reason, they are taking steps to connect with people all across the UK and give them tools to —as their name suggests— organise and react quickly to the constantly evolving political situation. They aim to help everybody develop leadership and critical thinking skills, make them know their rights and how to interact with authority based on them, and ultimately, change our perception of society.

T...

Here is the second season's finale of the podcast Success Beyond The Score. If you had to pick just one episode to revisit, this would be the one. Although it doesn’t include clips from the interviews with the wonderful guests who made the season possible, it has Millicent telling you what were the absolute best takeaways from her conversations with them.

Let’s hear, then, a brilliant summary of what we learnt from Tony Bean, Louise Dengate, Abigail Kelly, Anna Brooks, Dan Whitehouse and Ruby Turner MBE:

The recent death of Dr. Jason Arday, the youngest black person to ever become a Cambridge professor has, yet again, highlighted the issues others have towards people of colour.

In case you have not heard, this is what happened: a few weeks ago, the media reported that Dr. Arday had allegedly plagiarised some of his writings and made false claims about his life. This should have been looked into by his employer, the University of Cambridge, and his publishers. In a situation like this, the press ought to report the story to the extent that it is of reasonable public interest. However, what they did was create a huge scandal, amplifying racist and prejudiced voices both within and outside academia, which relentlessly hounded Dr. Arday, even when the matter no longer concerned the general public.

Shortly after the University of Cambridge announced an investigation into his appointment, Dr. Arday resigned. The attacks did not stop, despite the warning by multiple experts about the higher...

In the first post of this series, we talked about health and safety. Now that we know the necessary precautions we have to take, we can talk about the main devices we are dealing with: amplifiers and mixers.

1. What is an amplifier?

Amplifiers are not unique to music. In fact, they can be found in most, if not all, electronic equipment. Their basic function is to increase the magnitude of a signal, which is itself defined as a current that varies through time. Microphones, electric instruments and digital devices feed signals to audio amplifiers and mixers, which then amplify (i.e. increase loudness)them to make them come out of speakers with the volume and characteristics that we want. 

The main difference between an amplifier and a mixer is the number of signals that each of them can handle. The amplifier is designed for only one, while the mixer can process multiple signals at the same time. Due to this, amplifiers tend to have a built-in speaker, while mixers don't.

2. Basic el...

We are almost done revisit season 2 of the podcast Success Beyond The Score. This time, we have two more compilation episodes, in which, instead of hearing one guest talk about many things, you will get to know all guests’ opinion on a single topic.

On episode 18, we looked back at the event that completely changed the course of the 2020s: the coronavirus pandemic. It was a devastating blow for humankind at all levels that is still taking a toll to this day, yet it was also a moment of crisis that allowed us to think differently about what we were doing and what we really wanted. How did it affect the music industry during the first two years? Specifically, how did it impact musicians at different levels?

Episode 19 is all about practical information: from each guest, we are going to hear at least three essential tips, or things that you can do to help you make it in the music industry.

We hope this information is useful for you, and that you are enjoying this trip down memory...

Here is the first of seven posts in our series about amplifying devices, what they do, and how to use them. They are summaries of workshops that took place in the Time For My Music community group. You can learn more about the context in our intro post.

We are starting at the most basic, yet most important aspect of this and any type of work: safety!

1. Take care of your body.

By definition, the performing arts are physically demanding. Music too! You have to look after your health: diet, sleep quality, and fitness level all play a part.

Specifically in regard to amplifying devices, their weight can represent a risk. When deciding on what to buy for your PA system, think about how you are going to transport and set your new device up. Learn the proper form to lift heavy objects; you can do it at the gym or even through online tutorials, like this one.

If you find yourself in a situation where the weight of the equipment is too much for you, don't force yourself. There's no shame i...

Words are a form of action, capable of influencing change.
—Ingrid Bengis, in ‘Combat in the Erogenous Zone’ (1972) 

This Ingrid Bengis' pioneering collection of essays about love and sexuality is a key text for second-wave feminism. The quote that we extract from it today is one of the most referenced.

• What does it mean to you?
• How can you relate this idea with your music or your process?

This year at the Time For My Music community group, there have been a series of workshops about amplifying devices, what they do, and how to use them. The goal is to get the women more comfortable with the tech elements involved in their performance.

Why is this important? Well, many times, clients require musicians to bring and set their own public address (PA) system, as there are no professionals who can assist them at the venue. Even when there is a sound engineer or a DJ present, to have the understanding and vocabulary to talk to them empowers musicians and allows them to perform their best. 

At the beginning of this series of workshops, many of the Time For My Music members were limited by their lack of knowledge about this topic. Now, they know what to do or ask for in order to get the sound that they want. Some of them have said that they have improved the quality of the sound set by someone else at the venue. It has been great!

To further spread this useful knowledge, we a...