Success Beyond The Score

An unfortunate old belief about the arts, including music, is that it's not worth it to start pursuing them as an adult. Nothing could be further from the truth. It's never too late to learn how to paint, sculpt, or play an instrument, and doing so brings countless benefits at all levels.

For example, music is a scientifically proven booster of memory and neural connections. Here's a helpful and concise explanation of how it works by Dr. Lewis Clarke:

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Lewis Clarke (@drlewisclarke)

It's helpful to be aware of this when working with adults in music education, or as part of your own journey through aging. It surely keeps motivation up! If you have personally identified benefits that music gives you as an adult musician, tell us about it.

During the second part of the Time For My Music Evening Showcase, the women addressed the audience to tell them a little about their aspirations, and how the work with the online programme has supported them in their journey. We will share transcriptions of selected fragments, so you can get a better idea of how Time For My Music can support you or someone you know achieve their goals in the music industry.

Let’s start with Michelle, a saxophonist who regularly enchants audiences with the Notebenders at Birmingham Symphony Hall and other prestigious venues, She aspires to become a sought-after studio session saxophonist, and this is what she had to say about Time For My Music:

I’ve been in Time For My Music for some time now, and I never ever thought that I’d actually perform in a setting like this.

What we do is: we meet up in person and online, and we share ideas. We talk about what things have gone wrong. We talk about our ambitions, and about songs we want to learn. [...] With

...

Everything in life entails a risk, even not doing anything at all. Assessing and managing risks is part of life, but it becomes critical in professions that involve large numbers of people, like live music.

If you've followed Millicent as an artist or as an educator for any amount of time, you know that she strongly advocates for musicians getting paid for their work. This is a position that she shares with the Musician Union, of which she has served as member of the Executive Committee and the Midlands Regional Committee. In a campaign called "Work Not Play", the MU offers resources to empower musicians so they don't feel pressured to accept unpaid jobs. This includes a list of fair play venues, a digital tool to define your rates, training to improve your negotiation skills, and more.

Millicent has also created her own resources to tackle this issue. In the free gifts section of our website, you can find the leaflet "Ten Reasons Why They Will Pay You Before Gig Day". In the store, the e-learning course "How To Work Out Your Gig Fee, Collect Your Payment And Manage Your Money" will walk you through everything you need to know in order to get paid as a professional musician.

Remember: b...

Preceded by two online performances, the ‘Time For My Music’ Evening Showcase was the first live concert offered by the women of the Time For My Music programme. The venue was the MAC Theatre of Birmingham, and the date, 29 October 2024.

For those who couldn't attend, and also those who attended and want to relive the experience, the full concert will be made available on Millicent's YouTube channel. Part 1 is already out, so you can sit back, relax, and enjoy 50 minutes of music by the talented Angela, Angie Lee, Asharp, Melody, Michelle, Patricia and Tiny Sax:

Part 2 comes out on 23 March, just three weeks from now.

Many thanks to GL 360 Productions (@gl360media) for making a full coverage of the evening showcase, making it possible to share the art of these women with people all around the world. Be sure to play the video in full HD to get the best experience, and if you like it, let us know in a comment or by sharing with your friends!

Despite what some might think, working in music can be quite physically demanding. As a gigging musician, I have to travel to the venues where I’ll perform, often carrying my instrument and PA system with me. I bend, lift, shift and go up and down to set up my equipment. I move around the stage (sometimes off it and through the crowd, even) while performing. As a saxophonist, I really put my lungs to work every time I play, and I can’t run out of breath mid-concert!

Now, our bodies go through important changes during menopause that can have a huge impact on our energy levels and physical endurance. Menopausal people might experience changes in bone density, heart health, weight, body shape and mobility. This can affect our ability to keep working, so it’s important to exercise consciously and regularly in order to counter menopausal symptoms.

To be transparent, I didn’t struggle that much keeping up with physical activity prior to joining the SMART Rewind Metabolic Health 12 Week Pro...

No matter how experienced or learned someone is, how many resources they have, how many measures they take, accidents and mistakes are inescapable. What defines a good musician isn't the absence of hiccups or errors, but rather, how they react to them.

Take as an example this rendition of Queen's quintessential song, Bohemian Rhapsody, played during a concert in Caracas, Venezuela, back in 1981.

Even if you aren't a fervent fan of Queen, it's highly likely that you've listened to this song enough times to tell something goes wrong at the 01:40 mark. Brian May works around the issue to play the solo for that part, but by 02:04, he changes the melody completely. The image isn't that clear, but apparently he missed his cue and broke one of his strings immediately after.

Observe how he doesn't freeze, doesn't stop or reacts in a visibly panicked way. His fellow band members do look slightly confused while they understand what happened, but this doesn't prevent them from playing their...

Creative endeavours are, at the same time, energising and draining. Gigging musicians thrive on stage, but once they get off, they are hit with the exhaustion of having given their all to their audience, their clients and their craft. If, on top of performing, they are in charge of logistics, finances and/or organisation, as it was the case for the women who put together the Time For My Music's evening showcase last October, this fatigue gets dialled up to eleven.

If you plan to become a professional gigging musician, it's essential that you come up with mechanisms to rejuvenate after shows. There's only so much your body and mind can endure with no support, and if you force yourself to move forward despite signs of alarm like pain, sleep issues, and anxiety, you're going to burn out.

On one hand, there's the physical side of things: take care of your health and cultivate your endurance with an appropriate diet, physical activity and good sleep. Allot time specifically to rest, both ...

The Musicians' Union is cautious about the government consultation currently going on in regard to copyrighted material being used to train generative artificial intelligence (genAI). The consultation is a direct successor of a government-proposed exception that saw the light in 2023, and didn't go through due to strong opposition from the creative industry. The difference this time is that the government has outlined a way for right holders to prevent their works from being used to train AI systems. Alternatively, they could opt to negotiate a presumably paid licence for their use.

In the realm of music, the right holders are mainly record labels and publishers. However, musicians who signed their contracts and transferred their rights before the boom of genAI had no way to foresee the weight this technology would have in the cultural landscape and industry, or the impact its use would have in their revenue. For this reason, the Musicians' Union advocates for each creator having the...