Success Beyond The Score

When talking about going on stage, there is a fine line between excitement and anxiety. The thrill of being able to share what we have with the audience fights against the fear of freezing under the spotlight and forget everything. We want to prove ourselves and we are afraid of failing ourselves at the same time. There is a bunch of butterflies in our stomach, and we are not sure what they are doing.

Every person feels this differently, but we all feel it. Some have developed strategies, little rituals to do right before the show starts. Others have taught themselves to disregard anxiety's insideous comments by actively turning all their thoughts into positive ones. Some more throw themselves to the heat of the moment and trust that the sight of the audience will shatter the insecurities right away. Whatever the case, you are not alone, and by communicating with your peers, you can learn, advise, and gain the confidence to face an audience eager to hear you.

How do you deal w...

The brand name “Success Beyond The Score” started as a podcast back in 2019. Since then, it grew into the this website full of different resources for emerging musicians. The podcast itself has two seasons with 50 episodes in total, covering all kind of relevant topics for artists who want to achieve their goals in the music industry.

Usually, people stick to the latest content of shows that have been airing for a while. In the case of the podcast "Success Beyond The Score", doing so would not be advantageous. Have you never listened to it? Or maybe you did so long ago and don't remember much? Go to episode one of the first season and start, or restart, your journey into the secrets of the industry.

If you want all the episodes with their respective info, so you can choose what to listen and in what order, you can do it in this link. Share and discuss with your colleagues, and of course, be sure to contact Millicent if you have topic suggestions or questions you’d like to see address...

Having a customer crying poverty after you've come off stage is one big nightmare for musicians who perform live as part of their profession. The best solution, meaning the one that will allow you to sleep without anxiety, is to arrange it so you're always paid beforethe gig, not after.

How can you do that? Well, I have ten tips that will help you figure it out, and I am happy to give them for free! Just go to this page and follow the steps to download the document. There, you will also find a more comprehensive booklet, called "25 Secrets of the Successful Gigging Musician, Singer, Rapper & Spoken Word Artiste" that will serve you as guide sheet in the world of music.

If you'd like more customised assistance, you can also check my coaching sessions, and if you are a woman looking for a community that supports your growth, then Time For My Music is for you.

We live in a busy world.  Our phones keep us active, the internet cries for our attention, and then there is the demands of family, friends, work and even our music.  There are not enough hours in the day to get everything done. You might even find you feel stressed.  

There are many tips, videos and blogs on the internet giving advice on how to cope with stress. I learnt the hard way how much my health was affected by working maximum hours with limited sleep, so three years ago I started to realign myself and it’s paying off. One of the things I did was to consciously plan breaks in my day and week.

A break can be a few minutes each day where you mentally come away from work. This could be looking at nature, the sky, having a short sleep, doing something creative, but not music. These things will help your brain, which in this regard is like a muscle, to rest, relax and recover, renewing you to do your next job. 

A break can be moments taken to deliberately breathe.  By doing this,...

As the Government plans to limit access to higher education music and the arts in England, the Musicians' Union has put together a guide to the consultation's questions and key points to raise.

There is time until May 6th to take part in the consultation, which will be taken into account when defining the final policy. It is extremely important for people involved with music in the country to voice their opinion and concerns, because access to higher education has a direct and strong impact on the future of the industry, one we can't overlook.

Review the information provided my the MU.

Take part in the consultation.

Please share this with as many people as you can; the more voices and perspectives are taken into account, the best the chances for a good outcome are!

Are you interested in setting up your own YouTube channel to widen your music reach, but are not sure what to do? Do you worry about breaking it, and feel step-by-step instructions by a musician would help you to understand the screens and get it working?

On Wednesday 30th March, 7.30pm until 9pm on Zoom, Millicent Stephenson will be running a Zoom webinar called ‘Mastering YouTube for Musicians – Part 1’ to address all these concerns and answer your questions.

The content of the session will be:

• How to login
• Understanding your Channel layout
• Steps to upload your videos
• What to put in the boxes (fields) and what tags to use
• How to share your video to get views
• How to grow your subscribers organically

The course fee is £35 and you can book your place on this website.

See you on Wednesday!

On Wednesday 30th March, 7.30pm until 9pm on Zoom, Millicent Stephenson will be running a Zoom webinar called ‘Mastering YouTube for Musicians – Part 1’. The session is directed towards musicians who want to increase their reach online through YouTube, but aren't sure of how to navigate the platform and use its tools to their favour.

The content of the session will be:

• How to login
• Understanding your Channel layout
• Steps to upload your videos
• What to put in the boxes (fields) and what tags to use
• How to share your video to get views
• How to grow your subscribers organically

Interested? The course fee is £35 and you can book your place following this link. 

It is not easy to define the sense of spectacle in classical music. Precision and speed are always a thing of wonder, yes, but the musician cannot leave behind the act of performing, of giving a character to the interpretation. Yuja Wang knows this very well, and it shows every time she sits in front of her piano.

During an interview with Los Angeles Times in 2017, she was asked about what alternative career she would have picked if she wasn’t a prodigy pianist. Her answer was: “For me, playing music is about transporting to another way of life, another way of being. An actress does that.” With that perspective, you can see the character she plays live; with the thrill of spectacle running in her fingers, her deliberated fashion choices that infuse a Hollywood glam flavour to the stage, and her empathetic approach to her repertoire.

Her brilliant and inspiring career surely comes as motivation to find our own character on stage and play its role in a musical lifetime. Don't be afraid...

Are you interested in setting up your own YouTube channel to widen your music reach, but are not sure what to do? Do you worry about breaking it, and feel step-by-step instructions by a musician would help you to understand the screens and get it working?

Perhaps you have put videos up but have had zero or one or two views. This may also be the case with your subscriber count. Would you like to know how to increase both things without paying for advertising?

On Wednesday 30th March, 7.30pm until 9pm on Zoom, Millicent Stephenson will be running a Zoom webinar called ‘Mastering YouTube for Musicians – Part 1’ to address all these concerns and answer your questions.

The content of the session will be:

• How to login
• Understanding your Channel layout
• Steps to upload your videos
• What to put in the boxes (fields) and what tags to use
• How to share your video to get views
• How to grow your subscribers organically

Millicent will talk from the experience she's got with her own YouTub...

Help Musicians UK and Musicians Union have helped funding the PiPA (Parents in Performing Arts) Classical Music Survey, which aims to identify patterns in job and working environments in relation to work-life balance, and develop practical strategies and resources for Classical Music organisations to better support parents and carers, and the wider workforce.

You can take the survey clicking here.

The survey was developed in partnership with Association of British Orchestras, Liverpool Philharmonic, SWAP’ra, Black Lives in Music and UK Music. It will investigate the impact of caring responsibilities on career progression as well as wider worklife balance and wellbeing challenges in Classical Music.

The survey will provide data driven insights to enable PiPA to develop a range of strategies and resources for the Classical Music sector to empower organisations to better support parents, carers and the wider workforce.

PiPA wants to hear from people from all backgrounds and circumstan...