Time For Joannie's Music

Joannie, known professionally as Joannie Joannie or JoannieJMusic, is part of the Time For My Music online community for emerging female musicians. Her element is the voice: she's a singer, songwriter and poetical lyricist, radio presenter and DJ. She is passionate about social connection and communication, which has allowed her to bring joy with her music to people of all ages, from youth groups to care homes residents.

Joannie joined Time For My Music to find support in order to tackle the hurdles that lockdown brought her, namely some voice problems and loss of confidence. With Millicent's guidance and the help of the community, she got back on track in no time. Once restrictions on live music were lifted, she got gigs, interviews, award nominations, and this year, the opportunity to release a single: You Bring Me Joy

Nowadays, Joannie is working regularly as music performer in restaurants with her duo SistasWithSoul. You can also find her on London World Radio,...

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The Challenge of the Perfect Embouchure

The main instrument of any musician is their own body. From the brain to the limbs, to the internal organs, to the skin, different parts of the body interact with musical instruments, with other bodies and the world around them to create music. It's no wonder, then, that musicians and their health are a topic of interest in medicine.

An interesting example was presented by the British Dental Museum this year with the exhibition The Challenge of the Perfect Embouchure. Defined as "the way in which a player applies their mouth to the mouthpiece of a brass or wind instrument, especially as it affects the production of the sound," embouchure is critical for players of these kinds of instruments.

The exhibition was dedicated to Maurice Porter, a dentist and amateur clarinettist who became an authority on embouchure during the 50s and 60s. One of the first doctors to pay attention to how poor dental or facial health was specifically detrimental to wind and brass players, Porter wrote some...

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TRANSCRIPTION: "Success Beyond The Score" Podcast, S.3, EP. 6

Here is the transcription of episode 6 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


PODCAST INTRO:

Hello, hello, hello! I hope you can hear me. I'm just checking my mic levels. Of course, if you can't, please put a message in the chat. Now, today is scorching. It's super hot here, which is kind of nice! We don't get a lot of really hot weather, and then we complain, and then it gets cold, and we want the hot weather back. But it's great. So, at some point, I may have to put a fan on, because I've just kind of kept all the windows closed to stop the noise on the microphone. Let me just make that a bit closer to me. Yep. And, hopefully that should work. Just let me know in the chat if everything is fine.

Okay, today we have got an interesting hot topic, and that is: is playing for free a contradiction for musicians?

Thinking of this title, I thought,...

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Sleepless Menopause


How has the lack of sleep affected me? My eyes did not look healthy, not great for stage work.  My short-term memory became a little sketchy, although it didn’t affect music recall.  I didn’t have the stamina to drive for long periods anymore. Some nights I slept 3hrs to 4hrs only.  Sometimes 3hrs, then awake for 2-3hrs, back to sleep for 2hrs.  The next is a weird description, but I felt as though I was dragging my body around, with a distant memory of what ‘rest’ felt like. 


Does this description resonate with you? It's an excerpt from Millicent's new article on the experience of being a working musician going through menopause. It centres on sleep issues associated with menopause, how they interact with other symptoms, and gives ten strategies you can use to fight against them.

Click here to read the full article

If you find it useful, be sure to share it with friends of all genders. This could not only help more people who are...

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A Thought For Your Journey

"You might not get to where you want to be, but you will get to where you ought to be!"

—Millicent Stephenson, founder of Success Beyond The Score

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The Impact of "AI" on the Music Industry

The boom of generative AI brings difficult challenges to the music industry. In an effort to keep regulations on par with the development of this technology, the Musicians' Union is pushing for copyright law to be upheld in relation to it, and for new rights to be introduced that will protect musicians and music creators from any unauthorised use of their works and performances.

Generative AI needs massive amounts of data —in the case of music, the input is millions of songs and sound samples— to train with, before it can generate pieces from given prompts. This data so far has been collected without explicit consent by its original, human creators. Developers argue that their LLMs (large language models, generally referred to as "AI") learn from the source data in a way similar to humans, therefore they can't incur in copyright infringement. However, these systems are unable to create their own ideas. Instead, they search for patterns...

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Musicians sought for research on intermusicality

Here we reproduce a letter by researcher Mahaliah Edwards, who's looking for musicians to contribute to her current line of work. Please, take a look:


Dear all,  

I’m wondering if you can help me. 

For my Master’s degree, I’m researching musicians who have in-depth cultural and social understanding of two or more distinct musical traditions. I want to find out about their musical upbringing and experiences moving between different musical traditions and spaces. There are many terms for this, including bimusicality or intermusicality. 

I’m looking to interview musicians of any description over the age of 18 who may relate to this topic. I’m keen to have respondents from many different cultural, social and musical backgrounds. 

If you yourself are interested or if you know anyone that would be interested to participate please send this email on. 

This link to the initial questionnaire which takes 5 mins to...

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Update on Time For My Music's Next Concert

It has been a while since many of you answered the Time For My Music survey in regards of having the next concert happen face to face on a venue in the city of Birmingham (UK). The community happily received all your valuable feedback, and the women have been discussing and organising the event ever since.

At the moment, they're doing one of the most exciting parts of putting a show together, which is choosing their songs. There's going to be solo, duo and group acts, which has made the process quite exhilarating. All the options on the table are interesting, and the challenge of picking the ones that'll make for the best experience alongside the others has been a good exercise for the women.

The show is taking shape and the community of Time For My Music is doing its best to be able to confirm the exact date and location. Look forward to announcements and information about the concert coming out very soon!

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Nominations open for the MU's Executive and Regional committees

Nominations for the Musicians' Union Executive and Regional committees 2024-2025 are open until midday of Wednesday 27th September, 2023.

The Executive committee is the governing body of the union and it's in charge of taking major decisions that affect the working conditions of musicians across the country. The Regional committees are in charge of day-to-day management and perception of local concerns. If you, or someone you know, have a passion for social work and political change, consider submitting your or their name for a nomination. You could make a big difference! 

Click here to read all the information on what the positions entail and what are the requisites to apply. If you have specific questions about the role you'd have in a committee, you can contact our director Millicent Stephenson at [email protected] and ask about her experience. She was part of the Executive Committee for a few years, and she's currently part of the Regional Committee for the...

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25 steps forward towards the music career of your dreams

Are you a gigging musician, singer, rapper or spoken word artiste with big dreams but unsure of how to make them come true? If so, this is for you.

Learn how to get better quality gigs, ensure the longevity of your career and the energy in your performances, build your image and increase your income with Revealed, a free booklet where Millicent Stephenson, a multi-award winning saxophonist with a successful career that spans decades, condensed her experience and insight into 25 key secrets.

As you read, it's a free booklet, no catch! All you have to do is to provide a valid e-mail address. You won't receive spam and your information isn't going to be disclosed to any third party. As easy as that!

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