Success Beyond The Score

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,...

Nowadays, the making of both woodwind and brass instruments is considered an endangered craft by the Heritage Crafts Association. If something goes wrong with your instrument, there are very few places where you can take it in order to get it back on track. When Millicent's trusted sax repairer retired seven years ago, she was faced with the gravity of this problem, struggling so much to find a reliable replacement that she decided to learn how to do it herself. She signed up for a sax repair and maintenance workshop offered by Cambridge Woodwind Makers, which was extremely useful and gave her a new perspective. She talked at length about her experience in this blog entry, and also on her YouTube channel.

While she eventually found a new trusted sax repairer, Millicent didn't completely leave this knowledge aside. As a busy gigging musician, she doesn't always have the chance to take her saxophones to the shop if something breaks, and...

Xdinary Heroes is an accomplished K-Pop band with a prolific and entertaining YouTube channel. Through their short videos, they share glimpses of their life as a band, make comedy skits and show appreciation for their fans.

One of these shorts, which you can watch by clicking this link, pokes fun at the different ways people can react to a bandmate's mistake during group practise. From the one who assures that it's alright while cursing inwards, to the one who's so focused on their own thing that they don't notice something went wrong, their skit gives a humorous twist to something that, unfortunately, can snowball into big issues in real life.

Mistakes are bound to happen because we are human. There's no way to completely prevent them, so there's no point in holding yourself or your bandmates to impossible standards. If someone's skill level isn't enough to flawlessly perform a piece, or it is, but their focus slips for whatever reason and there's a...

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 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 7 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, hello, hello. I hope you're well. I've changed my setup here. I've put my notes to this side. So if you see me looking that way, that's what I'm looking at instead of that way. And I had a nice iPad stand for my birthday yesterday. So I'm really excited. I'm trying it out today.
Really, really happy. So I'm hoping you can hear me okay. Um, it looks as though my volume might be a little bit too loud. So let me just turn that down one second. Yeah, that seems a bit better, not peaking.

Okay, so today is about: "Do you have a music hobby or a music business?" And I think this is a really good topic. When I started off, many moons ago, at school, I did some music, left school, did some part-time studies. Music was my hobby, and eventually I moved it into a music...

Here is the transcription of episode 4 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:

Today is day four of season three of my podcast, Success Beyond the Score. And if you haven't already watched the first three episodes, one's about "The Seven Stages Of The Gigging Musician", the other was about, um... oh gosh, I can't remember all my titles now! Look, just go back, there's a playlist. Getting old, haha!

Anyway, today is about: "I'm A Musician. Why Do I Need A Business Plan?" And this is a topic most musicians just say: "No, I really, really, really don't need this at all. You know, I do not need this at all. I just want to play!".

By the way, if you can't hear me, drop a message in the chat so that I can make sure you can all hear me 'cause the last thing I want is to, is to be —I think that seems to be working— is to be...

Happy new year 2023! I wish this new beginning brings you a lot of energy to continue with your projects, and also the motivation to start those others that you've been storing as dreams in the backburner.

As I've mentioned before, I tend to write my yearly music business plan around this time. While planning an entire year sounds daunting, I've found that doing it helps me achieve more without compromising my health or wellbeing. It allows me to distinguish between the urgent and the important, and know which actions take time because they need to and which do because I'm not being efficient. With a plan, I can also tell what opportunities align with my goals, which prevents distractions.

If you don't know where to start with your own yearly plan, have a quick model I use to write mine: 

1. Find the time:  We often think there is not enough time in our day to plan, but there is when we decide something is a priority. Time will present...