Success Beyond The Score

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...

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,...

"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

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...

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!

Anna Mae Bullock, known as the legendary Tina Turner, passed away three months ago. There are many things that one could say and highlight about her astounding career in the arts, and how she seemed to be able to sing, dance and act in anything she set her mind to. This time, however, we'd like to pay attention at how she kept a healthy work-life balance through her brilliant career, which most likely explains how long and fruitful it was.

When asked during an interview if she woke up in the morning and looked at herself in the mirror to marvel at the fact that she was really the one and only Tina Turner, this is what she replied:

In the current era, when everybody is a little celebrity building a persona through social media, this perspective becomes very valuable. Giving ‘everything’ on stage doesn’t have to include —in fact, it shouldn’t include— that which is more personal to us, our privacy and core identity. We must strive for a...

We live in a busy world.  Our phones keep us active, the internet cries for our attention, and on top of that, there are demands and needs coming from our family, friends, work and even our music.  Sometimes, it feels like there aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done, which makes us face a common enemy: stress. 

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 could be affected by working maximum hours with limited sleep. As a result, I started to realign myself since a few years ago, and now I can say it really pays off!

One of the things I did was to consciously plan breaks in my day and week. A break can consist of just a few minutes during which you mentally come away from work by, for example, looking at nature (as I was doing when I snapped the cover photo of this blog around a month ago, when I travelled to the Czech Republic). You can also have a...

Jacob Collier is an English musician whose music often features combinations of jazz with elements from many other musical genres. He's known for his extensive use of reharmonisation (which means altering the harmony of an existing melodic line) and close harmony (which means that the distance between the highest and lowest note of a given chord is of no more than one octave). He's also famous for his energetic and interactive live performances, where he usually conducts the audience to sing.

During many years of spontaneous audience interventions, Jacob had been trying to make the choir go beyond the major scale. During a concert in Rome last year, he finally achieved it:

A chromatic scale is a twelve pitches scale where each of them is separated by a semitone (also known as half-step). The semitone is the smallest interval between pitches in the Western scale, so it's uncommon for untrained musicians to sing it intuitively. Suffice to say, that, that an entire theatre...

Here is the transcription of episode 5 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:

I'm going to be diving into the three reasons why you should be charging for your music starting today! It's really, really warm weather and in fact, I've got a gig later on as well, but I thought I'd come on and speak with you and share some nuggets. And I would love to hear from you too. If you've got a story to tell about getting paid, put that in the comments; I'd love to read it out, give you some tips on that. And if you've got any questions, please do that.

Getting paid is a real vital thing for musicians. I said in episode one, on Monday, that I believe every musician should be paid their worth. I a 100% believe it, believe it, believe it. Of course, it's a journey, and for some of you, you're probably not charging at all —that's why...

In preparation of the Drink, Chill and Chat in person event we'll have this Saturday 10th June on Birmingham, today we want to share a testimonial given by Time For My Music's member Janice about the good things that have come out of being part of the community for her:

Hi all.

I just managed to watch the video from the last DCC. I would like to thank everyone very much for their encouragement and support during my journey as a solo artist. These things mean a lot to me, and I am so lucky to have you all in my life. You all push me forwards and instil me with confidence, self-esteem and belief. Also, thanks to those who were able to attend the “Wednesday Mic Fever“ where I was featured. I really appreciate the feedback and lovely comments. It was truly an amazing experience that I will treasure forever. Things would not be the same, though, without the women from Time For My Music. The sessions have prepared me for the future and I still have a lot more to...