1) WDR Big Band: Basstronaut – Monday night I went to a concert featuring Claudio Roditi. I tweeted that I found my new favorite trumpet player and my friend John Goldsby (Upright bass player in this video) sent me this video. Enjoy!

2) The Sonny Rollins Podcast – Radio and The Movies – I love Sonny, and this is an interesting video on where he gets his some of his ideas.

3) Stan Killian Quartet June 2011, Clip 2 – Stan and I met on Twitter and became Facebook friends awhile back. He recently posted this and I thought I would share it with you.

4) The Scorpion Decides – Who Are Those Guys? #3 – Live at the Lost Leaf – These are friends and fellow musicians here in Phoenix. This was from a show that I got to see live.

5) Black Keys and Dr. John – this is something fun. Man, I’d love to play bari in that horn section.

Summer is a great time to do the musical things you don’t always have time to do during the school year. Here’s why:

1. You have more time to practice – trust me, there’s nothing on TV anyway.
2. You can practice the music you want to learn – not what your band director gives you
3. You have the time and flexibility to try new things and experiment

I offer music lessons online via Skype / Google video chat / Facetime and can help you stay motivated, organized, and provide direction.

I offer lessons on Flute, Clarinet, Saxophone and Jazz Improv. You find out all the different types of lessons offered on my website: www.musiclessons.monicashriver.com

To make things even better, I have special summer deals for students, AFM members and AZ band directors available. Check out http://www.musiclessons.monicashriver.com/deals-and-discounts/ for more info!

1) Sometimes as musicians we forget that if we really want something we need to go after it. It’s not just about playing well. In fact, I would say playing well is a given, and you need to focus on the other stuff. This is a great link full of advice and good reminders.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/jobcenter/workplace/kay/story/2012-04-28/act-like-you-want-the-job/54579456/1

2) I have to admit that when I first read this I was pretty bummed. I think it’s the world “useless” that gets me the most. But it is an interesting read, especially the links at the bottom. What do you think?

http://newsweek.tumblr.com/post/21649811964/the-13-most-useless-college-majors-as-determined-by

3) This is an interesting interview with the composer Kim Planert, who composes music for ABC’s Missing and Castle.

http://musiccomposerblog.com/industry-interviews/kim-planert-composer.html

4) We all need inspiration in our lives, right? This is a great post with a whole twitter list of amazing people to do just that. How can you go wrong?

http://rightbrainrockstar.com/inspiration/38-amazing-people-who-will-help-you-quit-your-job-and-follow-your-dreams/

5) A special 2 for 1- links on why taking lessons over the summer is a good idea. What do you want to learn this summer?

http://linkermusic.weebly.com/studio-blog.html

http://www.musiclessons.monicashriver.com/advantages-of-summer-lessons/

1) A while back I took a survey on how musicians and composers make money. Here is the results of that survey. I think it’s incredibly interesting to see the ways that musicians and composers combine revenue sources to create a “job”.

How Musicians and Composers Make Money Survey Results

2) Promotion is one of those things that both interests and terrifies me. I have been told that I’m good at it. I don’t know, I’m continuing learning. This post offers some good ideas on different places to post about your projects online. http://blog.rockthepost.com/2012/04/12-places-to-promote-your-rock-the-pos-project-online/

3) 10 new ways to build a kick-ass digital resume – Pretty much speaks for itself. It’s an interesting time right now – people make up their mind about you before they ever speak to you. I have had a number of people call me based off what they see on my website or what they read on my Facebook updates. I’m not saying it’s good or bad, but it’s definitely real.

4) We all know we need to network. Gigs are probably the best place to do that and here’s one post on how.  How to network on the gig I’m curious – how do you network? Any tips?

5) A friend of mine on Facebook posted this on another friend’s wall and as a big John Mayer fan, I had to check it out. I was blown away. Sit down and watch the whole clinic – you’ll learn something and laugh while doing it. At least I did.

2) This is a really interesting episode of Finding Your Roots on Branford Marsalis and Harry Connick, Jr. I really enjoyed it. Look for the one titled John Lewis and Cory Booker

3) From the wonderful Jazz Video Guy, a little video blog asking the question: Would Shorter Solos Help?

4) I’m new to this whole selling merchandise thing (although I hope to have a Doublers Collective CD within the next year!) so I have been doing quite a bit of research. This is a interesting article from the people over at cdbaby. The comments to this post are worth reading as well.

http://diymusician.cdbaby.com/2012/04/why-the-value-of-your-merch-changes-every-day/

5) I’ve started this book and so far I’ve been really enjoying it. Dubbed has a pay what you want (including $0) and is continuing to update the book. If you have the slightest interest in the subject, I’d definitely check it out. Music in the Digital Age ebook by Andrew Dubber

So, why would a professional musician take 8 days off from playing? I can assure you, it was not by choice. I was dealing with severe mouth pain, which after making it to the dentist found out that I had a root in one of my back teeth that decided to die, abscess and infect my whole mouth. The left side of my face looked like a chipmunk, half preparing for winter. One emergency root canal and two days of Vicodin later and I was finally starting to feel like a real person again. Unfortunately, my chops were another story.

So, what should a musician practice after a forced hiatus? I recommend starting with long tones and lots of them. I found that my fingers felt pretty good and were at about 90% their normal facility, but my embouchure was soft, weak and unstable. My sound was wobbly, unfocused, and ridiculously inconsistent. I felt like a 5th grader picking up the instrument for the first time. My fingers didn’t need anything other than a quick jump start, but my lips were going to need a slow, methodical, patient warm up over a period of a couple of days.

It took about 4 days to start to feel normal again. I continued with long tones in 20 minute increments and took breaks when i felt fatigued. I ran through stuff I knew – warm up exercises, scales, arpeggios and improv and didn’t worry about working on anything new. It definitely feels good to be playing again. I hope I don’t have to take another break like that one ever again. In the meantime, it’s all about hanging in there…

I’m curious, what are your experiences? What do you to get back into shape after a long break? Share in the comments below!

Hot off the press – Doublers Collective stickers!

Want one of your very own? Here’s how:

1. If you donated to Doublers Collective’s first IndieGoGo campaign last year – your sticker will be in the mail in the next couple of days or if you’re local, the next time I see you in person.

2. The first 25 people to contact Doublers Collective through the website will get one for free. Go to www.doublerscollective.com – clink on the Contact tab and fill out the form. Hurry, because they will be going fast!

3. Donate! Make a minimum donation of $5 and I will send you a sticker as a thank you! Go to http://www.doublerscollective.com/donate/ for more info.

4. Come to a live show! We will have them to hand out!

Thank you for supporting Doublers Collective!

Last weekend I did a Doubling Clinic with Mike Crotty at the Highland Jazz Festival. This particular festival is in its third year and is one of my favorite festivals. Run by two of my friends, the Highland High School Band directors, Kevin Bennett and Lewis Nelson, it is one of the few festivals where you get a complete experience. Middle school and high school bands of various sizes, instrumentation, and configurations (all are welcome!) perform for a rating and comments from out of state clinicians with the option to compete. Concert Jazz Band from Arizona State University performs with the adjudicators and guest artists in the evening concerts. Local professional musicians and educators provide clinics for the students and the band directors. Guest Artists have included Joe Lovano, John Fedchock, Jeff Coffin, Bobby Shew, and Wycliffe Gordon. These are seriously heavy players.

For me, the best part is the transition I’ve made personally. I started out as a student attending these types of Festivals (about 20 years ago… Yikes!), then being in the college band performing, then being a jazz band director and bringing my own students, then doing a clinic… It’s pretty cool to see that progression and how each step influenced me along the way to make me who I am now. I’m not done either. Next is being a adjudicator and eventually a guest artist.

Speaking of guest artists – one of the highlights of the day was getting to enjoy a clinic and performance by Joe Lovano. Lovano’s clinic was like beatnik poetry. I loved it! (not sure how those high school kids felt, though.) Having only ever heard Lovano on his records, I simply fell in love with his playing live. Especially his ballads. Man, that guy is one of the best ballad players I have heard – he played a tune based off Body and Soul changes and I melted. So beautiful!

Mike and I had a great great time doing the clinic. It’s fun to talk about something that we both feel so passionately about and enjoy doing. We hope to do many more of them. I’ve included our handout at the bottom of this post for you, if you’d like. In addition, I made some new friends – great players and educators: Erik Applegate, Robert Morgan, and Matt Olson. One of the best parts about doing things like this is meeting new people from all over the country. I’m so fortunate to be a part of this community of musicians who love, teach, and perform jazz.

Doubling Clinic PDF

1. Clean out your horns! We all swab out our horns when we are done playing (or at least we should) but this is a great article reminding us to one step further and get all that mold and crap out of our mouthpieces and necks.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/study-brass-wind-instruments-allergic-lung-disease/story?id=11569520#.T12GPcyqU40

2. How Often Should You Facebook/Twitter/Blog? Rachel Ann Poling posted some fascinating pictures on the timing of everything. It’s pretty interesting.

3. Bulletproof Saxophone Playing E-book. This is a band new book put together by my friend Doron. I got to preview a copy and it’s stellar! Definitely worth checking out.

http://www.bestsaxophonewebsiteever.com/bulletproof-saxophone-playing/

4. Check out this video from my friend – Kris Berg:

Video about the new CD, “THIS TIME/LAST YEAR” from Kris Berg & Metroplexity Big Band with special guests Wayne Bergeron, Delfeayo Marsalis, Clay Jenkins and Chris Vadala. All music composed /arranged by Kris Berg

5. 9 Reasons Most Websites Fail by David Cutler – a blog post about websites. Not just why they fail, but also useful tips on how to make it better! Great advice for the Savvy Musician.

1) Chris Potter transcription of Confirmation – my dear friend Adam just posted this on his website and it’s ridiculous. If you love Chris Potter (I do!) then check this out. Insane! Adam has other transcriptions worth checking out too.

2) Next week I’m attending the North American Saxophone Alliance Conference. Luckily it’s close by this year – at Arizona State University. I really enjoy going to conferences (and I’m both performing and doing a Panel Discussion at this one). Derek Sivers has a great post how to get the most out of SxSW, but it applies to any conference. http://sivers.org/sxsw

3) Ten Do’s and Dont’s of Career Building By: Edna Landau

4) Chamber Music America – My group, Doublers Collective, just joined CMA and the organizatio0n really has a lot to offer. I’m excited about learning more and meeting other chamber music ensembles and musicians.

5) Fan Funding – 9 steps to find patrons completely on your own

There’s been an interesting debate about using fundraising platforms like Kickstarter among musicians lately and Disk Makers sent this out in their newsletter this week. Food for thought.

Have a great weekend!