1) 3 Ways to Reduce Online Noise and Get More Done – a great blog post on how to get some control back when updates, events, subscriptions, etc start to take over your life. I did some cleaning up of my own inbox after reading this and it’s helped.

2) The Mistake that Topples Careers and Industries by David Cutler – a nice little article about keeping an open mind when it comes to your career.

3) Creativity Comes After The Fact – gapingvoid has become one of my favorite things to read in the morning. I even have one of his cartoons as the lock screen picture on my phone. This particular one really made me think… and then get to work.

4) Double-A Goals – some tips from The Musician’s Way on goal setting and attaining!

5) The last one this week isn’t a link, but a picture. I had the privilege of sharing the stage with the famous Don Rickles last weekend. I didn’t get a picture of myself with him unfortunately, but there is some video of his calling me “dragon lady”. It was a very cool show! I did snap a picture of the stage while we were on break:

I’m going to do a series of blog posts about the conference to keep them short and manageable.

FAVORITE PERFORMANCES!

I didn’t get to hear everything I wanted to hear, more or less everything I could have heard. I worked to balance my time between clinics, performances, and the hang / networking. Post-conference people always ask: “What’s the best thing you heard?” Which is never an easy answer when you’ve just been saturated with incredible music for almost 4 days straight! But this year, one group stood out to me:

The Ed Neumeister Quartet with Michael Wolff (piano), John Goldsby (bass), and Danny Gottlieb (drums).

Musically, it was some of the most innovative and creative playing that I heard in a long time. I was transfixed the entire (all too short) 40 minute performance and truly appreciated Ed Neumeister’s writing, especially his arrangement of Take the A Train. Not one of my favorite tunes, but I left liking it again.

My second favorite was the Alan Baylock Orchestra…

Alan’s music just makes me happy. And it has ever since I was introduced to his music when I was in college, and now I’m lucky enough to call him a friend. Alan loves music and it shine through in everything he writes. I left that performance smiling and happy.

Missed Opportunity:

At a conference like this, there’s always something that you miss that you wished you’d seen. Or many somethings. You can’t see it all but you really do wish you could. This year I missed seeing the Bass Extremes featuring Victor Wooten and Steve Bailey. I remember seeing Victor Wooten live maybe a decade ago and loved it. I loved the book he wrote – The Music Lesson – too. I wish I had seen that performance and I know it was awesome, because lots of people told me it was one of their favorites.

Copyright © 2011 maxplanation.com

From Monica Shriver, aka saxymoni, the founder and director of Doublers Collective

Doublers Collective is trying to raise some money. Wanna know why?

This whole fundraising idea may seem a little out of the ordinary to a lot of people. Truthfully it’s all new to me too. I thought I would take a moment and share with you how I ended up reaching the point where I would ask my friends, family, (and perfect strangers!) for money…

I first stumbled upon the concept of “crowd funding” by accident about a year ago. I had just joined twitter and was following a few musicians. One of them was Jason Parker, @1workinmusician. He had tweeted about his Kickstarter campaign. I was curious and so I listened to his playing, read about the musicians he was working with, read his blog and decided to donate. He met his goal and successfully produced a really great CD. I felt like this was such a fantastic way to do things – a bunch of people giving just a little money, coming together to make a huge difference. Plus donations are tax-deductible, which benefits everyone involved!

Shortly thereafter, I attended a social media panel discussion while at the Jazz Education Network Conference in New Orleans. Again, this idea of crowd funding was covered. Things were evolving before my very eyes. I started seeing Kickstarter and IndieGoGo campaigns popping up all over Twitter and Facebook. Of course, at this point, Doublers Collective was a concept. I had a vision and an idea, but I didn’t know how it was going to evolve. I had Fractured Atlas as a resource and I started learning as much a I could about fundraising, business, and social media. When IndieGoGo partnered with Fractured Atlas and waived their fees for sponsored projects, I knew I had to give it a try.

Now I’ve been trying to apply what I have learned to raise money for Doublers Collective. I know that $15,000 sounds like a lot of money, but if you look at the breakdown, I have specific goals for the money. Most of the money is designated for commissions. This is putting money back into the music community and giving some amazing composers a chance to write for something unique and completely different. When Doublers Collective has a decent sized book, we can put on more concerts and clinics, thus providing exposure for those amazing writers and a really interesting concert experience for the audience!

Here’s the breakdown of how we will use the $15000 we raise:

• $10,000 to cover the cost to commission 8-10 pieces of new music.
• $2500 to cover costs related to the recording and release our CD of commissioned works including licensing fees, studio time, CD distribution, etc.
• $750 to cover expenses related to the premiere of 2- 3 commissioned works for Doublers Collective at the North American Saxophone Alliance Biennial Conference at Arizona State University in March 2012.
• $750 to cover renting a performance space and paying Doublers Collective musicians to give a premiere concert of the commissioned pieces in Phoenix, AZ.
• $1000 to use as prize money for a student writing competition. Two of the top original compositions will each receive $500.

So, you’re probably wondering what happens if we don’t raise the full $15,000. Well, we do still get to keep the money we do raise. (We opted for the “flexible funding” from IndeiGoGo.) Whatever we do raise will go towards commissions. That’s our first priority.

Now, I’m not just expecting people to hand me money without justification of my hard work. So here’s what we’ve done to help move things along as well:

• Mike Crotty has donated music that he previously wrote for the sax section of the Airmen of Note, and the arrangements for woodwind ensemble. He has also done 2 additional arrangements specifically for Doublers Collective and donated them. This is truly amazing and we are so grateful for Mike, because without him, we wouldn’t have anything to play.
• Mike Crotty and I have connected with incredible writers from all over the world and secured their interest in the project. These guys are simply waiting for the green light – as soon as we tell them we have secured funding, they will write us a piece.
• I am working on two arrangements of my own for Doublers Collective, with the guidance of Mike Crotty.
• The members of Doublers Collective have rehearsed for FREE for the last year.
• We have performed two concerts in the last 6 months, one which you can view on our Media page. We have an awesome show booked at Sacred Grounds for Feb. 23rd
• I have applied for grants to commission music for Doublers Collective and will continue to do so.
• I wrote a proposal for Doublers Collective to premiere works at the North American Saxophone Alliance National Conference in March 2012.

We really need YOUR help. If you’re interested in helping Doublers Collective raise money you can donate online at www.indiegogo.com/doublerscollective now thru 12/31/11.

If you would rather send me a check, please follow these guidelines:
1. Make the check payable to “Fractured Atlas” (This is very important. If it is made out to anything else, it won’t be processed.)
2. In the Memo line write “Monica Shriver – DC” that way I know the money is intended to be used for Doublers Collective.
3. Send it to Monica Shriver, 902 W. Topeka Dr. Phoenix, AZ 85027

What instruments do you play in your profession, and in what capacity do you play them?

I play piccolo, flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, soprano, alto, tenor and bari saxophone professionally in jazz combos, big bands, rock bands, chamber ensembles, orchestras, as a soloist, and in recording sessions.

I also play oboe, bassoon and electric bass for fun, working on getting them to a higher level.

I play just enough piano to be dangerous. I mostly use it for transcription, composing and arranging.

Woodwind Specialist, Doubler, Multiple Woodwinds Performer… there are so many titles for what you do. Do you have a preference for what you are called?

I like the word Doubler, but I know that few people outside of the musician community really knows what that term means. Multi-Instrumentalist seems to be the most user friendly and clear.

Just call us talented.

Did you get into doubling for the money? (haha)… What are you in it for?

I’ve always said that you should “never do the math”, so I don’t know this for sure, but I highly doubt that the cost benefit ratio for being a doubler ends up in the black. I’m not sure if when you factor in the cost of instruments, reeds, repairs, cases, mouthpieces, and sheet music that you can make an argument for being in it for the money. And that doesn’t even include the time you spend learning to play those instruments. The other side of that coin (haha, pun intended) is that many gigs are only available to doublers – such as musical theatre. Nowadays, all the most interesting big band music has doubles. I have worked a lot of gigs because I am a doubler and I also get to do a wide variety of gigs, because I can play a variety of instruments. If you’re just a jazz tenor player, that’s all you’ll ever get called to do.

For example, in a 2 week period I found myself playing: bari sax and bass clarinet in 2 very different big bands, alto and clarinet in a musical pit orchestra, bari in a funk / R&B band, flute with a percussionist and rabab player accompanying dancers from India, bari in a Tower of Power Tribute band, and tenor, soprano, clarinet, bass clarinet, flute, and piccolo in my own group – the Doublers Collective. So cool! (Plus, I get to teach all these instruments as well, which is also rewarding.)

Funny thing is that the more I thought about this question the more I realized that I have really been a doubler since the beginning. I started on clarinet, but moved to saxophone rather quickly. In high school I played saxophones in band and jazz band, played clarinet in band, played oboe in Youth Orchestra, and took oboe, flute, and saxophones to music camp. I played everything in college.

Ultimately, I’m a doubler because I love it. I love exploring the different instruments, the available colors, even just to have a wide range to choose from. I feel like I can say anything I want to with my different voices. I love to explore and with doubling, I constantly have something to explore. It’s an endless challenge and I love it.

How and when did you begin adding instruments? Do you have any opinions on the order that students should add additional instruments?

I added instruments gradually. I usually picked up something new as it was needed or someone gave me an instrument to use. But there were large gaps in my learning, amounts of time that I didn’t play one instrument or another. It wasn’t until my early 20′s that I really focused on doubling and tried to work each instrument as it’s own. Nowadays, my practice routine is really focused so I make sure to cover everything on a regular basis.

I’ve taught quite a few students to double and none of them the same way. Every student is different and I think their individual interest carries far more weight than any “method”. I’ll help guide my students through the experimental stage as they find the instruments that they connect to the most. Hopefully in the process they get enough skills to come back to one later if they want to.

Did anything or anyone ever discourage you from doubling?

I have always loved doubling and I have been incredible fortunate to have acquired mostly pro horns, because cost can be really discouraging. I don’t know if I’ll ever own a $20,000 flute or a contrabassoon, but that’s ok. I do what I can and try to save up little by little to upgrade.

I have had more than a few people tell me that I “should choose one and focus on it”. I get the thinking behind that, but even if I could make a living playing only one ax, I’d never be able to choose. Picking one just isn’t an option for me and sometimes people don’t get that. It’s ok, we each have our own path, ya know?

How does doubling affect your flute playing?

I picked up flute in college, so the thing that I had to work on the most was not projecting my saxophone habits (such as voicing) on my flute playing. It took me a couple of years to master that. Now, I feel like my primary concern is tone. Sometimes playing sax or clarinet for a long time and then picking up the flute, I feel the tension and lip pressure, but I’ve worked hard at going back and forth so it doesn’t take too long to get into “flute mode”.

How do you manage your practice time on so many instruments?

I keep a practice journal of everything that I’m currently practicing and things that I want to practice. Learning that I can’t practice it ALL was a tough lesson for me to accept, but you have to stay focused if you want to get something accomplished. Otherwise, you’re just flapping your arms, so to speak.

If I’m strapped for time, I make sure to do longtones and some free improv on every instrument no matter what. My longtone routine is intense, so it takes me a good 20-30 minutes on each horn. I play a saxophone and the flute everyday, and the clarinet 4-5 days a week.

I also find as much common ground as possible and try to use that to my advantage. For example, I’m currently in a technique routine where I practice all the scales, arpeggios, and patterns starting on a single note. I find that after I’ve worked it all out on sax, the flute goes much quicker. That gives me time to focus on the things that are unique to each instrument and spend more time on that stuff.

What are the most challenging aspects of being a doubler?

Keeping the reeds wet.

In all seriousness, it’s picking up an instrument cold and having it sound as good as it would if you had been playing it the whole time.

There is also learning all the little idiosyncrasies of each instrument – the pinky keys on the clarinet, the 3rd octave of the flute, the palm keys and altissimo of the sax as just a couple of examples. I’m willing to settle for just knowing part of an instrument, I want to know how it all works. That takes time and discipline, and it can be challenging.

It seems there is a very small percentage of women doublers. Why do you think this is?

I have any insight on this one. I’m usually the only or one of the only women in all the groups I’m in. I don’t know why that is. I’m not really all that concerned by it either. We are all musicians and we are in it together. That’s what is important.

What advice would you give to flutists wishing to “branch out” into woodwind doubling?

Jump! Just pick an instrument that interests you and go for it. Get the highest quality instrument you can get your hands on. Get a good teacher who will teach you how to play it correctly from the start, which is way easier than getting a year or two in and having to relearn everything.

Was it always your childhood dream to be a doubler? When did it become your goal?

As I said before, I just kinda fell into it. Music was my childhood dream, and being a doubler just kinda happened along the way. It really became my goal when I was at Arizona State University and was in the classical flute studio and playing saxophone in the jazz department. I had so much fun! After college I started do pit work pretty much right away, which was awesome. Now, I have my own jazz ensemble made up of professional Doublers – www.doublerscollective.com

I’m proud to be a doubler. I enjoy it and am very thankful that I can do such a wide variety of things. It’s a lot of fun for me!

On a recent trip to Nashville, I brought this book along to read. (I have an iPad which I love, but one of the biggest downsides is that you have to turn it off during take off and landing, the times when I personally need the distraction the most.)

I finished the whole book in less then a couple of hours. And I truly enjoyed it. I’d laugh out loud and interrupt the book my boyfriend was reading to show him whatever I thought was worthy of his attention.

I was more than entertained. I learned some new ways to be creative, some business advice, and I something really valuable that I took me about a week to figure out. The book is based off a blog. And blogs are very different animals from journals and articles.

I have had an online journal for over a decade. When I started my blog in the summer of 2010, I had high hopes that it was be a public version of that journal. But it’s not. In fact, I have trouble updating it regularly, and I have dozens of half written posts waiting to be finished. I work painstakingly on every entry, writing and rewriting. And while that is ok every once in a while, I think overall,I was going at it from the wrong angle.

Blogs need to be shorter and more frequent. I just finally figured that out. I have a lot to say. I keep a paper journal of all the topics I want to blog about. It’s not for a lack of ideas that this blog lays dormant. So, I’m going to try a new approach and hopefully you’ll see more blog posts that you can simply enjoy with your morning cup of coffee.

Website: http://twippodcast.com
Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Train-Wreck-in-Progress-Podcast/187180824630198

It was the first time I’d ever done an interview like that. Honestly, I was a little nervous at first – wondering “what if” and panicking about forgetting someone’s name or some important piece of information. I knew from listening to previous podcasts that it would be about 30 minutes long and I figured that since I could talk to myself for hours on end, that I would be fine. At least I hoped.

I arrived at a local coffee shop, Steve’s Expresso in Tempe, and Elizabeth was all set up with her laptop and mic setup. It was really cool to see the whole behind the scenes. Elizabeth and I instantly connected sharing stories of classroom teaching, being musicians, and mutual love for music and all things creative. Once Silent Dan arrived (who got stuck in first week of ASU traffic) we got started.

The whole process went incredible smooth and I simply felt like I was having a conversation in a coffee shop instead of being interviewed for a podcast that could be heard around the world. I really had a great time. Elizabeth asked great questions and kept the interview on track. It was fun! We all ended up hanging out long after the interview was over and I left feeling like I had found a few more kindred spirits within the Phoenix music scene.

It’s really exciting! I’ll make sure to let you all know when the interview gets posted.

So, when Derek wrote a book, I was ready to jump on board, if nothing else to support his project and ideas. I purchased a hard copy (although I love my iPad, there’s still something about holding an actual book) and waited patiently for it to arrive in the mail. Then I pressed “pause” on the other book I was reading (The Savvy Musician, by David Culter) and enjoyed Derek’s book.

There are other great reviews of his book, so I won’t bore you with details when I can just provide a link…. I will say this: I enjoyed the book very much. It’s written in an easy to read, story format that sticks with you. (especially if you check out the videos that are online.) If you’re a longtime follower of Derek, then his book isn’t anything new or surprising. But that’s not to say it’s not valuable or worthwhile. It totally is!

Here’s a great review of Anything You Want – Much better than the one my cat Miles (in the pic above) would give you after sleeping on the book.

About a year or so ago, I decided to apply this concept to the Major Bebop Scale.

So, above is the Major Bebop Scale. How many triads, 7th chords, 9th chords, and scales can you derive from this scale?

The answer is here:

The first PDF has just the notes, unlabeled. Great for testing your theory knowledge or just playing through.

C Major Bebop Text Twist – Blank

The second PDF has everything labeled so you know exactly what you’re playing.

C Major Bebop Text Twist – Labeled

It’s pretty amazing what a little Bebop Scale can do, ya know?

The jam session was on a Sunday afternoon. I think I stressed thru most of Friday and Saturday, trying to find a tune that I knew well enough, determined to get up there and play something from memory. Saturday night was full of dreams of all the “horrible” things that could go wrong as my mind ran thru dozens of scenarios. Because I had never been to this jam session before, I didn’t really know what to expect and that fueled the anxiety. Even though I know that the best thing for my playing right now is getting the experience of playing memorized tunes with an unknown amount of people who may not necessarily approach the tune the same way my playalong does ( ), it can be very hard for me to get up the courage to go.

Luckily, I had a friend waiting there for me. I couldn’t back out and that was a good thing. It’s like going to the gym – you’re not going to be the ass-hole that leaves your friend hanging, you’re going to get over yourself and your insecurities and go. But the 45 minutes drive to the jam was full of doubts and I’d be lying by omission if I didn’t confess that I considered turning around more than once.

The irony of the who thing is that I have spent YEARS telling my students that it’s totally ok to screw up, that it doesn’t matter, to just go for it… and I truly believe that. I always encourage people to take risks and reward them for making an effort, even if they fall flat on their face. Why don’t I give myself the same encouragement? I expect things of myself that I would never expect of anyone else and I know how silly it is. I’ve had to really work on allowing myself the freedom to screw up. As a teacher, I would always ask my students – “what the worst that can happen?”. This was usually as a quasi joke, meant to remind the student that if they played a wrong note the sky was not going to fall on top of them or if they got lost in the changes the whole audience wasn’t going to get up and leave in the middle of the tune laughing hysterically at them. But, I can appreciate that sometimes it’s pretty easy to imagine the worst that can happen, and next thing you know you’ve hit the pause button and you’re now immobile, completely stuck, unable to move forward.

I’ve been there. More times than I’d like to admit. Often, I’m just like that little kid on the high dive, looking down at the water, shaking…. and then being pushed off the edge of the board. Cruel, but effective. In jazz improvisation, it’s all about just jumping in with both feet, doing the best you can not to drown, and enjoy the ride as much as possible. There’s such a thrill… but it can be hard to take that first leap, especially when you feel like you’re taking that first leap over and over again.

I was reading a website on jazz education (which I can’t find right now, unfortunately) and it talked about creating the “worst case scenario” as a tool to face the thing you fear the most, and hopefully realize that it’s not as terrible as you imagine. So here’s my worst case scenario or WCS: that I will get up in front of a group of my peers, whom I respect and admire, completely forget the tune I’m playing, get lost, panic and fumble through it (rather than stop, breath and listen and jump back in when I know what’s going on) and just generally make a fool of myself and never ever get called for a gig again.

Heavy, huh?

What funny about my WCS,  is that it makes some pretty hefty assumptions – first of all, that everyone in the entire place has stopped talking and is intently listening to every note I’m playing (and that they have the ears to know that I’m lost anyway). Second, that they are forming some sort of opinion of my playing that will make a lasting impression that will never go away. Third, that my peers that I adore and respect aren’t working through their own insecurities and are only focusing on me… Fourth, you get the point. It’s silly and I know it.

So, now the jam session. I had prepared Alone Together – one of my favorite tunes in the entire world, but I haven’t played it with actual people in quite a while. I got to the session around the end of the first set and they had already played the tune. I asked if we could do it anyway. I got up there, having not warmed up that day, still recovering from being sick with bronchitis, count off the tune and nothing comes out of my horn. Ok, take 2. We finally start. Melody is good and I jump in on the first solo. And suddenly everything goes blank and I’m lost. I go to the D Major chord too early. Then I think I was late. I’m totally panicking and it sounds awful. (to me). I finally relax enough to listen and the drummer gives me a very clear set up into the 8 bars. (thank you!) I stop on time.  I’m mortified. As the fog of humiliation starts to lift, I started to laugh inside. My worst case scenario had happened… and you know what, I survived. No one laughed at me. No one told me to put my horns away and never play again. I got nothing but love, support, “good job” and “thank you for sitting in” from my peers.

I went on to play Four and that went much better, but even more important I faced my fear and made it through. I made a pact with my friend to learn 2 more tunes and play again the following week. Solitude and Beautiful Love. I figure it can’t be any worse than that version of Alone Together. Worst Case Scenario? I’m so over you!

By the way, here’s another blog post of a similar topic that I did about a year ago.

http://saxymoni.com/2010/06/the-hardest-thing/

Diminished scales were always that elusive sound that I wanted to try to understand but could never get my head around. Actually that was my problem. I could think my way through it, but I really didn’t have it under my fingers. My brain kept getting in the way. I was thinking too much. Here’s how I overcame that.

First, a little review. The diminished scale – the one you would use over a diminished chord – is  made up of alternating whole steps and half steps (W H W H W H W H) and has 8 notes in it. It’s a symmetrical scale. (Symmetrical scales can have any of its notes be the root and still result in the same pattern of intervals between the notes.) The C diminished scale is shown below (also the Eb, F#, and A Diminished Scales)

The first thing I did was break it down into a manageable pieces. If you divide the scale exactly in half you get two minor tetrachords: C and F# (a tritone away from each other). See my post on tetrachords for more info. So the first thing I did was start to practice my minor tetrachords in all 12 keys. I made them my long tone warm up for a while, played them up and down over and over, practiced them with a metronome at various speeds, did everything I could think of to get really comfortable with them. (It should be noted that I did this all from memory. At one point, a while back, I tried learning these by writing them out and practicing them, but I never got very far. Even the patterns I found in various jazz books were very easy for me to read, but never I was unable to really absorb them into my playing. This approached worked much better for me.)

The next thing I did was add just one more note. This was to get the color of that 5th lowered a half step (from the minor scale) into my ear and get my fingers used to the pattern. I practice the same way as with the tetrachord, started slow with long tones and gradually getting them faster and faster.

The next thing I stumbled upon by accident, but as with many happy accidents, this yielded me the breakthrough I needed to not only get the scales under my fingers but the sound in my ear. For many years I have been teaching this following pattern to my students. We call it “the 595″. Below it’s shown in C Major, but I would play it in all the major modes, harmonic minor and ascending melodic minor as well.

As it works out you can apply the diminished scale to the pattern, the only change being that you never make it up to the 9th, your highest note it now the root. (because there’s 8 notes in the diminished scale instead of 7). The nice thing about the pattern is that you get to practice the half step that connects the two minor tetrachords many times and from both tetrachords. (The F to F# and the B to C) along with the entire scale.

With this pattern I practiced it slow, gradually speeding it up and then I would practice different articulation and patterns rhythms. (With a metronome) I found that I quickly got the diminished sound in my ear and soon I was able to play it without having to think about it anymore. And that’s when the real fun began, because I was able to improvise using that color and was really excited about it. I started playing around it – most improvising in one key and seeing all the combinations I could come up with.

As state above, this is the scale used over diminished chords. But if you start the pattern on a half step you get another diminshed scale – called a whole bunch of different things, I prefer half-whole diminished to avoid confusion. This scale is used over dominant chords. The scale is below and if you think of C7 – you get a whole bunch of cool notes along with the 3rd and 7th (Fb is the enharmonic to E).

I approached practicing this scale the same way I described above, but I found that it came quite easily after working on the diminished. My fingers and my ear already knew what they were doing. I started improvising with in over dominant chords – using Aebersold’s Dominant Seventh Workout Vol. 84.

Happy Practicing!