There’s just a few more weeks of school left and now’s the time we all start thinking about what we are going to do during the summer. In between family trips and video games, why not practice?

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!

Welcome to Five Link Friday. Every Friday I share 5 of my favorite links found online. Enjoy! Please add your own favorites in the comments below!

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/

I recently had to take eight days off from playing. Not a single note on any of my horns for 8 long days. I honestly can’t remember a time in the over 20 years that I have been playing that I had to do that. I have spent the last year practicing and performing 6 to 7 days a week. Even when I was primarily a teacher I would at least put the horn to my mouth while I was teaching lessons, and I was teaching 6 days a week.

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!

Little background: I started Doublers Collective with the help of Mike Crotty in 2010. The goal was to play a whole bunch of different instruments in a progressive jazz setting, commission and perform new music, and do performance clinics at schools. It’s such an exciting project. Find out more about Doublers Collective, including some videos visit our website: www.doublerscollective.com

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

Last week I did an interview with Joe Carroccio over at 11radio.com

We had a great conversation for his Musicians Speak Out show – to be aired sometime in March. It was a lot of fun. Joe was really easy to talk to and the time just flew by.

I’ll make sure to post the link when I find out.

Check out http://11radio.com/ – there’s some good stuff happening over there.

Welcome to Five Link Friday! This is where I post 5 of my favorite links from the week. I hope you enjoy and please check out the FLF’s from previous weeks. If you have a favorite link please post it in comments!

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:

Imagine walking thru the hallways of a hotel conference center and around every corner is live jazz. Imagine people of all walks of life – students to the jazz greats and everything in between milling the halls, chatting with one another, smiling. Imagine having your choice of clinics to attend – technology, promotion, practicing, etc. Imagine all this opportunity and excitement available o you from 8 AM until 2 AM the next morning… This is what it’s like at a JEN conference. It’s completely amazing.

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.

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

Inspired by this post from my fellow doubler Bret Pimentel

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!