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) Ten Lessons that the Arts Teach 2) From Alfred Ledger Lines Blog [...]

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. [...]

Welcome to Five Link Friday #3. Enjoy! 1) The 2012 NEA Jazz Masters Awards Ceremony & Concert Webcast 2) One of my favorite videos on why we need to fail to succeed. 3) Think Twitter is a waste of time? Can’t find the point? Here’s a good article explaining how to use it and what’s [...]

First, a little background… I remember learning how to play piano as a kid (and later in college when you have to take 2 years of piano as part of a music degree) and one of the things that stuck with me was the Five Note Scale Pattern where you put your thumb on middle [...]

Welcome to Five Link Friday #2. If you missed the first one, you can find it here. 1) “My goal in life is to play better tomorrow then I did today” – James Moody Check out the other videos from that same interview. 2) At the JEN conference last weekend I met a trumpet player [...]

Welcome to Five Link Friday – or FLF as I’ll call it. This is where I post my top 5 links from the week. Enjoy! 1) http://www.jazzednet.org/ This week I am attending the Jazz Education Network conference in Louisville, KY. It’s been a blast so far and we still have one more day. You can [...]

I bought my iPad in 2010. Since then so many different options have surfaced when it comes to tablets. I played with them all while out shopping with a friend recently. Truthfully, it would take something amazing to take me away from the iPad… and it’s almost to the point where it can replace a [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

“I don’t know what to play” confesses the student when it’s their turn to solo… I’ve heard this quite often from students throughout my years teaching and giving clinics. It is completely understandable, although I suspect that not knowing what to play (in that moment) is directly proportional to not knowing what to practice at [...]

“To know a scale “inside out” means that you know a scale starting anywhere in the scale, both ascending and descending” – Bergonzi   My list of scales: Major Dorian Mixolydian  Lydian Lydian Dominant Harmonic Minor Melodic Minor (Ascending) Locrian Locrian #2 Superlocrian (Diminished Whole Tone / Altered) Diminished 8-Toned Dominant / Half Whole Diminished [...]

I love to read. I’ve always got at least 2 books going at the same time and I follow a number of blogs and magazines. Probably too many in fact. But I just find it all so interesting!   On a recent trip to Nashville, I brought this book along to read. (I have an [...]

10 things that hold you back – just replace music / relationship as needed. http://www.active.com/fitness/Articles/10_things_that_can_hold_you_back.htm?cmp=17-8-375

One of the fears that I hear students express often time is the fear of playing a wrong note, or even a series of wrong notes. Sometimes, they can’t even verbalize it and they just sit there, unable to play anything at all. In an effort to eliminate that fear, I started teaching the blues [...]

Last week I did an interview for a podcast called Train Wreck in Progress. TWiP for short.     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 [...]