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Save the Sing Off! « Michael Boyle’s Strengthcoach.com Blog – Save Acapella Music

May 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Save the Sing Off! « Michael Boyle’s Strengthcoach.com Blog.

Michael Boyle is a strength coach I highly admire and respect, so imagine my surprise when this morning he published a post about saving an Acapella singing show on TV!

I know, most days we are talking strength and conditioning or nutrition but today we visit the world of entertainment. The Sing Off, the best show on TV, is in danger of not having season 4. Please sign this petition so that we can have another great season of acapella music.

Acapella music is a dying art form, for no other reason than we have come to rely on technology and “Auto Tune” so much that these singers who get paid millions of dollars, can’t give a quality live performance.  As a professionally trained musician, this is one of my pet peeves; it offends my work ethic, my sense of discipline and demeans those who work so hard at this art form and get little to no reward.  As someone who grew up and still attends a church where we do not have instrumental music, but only do acapella singing, I can attest to the worth of this.  God gave us voices to use, not to be re-done by technology.  Let’s reward those with the talent and discipline to learn to sing acapella.  Read the information below from the Petition and please join me in signing.  This is a huge part of American heritage, let’s not let it die!

The Petition

The Sing-Off, outside of being the one of the networks 3rd highest rated shows, is one of the most positive shows on television.

It is an instrumental part of developing a stronger appreciation for the arts at a time when the teaching of art and music is under attack at almost every level.

While other entertainment venues of its kind rely on either negativity, or dumbing down of the skill involved in the art-form.

The Sing-Off fosters a real standard of quality in those that tread across its stage. The past contestants of The Sing-Off have shown themselves to be resilient practitioners of A Cappella music and stalwart champions of music in education. They have shown depth of character in helping their fellow competitors, long after the end of their respective seasons. They have gone around the world to help show that music can truly be the universal language. Help this continue! Sign this petition, and help convince the NBC network that The Sing-Off deserves another season.

 

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My Top Reccommended Books for Getting Back Into Flute or Piccolo Playing

May 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Recently I received an email from a college friend of mine.  Her path has taken her away from music for a bit and while she is having marvelous adventures, she doesn’t want to see a decline in her playing level, even with having fewer playing opportunities.  She sent me this message below:

“So, you know that I’m playing with a couple community groups around the area, but with my job and other things I have going on, I don’t have the time to dedicate to taking lessons and I don’t practice as much anymore y question is, I was wondering if you had suggestions on some etudes or exercises that I could play around on to keep my fingers and technique at least where it is.

Basically, I was wondering if you had suggestions on things I can do to keep up my technique. I can tell I’m not at the level I was at in college anymore… but I don’t want to keep declining. I have a few scale exercises from college, but I just thought I’d ask if you had any thoughts or suggestions or words of wisdom?”

 

I have no doubt her question actually resonates with a large percentage of the population.  Maybe you started out in music, maybe even got a music degree and for whatever reason, life took you away from being able to play and now here you find yourself all this time later, not as good as you once were but no idea how to get back into it.

These are my suggestions to her:

Hi L! Good to hear from you!  Sure, I’ve got some suggestions.

There are lots of fun etudes that are challenging as well, my favorites are the Piazzola Tango Etudes and there is also a book of Flamenco etudes that are fun as well. I JUST bought the Trevor Wye Omnibus edition (books 1-5) to use with his piccolo practice book and wondered why I didn’t know about it sooner! it’s like you’re taking lessons with him when you go through the books. I would DEFINITELY go get that one. You can get it here:

Trevor Wye has an Omnibus edition, which is books 1-5 of his lesson books and it covers tone, technique, intonation, articulation, vibrato, you name it.  He has another book after that, book 6 which is his Advanced Practice Book.  I highly recommend these

Trevor Wye's Practice Books for the Flute
look inside		 Trevor Wye’s Practice Books for the Flute
(Omnibus Edition Books 1-5). For Flute (Flute). Music Sales America. Classical. Softcover. 200 pages. Novello & Co Ltd. #NOV120851. Published by Novello & Co Ltd. (HL.14036445)Smp_stars40
(1)
…more info

Book 6: the Advanced Practice book – it incororates a lot of things from the first 5 books:

Trevor Wye Practice Book for the Flute Trevor Wye Practice Book for the Flute
(Volume 6 – Advanced Practice). For Flute. Music Sales America. Softcover. 36 pages. Novello & Co Ltd. #NOV120591. Published by Novello & Co Ltd. (HL.14036443)

…more info

Etudes, as you know, are a great way to incorporate everything that you have been working on in detail (tone, technique, etc.) into a tuneful studey. I’m much more of a fan of etudes that have an ethnical flair to them. The Piazzola Tango Etudes are nice enough that you can even play them in concert if you have the opportunity. Here’s the Piazzola;

Tango-Etudes pour Flute seule (for Flute Solo)
look inside

 Tango-Etudes pour Flute seule (for Flute Solo)
By Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992). Arranged by Pierre Andre Valade. For flute solo (or violin solo). Latin, Argentina and 20th Century. Difficulty: difficult. Flute solo book. Standard notation. Composed 1987. 11 pages. Published by Editions Henry Lemoine (LM.24897)

Smp_stars40
(8)
…more info

The Flamenco Studies are a lot of fun too – they are technically challenging but for me, much more fun as they can really help you work on your rubato and phrasing:

3 Virtuoso Flamenco Studies 3 Virtuoso Flamenco Studies
By Krystof Zgraja. Schott. 15 pages. Schott Music #ED8425. Published by Schott Music (HL.49007999)

…more info
An additional book I’ve found immensely helpful in practicing piccolo (since I haven’t had piccolo lessons in a long time, it’s a nice way to have a refresher course) is Trevor Wye’s Practice Book for Piccolo.  What’s great about this is that you can use it in tandem with the Omnibus edition, but even if not, there’s excellent information in it, like you are getting a piccolo lesson from Trevor himself.  After discussing a particular practice method he puts them into practice by including a massive amount of orchestral excerpts, immensely helpful in my opinion. No piccoloist should be without it.

Practice Book for the Piccolo
look inside		 Practice Book for the Piccolo
For Piccolo. Music Sales America. Softcover. 214 pages. Novello & Co Ltd. #NOV120658. Published by Novello & Co Ltd. (HL.14036416)Smp_stars40
(2)
…more info

There is a vast amount of literature when it comes to practicing flute and getting back into it after a hiatus, however long, can be a bit daunting.  I’m sure others will chime in with what they like and have used, such as the Taffanel and Gaubert studies, Reichert Daily Exercises and multitudes of exercises by Moyse, but these are my suggestions as a starting point for basics to get into it, as just about all of the above is covered in some way in these tomes.

I invite you to leave your comments below on what has worked for you, what you use with your students, etc.

Filed Under: Flute, Resources Tagged With: , , , ,

Identfying Shoulder Pain Part 2 – What to Do About It

May 21, 2011 By 7 Comments

Additional Disclaimer

Before I continue this post, I would once again like to state that I am not a licensed medical professional and this post is not intended to treat, diagnose or cure any medical injury, disease, cause, condition or ailment.  If you suffer from any type of pain you should seek the cousel of a qualified medical professional.  A partial list of these professionals is located in the second half of the first post.  The information in this blog is given with the intent to educate but not diagnose and I am not liable and do not claim responsibility for any emotional or physical problems that may occur directly or indirectly from the content of this blog.

Now that you know what your own anatomy looks like and how it functions (if you don’t, make sure you read Part 1 first!):

What are some things I can do on my own to address my shoulder pain?

Allowing that you do not have an injury and we are dealing with muscular issues, there are several things you can do.  Again, before attempting any type of self-diagnosis or treatment, if you have pain you should seek out the advice of a qualified medical professional.

Stretches

To even start to begin to correct this, we first have to stretch out the antagonists (chest and front delts) before we can begin to strengthen the posterior chain (rhomboids, etc.).  You can see all these stretches in a previous post here: Stretching Adequately Before/During/After Playing

  1. Doorway or Wall Chest Stretch – will stretch your chest
  2. Scapular Wall Slides – these will activate your lower traps and rhomboids
  3. Arm Circles – be gentle on these
  4. Upper Trap/Levator Scapulae Stretch

    With this exercise you can perform it standing and your non-moving arm can be extended straight down with thumb pointing towards the ceiling for a greater stretch

 Foam Rolling/Self-Myofascial Release

A foam roller cannot take the place of a massage therapist, but if you cannot afford to go, this is your best option. You can cover a wider area with the foam roller, and get more specific with a tennis ball, hitting your own trigger points.  Remember, pain is not necessarily at the point of discomfort, it can be “referred”  from another part of the body.  When you press on a trigger point, you may feel that  pain shoot through the body to where you felt discomfort.  Dr. Perry gives more examples of this in his guest blog post Shoulder Pain Secrets.

Guidelines for foam rolling: roll over the muscle to find the most tender spot.  Once you find it, lay on it for 20-30 seconds until the muscle begins to relax.  Then, roll the entire area.  Repeat if necessary.


Tennis Ball Work

This video from Synergy Athletics tells some of the do’s and don’ts of using a tennis ball. Actual usage is towards the end.

This is a really good description of how to use the tennis ball on trigger points in not only the shoulder but the neck.  As I have just recently found out from Stop Chasing Pain’s Dr. Perry, if you have shoulder pain, there is a good chance your scalences or SCM (or other deep neck flexors) could be too tight, as well.

In any case, this next description of how to use a tennis ball, I actually found on a message board.  I’m sorry that I don’t know to whom I need to give credit for this!
Use the following diagram for an idea of what muscles are being treated.

Image courtesy of http://www.sports-injury-info.com/im…er-muscles.jpg

So here we go.

This is how you treat your (upper) trapezoid muscles.

This is how you treat your rhomboids (down the trapezoids and between the shoulder blades) as well as your infraspinatus. You must squat down to apply pressure. You won’t get enough pressure on the ball if your legs are straight.

This is how you treat your side deltoids (you can do the same with the anterior and posterior deltoids). Put your bodyweight behind it.

This is how you treat the clavicular head of your pectoralis (the upper part of your chest):

Now, this is the tricky part, the side of your neck, the sternocleidomastoid muscle (the one that usually pulls to one side screwing things up.)

For this to work, you need to use the corner of a wall. Furthermore, you need to really drive your bodyweight. This is one of the strongest muscles. Don’t kill it but work on it.


Wanna Free E-Book?

You can’t get much better than this: Mike Robertson put out a  free e-book on Self-Myofascial Release using foam rollers, The Stick AND tennis balls.  It starts with lower body and the upper body tutorials are towards the end, but if you have a foam roller and a tennis ball, you can really work yourself all over with the help of this book. There is even a section on helping the wrist flexors!

Self-Myofascial Release Manual

Strengthening Exercises

As we have just learned, muscles of the upper back tend to become weak and stretched, due to hours of doing things with our arms in front of us, which leads to tight pectorals

Serratus anterior muscle

Image via Wikipedia

(and Serratus Anterior, I forgot to mention).  This means these muscles need to be strengthened and one of the absolute best ways of doing this is resistance training.

Any kind of motion that counter acts the pushing motion (which is what your tight chest muscles are already doing) will help.

These motions are primarily any type of rowing or pulling motion.  If you think of these exercises in planes of motion, you have two choices: horizontal pulling and vertical pulling.

Horizontal pulling would be things like seated cable rows, 1-arm dumbbell rows, barbell rows, T-bar rows, X-cable crossovers, Face Pulls, etc.
Vertical pulling motions would be things like Pullups, lat pull downs, althernating pulldowns, chin ups, etc.

All of these exercises will be helpful to strengthening the back muscles.  The biggest thing to remember when performing these exercises is to get the form right.  What do you need to remember?  Retract and depress your shoulder blades and keep them that way THROUGHOUT the movement.  This means that when you are doing any kind of pulling motion, when you let your arms extend back, they should not be able to full extend because you still have the bottom of your shoulder blades pinched together.  This activates your rhomboids and lower traps and allows them to do their proper job of stabilizing your shoulder girdle.

For these movements you will have to have equipment of some kind, be it a pullup bar, bands or dumbbells, and that is really the only limiting factors of these exercises.  I have some great links to the kinds of bands I use on my website at http://fluteangel.net/links.htm  if you want to go pick up some.  They are very inexpensive and portable and can come in varying strengths.

Prone Lower Trap Raises

These have to be one of my absolute favorite exercises I had never heard of.  They  look deceptively easy until you try to do them and realize that just lifting your arms without any weight is heavy enough!  In fact, this is such a good idea, I might just do a blog post all about activating the lower traps…

Here is a version you can do at home if you don’t have a bench:

From Neanderthal No More By Eric Cressey and Mike Robertson

Ideally, this exercise is performed face-down with your chest-supported on an elevated flat bench (i.e. longer legs, so that you’re higher off the ground). However, if you don’t have access to such a bench, you can do it bent-over; just make sure that your upper body remains parallel to the floor at all times (no cheating!)

Hold a dumbbell in one hand with a supinated group (the thumb points up at the top of the movement). Begin with the arm dangling below you on the bench. Horizontally adduct (think reverse fly) your arm while maintaining the thumb-up position. At the top, your arm should be at the 9 (left) or 3 (right) positions, and the upper arm and torso should form a 90-degree angle. Throughout the movement, concentrate on retracting the scapulae while keeping it tight to the rib cage (no winging).

Rotator Cuff Exercises

There are an awful lot of these exercises, however, one thing to make sure you realize when performing these exercises is that it’s not about how much weight you can lift.  The SITS muscles are small and if they are causing you pain, they may not only be weak, they areprobably tight and stretched which means you need to be even MORE careful.  1-3 lb. dumbbells will be PLENTLY for these exercises.

The two you probably recognize are internal and external rotation exercises.  Stand perpendicular to a pole with a band attached.  While keeping your elbow tucked in closely to your side rotate your arm inward, pulling the band and then slowly back.  Turn the other way and now you are pulling the band across your body.

Soup Can Pours

In a standing position, start with your right arm halfway between the front and side of your body, thumb down. (You may need to raise your left arm for balance.) Raise your right arm until almost level (about a 45° angle). (Hint: This is like emptying a can.) Don’t lift beyond the point of pain. Slowly lower your arm. Repeat the exercise until your arm is tired. Then do the exercise with your left arm.

Exercise 4

Preventative Measures

Gerald Klickstein’s book The Musician’s Way: A Guide to Practice, Performance and Wellness is an excellent book on just those subjects.  In Chapters 12 and 13 (and reposted on the blog) he mentions 12 Habits of Healthy Musicians:

The Twelve Habits of Healthy Musicians by Gerald Klickstein
1.  Increase playing or singing time gradually
2.  Limit repetition
3.  Regulate hand- or voice-intensive tasks
4.  Manage your workload
5.  Warm up and cool down
6.  Minimize tension
7.  Take breaks
8.  Heed warning signs
9.  Take charge of anxiety
10. Keep fit and strong
11. Conserve your hearing
12. Care for your voice

The Musician’s Way specifies ways in which you can incorporate these twelve habits into your lifestyle. Here are a few highlights:

  • #1: To avert overuse injuries, restrict any increase in your total playing or singing time to a maximum of 10-20% per week (p. 12).
  • #4: Respect your physical limits and ask a mentor for advice before you take on an overload of duties (p. 243).
  • #5: Pages 37-39 present a six-step process for warming up thoroughly and efficiently.
  • #6: Two sections in Chapter 13 – “Balanced Sitting and Standing” & “Meeting Your Instrument” – depict how musicians can form easeful habits. Forty-one photos are included.
  • #7: In solo practice, play or sing no more than 25 minutes before pausing for a 5-minute respite. The Musician’s Way itemizes six restorative movements that help to invigorate breaks (p. 75-82).
  • #8: Injury symptoms can be subtle, as are the social issues that come into play when unwell musicians who are expected to perform need to rest instead. Pages 237-241 untangle these topics.
  • #9: Anxiety doesn’t just scuttle musicians on stage but also impels some to overpractice to the point of injury. Strategies to neutralize anxiety interweave throughout The Musician’s Way and come to the fore in Chapter 7, “Unmasking Performance Anxiety.”
  • #10: Music making requires mental, physical, and emotional vigor. Healthy musicians, therefore, mind their nurtrition, rest, exercise, and other self-care needs much like top athletes (p. 245-246).
  • #11: Strategies that thwart music-induced hearing loss are summarized in my post “Hear today. Hear tomorrow” and fleshed out on pages 277-291.
  • #12: A section titled “Voice Care” encapsulates vocal hygiene under seven headings, the first of which is ‘Drink plenty of water’ (p. 268-277).

Postural Considerations

As flutists, a good many of us suffer from poor posture, made worse by long hours of playing without being in tune with our bodies.  If you are “stuck in your head” and not paying much attention to your body by being so focused on the music, you may notice that when you finally stop playing, you are sore, tight, hurting, and in terrible posture – slouched to the side, front, or otherwise not upright.

Besides understanding your individual body map and taking the time to be aware of your posture WHILE playing, let me propose a postural alteration.  Many of you may do this, but many of you may not:

When playing, take note of your arm position.  Do your elbows “fly” away from your body?  If so, this puts tremendous stress on the little muscles of the rotator cuff, which are not well equipped to deal with this type of endurance activity.  Let your arms hang from the flute, keeping the elbows closer to the body and also making sure the left arm is really under the flute.  When you sit, make sure you are BALANCED on your sit-bones with your feet FLAT on the floor.   This should help keep you in the proper position while leaving your deltoids and biceps to do the hard work of fighting gravity instead of your little rotator cuff muscles.

Dr. Susan Fain has some great information in her dissertation, and I highly recommend you check it out!  You can also hear the both of us at the National Flute Association Convention in Charlotte this August speaking with Lea Pearson and Karen Lonsdale about pain prevention.

Additional Resources and Articles

By the way, there is an EXCELLENT 5 – article series called Neanderthal No More: Fixing Your Caveman Posture by Eric Cressey and Mike Robertson over at T-Nation.   It can be a bit advanced for some, but if you are looking for a lot of information by people who know what they are doing and you wouldn’t mind a full week’s workout laid out for you, I’d check it out.  Not only does it have a full description of anatomy, it delves into body awareness by asking you to check out your own posture in different ways and then testing it to examine your own posture and movement patterns.  In part 3 they give client analysis – see if you can determine what’s “wrong” with these guys. :)

Please, tell me if this addresses your shoulder pain and if you found this helpful, leave a comment below.  Let us know what pain you are dealing with, what has worked for you and if you have anything to add to the post, let’s hear it!  Look for some guest blog posts dealing more with these issues, soon!

And feel free to link your own articles to this blog, down in the comments section!

 

About the Author

Angela McCuiston is a classically trained flutist with a Masters in Music Performance from FSU.  She has studied Body Mapping at Barbara Conable’s “What Every Musician Needs to Know About the Body” workshop, studied Alexander Technique with Janeke Resnick, Alexander Murray and at Appalachian State University and is a Certified Personal Trainer through the National Academy of Sports Medicine.  Angela has been involved in weight training since the 1990′s and has been a personal trainer since 2009. You can find out more information about Angela through the “About Me” tab at top or via her websites: http://fluteangel.net and http://www.MusicStrong.com

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You need Skills!

April 27, 2011 By 2 Comments
All-Union meeting of heads of departments of s...

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How many of us musicians have gone to school for 4, 6 or even 10 years to get those advanced degrees only to graduate into the real world and not be prepared?  Today’s institutions of higher education for musicians are sadly lacking in preparing students for a life outside either performing or teaching.  There’s more to it, folks…

I have gained two degrees, a Bachelor’s and a Master’s, both in music performance.  I was told several times to not do this because I “won’t get a job”.  I beg to differ…and I agree.    I said no way, I will get this degree because this is what I want to do, I want to perform!  I was told over and over again “get your Bachelor’s degree in Music Education so you have something to fall back on.”

Get a degree you can fall back on…

How many of you have heard this?  I think it’s pathetic.  Why offer a degree that the faculty don’t even have faith in it to do the students any good?  If I want to go to school to learn how to play my instrument better than others and be the best flutist and performer I can possibly be, why is that not enough?  I have ZERO desire to be a band director or choral conductor.  If I did, I would have majored in those disciplines and that is EXACTLY what I told the faculty.  I have also told my students interested in going into a performance based degree “do not go to school for music performance unless you can see yourself doing nothing else.”  No offense to band directors and choral conductors (of which I have many friends), I applaud you and support what you do, but God designed us all with different talents and desires and those were not mine.  And I feel it is a HUGE disservice to those who love the teaching profession that others are being told that their profession is a “fall back” which, when they realize they will not be an international solo performing artist, find themselves teaching band to a bunch of kids.  They hate their job, hate what they’re doing, but hey,at least they have a job to fall back on now, right?

I think it is incredibly sad that we relegate a performance degree to a piece of paper that says “I CAN PLAY GOOD!”  I mean, really? There’s more to it than that, and as I am finding out as an entrepreneur, carving my own path through the career jungle, most of what I learned in school did not teach me how to establish my own career.

What graduate schools teach performance majors today  does not prepare you for much outside of performing or professorship

Most of what I learned in graduate school, when it came to preparing me to “get a job” was not how to become an international performing soloist star, it was on how to apply and land a college professorship.  I would be THRILLED to have this job *sadly, since I do not have a Dr. in front of my name, I have been passed over for those who do at every job I have thus applied for*, but there are only so many professorships to go around.  Most of my fellow musicians who get performing or even professorship/teaching jobs have to have “day jobs” on the side because their musical jobs do not support them.

What musicians are desperately in need of today is entrepreneurship training.  Most musicians who go to grad school have a burning desire to play for others, but almost no idea how to market themselves as individuals beyond writing a resume.  In fact, there are many graduate students who just “continue to go to school” earning a doctorate because they haven’t landed any gigs, jobs, had any interviews and don’t know what to do once they get out, so really it’s just a way of procrastinating getting into the real world.

Knowing how to build a great resume, c.v., interview well and of course, play your instrument outstandingly are all great qualities, but if you don’t get an interview and you don’t have a regular performing gig and you’re NOT that international superstar performer, they will only take you so far.

You need SKILLS – the things business majors learn.

Skill 1: Present yourself well:

You have to be more than just a pretty face and a shiny instrument, you have to present yourself well.  That means smiling, being personable, dressing well, shaking every hand you can and learning names.  Treat everyone as your most important prospect, a future friend and a future employer – show them respect and leave your own ego at the door.  No one likes to talk to a person with a sour face and an attitude that says “you should pay me because I play well, but don’t expect me to like you”.  No.  YOU are the one needing the job and therefore, YOU have to be the one they want to hire.  In fact, the best advice I got when I was young was “Be someone YOU would want to hire”.  Be friendly, look professional, speak professionally and start as many relationships as you can with people.  By the way, presenting yourself well applies to social media as well.  Don’t post drinking photos all over your Facebook page and swear on twitter and in general, give anyone the opportunity to have a bad impression of you.  Having a personal Facebook page is fine, but make sure your professional “fan” page stays just that, professional.

Skill 2: Create a niche

Ok, we know you can play, but what else?  There is usually some aspect of your playing or your life about which you are equally fascinated and you hold the key to sharing that with other people.  Maybe you have a knack with kids and see a hole in the market for beginning flute books (hint hint…..there is a hole there).  Well, your niche might be marketing yourself as a pedagogue who focuses on beginners.  My niche is marrying my careers as a personal trainer and a musician into one  – training musicians and teaching musicians the benefits of strength training.  Whatever it is, you have something else you are interested in and an area in which you can contribute to the musical world at large.

Skill 3: Make friends with those in your niche area

This is HUGELY important.  Right now, you are probably a nobody.  No one knows your name and you’re just another one of the 10,000 flutists who graduate every year.  There’s truth to the saying “It’s who you know”.  When you find out what your niche is, go find others who are in a similar pursuit with you and make friends with them.  Start conversations, ask questions, pick their brains.  These are the people you want to know your name because when they mention your name to someone else,  what THEY say carries weight.

Skill 4: Market yourself via social media and the internet

If you don’t have a webpage, get a webpage.  This is the first and most basic rule of promoting yourself.  How do you ever expect people to hire you if they can’t find you?  And don’t just write a bunch of stuff down on a page.  Spend the money to get a nice template somewhere and just plug in the information.  Better yet, if you can afford it, have someone else design your webpage for you.  You want something that catches the eye and makes people want to look around to find out more about you.   On that webpage make sure you put down ways people can contact you – make it easy for them to find.  Remember, people are lazy.  They won’t look for things so don’t make them search for it.  

Get a Facebook FAN page and put up RELEVANT content.  See below.  Also, don’t just put up links you think are interesting.  Make comments, socialize, put up pictures, videos, music clips of yourself – look around at people you admire and look at their fan pages.  Model yours after theirs.

Get a blog and start writing about the things that interest you and write it in such a way that other people will be interested.  The blog puts out good content so that when people want the information you have, they find you first.  Remember, you are writing blogs about stuff that interests you – but it shouldn’t necessarily be about you.  Go find other blogs about stuff that interests you and make comments down below (again, relevent comments).  While on the subject of blogs, I highly recommend you get an RSS reader like Google Reader.  Why?  Well, you really want to read a lot of content and it’s more difficult to read content from lots of blogs taking all day to surf around and find them.  With a reader you just drop the address in the reader (or click on the little orange RSS image on the blog – see mine at the top?) and subscribe.  This way, all you have to do is open the reader and you can check out blogs from all over, see what other people are writing about, get ideas, leave comments, etc.

Follow fluteanjel on TwitterGet a twitter account and learn how to use it.  No one wants to read about “it’s been a long day and now I’m watching Scrubs in my PJ’s.”  No one cares.  Find something relevant to your niche on the web?  Tweet about it – link it. TALK to people on Twitter who have the same interests you do.  It’s amazing how relationships can spring up that way.

Get a LinkedIN account – not entirely necessary, but why not? There are groups there that you can join and contribute to – these groups are full of other people who share your interests.  Contribute to the groups with relevant content – don’t spam them and just throw links to your stuff around.  No one likes that person.  Link your blog to LinkedIN and everytime you blog, people can see it on your account.

Link EVERYTHING!  Seriously.  Link your twitter account to Facebook and your blog to Twitter and Facebook and put links to your website everywhere you are.  Everything should lead back to your website.  You want to make yourself as visible as possible and when you link things, it shows up multiple places at once – this prevents you from having to copy/paste it 100 times.

Skill 5: Market yourself in real life

Presentation

Presentation I did this year


Again, this goes back to that niche area, but start giving presentations anywhere and everywhere you can.  Draw up a presentation about something that interests you and then adapt it to fit different age groups.  Give your presentations in every school in the county and then start talking to college professors near you and see if they would let you give it at their school.  More often than not, if you offer a free presentation, they will say yes and you will have made an invaluable contact. Give presentations and recitals in your town, county, at conventions, anywhere you can.  The more people see your name and recognize you for something, the more they’ll remember you when they need your particular service or product.

Skill 6: Put out a newsletter

This is a great way to get people more information about you and what you do.  Every time you go to a presentation, pass around a sign up sheet and have people put down their email address if they would like to receive your newsletter.  On your website and/or blog you should have something that allows people to sign up for your newsletter fairly easily.  Now – you’ve got subscribers, what to write about?  Write about YOU, what you do in the music/business world.  Give them information they want.  For example, in my newsletter, I put out playing/practicing tips, workout tips, answer questions, give links to where they can find me, put up information about what’s going on in my world – where they can find me performing and what performances are coming up in the area (if you have a local newsletter).  Basically, the sky is the limit.  If you need ideas, subscribe to other people’s newsletters and see what content they have that you would like and model after them.  I suggest MailChimp for an easy, free newsletter service.

Hope!  Where to Look!  What to Do!

My friends, I am here to give you hope and show you that there are so many other places from where you can gain knowledge on how to carve out your OWN career!

First of all, if you are going to be an entrepreneur (and this is more geared to those of you who are NOT born with that gene) you are going to have to put in a lot of work on your own and be prepared for nothing to happen for awhile.  It will take a good bit of trial and error before you figure out what works for you, but be patient.  You aren’t just putting your resume out there and hoping for the best.  You have to be proactive and go FIND things, go DO things, contribute.  It’s hard work, but it’s very much so worth it.

Happily, there ARE some schools hoping on the entrepreneurial bandwagon.

The University of Colorado has an Entrepreneurship Center for Music!

Berklee College of Music has a Music Industury Entrepreneurship class

Other schools also offer degrees in Arts Administration – this could be a really good degree to get while also getting your primary degree.

My friend Jonathan Nation has been a wealth of help to me.  His job is to help small businesses and entrepreneurs learn how to navigate the waters of success.  You can visit his webpages at http://www.allynation.com and his business site at http://www.startingcube.com which is also a podcast.  Some of the sites he’s hooked me onto are:

Smart Passive Income.com

Savvy Musician

Angela Beeching - a career consultant for musicians

- 4 Tips to Jumpstart Your Career

The National Flute Association  has put out a great list of sites with their new group: the Career and Artistic Development Committee

Got links to share?  Share below!  Come tell me what you thought of this on my Facebook page, via twitter or make a comment below!

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Presentation Announcement

October 28, 2010 By 1 Comment

I have just received the news that my presentation for the Florida Flute Association Annual Convention has been accepted!

I will be giving the presentation, “Lift, Play, Love: Basic Weight Lifting for Efficient Flute Playing” on January 30th, 2011 at 9 AM at the Orlando Marriott.

”
In the moment, you want to focus on making music … not on how much your shoulder hurts. Many musicians run and do yoga, but few seriously resistance train. In this session Angela will help you improve your endurance, combat muscle weakness and overcome any fears of injury by walking you through how to lift, what exercises to do, and how to warm up before you play. Leave the session with the knowledge that you can walk into any weight room with confidence and purpose! Play Longer & Stronger by preparing your whole body with the information in this session.”

So many musicians avoid the weight room out of fear – fear of the unknown. I’m going to dispel that fear and embolden you with knowledge! You will learn the benefits of weight training in regards to how it affects your flute playing and learn the basics of form and exercise. We will also cover a bit of body mapping and body awareness, because it does not make sense to train your body when you are not fully aware of it.

If you are going to the Florida Flute Association Convention January 28-30 I would love to see you there! If you are coming to the presentation, bring a towel and wear comfortable clothes and in the meantime, I’d love to hear your comments and questions – I can always work them into the presentation, or even address them on this blog.

You can find more information about the convention at www.floridaflute.org

You can find more information about me at www.fluteangel.net and more information about my training services at www.musicstrong.com

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Newsletter

October 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment

I know I’ve been MIA for awhile, but I have been sooooo busy! Things have been going really well in life and lots of doors are opening for me. I submitted two proposals to present: one for the Florida Flute Association Convention in January and one for the National Flute Association in August. I was also asked to be on an expert panel of flute/health experts for another proposal that was submitted to NFA. Hopefully, you’ll see me presenting around the country this year!

In addition, I’ve been busy performing with the Panama City Pops orchestra and I also just played host to Dr. Paula Van Goes from Nicholls State in LA. She came to the Emerald Coast and gave a fantastic recital, on which I was honored to play some duets with her.

Also in news, I have founded a flute choir! If you have interest in the Emerald Coast Flute Choir, drop me a line. We are taking auditions and hope to begin rehearsals soon.

I’ve also been busy putting together a newsletter. If you are interested in keeping up with me (what’s going on in my life, playing tips, health tips, where I will be performing/teaching next) and/or what is going on musically in Panama City, drop me an email at angela@fluteangel.net and I will add you to the list to get my newsletter!  You can also sign up by popping on over to my website at www.fluteangel.net and leaving a comment telling me you’d like to be added to the newsletter.

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Music, Fitness and Travelling

June 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment

As you may know, I am a proud member of the 129th Army National Guard Band.  What this means is that I am in the Army, but it’s a part time job for me.  I “drill” with my unit one weekend every month and for two weeks in the summer.  Right now is that two-week time period, called Annual Training, or AT, for short.  Our AT this year is a tour of the state of Tennessee.  We’re playing concerts, doing parades, recruiting, etc. and having a good time of it.


Our schedule is such that we are on the road almost every single day for more than two weeks.  We get to a place, play the gig, stay at a hotel and leave the next day, save three cities where we are staying for more than one night.  This rigorous schedule poses its challenges and also its opportunities when it comes to fitness and how to take care of yourself to play your instrument to the best of your ability.  To meet the demands of this schedule, it takes more than good health, you have to know how to take care of yourself, and through the next few days, I hope to have a couple of blog posts about the different stretches, workout routines and exercises that can be done to not only counterbalance the effects of being confined to a hotel, but confined to the road/bus/car for long times.

A few things that have come up as I’ve been playing:

After riding in a bus for several hours, your whole body is going to be somewhat stiff.  Couple that with then having to go sit in a chair for a few hours and play a concert and you’ve got a possible injury coming your way.
A few stretches to be done when you get off the bus:

Dynamic: calf stretches, high-knees, leg swings

Static: Psoas stretch, Calf Stretch, Hamstring Stretch, Quad Stretch

Upper body stretches: SCM stretch, doorway stretch, lat stretch
Dynamic upper body: arm circles, neck circles

Stay tuned for more descriptions and exercises.

In the meantime, you can find our schedule on our Facebook page!

http://www.facebook.com/search/?post_form_id=e54fec336f4a35b6d336af91a714d147&q=129th+army+band&init=quick&ref=search_preload#!/group.php?gid=50386808169&v=app_2344061033&ref=search

Friday: Friday Night Lights Concert, Dickson, TN 7:00 PM

Saturday: Harpeth Hills church of Christ concert 6:30 PM, Nashville TN

Sunday June 27: Dogwood Park – 7:00 PM concert in Cookeville, TN

Tuesday June 29: Concert Crossville First Baptist Church

Thursday July 1: Public Performances on Market St. Square, Knoxville

Friday and Saturday July 2-3: Various performances in Gatlinburg, TN

Sunday July 4: Midnight Parade in Gatlinburg!  Concert at Gatlinburg Aquarium 7:00 PM

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Practice Room Warmups?

February 23, 2010 By 3 Comments

As musicians (whether you be a flutist or not), we tend to be rather meticulous about our instruments and how we approach our practice time: warming up the smaller muscles of our embochures, warming up our fingers with scales, even warming up our ears with long tones or our minds with imagery and planning the session out.  But how much attention do we give to the rest of our bodies?

Very little, so I’m discovering.

Warming up your body is as important, if not MORE important than warming up our instruments, but it’s something we all to easily neglect.   When you practice, especially for long amounts of time, you are holding your body in a somewhat rigid, unnatural posture, that, unless corrected, can actually lead to various muscular imbalances.  For flutists, holding a flute up in front of you and turning your head to the side can create all kinds of problems, problems I have rarely seen addressed.  Your traps and rhomboids can get stretched and weak and your pecs are in a constant state of tension…what to do?

Let me propose some warmups to help you have a better practice session and a better more well-responding, healthier body.

Arm Circles

You probably did these as a kid in gym class and guess what?  They still work!  Stand up with your hands out to the side like a “T”.  Rotate your arms forward in little circles moving to big circles.  When you get into really big circles, you will feel a nice stretch in your chest.  Pay attention to that.  Stop and do reverse circles, being careful not to swing to hard.  A gentle stretch is good – a hard stretch is not.

Wall Slides

Stand up against a wall with your arms raised and hands at a 90 degree angle, almost like you’re surrendering to the police.  Retract and depress your shoulder blades (roll your shoulders back and down and bring your blades down) and then, leading the movement with your elbows, push against the wall and bring your arms down, still keeping your hands raised.
Do this 10-12 times.

Those are just a couple of exercises, but hopefully, they will help you be a more productive player with less pain.  Pay attention to how your shoulders feel, how your body feels and notice the areas that are moving.  Creating that muscle awareness will help you not to injure yourself as you practice.

And take breaks!  You are not a hero for playing for 4 hours without a break.

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Welcome to my blog – music, flute, fitness, and anything else that crosses my mind!

August 19, 2009 By Leave a Comment

I finally have a blog and I’m excited for you to share in it with me!  Welcome to my reality.  Between working as a personal trainer, a health enthusiast at Vitamin Shoppe, cooking, practicing and working on my website, articles, recitals and presentations, I workout and spend time with my husband, that’s about all the time that’s left!

I have just returned from the National Flute Association’s annual convention in New York City as of Sunday night.  It didn’t have a great start (81/2 hour delay, on my birthday!!!) nor a great ending (a 3 hour delay due to a flight attendant not showing up, getting in at midnight and coming into town during a tropical storm) but the actual convention was marvelous!  So many good things happened.  Besides getting to see some great presentations and exploring the city, I walked away with a ton of music, a ton of inspiration and two new instruments!  I am now the proud owner of a brand new Hammig 651/4 cocus wood piccolo with solid silver keys and wave headjoint.  It is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever played, in both tone quality, easy of playing and looks!  There was no comparison between this instrument and any other.  I also was fortunate enough to purchase an alto flute from J.L. Smith and Co. for an amazing price because my new alto….is a prototype!  Apparently, the company that made it decided against making the rest of them, so it is the only one in existance….and it sounds marvelous!

My inspiration has come in the form of needing to unite my two passions: music and fitness.  Flutists are HORRIBLY out of shape – and I don’t just mean physically, but mentally.  We get so wrapped up in our own heads with the music, it’s easy to stop paying attention to our posture.  We love what we do and end up playing for hours without a break; locked into a posture that one can at best describe as awkward and at worst possibly as debilitating.  And yet we press on, oblivious to the pain and contortions into which we form our bodies.

This is why I believe methods like Feldenkrais, Dynamic Integration, Alexander Technique and even Dalcroze Eurythmics are so vitally important.  These methods take us out of our heads and into our bodies where we can finally notice what’s going on, we can become more self aware and THIS makes us better musicians.

I walked away from the convention with plans to write articles about these issues, and give presentations on dynamic warmups/stretching and postural improvements to help these problems, give recitals with my new instruments, compete in the piccolo artist and young artist NFA 2010 conventions, expand my flute studio in 100 different ways (not just offering lessons but other classes, like self awareness, posture, music history, flute choirs, etc) and have even been prompted to think about going back to school to pursue my DMA in this area.  I love flute and fitness and the two together seem to be a vastly underexplored area, to which I feel I owe it to my fellow musicians to help them.

Stay tuned for more….and welcome to my world!

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