9 Benefits of Improving Musical Listening

I think if many of us are honest with ourselves we will admit that our listening skills have not been given proper attention in their development. Most of us have practiced playing much much more than we have practiced listening. This is a major oversight and I am amazed at how this critical skill is so neglected by the great majority of musicians. The good news is that since these skills are so underdeveloped by most we have an opportunity for huge improvement quickly and relatively easily. No matter what level of musician we are we can make a big improvement in ourselves as musicians and people if we improve our listening ability.

Principles of Auditions, Part Three: The Big Day

This is the third and final installment of my series on orchestra audition principles, tips, and tricks. Today covers Audition Day. For Part One covering general philosophy click here, and for Part Two on preparation, click here. Finally the big day has finally arrived! After a thorough, relaxed and joyful preparation, we are now ready to …

Principles of Auditions – Part Two: The Preparation Process

IQuality preparation is key to any successful performance. Any good coach will tell you that most of the winning of any sports contest will be in the preparation. For John Wooden, widely considered the greatest basketball coach of all time, the outcome of a competition was largely decided in practice leading up to the game. While …

Principles of Auditions – Part One: General Audition Philosophical Principles

Auditions are a fact of life today in the classical music world. They are almost always required for getting orchestra jobs and into universities and festivals, yet are quite different than regular music playing. Therefore so it is an essential skill for successful classical players to master for a successful career. I did a lot …

Developing Long Term Relationships with Music

The following is a reprint from Joshua MacCluer’s blog from May 2014. Today I’d like to write a little about the value of developing long term relationships with music. Relationships with music are no different than relationships with people, and just as truly meaningful friendships develop over time, a special performance of a piece of …

Résumé Writing Tips for Orchestral Musicians

The following is a reprint from Joshua MacCluer’s blog from May 2014. There was great recent news recently for the Hong Kong Philharmonic when we heard the the orchestra is adding 6 new positions, including 4th trumpet. After advertising internationally, we received 171 résumé applications for the 4th trumpet position. When I examined the résumés …