Musicianship Mastery with David Lane

Conner Cherland is an L.A. based musician who left a job in the tech industry 7 years ago to become a full-time musician.  He talks about his tools to success, including his commitment to high-volume creation with the understanding that not all songs are keepers, a great networking tip he's used to get big wedding and party gigs, and also the work that went into his latest album, Lake, from creati...

In Episode 42, we talked about the importance of memorization as a musician, but didn't really talk about HOW to memorize music.  Like almost every musical skill, memorization is very easy for some musicians while very difficult for others.  This episode talks about the importance of getting your eyes in the right place, mindfulness, engaging your senses, and other tactics that will help you becom...

Frequency and consistency are 2 hallmarks of great practice for musicians.  That is to say: If you practice often, and you play your music the same way every time, you have the most important fundamentals of practicing well!  5 X 5 Practice is an easy-to-remember template that combines both frequency and consistency.  In essence, you choose a technique or musical passage to focus on, practice it t...

It's not uncommon for a teacher to hear this from a parent who is discontinuing lessons. "They won't practice unless I tell them to do it."  Sometimes we're talking about a 7 or 8 year old child. Parents and, sometimes, teachers can have unrealistic expectations for how much children should CHOOSE to do the challenging work with practicing their instrument.  There's a lot going on here, not the le...

Whether you're a composer, a teacher, or a performer, having a good music notation program that you know how to use well is a great tool!  If you're convinced of that but don't have one already, one of the questions that everyone There are a lot of music notation programs to choose from, but there are 3 big ones: Finale, Sibelius, and Dorico.  Jason Loffredo is the creator of the highly acclaimed...

Here's a motivational episode for you for when you feel like your opportunities are too small, or nothing you do really matters.  A great exercise for when you have any kind of success is to write down, step by step, all the opportunities you accepted that led to this point.  Step by step.  Not just what you did as a child studying music that led to your most recent success, but what did you do 3...

Geoff Westley is an active international performer, a pianist with a unique approach to programming.  His concerts are 100% his own original music, and he doesn't write any of it down.  In this episode, we talk about his approach to these concerts, thoughts on improvisation in general, how improvisation is a "lost art" among many classical musicians, and how that skill seems to intersect with the...

David Lane shares 10 of his favorite books that aren't about music, but they speak to a mindset or a strategy that absolutely will help musicians in their quest to be better at practice and be better at improving themselves in every way. The books discussed: Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway The Right Call The Infinite Game Effortless Grip Atomic Habits Range The One Thing The War of Art So Good They...

One tool every musician should have in 2023 for getting gigs or students is a good website, one that actually generates leads and revenue.  Taylor Rossi is a musician as well as a web designer.  She talks about the things that musicians are doing too much of and what they're not doing enough of to have a better website.  We also talk about SEO and generally changing how you see your website from a...

This podcast is committed to exploring all the traits that the most successful musicians around the world tend to cultivate, whether it involves the skills associated with making and understanding the music, or the mental, emotional, and social skills that go into having a successful career.  There are so many great examples to emulate, but there are also more than a few musicians who seem to be s...

One of the tools of musicianship that was mentioned in Episode 1 is the ability to play well any written rhythm.  Why so specific? Why WRITTEN rhythm instead of just saying that we should be good at rhythm.  It's because they are completely different skills, and you're probably already good at one of them whether you know it or not, but the other one needs training.  My guest is long-time friend,...

This is a full episode response to a listener question.  On an earlier episode about practice, it was mentioned that composing an etude based on a tricky measure or group of measures is a good way to not only conquer that measure, but passages like it that you might face in the future.  A listener asked David Lane: How do you compose your own practice etude?  Using 2 specific examples from the lis...

If you're a working musician, chances are that at least once in your life, you'll move to another area.  You're moving to an area with established musicians and trying to get your foot in the door.  What are some of the things you can do?  Robonzo is a drummer who has established a working network in the areas of Fort Worth/Dallas and San Francisco, as well as towns in Panama and Mexico, and share...

Whether it's setting big goals for your life or even what you want to accomplish the next time you sit down to practice your instrument, one of the most powerful mindset tools you can employ is to be as specific as possible in what you expect to accomplish.  It helps to be realistic about what you can accomplish with your current skills and the time available, but avoiding generic goals and becomi...

Every musician should know a little about conducting.  But what does a conductor really do, especially when working with professional musicians?  How do they prepare for rehearsal and for a performance?  Our guest this episode is Michelle Merrill, a conductor who previously served as Associate/Assistant Conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra under the supervision of esteemed maestro Leonard S...

In the corporate world, it's customary to receive a performance review from your supervisor.  A good review is objective, noting what you're doing well already and what needs improvement.  When you're a solo musician or private teacher, a performance review is an important step that often gets ignored because...well, you're by yourself.  However, by simply recording video and audio of yourself at...

Eric Perrotti is primarily a guitarist, but with a passion for learning as many instruments as possible, enough so that he has collected over 200!  However, he has done so with a very modest budget.  He talks about the approaches he has taken to learn all of these instruments in a self-taught way, as well as his strategies for finding great deals and building his instrument library without breakin...

Where are you in your knowledge of music theory?  It all starts with the fundamentals (a very broad category that takes a while to master) and there are multiple levels of each branch to know before you move on to other areas such as part-writing skills, analysis, and counterpoint.  This episode will give you a checklist of skills and experiences.  Check off what you know, and write down what you...

Andrew Synowiec is a session musician, primarily as a guitarist, who has appeared on recordings of a variety of artists and bands, including The Who, Barbara Streisand, Megan Trainor, and M83.  He's also performed on the soundtracks of several films and television series, including Cobra Kai, Frozen, Coco, A Good Day to Die Hard, Little Fockers, and more!  Andrew talks about moving to LA from Miam...

Whether it's a virtual metronome or tuner, notation software, games to improve your music theory or ear training, or more...musicians have plenty of choices and sometimes the need for apps to help them have a better practice experience, to learn skills, or simply to make the music.  This is far from a comprehensive list, but includes categories of apps and some suggestions for each musician to con...

If you're not a harpist and wanting to compose, the harp can be a mysterious instrument.  It can play all of the notes of a chromatic scale, but only 7 in a time across all octaves.  It has a similar range to the piano with a similar 2-staff system, but the harpist uses fewer fingers and approaches the notes from a different angles.  There are pedal diagrams, pedal change instructions, special eff...

Problem 1: Not having long-term goals puts us in the trap of focusing only on day-by-day or week-by-week tasks.  We get things done, but we're not moving towards anything bigger. Problem 2: Long-term goals can be overwhelming, exhausting our patience and our discipline.  Something that's going to take 2 or 3 years or longer can be very tough for staying the course. Solution: Quarterly planning and...

One of the tools every great musician should have in their toolkit is knowledge and experience of studio production.  If you use a professional engineer in your projects, you'll be able to understand the process and communicate better.  Often, you may be doing a DIY recording project, and want to get the best final product that you can.  This is a huge topic, and this episode is limited to just a...

This is the 2nd of an epic 2-episode look at the genre of heavy metal, both in terms of music history and theory.  This 2nd episode takes more of a look at the history of heavy metal since 1980 through the lens of subgenres.  Leading us on this journey is Eric Schwartz, a classical musician and lifelong metal fan who is a co-host of the podcast Heavy Metal 101.  For the final segment of this episo...

This is the first of an epic 2-episode look at the genre of heavy metal, both in terms of music history and theory.  This first episode compares how heavy metal came to be and developed throughout the '70s and into the early '80s, and then compares its attributes with Baroque through Romantic era concerti, as well as what metal offers that distinguishes itself as a genre.  Leading us on this journ...