Being musicians, we are driven to become the best at one skill. 

We train early, with clarinet lessons and orchestral programs. When we get the bug - as most of you have - clarinet playing becomes our singular focus!  And it must be that way, it must be an obsession, something we eat, sleep and breathe almost 24/7. Most successful musicians I know went through a period, years, where there was nothing except a burning desire: nothing except drills, studying scores, listening to recordings, going to concerts, recording and intense training. 

Two truths about this. 1)  our training isn’t enough. 2) our training isn’t all we have.   

Your academic or performance degree isn’t doing enough to prepare you for a career in music. It addresses such a narrow part of who you are, who you need to be and how you need to think to truly have a fruitful and fulfilling life in the arts. There is a huge gap between what we’re doing in school (our practice rooms and our classes) and what we need to exist as a thriving musician. 

Today, we’re getting in that gap, to get you to diversify and broaden your practice, your thinking and your approach to career.  Let's just get to the heart of it:

The Three Pillars

1 - Perform More 

2 - Collect a Variety of Skills 

3 - Diversify. Think more broadly about the music world, and your role in it.

The first pillar is all about shifting your mindset to approach our playing in a way that requires us to step boldly into a process that isn’t comfortable. Step out of the practice room on to the stage, and bridge the practice to performance mind AS MUCH AS YOU CAN!

Next, we don’t graduate with all the skills we need to be working artists. We need to diversify our skills so that more opportunities and more roads open up to us. Careers are no longer defined by core skills, but by your agility and ability to learn new, complementary skills.

Finally, you have to diversify. This means: technical skills, range of techniques, communication styles, methods of learning and improving, perspectives, and more. 

These three pillars are the most important ways you, as an artist in today’s world, can create a path toward a truly fulfilling life in music, and make a living in it.

Being a performing artist or musician means you need to do more than just play your instrument well.

Click below to get started on exercises that will help you with each of the three pillars!