Musicianship Mastery with David Lane

Let's talk about making use of apps and other technology to help your growth as a musician.  We talk about the explorer's mindset needed to embrace technology rather than fearing it.  We then dive into categories such as practice apps, metronome apps, assessment tools, and a few others.  The featured guest is Sam Reti, who teaches guitar and also uses his passion for technology to help music teachers with his online lesson platform...

Way back on Episode 27, I talked about the power of having quarterly goals.  Since then, I've spent over a year in an accountability group centered around quarterly goals, and have gained more clarity on what works and what doesn't.  This is a revised look at one of the most powerful ways to keep succeeding at anything.

Previous episode on this topic: https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit/episode/77965d9f/the-power-of-quarterly-go...

Sight reading is the first time you play through a piece of music, but the "sight reading mode" can last for a long time.  The sight reading mode is the stage where you feel like your eyes have to stay glued to the sheet music for nearly every performance second because your mind and body has no real familiarity with the music.  It's not that you're trying to play it from memory, but everything is just cautious and not clicking. Th...

Playing your instrument while following other musicians is an art, and one of the essential tools of musicianship.  Dr. Rachel Ehring chats with me in this episode about why this is a good skill to learn, the challenges unique to collaborating, and how this opens the doors to opportunities for both amateurs and professionals.

Links for this Episode

Rachel's Website: https://rachelehring.com/

1:1 Coaching: https://skilled-trailblaze...

Some classical musicians have severe anxiety about playing from memory, and others just want to avoid it, but this episode offers 9 reasons why memorizing everything you ever practice is actually a solution to that and more!

Click here for the episode on HOW to memorize music: https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit/episode/791a00c3/tactics-for-memorizing-music-or-ep47

Musicianship Mastery is formerly known as The Musician Toolkit.

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The most common question I get from students and their parents when they ask about practice is: "how many minutes should I be practicing?".  This isn't the first question they should ask.  To get the most out of your practice, you need to work on 3 habits in a specific order to set a good foundation.  This episode introduces the Practice Pyramid to help make sure you are not just practicing enough minutes, but also to avoid wasting...

Michael Hall is a Chicago-based violist who is an international soloist, clinician, and artistic director.  He has carved a career for himself with a zeal for living composers and new music, as well as his work with musicians around the globe, including as artistic director for the Bandung Philharmonic Orchestra in Indonesia.  His passion is infectious, and he provides inspiration for any typically orchestral musician who wants to ...

If you haven't yet graduated from school, you should seize the opportunity THIS SUMMER to go to camp.  You'll grow as a musician in ways you probably haven't yet imagined.

After listening, click here to find a summer music camp: https://www.musicalamerica.com/pages/?pagename=camps2025&header

Musicianship Mastery is formerly known as The Musician Toolkit.

If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app...

If you or your child is looking ahead to starting middle school, you likely have the opportunity to sign up for band or orchestra, and you absolutely should!!  An instrumental ensemble offers many benefits that you cannot get in private lessons, and a different set of benefits from singing in a chorus.  And if you're older, even an adult, there are opportunities for you to play as well.  Let's talk about why you should play in band...

If you're an adult music student, this episode is for you!  Reid Harrison is an engineer who decided to take up piano at the age of 48, and was able to apply his engineering skills in a way to help him become a solid intermediate to upper immediate pianist in 4 years.  In this episode, you'll learn about the powerful role of a practice journal (or spreadsheet), the importance of technique, and how to measure what actually matters f...

This year marks 25 years since I started teaching piano, composition, theory, and (for a while) French horn.  There's a lot I've appreciated about being a teacher, but one of the benefits is that it made me a better musician!  In this episode, I share what I've learned about being a teacher and how I've benefitted in my own playing and understanding as a musician.

Musicianship Mastery is formerly known as The Musician Toolkit.

Let ...

"I thought this would be easier."

"I can't believe how much I had to practice just to learn this!"

"I thought I'd be much further along by now."

If any of these statements describe your learning experience with your instrument, you're not alone.  In this episode, I'll offer an explanation for why you're feeling this way and give you 5 steps you can take to stop feeling like you're behind and to thrive once again in your practice!

M...

There is a generation of students that is, generally speaking, not as equipped for the professional world that follows school as previous generations.  In this episode, I chat with Dr. Kinard Douthit, a flutist and professor at Winston-Salem State University, about the obstacles and challenges of today's college students.  This is certainly a broader topic than music, but could be clarifying for students, parents, and teachers of t...

There's a simple solution for making progress as a musician, and it's what's known as "skin in the game".  If you don't give yourself stakes, it's hard to expend the energy required to get yourself to the next level.  This episode will give you 10 ideas for things you can do to give yourself those stakes to give yourself some real progress!

Musicianship Mastery is formerly known as The Musician Toolkit.

Let me know your thoughts on...

It's a new year, and you probably have goals as a musician, but are you underestimating the time and intensity you need to invest in order to make real progress?

The easiest way to work on music or any skill and "feel" like we're making progress is to consistently dabble in it.  A few minutes here, a few minutes there.  A little practice is better than none, right?  This is an approach to keep you running in place.  If you want to ...

For Episode 100, I say thank you to all of you who have listened to even 1 episode, let alone all 100!  In this episode, I recap the tools of musicianship, and I celebrate moments like my favorite episodes that didn't have as high of listener numbers that I think you might have missed.  I also share announcements like a new name, a new focus, and a new episode frequency.  One spoiler in case you miss it: This is the last episode of...

Professional musicians often have to confront obstacles from job changes...to a piece they're practicing that isn't getting better...to possible existential threats such as streaming services and AI.  To be a successful musician for a long time requires knowing when and how to pivot.  Hopefully this episode will help you answer both questions.

Let me know your thoughts on this episode as a voice message to possibly share on a futur...

Planning is good, but doing is better!  Whether it's composing your next piece, practicing something hard or accomplishing a career goal, it's possible to become a doer and not just a planner even if that hasn't been your natural inclination.  In this episode, I share what has worked for me.

Let me know your thoughts on this episode as a voice message to possibly share on a future episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolki...

Reading for self-improvement is a common habit among successful people in all kinds of fields, and this is definitely true for musicians!  However, good reading is more than just staring at words on pages.  Besides types of books, it's important to invest time, energy and techniques to get the most out of what you're reading.

Let me know your thoughts on this episode as a voice message to possibly share on a future episode at htt...