David Lane - Podcast Details

Shows

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane The Tools of Church Music Directing (with Bob Moore)One possible part-time or full-time job for many musicians can be as a music director for a church. Bob Moore is a composer with much experience as a music director for Catholic and Episcopalian churches. David Lane is a composer with much experience as a music director for Baptist and Methodist churches. In this episode, we chat about the musicianship tools needed to do the job well. Bob Moore's website is: https://www.bobmooremusic.com/ Technical note: The microphone sound for the host is not quite as good as normal, especially in the intro and out...

2024-09-0258 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane The Four Core Performance Skills part 2 - Sight ReadingThe 4 Core Performance Skills are the big skills that every musician should strive to master to be the most balanced and well-rounded musician possible, and to have success as a performer in EVERY situation. The first of these core skills is sight reading. Sight reading not only gives you essentially a head start on learning new music, it is ESSENTIAL for many jobs such as accompanists, studio session players, and theatre musicians. Orchestral musicians get such little time with their music before a concert that without good sight reading skills, they will be way behind. However, much like other core...

2024-07-2944 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Problem Solving in the Practice Room (with Dr. Larry Weng)Have you ever thought you had a piece memorized only to play it for someone and you start having memory slips? This is one of many common problems that can be solved through a process of troubleshooting, the same that an auto mechanic or computer technician might use. Dr. Larry Weng of Wake Forest University talks about this approach of problem solving for your practice to find out what is really going on when surprises happen. We also discuss a common question of high schoolers: "SHOULD you major in music?" In addition, we talk about philosophies of memorization, an inspi...

2024-07-081h 00

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane For Success in Anything, Develop This One Skill!There are so many things a musician must develop to be a success. There's technique, fluency in music theory, composition and arranging skills, the skill of marketing, the skill of networking, staying up-to-date with the industry, and much more. However, there is ONE SKILL that is important for you to develop first that makes all of these other skills more manageable, and this is our topic in Episode 81. Let me know your thoughts on this episode as a voice message to possibly share on a future episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit You can find...

2024-07-0140 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Coaching Theatre and Pop Vocals (with Bob Marks)Bob Marks has been a renowned vocal coach for well over 4 decades. His former students is a wall of fame roster and includes: Ariana Grande, Britney Spears, Sarah Jessica Parker, Lea Michele, Laura Bell Bundy, Ashley Tisdale, Debbie Gibson, Natalie Portman, and more. In this episode, Bob talks about what his role is as a vocal coach in contrast with a vocal teacher, and how those two roles have blurred in recent years among the elite teachers of each field. We also discuss the importance of singers having realistic goals, and we go over a few of th...

2024-06-2449 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Never Forget Your Main Thing as a Musician | Ep79As David Lane shares, an attempt to create a true master calendar, accounting for all 168 hours in a week, is a sobering lesson. Chances are that you, like he, have too many interests, too many obligations, and/or too many goals. It's also easy to crowd out the main thing that drives you as a musician - whether that be playing your instrument, conducting, or composing - because it might not be a significant source of income. If you want fulfillment as an artist of any kind, it's important for you to make time for the main way you def...

2024-06-1732 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Session Recording on Trumpet (with Paul Baron) | Ep78Paul Baron is an active performer on the trumpet. He is currently touring on the Broadway National Tour of Disney's Frozen. He has also appeared on many albums by world-famous pop and rock artists such as Aerosmith, David Lee Roth (from whom he learned an important musical lesson), Michael Buble, INXS, and many more. In this episode, we talk about what it's like to be a session musician and also recap a conversation from the Life in the Pit podcast where we focused on Paul's extensive work in the musical theatre, and talked about one of his books. L...

2024-06-1057 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane More Review, Less New for Success | Ep77It's human nature to want to learn all the music, listen to every album, read every book, watch every movie, and visit every city. However, there's not nearly as much time as we'd like to do even a fraction of any of this. And since we can't do everything, it's much more powerful to savor than to sample. Listening again and again to music that inspires you, reviewing music you learned a while back, or re-reading a meaningful book several times is going to be much more enriching than just collecting as many experiences as possible. Let me...

2024-06-0321 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane The One Minute Practice Challenge | Ep76If you're having trouble progressing as much as you'd like when practicing music, you might like this extreme but very focused approach. Instead of practicing on something for 10 minutes and thinking about how much progress you can make in 10 minutes, consider how much progress you could make minute-by-minute for 10 single minutes. This episode will help you learn why this strategy can really work for you right away, and how you can apply it. You can also let me know your thoughts on this episode as a voice message to possibly share on a future episode at https://www...

2024-05-2718 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Put Your Goals In Action! | Ep75It's one thing for a musician to state a goal, even a big one, but it's useless until you've given it some legs. What's the difference between saying you plan to write a musical and getting that musical staged in an official production? The difference is that the first scenario takes virtually no effort, and the 2nd takes a lot of steps, work, and perseverance. Every big success starts with an idea but prominently features a series of attainable and actionable steps to get you closer to your goal. This episode uses writing a musical and landing a chair in a...

2024-05-2043 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane How to Improve Your Observation | Ep74The skill of observation is a crucial skill for all musicians. However, it's also a skill that most students have not come close to developing when they're early in their lessons for learning their instrument. Observation helps you find patterns, to identify structure, to see how one part of the music connects with another, not to mention more basic things to notice such as dynamics and articulation. In the digital age, paying attention and developing the skill of observation is not only more challenging, but more important than ever. Check out this episode for ways to improve this important skil...

2024-05-1322 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane 10 Favorite Jazz Albums (From Someone Who Didn't Always Like Jazz) | Ep73Jazz is a genre that serious musicians at least take time to explore. Whether it's classical musicians, film composers, rock musicians, pop artists, hip hop artists, even country artists like Willie Nelson...it's hard to find accomplished musicians in any genre who are ignorant of the world of jazz. While this episode won't get into the nuts and bolts of the genre, this is an introduction to 10 albums that will give you an idea of the versatility of the genre. All of this is from host David Lane, someone who resisted fully exploring jazz until he was nearly 40. S...

2024-05-0637 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane How to Compose a Canon | Ep72Composing and Improvising are essential tools for every well-rounded musician, but they are different skills. Quite often, when someone decides to become a composer, they are making up something from their instrument and then writing it down on staff paper. This is actually more of a transcribed improvisation than it is true composition. There's nothing wrong with that, but it is an incomplete look at the craft. Composing a 2-part canon is a simple exercise that will force you to think like a composer and less like an improviser. In this episode, David Lane composes an easy canon from scrat...

2024-04-2932 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Creating Value as an Entrepreneurial Musician (with Brian Witkowski) | Ep71Many professional musicians and music teachers struggle with charging what their worth, or even what they need to charge to make even a decent living. Brian Witkowski of The Lucrative Artist helps musicians and other artists to develop their "money voice", to change the way they think about money. In this episode, we chat about a variety of ways that you can charge more while also creating something incredible and memorable for those you serve. We also talk about how to make a decision on whether or not to take a gig. Links: The Lucrative Art...

2024-04-221h 04

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Helpful and Harmful Practice Mindsets | Ep70Even after you've scheduled your practice time each day and planned what your focus is during that time, the mindset you bring to your practice will absolutely affect how well or poorly you do during your session. There are 5 common types of practice mindsets, 2 which are helpful and 3 which are not. Which one or ones do you gravitate towards the most, and might a shift be helpful in improving the effectiveness of your practice time? More or fewer episodes like this? Let me know your thoughts at: https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact You can also le...

2024-04-1514 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane The Business Side of Private Teaching (with Andrea Miller) | Ep69If you're an independent teacher, there are a number of important steps to go from being a hobbyist to becoming a legitimate business. Andrea Miller of Music Studio Startup talks about all of this including making a decision about becoming an LLC and what steps go with that if you choose, making quarterly tax estimates, deductions, and other general information to help you be a thriving music studio. Find out more about Music Studio Startup (including Andrea's podcast with the same name) at: https://www.musicstudiostartup.com/ Let me know your thoughts on this episode a...

2024-04-081h 07

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane 25 MORE Essential Classical Pieces You Should Know | Ep68This is a follow-up to Episode 17 from last year, where this podcast introduced 25 pieces of classical music, not necessarily the best or most acclaimed pieces, but 25 that you should know even if classical music is not your genre of focus. Even after 25 more pieces, there are so many that were left out, but this plus the previous episode in this series will give you 50 pieces you should know no matter your genre as a musician. Previous episodes mentioned: Part 1 of this series Listening Approach for Classical vs Non Classical Music This e...

2024-04-0139 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Instrument Spotlight: The French Horn (with Kate Warren) | Ep67The Instrument Spotlight series within The Musician Toolkit is meant to introduce instruments as possible primary or secondary instruments, the challenges, the repertoire, and the capabilities. Kate Warren is a freelance hornist and educator who also serves as Yaffe Post-Graduate Teaching Fellow for the Yale School of Music's Music in Schools Initiative. In this episode, we talk about the horn, types of motivation, transposing, and practice organization. Kate Warren can be followed at https://www.katewarrenmusic.com/ Music excerpts are featured in this order: Mvt 2 from Symphony No. 1 (Gustav Mahler) - Chicago Symphony, Georg Solti | "Poppyfields" from The Shad...

2024-03-251h 07

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Music History Basics | Ep66This episode is primarily meant as a primer for music students. It gives a very broad overview of music history from the Medieval era through what we might call modern classical music. This episode is limited to Western civilization and some of the common composers. This episode also offers David Lane's suggestion that we should rethink how we've classified musical eras since 1900. Let us know what you think. Music excerpts occur in this order: O virga ac diadema (Hildegard von Bengen), The Shoemaker’s Wife (John Dowland), Canzon 12 (Giovanni Gabrieli), Spem in Alium (Thomas Ta...

2024-03-1828 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Learning Different Instruments (with Ronnal Ford) | Ep65Dr. Ronnal Ford has learned to play, on a professional level, all of the woodwind and stringed instruments of the orchestra in addition to a few others. He talks about how he approaches learning a new instrument. He also talks about the challenges of being a musician of color in the classical community, and some of the recent opportunities that help him and similar musicians to be featured more prominently. Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/conta...

2024-03-1158 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Adjusting Your Goals: Balancing Reality and Ambition | Ep64Should you strive for big and hard goals, or safe goals that are fairly easy to attain? What do you do when it becomes obvious that you won't reach a goal by the deadline you gave yourself? This episode talks about these questions, along with the importance of balance, grace, pivot, and the importance of failure and discomfort. Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact Previous episode referred to here: Goals, Motivation, and Organization with M...

2024-03-0426 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Overcoming the Intermediate Plateau | Ep63If you're studying music and find yourself unable to progress, or are progressing too little in your opinion when considering your practice time, don't despair. You are experiencing something very common in music and in plenty of other skill areas: the intermediate plateau. This episode discusses why it exists and 7 things you can do to break through the barrier to becoming a great musician! Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact Past episodes mentioned here:

2024-02-2631 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Improving Sight Reading by Touch (with David Holter) | Ep62Anyone who seeks to become better a better sight reader will find a lot of information on what your eyes should be doing as you play, but there has not been nearly as much focus on what your hands should be feeling. If you play the piano or other instrument that involves a lot of movement with the hands, can you manage steps and leaps with accuracy without ever looking at your hands? David Holter has a system called SPARK that helps pianists to develop this skill of kinesthetic awareness, and we chat about that for this episode.

2024-02-191h 02

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Building a Staircase to Success in Music | Ep61Whether it's composing a big piece, trying to master difficult repertoire, or wanting to build a full-time teaching studio when you don't even have your first student, it's easy to see the target far in the distance. Learning how to build and climb a staircase will help you accomplish absolutely any goal you have, big or small! Previous episode referenced: Episode 40 Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact You can find this episod...

2024-02-1218 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane A Better Way to Practice Slowly | Ep60If you've had a music teacher at any point in your life, you've probably heard the advice to "slow down". It is truly excellent advice...if you approach it a certain way. If your idea of practicing slowly is to make everything proportionately slower (as if someone filmed you full speed and then put the video in slow motion), this is only one way, and usually not the most effective in most cases. Check out this episode to hear what good slow practice should look like. Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speak...

2024-02-0521 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Goals, Motivation, and Organization (with Melissa Slocum) | Ep59Whether you're a teacher or a performing musician, you'll only go as far as your goals, your system for dealing with lack of motivation, and your organization. The guest for this episode is Melissa Slocum - piano teacher, business coach, and podcaster. We talk about a variety of topics in this episode, including better ways to think about goals, a different approach to the idea of work/life balance, the important 1-word question you should regularly ask yourself, 2 nightly routines to keep you organized and motivated, a challenging take on the concept of the "ideal client" and more! ...

2024-01-291h 01

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane The Circle of 5ths and All It Reveals | Ep58No single visual aid shows more aspects of how music works than the Circle of 5ths (sometimes called Circle of Keys and Circle of 4ths). Besides its more widely known uses for showing the order of sharps and flats along with the keys in sharp and flat order, it also shows scale degree frequency, primary and secondary triads, chord groupings, and more. From the basic to the obscure, this will get into the Circle of 5ths and all that it reveals. Click here for the specific visual referred to throughout this episode: Circle of 5ths Image W...

2024-01-2243 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Physical Wellness for Musicians (with Angela McCuiston) | Ep57So many musicians sit for hours a day, or perform a similar motion repeatedly, or maintain their arms in a fixed position...or some combination of those three, and they lead to injuries or fatigue in more than 90% of musicians at some point in their career. The majority of issues are correctable and even preventable. The guest for this episode is Angela McCuiston, a personal trainer and founder of MusicStrong, and focuses on helping musicians develop a physical fitness routine to help them play injury-free. Links mentioned on this episode: Sign up here f...

2024-01-151h 02

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Scales, Modes, and How to Use Them | Ep56Basic classical music education introduces students to a major scale, 3 types of minor scales, and a chromatic scale. If you continue a little deeper, you might get a passing introduction to the modes (such as dorian and phyrigian), the whole tone scale, pentatonic scales, and maybe the diminished scale, not to mention non-Western and even synthetic scales. But how many of these do you really know well in terms of theory? Further still, how many of these scales have you committed to practicing in all keys? This episode will introduce you to all of these scales and hopefully encourage you...

2024-01-0834 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane New Year’s Goals Part 2: 10 Musical Goals for 2024 | Ep55On Episode 53, we offered 12 areas you want to consider reducing or eliminating in order to clear room on your slate. This episode follows up to offer 10 specific musical goals that you can add to your own goals in order to become a better more well-rounded musician this upcoming year! Prior episodes mentioned: New Year's Goals Part 1: Letting Some Things Go | Ep53 Designing a Website That Works (with Taylor Rossi) | Ep40 Other helpful relevant episodes: The Benefits of Score Study (with Andrew Callo) | Ep16 Basics of St...

2024-01-0135 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane 3 Personal Favorite Pieces of Christmas Music | Ep54Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all our listeners! This short episode is an introduction to David's 3 favorite pieces of Christmas music: Samuel Barber: Die Natali Benjamin Britten: Ceremony of Carols Les Brown & His Band of Renown: Nutcracker Suite *In the episode, Episode 54 is promoted as part 2, but that episode will be a special Christmas episode. Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact You can find this e...

2023-12-2509 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane New Year’s Goals Part 1: Letting Some Things Go | Ep53This week's episode and next offer some suggestions on New Year's goals. Episode 55* will deal with suggested goals for getting things done or accomplished, but this week's Episode 53 is important to check out first. Before you can really get things accomplished that matter to you the most as a musician, you have to make room in your life by auditing various aspects of your life to see if you can minimize or completely remove some of the things filling up your time and space. This episode offers 12 ways you might consider for removing clutter. *In the episode, Epis...

2023-12-1832 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane 8 Tips for Becoming a Better Teacher | Ep52David Lane is about to celebrate 24 years of being a private teacher for piano, composition, and theory. He offers 8 tips for becoming a better teacher, some easy-to-apply things that he was not doing from the very beginning, each of which has made him a better and happier teacher. Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/ . If you...

2023-12-1122 min

Shapers & Builders Building Tools for Shape Up – Klaus Breyer & Matt Lane (Co-founders of Dumplink)#Bonus: In season 1 of this podcast, I've been speaking with a lot of teams who have adopted Shape Up, a delivery framework originally created at Basecamp. If you've never heard of Shape Up, check below for a link to the video "Shaping in a nutshell" by Ryan Singer, former head of strategy at Basecamp and author of the book "Shape Up - Stop Running in Circles and Ship Work that Matters".Today I am joined by Klaus Breyer and Matt Lane for a very special bonus episode. Matt and Klaus met through the Shape Up forum when...

2023-12-061h 16

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Composing for Television Series (with Sherri Chung) | Ep51Sherri Chung is a composer of numerous television and streaming series, including Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai, Kung Fu, Riverdell, Based on a True Story, and more. We talk about her career but also about creativity, the importance of a full education in music composition and orchestration (rather than just specializing in one type of music) and more. Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact You can find this episode and links to this show on al...

2023-12-0457 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Two Mindset Skills to Transform Your Musicianship | Ep50To become a great musician, it's helpful to spend time studying scores, reading books, getting guided instruction, and other things that cost a lot of time and/or money. However, there are two mindset skills that are free and don't require an expert to teach them to you, and those skills are gratitude and curiosity. In this episode, I explain why these two skills are crucial to not only guiding you to bigger success as a musician, but also why they are pillars of good mental health. Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www...

2023-11-2728 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane From Impossible to Inevitable - Get the Ball Rolling | Ep49If there's something big you want to do like learning a challenging piece, writing a large-scale work, starting a band, opening or expanding a teaching studio, or something else that you keep putting off...it sometimes seems like you just can't even get started. All you have to do is get the ball rolling. It's a combination of finding the simple first steps and stacking as needed, and finding a way to leverage your accountability to the point that, before you know it, you've gone from seeking a goal that's impossible to one that is inevitable! Let me...

2023-11-2029 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Producing an Album and Continuing Education (with Conner Cherland) | Ep48Conner 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 creation to raising money to distribution. He also talks about becoming a student again and what he's learning. You can stream the album Lake on any music st...

2023-11-1354 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Tactics for Memorizing Music | Ep47In 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 become better at memorizing music. The article from Disc Makers that is referenced in this episode can be found here: https://blog.discmakers.com/2023/09/memorizing-music/ Let me know your thoughts on this ep...

2023-11-0622 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane 5 X 5 Practicing for Consistently Accurate Performance | Ep46Frequency 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 to the point where you can play 5 times in a row with complete accuracy. Repeat this for 5 days. It might only be a fraction of your total practice time, but it adds up. In this episode, we'll...

2023-10-3018 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane The Myth of Self-Starting | Ep45It'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 least is which a faulty correlation between not choosing to practice and not liking their instrument. Real practice is WORK, and even adults have trouble with making it a pri...

2023-10-2313 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Conquering Finale...and Other Notation Programs (with Jason Loffredo) | Ep44Whether 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 Conquering Finale video tutorial series, and he helps answer the question of which program is right for both you based on multiple factors. And, of course, some good amo...

2023-10-1653 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane The Opportunity Chain | Ep43Here'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 months ago? Where did you send a resume? What party did you attend, and who did you strike a connection with? What competition did you pr...

2023-10-0918 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Improvisation and Memorization (with Geoff Westley) | Ep42Geoff 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 skill of memorization. Find out more about Geoff Westley at https://www.geoffwestley.com/ Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can...

2023-10-0241 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane 10 Non-Musician Books Every Musician Should Read | Ep41David 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 Can't Ignore You

2023-09-2531 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Designing a Website That Works (with Taylor Rossi) | Ep40One 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 client's perspective, and what really matters. Taylor's business: https://www.nicolericcardo.com/cyc Follow Taylor on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetaylorrossi/ ...

2023-09-1859 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane The Musician Examples You SHOULDN’T Follow | Ep39This 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 successful as far as getting work in spite of one or more trait that puts off their colleagues: things like showing up late, talking negatively about other musicians, monopolizing rehearsal time for re...

2023-09-1130 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Deciphering Written Rhythms (with David Krosner) | Ep38One 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, percussionist, former band director and educator for all ages, Dr. David Krosner. We talk about how to quickly dissect written rhythm into something you can sight-read with success. We also...

2023-09-041h 08

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Composing Your Own Practice Etudes | Ep37This 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 listener, a French hornist, he shares some ideas on how this might sound as various etudes. This episode will hopefully help give you some ideas of how to get...

2023-08-2830 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Relocating as a Musician (with Robonzo) | Ep36If 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 shares a few things to do and don't to get started in a new area. Robonzo is the creator and host of The Uns...

2023-08-2136 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Accomplish More by Being Specific | Ep35Whether 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 becoming super-specific is an effective first step in accomplishing a lot! Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you...

2023-08-1422 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane The Craft of Conducting (with Michelle Merrill) | Ep34Every 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 Slatkin. She is the music director of the Coastal Symphony of Georgia, and just recently was appointed as the new music director of the Winston-Salem Symphony Orchestra. She talks about the importance of networking, the craft of score and rehearsal prepa...

2023-08-0749 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Self-Improvement Through Performance Review | Ep33In 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 work and making observations during playback, you can separate your roles of the the employee and the supervisor. In this episode, you can hear how a performance review can greatly improve your practice, your progress on a pi...

2023-07-3147 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Collecting Instruments on a Budget (with Eric Perrotti) | Ep32Eric 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 breaking the bank! Follow Eric at https://www.instagram.com/ericperrotti/ What are your tips for finding or learning new instruments? Let me know your thoughts on this ep...

2023-07-2453 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Music Theory Checklist | Ep31Where 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 need to learn. For the written list, go to: https://www.davidlanemusic.com/post/music-theory-levels-a-checklist Let me know your thoughts on this episode at https://www...

2023-07-1734 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Playing Guitar for Pixar and More (with Andrew Synowiec) | Ep30Andrew 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 Miami, becoming a session guitarist, the process of working with a variety of composers, and...of course, the tools to be successful in this line of work. He also talks about some of his oth...

2023-07-1053 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane What Apps Do Musicians Use? | Ep29Whether 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 consider. You can find a written list of the apps mentioned in this episode here: https://www.davidlanemusic.com/post/what-kind-of-apps-do-musicians-use What kind of apps do you use a...

2023-07-0348 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Composing for the Harp (with Danielle Kuntz) | Ep28If 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 effects in tones, and so many other things to consider. If you've ever thought about composing or arranging for the harp, it's very helpful to have someone like Danielle Kunt...

2023-06-261h 04

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane The Power of Quarterly Goals | Ep27Problem 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 review! In this episode, David Lane shares why he loves quarterly goals and how they hit that sweet spot of short term productivity and long term ambition. He also explains the cri...

2023-06-1951 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Basics of Studio Recording (with Liz May) | Ep26One 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 few basics: choosing the right microphone, microphone placement, minimal gear requirements, planning a production session (even when it's just you involved), and a few finishing touches. Our...

2023-06-121h 11

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Heavy Metal 101, Part 2 (with Eric Schwartz) | Ep25This 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 episode, Eric and I each offer up 5 of our all-time favorite heavy metal albums. Be sure to play this episode loud! If you missed part...

2023-06-051h 01

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Heavy Metal 101, Part 1 (with Eric Schwartz) | Ep24This 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 journey is Eric Schwartz, a classical musician and lifelong metal fan who is a co-host of the podcast Heavy Metal 101. Be sure to check out pa...

2023-05-2954 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane 30 Things I Would Tell Myself 30 Years Ago | Ep23It's graduation season! 30 years ago, host David Lane graduated from high school. Like so many adults, he's learned quite a bit since then, with some lessons harder than others. From advice about practicing his instrument, finances, health, marketing, networking, and more...here are 30 things he would tell himself 30 years ago if he could go back in time. If you're a high school graduate or still in college, or have a musician family member or friend in a similar situation, this episode may help give them a head start! Adult listeners, what important lesson would you tell the high...

2023-05-2255 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Composing the Music for Prehistoric Planet (with Anže Rozman and Kara Talve) | Ep22On this episode, we take a look at composing the score for a big-budget documentary series such as Prehistoric Planet, currently streaming on Apple TV+ with a 2nd season due to come out soon. Series composers Anže Rozman and Kara Talve talk about working at Bleeding Fingers Music with Hans Zimmer, collaborating with each other in creating the score, and everything about the process from spotting the episodes, to deadlines, to preparing the score to be recorded by a live orchestra, in addition to commissioning and learning to play some of the custom-built instruments for this score such as...

2023-05-1548 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane The Reality of Tradeoffs | Ep21Episode 21 is a brief challenge to be mindful in your decisions, understanding that choosing to do something means that you're choosing NOT to do something else. Sometimes that something else you're NOT doing is practicing challenging music or technique, or composing, or doing something that feels like work, but you can apply this to any decision you make in life. Today's episode is sponsored by The Unstoppable Singer Summit, a free virtual event for singers who want to overcome the starving artist mentality. There are 45 speakers over 3 days (May 15-17). Registration is required and you can do so...

2023-05-0817 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane The Empire Strikes Back: Greatest Score? (with Frank Lehman) | Ep20Dr. Frank Lehman, film music scholar and professor at Tufts University, returns to chat with David Lane about a score that is often lauded as the greatest of all time, The Empire Strikes Back composed by John Williams. This episode is a discussion along with musical examples of the themes, harmonies, and orchestration choices that make this a masterpiece, along with a comparison to the 1st Star Wars series, and a little on the legendary performance from the London Symphony Orchestra. May the force be with you as you join us as we tackle this ultimate Jedi of scores!...

2023-05-041h 44

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane The Residual Effects of Practice | Ep19When it comes to practicing music well, there may not be any better incentive than the power of residual effects. For example, when you learn how to play a 2-octave scale really well, you've not just learned it for that one time. You've learned it for the next time you need it and will at the very least be a lot further along when you come across anything similar. Much like saving or investing money early and often, the effects of residual practice compound the more you learn and get a lot accomplished in your sessions. Listen to this epis...

2023-05-0114 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Instrument Spotlight: The Clarinet Family (with Kania Mills) | Ep18This is the first of what will be many episodes in the Instrument Spotlight series for The Musician Toolkit, occurring once every few months. This series is for anyone wanting to choose the instruments as either a primary or secondary instrument, as well as to inform composers and arrangers about the capabilities, challenges, and limitations of such instruments. Kania Mills is an active performer in band, orchestra, chamber music, and as a featured soloist in North Carolina. She teaches woodwinds at Livingstone College and Catawba College. She will help us navigate the clarinet family, how to get started, the chal...

2023-04-241h 11

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane 25 Essential Classical Pieces to Know | Ep17Not every music student or even professional musician has explored classical music, much like not necessarily every classical musician will know something about jazz or any other genre. However, each genre has certain pieces that one should know from each genre regardless of your preference. These are 25 of many possible choices, not necessarily "the best", but some pieces you should recognize by title and composer upon hearing. Musical examples used in this episode: 06:53 P. Tchaikovsky: "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" from The Nutcracker - (Montreal Symphony; Charles Dutoit) 12:49 J.S. Bach: Toccata and Fugue in D...

2023-04-171h 02

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane The Benefits of Score Study (with Andrew Callo) | Ep16One of the great ways to learn how music works is to study written scores. There are different ways to approach this but, in this episode, we're mainly talking about orchestral scores and improving the knowledge of harmonies, orchestration, development of melodic material, ear training, and more all directly from existing pieces of music from the composers themselves. Our guest is Andrew Callo, a composer and arranger who has done a lot of work with the Air Force Band and a number of other concert works. We talk about the benefits of score study to improving the ab...

2023-04-101h 13

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane The Musician Toolkit: How This Became a Podcast | Ep15David Lane was recently asked, "What gave you that idea?" in regards to this podcast. In this episode, he offers some insight into when he noticed these traits of musicianship, and how it developed before becoming the basis of this podcast. From this episode, what most resonated with you, or what do you think I should have included? Let me know by telling me directly at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact You can find this episode and links to this sh...

2023-04-0321 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane The Basics of Singing (with Katie Muhlenkamp) | Ep14It's hard to truly understand the full expressive power of music unless you sing. This is true especially if you're primarily an instrumentalist. Depending on your instrument, you might be missing out on a chance to sharpen your skills of intonation, tone, breath, vibrato, and expressive details that some instruments lack. More and more, innovative instrumental teachers include singing in their lessons for beginners to create this more intensely personal connection to music. Our guest this week is Katie Muhlenkamp. She is an experienced vocal performer in both the worlds of classical and musical theatre, as a solo...

2023-03-2757 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Episode 13 - Listening Approach for Classical vs Non-Classical MusicIt took 13 episodes since this podcast began with the premise of exploring 20 tools of musicianship that every musician should have in some proportion. Finally, there's a 21st tool to mention: the skill of active listening. This is different than passive listening, a fine activity where you just enjoy the music, but it is essential to becoming a great musician! In this episode, we review listening strategies while giving some special mention to classical simply because how you become familiar with the music is different than how you would approach other genres. Download the checklist of What to Lis...

2023-03-2029 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Episode 12 - 10 Things Musicians Should Practice OTHER Than MusicThe ability to practice well is an important tool for every musician. So why not put that skill to use on useful aspects of your life other than music? Here are 10 things you can practice to improve that will either make you more efficient with your time, leave you better prepared to do the important work, or improve your relationships and your marketability as a musician. If you want to be a successful well-rounded musician, make sure you're exploring these non-musical skills with as much intention as your instrument. From this episode, what most resonated with you, or...

2023-03-1338 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Episode 11 - Sightreading Maverick (with Erica Sipes)If you're a performing musician who uses sheet music, sightreading is one of the skills that you want to prioritize in developing, so this is the first of many times that this podcast will likely talk about this tool. Erica Sipes is a pianist with a live show on her channel called Sightreading Maverick. We touch on some of the physical tools needed to sightread well, but primarily we talk about the emotional and mindset tools that often get neglected when discussing this skill. Check out Erica's services at https://www.beyondthenotescoaching.com/ and subscribe to her Yo...

2023-03-061h 04

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Episode 10 - What Good Practice Actually Looks LikeWhen it comes to practicing music, sometimes the problem is that we don't always know what the process feels like when practice is good. There are actually two halves to the practice, and not recognizing this leads students to occasionally either mistake the halfway point for the finish point or to rush the process in a way that the prepared piece is sloppy. Listen to learn the 2 phases of practice, how neglecting the full process shows up in your practice, and finally... a picture of what good practice actually looks like. You can see the graphs I ex...

2023-02-2721 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Episode 9 - What’s Keeping You from Being a GREAT Performing Musician?There's nothing wrong with being average at anything. As I once heard another podcaster say, "Most people, on average, are mediocre at most things". To go from average to good takes some effort, but it's a smaller and seemingly less daunting step than to go from good to great. If you're stuck on being average or good as a performer, one or more of the 7 reasons that are mentioned in this episode might be why. The YouTube clip mentioning the performance of the Hammerklavier Sonata can be found here: https://youtu.be/yRDcgjvjj2E?t=17 Fro...

2023-02-2028 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Episode 7 - The Overtone Series: What It Is and Why You Should Know ItCreating music on acoustic instruments (ones that don't require electricity to produce the sound) are operating on properties of physics. Sound waves have attributes, and each pitch on an actual instrument is producing multiple sound waves at once, with the fundamental (the sound you actually hear) and overtones, which create resonance. Overtones are inaudible unless you isolate them, which you can do on most instruments. This is a topic that intimidates a lot of musicians, but it's important to try to dive in. It not opens your mind to new instrumental effects, but it helps you understand the secrets to c...

2023-02-0635 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Episode 6 - Jazz Piano 101 with Federico PivettaWhether you're a student pianist or you're already accomplished when it comes to classical music and reading fully notated scores, it's a different experience to take a lead sheet (with just a melody line and chord symbols) and perform it with accuracy, creativity, good voice-leading, and then add some improvisation. But if you're a well-rounded musician, this world shouldn't be intimidating. Federico Pivetta is a great pianist who is comfortable in both the classical and jazz worlds, where he is in local and regional demand as one of the best jazz pianists in the area. He helps us...

2023-01-301h 13

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Episode 5 - Two Approaches to Learning MusicThere are dozens and dozens of genres, but there are really 2 ways of learning music (with small variations of each). One way can be helped by strong skills of sight reading, knowledge of music theory, and the ability to read written rhythms. The other way can be helped by a well-developed ear, improvisation skills, and great applied knowledge of music theory. I call it the Classical vs Jazz approach but (again) I'm not talking about the genres. For example, you can use a classical approach to learn jazz repertoire and a jazz approach to learn classical repertoire. Check out the e...

2023-01-2714 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Episode 4 - Composing Music for Publication (with Bruce Tippette)Most aspiring composers have narrow goals, seeing film (or video game) music or being a concert composer as the way to go, but if you can create music on paper, you actually have many options to contribute original music and add at least some income in the process. One of those ways is composing for publication that is marketed to schools and churches: music for school bands and orchestras, music for church choirs and handbells ensembles, and more. It's a tricky world that requires a flexible but creative composer who can still write very good music that is specifically ta...

2023-01-231h 21

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Episode 3 - Stop Using the ”T” Word!It's such an easy thing to do. You're impressed with a great musician or other artist, and you talk about or get to compliment them, and out comes this word that seemingly everyone uses as a 1st choice...and that word is "talented". Talent is certainly worth having, but it shouldn't be THE quality that gets the praise. To quote the title of Geoff Colvin's wonderful book, Talent is Overrated, it's not because talent has no value, but as a tool it is VERY limited. As a first choice of compliment, especially to a student musician, there is the pos...

2023-01-1619 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Episode 1 - The Musician ToolkitWelcome to The Musicianship Toolkit with David Lane! This podcast is dedicated to helping you improve your craft of musicianship. First, we need to discuss what goes in the toolkit. The skill of sight-reading, the ability to play by ear, the ability to practice effectively and efficiently, knowledge of music theory, and 16 more tools will be introduced here. Give yourself a rating of 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent) of each tool as it's introduced to see where you are right now. What tool do you need the most help with? What tools did I leave out? Send me a message at https...

2023-01-0245 min

Life in the Pit TRAILER for The Musician Toolkit with David LaneLIFE IN THE PIT listeners, here is the trailer for David Lane's new podcast. If you'd like to add this to your podcasts, you can find all available apps at https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/ For Apple Podcasts, click here. For Spotify, click here. Please follow the show! Is it your goal to become a great musician? Are you already a working musician, but want to strengthen your craft? Are you a music student with strengths and weaknesses, and not always sure how to address that which needs improvement? Do you...

2022-12-2703 min

Musicianship Mastery with David Lane Trailer:The Musician Toolkit with David LaneIs it your goal to become a great musician? Are you already a working musician, but want to strengthen your craft? Are you a music student with strengths and weaknesses, and not always sure how to address that which needs improvement? Do you need to learn how to be a better sight-reader? Do you need help playing by ear, transposing, or memorizing music? Do you sometimes struggle to know how much to practice a piece of music or skill, or what approach to take? Are you wanting to get better at improvisation, composing, music theory, learning 2nd and 3...

2022-12-2603 min

Life in the Pit 76. End of Year UpdateLife in the Pit is still temporarily on hiatus, but David Lane wanted to come on to thank all of you for listening, talk a little about the state of the podcast, and what's going on for 2023. This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling. Click here for more information or to begin your free trial. Follow the podcast on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter @LifeInThePitPod. Feel free to...

2022-12-1632 min

Life in the Pit 75. Dare to Be Seen: Taming Performance Anxiety - Elisa Di NapoliWhether you're in the pit or any kind of musician who has to perform to an expected standard, you may often or even occasionally struggle with stage fright or performance anxiety. Elisa Di Napoli specializes in ways of treating this to allow you to become a confident performer. She is the author of "Dare To Be Seen", which you can get for free for at least a limited time at https://elisadinapoli.com/pit and also has a podcast with the same name. Check out a free masterclass with her at https://elisadinapoli.com/stage-fright-3/ and her online course at...

2022-10-0759 min

Life in the Pit 73. End of an Act and the 3 Keys to SuccessLife in the Pit is going to go on a hiatus, hopefully a short one. For more details, listen to this episode as David Lane talks about what's going on with the podcast and why. Also, we do a deeper dive into the 3 keys to making it big that was touched on in the previous episode. This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling. Click here for more information or t...

2022-07-0816 min

Life in the Pit 71. NAMM experience and Community Theatre Musician CompensationEpisode 71 begins with David Lane reporting on his very fun first-time experience at NAMM 2022 in Anaheim. Then he brings up a topic that might be uncomfortable but one that is important and widespread: non-union musicians for community theatre are, for the most part, still being paid the same amount they were receiving at the beginning of the century. David reads comments from musicians all over the nation who have chimed in on this to paint the current picture, and offer some suggestions as to how things might improve. There's also the debate of whether or not they should improve. Are...

2022-06-1749 min

Life in the Pit Bonus: Nurturing Your Network or How to Book Your Pit (and not)If you're a musician in any field, your network is paramount! If you're a music director who works a local market and are responsible for filling chairs in the pit for your production, are you taking shortcuts and possibly saving time while sacrificing the opportunity to build relationships? This is a mild rant from host David Lane about a trend he's been noticing. Do you agree or disagree? Please message through our website or social media pages. This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, acad...

2022-05-2011 min

Life in the Pit 68. 14 Habits to Improve your Music CareerA lot of talented musicians sit around waiting for work, or struggle with plateauing. Whether you're just getting started or you've been a professional freelance musician for a while and just needing to take an honest assessment and maybe course-correct, David Lane offers 14 habits compiled from himself, past guests, and former listeners that can help make sure that you are doing everything you can control to make the best possible living as a freelance musician. Do you agree or disagree with this list? Or is there something important that got omitted? Send your feedback through our website or...

2022-04-2947 min

Life in the Pit 66a Listener Questions - To Accept the Gig or Not, Time ManagementThis is the first listener-generated episode, where David Lane answers two questions: The first question is asking about the pros and cons of accepting a theatre gig that doesn't pay much beyond travel expenses. The second question is asking about tips for managing a day job, family, and even meal times with evening gig life. This was produced as a video episode, which you can watch here: https://youtu.be/8r113bDw6DA . Be sure to subscribe to our channel for more upcoming videos. This episode is sponsored by Fons, an...

2022-04-0125 min

Life in the Pit Bonus Episode 64a: Recent Audition Accompanist StoriesThis is a brief follow-up to Episode 64 with Jose Simbulan where we talked about being an audition accompanist. Host David Lane has been doing a lot of audition accompanying this week for two community theaters, and shares some of his observations of dos and don'ts based on recent experiences. You can watch this video at https://youtu.be/dAC33G5mSYs Please subscribe and follow to our YouTube channel while you're there. Follow the podcast on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter @LifeInThePitPod. Visit www.lifeinthepitpod.com for more info or to send feedback regarding the...

2022-03-0811 min

Life in the Pit What’s New in 2022 for LIFE IN THE PITHappy New Year, everyone! Life In the Pit isn't going anywhere in 2022, but the format is changing to add different perspectives that branch outside of theatrical productions. We're not changing what we've done, only growing to include more. In this short episode, David Lane gives you a preview of what's to come! Follow the podcast on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter @LifeInThePitPod. Visit www.lifeinthepitpod.com for more info or to send feedback regarding the podcast. You can also donate through the website. This podcast is currently ad-free, so all donations are gratefully appreciated. Please leave a rating a...

2021-12-3115 min

Life in the Pit A Story of Failure and the Lessons LearnedLIFE IN THE PIT is full of success stories from musicians around the world! Today's episode, however, is a story of failure. It's a personal story from host David Lane who recently was let go from a high-profile gig. He talks about what happened and, more importantly, the 5 lessons he learned for decreasing the odds of it happening again. If you're an aspiring musician with ambition, setbacks and disappointments are part of the process. How you respond will determine how successful you ultimately become. Today's episode will hopefully give you strategies to improve how you prepare for a show. ...

2021-10-1533 min

Life in the Pit Interlude: 9/11, Pandemic, and Thoughts on PracticeThis is an improvised, random mini-episode with David Lane giving some thoughts on the 20th anniversary 9/11 and some personal thoughts based on recent experiences with COVID. If you're only here for the music talk, skip to 12:25 to hear David talk about practice preparation specifics for an upcoming show. Follow the podcast on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter @LifeInThePitPod. Visit www.davidlanemusic.com/podcast for more info or to send feedback regarding the podcast. You can also donate through the website. This podcast is currently ad-free, so all donations are gratefully appreciated. Please leave a rating and a review...

2021-09-1027 min

Life in the Pit Preview of "Something Rotten" for Winston-Salem Theatre AllianceThis is a short, sparsely edited episode that offers a sneak peek into community theatre tech week. Winston-Salem Theatre Alliance has been a special part of host David Lane's musical theatre experience, and on Friday, it officially reveals its brand new venue on 650 W. Sixth St with the local premiere of "Something Rotten". David chats with the director and 2 cast members in the midst of the hustle and bustle. Shows run August 20-22 and 27-29. For tickets, visit https://www.theatrealliance.ws/box_office/ Follow the podcast on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter @LifeInThePitPod. Visit www.david...

2021-08-1814 min

Life in the Pit 55. Entr'acte: Celebrating 1 year of Life in the PitHost David Lane celebrates 1 year of LIFE IN THE PIT as he reflects on the experience of creating the podcast, and describes some of the changes that will take place moving forward. Don't worry; the podcast isn't going anywhere, but there are a few changes. Finally, David shares 10 takeaways that he has learned from the composite of the past year's worth of guests that any musician can use to become the best pit musician he or she can be! Thank you so much for supporting this podcast for one year! Follow the podcast on Instagram, Facebook, or Twit...

2021-06-2540 min

Life in the Pit 50. The Collins Boy: A New Musical - Brad Bass and Cari Joy, writers5 years ago, the host of this podcast, David Lane, was invited to be the arranger and later the musical director for The Collins Boy. Working with the writers Brad Bass and Cari Joy, working with actors like Lisa Howard, Tony Galde, and Russell Fisher, and playing for audiences in NYC and Atlanta have been one of the best experiences! Brad is no stranger to Broadway. He was on-stage for a decade with Wicked, Memphis, and Jersey Boys. Eventually, he left NYC to focus on teaching and becoming a writer. His long-time writing partner, Cari Joy, is a songwriter, pianist, and tea...

2021-05-211h 06

Life in the Pit 1. Welcome to the Pit - David LaneWelcome to the Pit - where instrumentalists gather together to play for musical theatre productions across the world, for everything from amateur and school productions to the houses of Broadway. This is the introduction to this podcast about the lives of those who play for musical theatre, featuring your host David Lane - a music director, keyboardist, composer, and arranger.

2020-06-2729 min