(Geez... the excuses that trumpet players come up with!)
And one of the things that John said afterwards was "Why don't I sound just like Phil Smith?"
My answer was something along the lines of, "
Ummmm. I'm not sure."
Because yes, I've been listening to Phil Smith and he is the person that I would like to play. And as John pointed out in the lesson, "If someone came up to you after the recital and said that you sounded just like Phil Smith, you wouldn't exactly be offended."
No, I would not.
So while I was scratching my head about why I didn't get there with my Phil Smith impersonation, he offered a solution that was so simple and perfect I wanted to pass it on to you.
He said you just have to get that sound in your ear and decide that you are going to sound like that.
I was so distracted by the long drive, my molting lips, and the fact that I was meeting this person for the first time. I wasn't focusing on the sound model that was in my head.
And I didn't have the confidence.
Sometimes there are players who sound so amazing, and you put them up on a pedestal so much that you can fall into the trap of thinking they are so great... and I can't sound like that.
But you can. That is how the human mind and body works.
The second time I played it sounded a lot closer.
His advice to me was to "scrub out my ears" and really spend the next couple of weeks (and the rest of my life) listening to world class music. Especially listen to anything that I'm going to perform, and start to raise my standards of what everything should sound like and just
go for it.
I couldn't be more motivated and excited to perform it at my recital in late June.
This recital is giving me an opportunity to pull together my own self promotion. Last week I got a new headshot (which I will unveil soon) that I will use to make flyers, ads, I'll write an article for the paper, put it on an online calendar and I'll use it to make my website look more professional and exciting.
But with all the effort that I'll put into marketing my recital, I'll be concentrating hard on gathering email addresses every step of the way.
There are a lot of people in my town and in my life who want to hear me play. And the same goes for you. You need to get them on your email list so that you can let them know when you're going to perform.
You can't rely on Facebook to get the word out. (Zuck just wants your money!) Advertising is expensive, and you're basically promoting yourself to strangers.
But when you have an email list full of people who have shown an interest in you, or attended one of your concerts, or bought something from you in the past, you know that they will want to know when you will play again.
Having a list of people who support you is the most valuable asset you can have as a musician.
I put together a PDF that shows you step-by-step how to make a web page that you can use to collect email addresses using LeadPages.
These guides take time to put together, so I will be putting a small price tag on them all in the future. But today, this one is free!
