The Musician's Journey escorts musicians, performing artists, music teachers, and advanced music students along the road toward a successful career, offering a vast array of resources to guide them from envisioning the process to achieving the practical details. Jill Timmons provides key tools throughout the journey, from sources as diverse as the world of myth to current brain research, which illuminate compelling real-world examples of music entrepreneurs who forged their own paths to success. In addition to chapters on careers in higher education, guidance in how to develop a dynamic business plan, and effective time management, this expanded second edition includes up-to-date strategies for meeting the challenges of today's current marketplace, including a greatly expanded section on grant writing and financial development. The new edition also offers a new collection of diverse and inspiring stories taken from interviews with a range of successful musicians, along with personal narrative from the author's work as a professional musician and consultant. There is also an extensive bibliography of additional resources, and the companion website offers downloadable worksheets and questionnaires to assist the reader in igniting their own thriving musician's journey.

How do musicians play and talk to audiences? Why do audiences listen and what happens when they talk back? How do new (and old) technologies affect this interplay? This book presents a long overdue examination of the turbulent relationship between musicians and audiences. Focusing on a range of areas as diverse as Ireland, Greece, India, Malta, the US, and China, the contributors bring musicological, sociological, psychological, and anthropological approaches to the interaction between performers, fans, and the industry that mediates them. The four parts of the book each address a different stage of the relationship between musicians and audiences, showing its processual nature: from conceptualisation to performance, and through mediation to off-stage discourses. The musician/audience conceptual division is shown, throughout the book, to be as problematic as it is persistent.

Santoor maestro Shiv Kumar Sharma is one of India’s living-musical legends. Born and raised in Jammu. ‘in a house where, from dawn till dusk, someone or another was singing or playing an instrument’, Shiv Kumar Sharma began his musical life as a tabla player under the tutelage of his Benares-trained father. One day when he was fourteen, his father returned from Srinagar with a santoor and announced that he had found his son’s true calling. The bemused boy took the instrument—traditionally used only in Kashmiri Sufiana songs—and, over the next few years, performed surgery to adapt it for Hindustani ragas. The results are musical history. In this lucid memoir, the artist recalls his youth in tranquil Jammu and Kashmir, his lean years asan aspiring young professional in Bombay, his long, not always happy association with All India Radio, his work in the film industry, his most blissful moments on stage, his tours around the world and, most compellingly, his struggle to establish the. santoor as a classical Indian instrument in the face of sceptical, some times dismissive critics. Along the way, he illuminates a remarkable series of relationships and encounters: guru-slushya bonds, life-long friendships, dazzling jugalbandis and, of course, musical rivalries, good-natured and otherwise. Here are Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ustad Allah Rakha Khan, Zakir Hussain, Brij Bhushan Kabra, George Harrison, Yash Chopra, Lata Mangeshkar and a host of household names—doing riyaaz, recording LPs, discussing style and technique, gathering at All India festivals and cooking for each other at the end of a long day. The life chronicled here is rich in professional achievement, personal companionship and pure, solitary artistry. ‘I am here,’ says Shiv Kumar Sharma, ‘with a mission; to reach out and touch the hearts of people with my music. And I shall do my duty as best I can.’

An Engaging and Accessible Guide to Achieving Sustained Access in the Music Industry As a musician, how can you blend art and survival and still keep loving the business? The Musician’s Career Guide, written from the perspective of someone who has engaged in the daily struggle that all artists encounter, provides clear strategic support and advice in a knowledgeable, reader-friendly voice. From preparing for an audition to business planning to protecting one’s mental and emotional well-being, The Musician’s Career Guide marries practical tips with in-depth resources, anecdotes and stories to learn from, and comments for consideration and self-reflection. This book is a tool musicians can use to develop a realistic roadmap for success in the careers they desire. Part textbook, part self-directed learning tool, and full mentor, this information-packed text speaks with the voice of experience in a way that is realistic and attainable. The authors address topics including the following fundamental areas: Career development Touring Roles within the music industry Recording deals and industry PR and marketing for artists Keys to community engagement The mental side of being a musician The path and commitment to mastery as professional musician The Musician's Career Guide offers a foundation for both new and experienced musicians who yearn to clarify and achieve their individual goals of personal success and fulfillment through their craft. It's essential reading for any musician.

An intimate, revealing look at one artist’s journey from self-censorship to full expression As one of the most celebrated musicians in the world, Alicia Keys has enraptured the globe with her heartfelt lyrics, extraordinary vocal range, and soul-stirring piano compositions. Yet away from the spotlight, Alicia has grappled with private heartache—over the challenging and complex relationship with her father, the people-pleasing nature that characterized her early career, the loss of privacy surrounding her romantic relationships, and the oppressive expectations of female perfection. Since Alicia rose to fame, her public persona has belied a deep personal truth: she has spent years not fully recognizing or honoring her own worth. After withholding parts of herself for so long, she is at last exploring the questions that live at the heart of her story: Who am I, really? And once I discover that truth, how can I become brave enough to embrace it? More Myself is part autobiography, part narrative documentary. Alicia’s journey is revealed not only through her own candid recounting, but also through vivid recollections from those who have walked alongside her. The result is a 360-degree perspective on Alicia’s path, from her girlhood in Hell’s Kitchen and Harlem to the process of growth and self-discovery that we all must navigate. In More Myself, Alicia shares her quest for truth—about herself, her past, and her shift from sacrificing her spirit to celebrating her worth. With the raw honesty that epitomizes Alicia’s artistry, More Myself is at once a riveting account and a clarion call to readers: to define themselves in a world that rarely encourages a true and unique identity.

For nearly forty years Paul Robertson performed throughout the world as First Violinist of the internationally renowned Medici String Quartet, of which he was a founder member. In 2008 the main artery to Paul's heart ruptured, leading to him dying on the operating-table, and then being resuscitated. Paul subsequently hovered in a deep coma for six weeks, close to death and experiencing visions, affording him profound insights into the relationship between music and the subconscious When he came to he felt he had been reborn - fundamentally, a different person - and not just because the left side of his body was partially paralysed. Instead, he woke with a completely new acceptance of the meaning of death, and a belief in life beyond. Now 64 years-old, Paul has decided not to undergo any more surgery, facing a very uncertain future and living on borrowed time. In this book Paul reflects on his musical training, his insights into the difficult realities of ensemble playing, and about the possible meaning of his experiences in both life and near-death. This extraordinary and poignant memoir will be for all musicians, spiritual thinkers and musical laymen who have engaged with the rigours of learning music.

(Berklee Press). Winner "Best Book of the Year" 2014 award from the Jazz Journalists Association. In Learning to Listen , Gary Burton shares his 50 years of experiences at the top of the jazz scene. A seven-time Grammy Award-winner, Burton made his first recordings at age 17, has toured and recorded with a who's who of famous jazz names, and is one of only a few openly gay musicians in jazz. Burton is a true innovator, both as a performer and an educator. His autobiography is one of the most personal and insightful jazz books ever written.

Beyond the precise techniques of music-making lies the uncertain and often untapped world of artistic self-expression and soulful spirituality. James Jordan's The Musician's Soul starts all musicians on a journey to that higher plane. Jordan offers words of wisdom and encouragement based on his own journey as a conductor, yet these writings are pertinent to all musicians, perhaps to any creative being. Filled with inspiring, thought-provoking quotations, life experiences, and ideas, this book will encourage you to explore your inner self by creating openness and vulnerability, finding your center, and discovering the importance of solitude as well as community. The result will be a new heartfelt honesty and beauty in your music. Look beyond the mechanics of technique into the soul of music, creating a new, inspired voice.

Martin Hayes spent his childhood on a farm in County Clare, in a household steeped in musical tradition. After a free-spirited youth, he headed to the United States where he built a career that led to a life of musical performance on stages all over the world. Shared Notes traces this remarkable journey. Picking up his first fiddle at the age of seven, Hayes learned that music must express feeling. No amount of technical prowess can compensate for an absence of soulfulness. His interpretations of traditional Irish music are recognized the world over for their exquisite musicality and irresistible rhythm. Hayes has toured and recorded with guitarist Dennis Cahill for over twenty years, founded the Irish-American band The Gloaming, The Martin Hayes Quartet and The Common Ground Ensemble, and here, for the first time, tells his story of getting to the heart of the music.

Musician's Heart Journey is a container for all musicians seeking to get in touch with their inner musical muse. It is a structured journaling course as well as a daytimer for musicians. This journal offers powerful tools which the reader/writer can use for a lifetime. Regardless of musical experience, the method presented on these pages is intended to illuminate the next step on one's unique and authentic Musician's Heart Journey.