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 outro.

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

If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice. You can find all episodes of this podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

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.

If you want to succeed in music, how important is talent? I shared a strong opinion on this way back on Episode 3 of this podcast. I've thought about it a lot since then, and have since changed my mind about some of it but still feel strongly on other points. With the 2024 Summer Olympics being a recent event that featured a lot of developed talent, I thought this would be a great time to revisit the topic. Talent is a real trait that has a real say in what opportunities there are for you in music, but how much? Also, listen to why using "You're so talented" as a compliment to young performers is potentially harmful.

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

If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice. You can find all episodes of this podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

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.

The final core performance skill to explore is the ability to improvise. This is a skill that is very natural to some musicians (and even non-musicians) and very mysterious and perhaps even scary to others. And yet, it's the oldest of all the skills, the earliest way to create music. It's also essential for every genre other than classical (and there was a time it was expected there as well). Finally, it's the most pure way of learning how music works by disassembling it and putting it back together based on your own experience and understanding. As with the previous episodes in this series, there are 10 exercises to get you started with improvisation.

This is the 5th of a 5-part series. If you missed it, check out the previous episodes in this series:

The Four Core Skills Part 1: An Overview of the Skills

The Four Core Skills Part 2: Sight Reading

The Four Core Skills Part 3: Playing by Ear

The Four Core Skills Part 4: Transposing

ALSO MENTIONED:

Composing Your Own Practice Etudes | Ep37

Piano Improvisation Live in Concert

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

If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice. You can find all episodes of this podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit

You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1

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.