For a lot of teachers and band directors, mouthpieces are a scary subject to approach with your students, or one that just seems like it takes to much time. This month’s This is You podcast focuses on your student’s journey to the correct mouthpiece and how YOU factor into that decision. Joining me this month are Denis Wick artists Evan Clifton Decker Babcock, and Melvin Jones. They are all performers, teachers, and clinicians who in my experience with them, have special expertise in their understanding of mouthpieces.

How high will you jump? Even if you are characteristically a hard worker, there comes a time where your life defines what hard work really means, and you have to fight for your next step. This is where Denis Wick Artist and Dallas Brass trumpeter, Buddy Deshler found himself a few years back when he was faced with what it would take to achieve his dream. Learn about his unique story in this week's This Is You podcast.

Closing up our "Quarantined but Not Forgotten series" is this amazing interview where science meets the band room. Denis Wick Artist Travis Harris is a longtime Texas based band director and pro-trombone performer, and his wife is a teacher, pro-vocalist, and has degrees in microbiology and chemistry. We started this series in quarantine, and now as we open schools where do the science and logistics meet in that discussion for musicians?

Closing up our Quarantined but Not Forgotten series is this amazing interview where science meets the band room. Denis Wick Artist Travis Harris is a longtime Texas based band director and pro-trombone performer, and his wife is a teacher, pro-vocalist, and has degrees in microbiology and chemistry. We started in quarantine, and now as we open schools where do the science and logistics meet in that discussion for musicians?

For a band director, music education has become equal parts of inspiring students and advocating for your programs. This week in part 2 of our discussion with music educators Jenny Maclay, Terry Guynes, and Carla Newsome  we focus on Music Education Advocacy. What has been done in the past and what are we missing that will affect our future?

For a band director, music education has become equal parts of inspiring students and advocating for your programs. This week we start a 2 part discussion with music educators Jenny Maclay, Terry Guynes, and Carla Newsome on the past, present, and future of these cornerstones of music education. This week, we discuss inspiration. What does it take these days to grab your student's attention?

For many teachers, quarantine has removed access to a classroom and students. So what does band rehearsal, music lessons, and everything else that goes along with it look like? Vanessa Jackson and Scott Cullen join me this week to discuss this and how they've impressively gone beyond the notes by using their music training to continually encourage and enlighten their students, no matter the environment.

When Brandyn Taylor joined the National Guard to supplement his music performance career years back, he definitely did not foresee Covid 19. How does his work now affect his life as a musician and looking forward? Find out in this week's episode of This Is You.

When quarantine hit, This Is You guest Peter Freeman experienced a halt to performances of the orchestra he was president and principal trombonist of, a shift in teaching and meeting with students and performers... basically all his favorite things. And this is how he used his creativity in composition to get them back.

If you knew that one class in school would  provide an experience of equality for all, and provide a context that would help them take that experience with them the rest of their lives, would you enroll them in that class? That class exists. It's school band. Find out what band director Meara Mitchell experiences on a daily basis with her kids in this week's episode of This Is You.

Every area of the music industry has been affected by Covid 19 quarantines. How are we all dealing with it? Tune in to these stories from teachers, students, and performers, professionals to enthusiasts, 

Every area of the music industry has been affected by Covid 19 quarantines. How are we all dealing with it? Tune in to these stories from teachers, students, and performers, professionals to enthusiasts, 

At what point have you arrived as a musician? While the point of our discussion was how musicians are adapting to Covid-19 restrictions, guest Mark Nelson and I got into a great discussion on  what the true definition of arrival is.

Music education has always been fraught with challenges: funding, participation, community involvement... and now... existence seems to be a challenge as schools face the possibility of not being able to open in September. How do we plan or not plan for a future that is very uncertain? Ryan Adamsons has some great advice in this week's This Is You podcast.

In my discussions with friends and colleagues, this time of Quarantine for Covid-19 changed our lives and livelihoods, bringing many new struggles as well as many new skills. Musicians performing lives were brought to a halt, but we still found ways to join, make music, and teach music, and we shared our art in completely new and creative ways.

Many of have over the past few weeks felt life as we knew it come to a complete standstill.  Jobs disintegrated, people we see every day are no longer there, and the walls of our worlds just got a little smaller and tighter. For most, this will be a very difficult adjustment, but as musicians you are in many ways ahead of the game. Host Mary Galime will provide some reasons you will succeed purely because you are a musician, and ways to stay sharp right now. Be safe and be healthy everyone!

Now might be a great time to sit down and start tracking what is happening, or has been happening in your life as a freelance musician. This may be the best piece of advice you ever receive to grow your freelancing career.

Professional and Performance success depend on your good health habits, quite literally. Travis Harris is a longtime professional and touring musician by night and band director by day. His success in the music industry has been as a result of teaching and living a life of professional and performance health. Learn his approach and tips in this week's podcast.

If you listened to Part 1, then hopefully you are convinced that as you go to find a new brass instrument mouthpiece, sound is king. Know what sound you want and that sound concept will be the model that you measure every trial mouthpiece to. Once you find a great mouthpiece, the next step is fine-tuning your decision, and for that you need to get in the weeds of mouthpiece design a bit. 

Does this describe your relationship to yourself? Better change that quick! You are also your strongest advocate, and the best chance you have for being successful! New York trumpeter, and Denis Wick artist, Kate Amrine shares some thoughts on her own experience with making friends with herself after a difficult day, gig, week.....

How many times do you find the perfect thing to say 20 minutes too late? Usually this happens with someone who really makes you nervous, or you admire, or you want to impress. Ryan Adamsons from the Denis Wick Chicago Advisory Studio provides some great insight in how to deal with meeting your heroes and how to get past the introduction and into the relationship that will support your career.

You may think the person you are performing with right now is insignificant, and that may be the case in the present. But that may be the furthest thing from the truth for your future. Tim Dueppen provides a bit of his own life story that paints a pretty good picture of how some relationships from your childhood can be so strongly connected to your future professional career.

When it comes to success in music it is all up to you, and all about you and what you put into it. This makes your relationship to yourself and your craft especially important. Denis Wick artist Kyla Moscovich provides some amazing insight into creating an epic performance every time by bringing yourself into every moment of your music.

Need some relationship advice? We devoted the next 2 weeks to relationship advice for musicians, by musicians. Learn what to say, what not to say, and the secrets to having a relationship with both your instrument and your partner!