How-to

photo ©hpbatman7 Many professional musicians I know also teach. So do I. And we all know the age-old adage "practise makes perfect". We all know that repetition is necessary to enhance skills - in any endeavour. Unfortunately, practise is often equated with drudgery. A necessary evil. But does it have to be that way? One of the things that frustrated me as a kid learning to play the clarinet was the rigidity of the instructions. I was never allowed to deviate from the exercise, since I was "learning to play in a wind orchestra" where you weren't supposed to deviate from your part. Of course this makes sense for a concert piece, but for an exercise? I felt as if I was turned into an automaton: switch on and whatever is on the page comes out. Looking back, this experience seriously impaired my love for making music for quite a long time... And I know this happened to many people. Some even gave up music altogether. Does it have to be that way? I think not. Read on and put some fun in the practise:

On the off-chance that you're tired of reading about "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", lets take a look at the factors that made the sale of this book such a huge succes (11 million copies in the first 24 hours!). What can you as a creative professional learn from this from a sales and marketing perspective? What elements of the marketing of the 'Harry Potter' series can you use in your own marketing? Here are five top tips to be learned from the series:

If you are a media professional, or if you want to become one, one of the most important aspects you will have to consider is bringing in the money to support your life! Just being in business and doing your job well usually isn't enough to get you where you want to go in income and other aspects. So here are 6 steps to take when you want to give your earnings a boost:

Do you want to know how to improve an amateur band or orchestra in just a few rehearsals? Then try this approach: by changing your top three priorities you can almost instantly improve the sound and cohesion of the band, and the best part is: you don't have to learn anything new! It all comes down to what you pay attention to while rehearsing. So let's see what your first three priorities should be: