I love starting the New Year with a new reading list.

It’s my tradition here on the blog to share my book list in January: this year, I’m planning to read a mix of novels, personal & intellectual books, nonfiction & memoir, and a couple of business books to balance things out.

As a musician, your work demands creativity, focus, and energy—sometimes all at once.

From teaching to practicing, performing to dealing with all the behind-the-scenes admin work, it’s easy to feel burnt out creatively, lose focus, and lack motivation.

You’re balancing multiple jobs and projects at any given time. But it’s not just about being productive—it’s learning how to find clarity and reset your focus.

Pushing through when your attention starts to wane isn’t always the best strategy. Instead, what if the key to doing better work was knowing when to take a step back, when to take a break?

One of my favorite ways to kick off the New Year is by diving into a new reading list. It’s become a tradition here on the blog to share my book picks at the start of each year—a mix of business insights, inspiring memoirs, thought-provoking nonfiction, and a few captivating novels to round things out.

If you’re a music student, you probably have anywhere from 2-6 hours a day to practice your instrument. Maybe more. Though certainly an intense time with many early mornings and late nights, most music professionals see that kind of practice time as a luxury.

Once you begin your music career, you may find your days otherwise occupied with gigs, teaching, traveling to gigs or lessons, writing, emailing, coordinating, marketing, networking, and other miscellaneous admin tasks.

When is there time to practice?

The secret is in the margins—those pockets of time you have in your schedule in between things, even if it’s only 30 minutes.

Copyright.

It's a sticky subject and one not often taught in music school.

Copyright law protects anything with intellectual property rights. This includes poetry, books, photographs, art, song lyrics, music, and more.

How does it affect what you do as a musician, teacher, freelancer, artist, or small business owner? What do you need to know?

What does it mean to be a leader? And what does it take to be a great one?

Leadership has been defined as “the art of motivating a group of people to act towards achieving a common goal.” (source) Thus, a leader is one who inspires and directs that collective action.

This requires a certain set of skills and character traits, though experts say you can learn and develop these skills with time and experience. 

You don’t have to be born with all of these skills and traits to be a great leader.

Happy New Year! I’m excited to share my book list for 2024.

I like to vary my reading material throughout the year by choosing books from several different categories. Here’s what’s on this year’s list:

It’s that time of year—time to share my book list for 2023.

As you know, I like to mix up my reading material throughout the year by choosing books from several different categories.

If you’ve been following along for a while, you know that every January, I share my book list for the upcoming year. I usually choose books from several different categories because I like mixing up my reading material throughout the year.

One of my favorite traditions is putting together a book list at the beginning of each year. I try to choose a variety of books (old and new) from a few different categories:

Business, Spiritual & Lifestyle, Fiction, Personal/Intellectual, Nonfiction/Memoir

This helps me be intentional about the books I read and ensure some diversity (so I don’t end up reading only one type of book!).

Looking for books to read this coming year? I hope you find something interesting and relevant on this list.