Ep. 25: Matt Howard
My guest today is my friend and colleague Matt Howard, the Principal Percussionist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and one of the most friendly musicians you could ever work with.
Sports, sports, and more sports…today’s episode is a straight up masterclass on how being a professional musician is completely parallel to being a professional athlete.
Think your tenure process was tough? Make sure you listen all the way to the end for an unbelievable story about the types of hoops LA Phil musicians jump through to make our boss, Gustavo Dudamel happy.
Worried that you got a “late start” in classical music? Wait until you hear the surprising success timeline for someone who later became one of the world’s premiere orchestral players…
He wasn’t at all competitive
Had never heard his hometown orchestra until he was a senior
He mostly just played drums in a rock band
Didn’t practice
Didn’t take lessons
And when he finally decided that we wanted to go to college for music, he only applied to one college, into which he did not get accepted.
Sound like a roadmap to success? You might be surprised…
Matt’s going to share some amazing advice on how to prepare for an audition, how to effectively use a metronome, and we’re even going to find out who he thinks is the greatest drummer of all time.
You’re even going to get a free percussion rudiments lesson from Matt, totally for free by listening to this podcast…you’re welcome.
Enjoy and happy listening!
The Honesty Pill Podcast is proud to be sponsored by the Yamaha Corporation of America. Thank you, Yamaha!
