Lessons for Sincere Musicians

internalization, personalization, embodiment

Common Topics

Resonance

Melodic Improvisation

Playing Alone / Playing Together

How to Compellingly Play by Ear

Sound CONCEPT and Sound PRODUCTION

The Myth of “Control” in Our Pursuit of Mastery

Lyrical Phrasing vs. Mechanical Phrasing

How to Play with Clarity and Conviction

What is a Musical Idea?

Form, Function, Flow

Embodiment

“The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time.”

―Mary Oliver

Saxophonists

• sound production (physical) and sound conception (imagination)

• defining and developing “projection”, “presence”, and “power”

• dialing in appropriate resistance for a resonant, flexible, and supported tone

• breath support / tongue position / embouchure / articulation

• explorations of color, texture, and timbre

• the role of our equipment in our search for beauty

• connecting the ear to the horn

Improvisers

Whether STUDYING an established musical idiom or INNOVATING your own personal musical language, a visceral connection to musical resonance and creative flow is imperative.

• Connect your ears with your instrument

• develop spontaneous ideas with clarity and intention

• embody your phrasing

• explore the elements of form from a creative mindset

• Develop the confidence and skillset to sustain this flow in a room alone with your instrument

• Elevate your collaborative potential, bringing depth and heightened sensitivity to any style or instrumentation.

How’s Your Confidence?

Are you confronting performance anxiety, fear, or self-doubts about your place in the world of music?

It’s never too late to develop a healthy and nourishing relationship with your creative process, no matter how alienated you may feel from it. It’s right here waiting for you, and you don’t have to go it alone.

I have my own personal relationship with these struggles, and it can be challenging to find a mentor that knows this headspace intimately and is willing to “go there”.

The Real Work

“It may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come to our real work,

and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey.

The mind that is not baffled is not employed.

The impeded stream is the one that sings.”

— Wendell Berry

Your Teacher:

Applied Jazz Saxophone & Jazz Composition @ Towson University // Spring ‘25

Saxophone instructor @ Baltimore School for the Arts // Jan 2023-present

Guest Lecturer @ Peabody Jazz // Sept 2023-Nov 2024

Baltimore-native Derrick Michaels is a tenor saxophonist and improviser with a deep sound and a bold, imaginative presence in the creative music community.

With roots in both the lyrical and exploratory branches of the creative saxophone tradition, his wide expressive palette brings a soulful, melodic sincerity to a wide range of musical environments. 

He has been described by Jazz Weekly as a “thick-toned tenorist”, and by Downbeat magazine as wielding a “large sound and free flowing style”. The Baltimore Jazz Alliance says: “Derrick Michaels' saxophone playing comes right out of his soul; the instrument sounds like a human voice.”

(CLICK HERE TO READ PERFORMANCE BIO)

MESSAGE FOR RATES

“Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.”

—Margaret Mead