So, here’s the bad news: Your New Year’s resolutions suck. 

The good news is that it’s not totally your fault, and I’m going to show you how to take your vague resolutions and change them into easy-to-follow goals that you will actually accomplish.

I believe that if you want to get better, you should learn from the best. Lucky for you there’s already a highly-successful organization that has developed a tested system for creating bulletproof goals: the Navy SEALs and SMART goals.

SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely. I’ll breakdown each part and then apply it to a few common New Year’s resolutions that I saw this past week on social media.

Common New Year’s Resolutions

1. Start going to the gym
2. Stop eating carbs
3. Get better at guitar

Any of these sound familiar? Write down three of your own resolutions to work on as you read along. Let’s get started.

SMART Goals

Specific

Your goals...

Imagine you’re in a bookstore one Sunday afternoon and, for whatever reason, you happen to notice the music playing in the background.  Maybe it’s a classic rock song that you haven’t heard in awhile or a jazz standard; the genre doesn’t really matter. Can you listen to the song and know what the chord progression is? When the guitarist is soloing do you instantly recognize the scale being played or what specific notes make up the melodic riff?

If you’re hesitating to say ‘yes’ to these questions, then keep reading because I want to share a simple concept with you that will have a profound impact on your ability to recognize chords, progressions, and scales by ear which you can implement today.

To start, there are two kinds of pitch recognition: perfect pitch and relative pitch recognition. Having perfect pitch is the ability to recognize the exact note being played and having relative pitch is the ability to recognize the...

Take Five

We asked Melissa Aldana your top five questions, here are her answers...

Q1: What's the best music gear or app purchase you've made recently?

Balance Action Saxophone, One of the best horns I have ever tried.

Also I really love my Matt Marantz Custom Mouthpiece / Da'ddario reeds and Silverstein Ligature... it is the perfect set up! 

Q2: What's your funniest or worst gig story?

I used to do a gig when I moved to NewYork with a Friend of mine from Barcelona, Spain.

We used to play in a super fancy Spa and we did it just duo couple of times a month .

The worse part was that we had to play inside of the Spa where all the pools and saunas where while everyone else was just chilling..lol

Q3: What's one concert you've attended that has had a lasting impact on your life?

Well I recently saw Miguel Zenon presenting his latest album " Sonero " at the Jazz Standard and he is somebody that I have always look up too.

His writing and...

We asked James your top five questions, backstage after his recent Jacksonville show with Pat Metheny and Nate Smith. Check the video to hear his anwers!

Q1: What's the best music gear or app purchase you've made recently? 

I recently purchased a Minimoog Model D reissue. Holy smokes does that thing sound good! It’s like playing an acoustic instrument, or a Hammond B-3. I love creating the classic sounds on it that it’s known for, but it’s also fun to just tweak away and create new sounds. It’s a great instrument for both live and in the studio. It has a hefty price tag, but if you’re really into synths, it’s totally worth it. The best app I’ve purchased recently is the Sonic Project’s OP-X Pro II. FANTASTIC Oberheim emulation. I have in my possession a Matrix 12 and this VST definitely clocks in as the most faithful emulation, at least to my ears.

Q2: What's your funniest or worst gig story? 

See #MyWorstGig storyhere!

Q3: What's one concert you've attended that has had a lasting impact on your life? 

I remember hearing Joshua Redman trio with Sam Yahael and Greg...

Q1: What's the best music gear or app purchase you've made recently? 

The best gear I’ve gotten lately has been my new Yamaha 82z Bronze Artist model alto saxophone. It’s truly made my life better in all regards. I loved playing my Mark VI and was fortunate to grow a lot on a great vintage horn, but, switching to an ergonomically advanced instrument has helped in my ability to relax more and still get a bigger sound and more control of my registers - especially consistency in pitch!

Also, my AEA NUVO N-8 microphone has been one of the best investments I’ve ever made. I’m able to get the live gig/recording sound every time I use it. It sounds like me - no innate frequencies that are out of wack. It’s enabled me to record more from home and also to build my virtual online studio and reach many of my fans in lessons from all over the world.

Q2: What's your funniest or worst gig story? 

See #MyWorstGig storyhere!

Q3: What's one concert...

Q1: What's the best music gear or app purchase you've made recently? 

I recently got this pedal from TC Helicon called the PerformVE and it has completely elevated my solo looping game. Now I can basically do everything I hear from reverb/delay to playing drum grooves and involving more complex harmony with the vocoder feature.

Q2: What's your funniest or worst gig story? 

See #MyWorstGig story here!

Q3: What's one concert you've attended that has had a lasting impact on your life? 

Probably Bobby McFerrin live at some New York venue the first time I visited the city in 2010. The way he uses his voice to translate his musicality will forever be my biggest musical goal. He totally changed the game of what a singer’s role is meant to be.

Q4: What's a specific skill/exercise/technique that has taken your singing to the next level?

Composition and arranging. Developing my composing skills has helped me in all areas from knowing how...

Q1: What's the best music gear or app purchase you've made recently? 

My favorite toy is the BOSS RC 505, or "Rupert the Looper" as I like to call it.

Q2: What's your funniest or worst gig story? 
I guess just watch the video when I'll have one!

Q3: What's one concert you've attended that has had a lasting impact on your life? 

There have been of course many impacting concerts throughout my life so I'm going to go with the latest one : I saw Spanish gypsy singer Concha BUIKA in Spain last fall, and couldn't stop crying for the whole show. She is an incredible story teller and musician. She lives all her songs and gives everything with each performance. I saw her two more times since that one show and have always been so inspired and touched.

Q4: What's a specific skill/exercise/technique that has taken your singing to the next level?

I would have to say the exercise of always challenging myself. Learning new things, going for competitions and trying...

Q1: What's the best music gear or app purchase you've made recently? 

The best music gear that I’ve purchased as of late is my pedal board. My former student, Aaron Janik of Horn-fx.com has become the teacher in that he’s exposing me to a wide range of sounds that, frankly I’ve avoided for some time now. I’ve warred with the idea of “corrupting” my natural sound with any electronic enhancement. However, Aaron and his team have discovered a way to retain the natural sound of the trumpet while enhancing it with various set ups on the pedal board. I’m truly loving discovering what’s available to me. I’m almost treating the pedals as they’re “mutes” to create varying moments in pieces that offer “layers” that don’t exist with the natural sound of the trumpet and all of it’s colors. That all said, I’d have to say that the use of pedals and my new pedal board is the...

Q1: What's the best music gear or app purchase you've made recently?

Best purchase I made recently, was a bass drum hoop protector by Drum N Bass.

Q2: What's your funniest or worst gig story? 

I was in middle school and I was asked to participate in a school talent show.  There was a house drum-kit that I was told to play.  When my name was called I went to the drum-kit to play with a band made up of professionals.  The tune got counted off and we started playing.  But no longer than 8 bars into playing the piece, the drum throne fell apart and I ended up falling straight to floor.  It was painful and embarrassing.  My father fixed the seat they had and I finished my song.  May I say, to this day I despise house kits!

Q3: What's one concert you've attended that has had a lasting impact on your life?

 I played in the opening band before Joe Henderson, Bobby Hutcherson and Tony Williams (with others I can't recall) hit the...