I carry around the feeling that I could always be practicing, I could always be working. I need to get better at setting boundaries for myself in order to have some mental space.
Vitals
Name
Catherine Hiltz
Occupation
Musician, Composer, Educator
Website
hiltzmusic.com
Instagram
@Catherine H
Tell us about your current role(s). What kinds of things do you do every day? What does your work usually entail (for those of us who might not know much about it)?
I am a musician and that encompasses many things. There are times in my career when I focus on touring exclusively with one musical project, or teaching and preparing material for 40–50 students a week, or working as a freelance session musician. Because of this, the type of daily work will vary. Currently, I am being hired for a lot of session work so my days involve four or five hours of individual practice on the bass, guitar, or piano (depending on the shows coming up), usually a rehearsal or two, and gigs on the weekends (sometimes involving travel). I schedule individual practice time to stay on top of the specific musical projects I’ve been hired to play (transcribing, charting, and memorizing songs for an artist) that also includes material that supports fundamental musicianship (scales, exercises, transcribing).
How much are you managing projects and/or people? What kind of projects? Give us an example.
When I was touring as a full-time member of a band, my day would be full of administrative work: writing grant applications and reports; booking and managing tours; liaising with PR teams, management, and labels; coordinating online content creation; creating and managing merchandise. It was a lot of coordinating and not a whole lot of playing. Between tours, I would usually teach guitar lessons. This meant I spent half of my day preparing and creating material for students then teaching from roughly 3:00 to 9:00 p.m.
As a session musician, my work is different. The artist who hires me deals with all matters of administration and booking—I just show up and play. And to be honest, it’s what I prefer. I get to flex my musical muscles, always playing new songs in different genres with different people. My current ‘project’ is my ability to show up and perform the material perfectly, on time, dressed the way they want, with the gear necessary to do the job.
What’s your approach to managing your projects? Is it always the same? What works when you need to move things forward?
This is different for the different areas of music I am working in.
Managing projects with the band (and the band’s management team) was difficult because there were so many people involved who were all in different time zones (we had management in the UK). Plus there wasn’t a clear hierarchy in terms of the delegation of tasks or the roles we played within the band. When it came to managing larger projects that were outside of the actual act of music-making, I learned the hard way. Though I am not doing that type of work anymore, I now know the type of conditions I would require in order to return to that type of work (i.e., clear descriptions of roles and expectations before the start of the project, everybody diligently using the same project management and communications software).
When teaching guitar, each student’s musical goal was different and there was not one book or curriculum that would work for everybody. For many years, I was creating content specific to each student. As a result, I eventually ended up with a fair amount of material and lessons that could be reused (which is currently sitting on a hard drive waiting to be compiled into a book). It was a lot of work at first, but I have taught enough different people with enough diverse musical goals that I have lesson material applicable to almost all situations.
My own work as a session musician is more individual and self-reflective. I need to organize my individual practicing to address self-evaluated gaps in knowledge or technical ability so I can learn a large number of songs very quickly. The more I do it, the faster I get. But I also think it is important to create goals related to the fundamentals of music that will continually support my role as a musician, both professionally and psychologically.
How has your background, education, or past experiences informed the way you manage projects?
As I said, I learned a lot of things the hard way. A large part of my musical education happened when I was young—both when I was in lessons and ensembles when I was a kid and as a young adult studying music at University. When I was a teenager, I was a very good player for my age, so I was presented with a lot of opportunities that I screwed up because of a lack of foresight, organization, and (frankly) maturity. It wasn’t until I was in my late 20s that I learned how to genuinely practice, put in the effort, and move forward as a musician. I needed to live life, travel, and figure myself out before I could rediscover the internal motivation to continue to develop as a musician. And once that happened, all of the other facets of being a musician got better— I was a more organized teacher, I could better coordinate band projects, I developed a focused and goal-oriented practice schedule. Once I figured out what it meant for me to truly be a musician—once I found the goal that I was motivated to reach—I was able to make all the other pieces fit.
When it comes to managing projects, what do you which you were better at? What do you wish you knew more about?
Honestly, I wish I was better at waking up early. Because I do self-directed work at home, I have been struggling for years to create a consistent schedule for myself—one that starts early in the morning so I have my practicing finished before the end of the typical workday. As a result, I often end up practicing into the evening, skipping other important things like exercising, and working inconsistent hours. None of this feels good for me, or my partner who has a 9-5 job. In fact, I’m sometimes jealous of my partner’s job. Yes, it requires them to be at a certain place at a certain time, where they are only there to work, but they get to go home and not think about it for the evening. My ‘project’ as a musician is never-ending. So I carry around the feeling that I could always be practicing, I could always be working. I need to get better at setting boundaries for myself in order to have some mental space.
I am also starting to become more aware of my physical limitations as I embark on a more technically challenging repertoire with more instruments that I practice regularly. I wish I knew more about deep practice. I am currently researching ways to learn more in less time since I am being booked for more gigs. This also involves learning how to use mental practice to save my body from too much stress and exertion.
The journal helps me see what I have accomplished over a longer period of time which helps me stay motivated when I feel like I am not moving forward.
What’s your best tip or an approach to projects that works for you? Why do you think it works?
What has worked best for me is the Pomodoro Technique: 25 minutes of focus then a 5-minute break. No phone or internet distractions during those 25 minutes. The 5-minute break is when I stretch and rest and drink water which are essential to maintaining multiple-hour practice sessions. The 25-minute session also gives me a defined amount of time to dedicate to a subject so I can work daily towards larger goals. Learning music is a never-ending process. It would be easy to practice any one subject for years, let alone a few hours. The 25-minute chunk stops me from losing an entire day to just one subject, which is important because I often have multiple gigs or deadlines to consider.
For me, consistency is far better than quantity. I see far more progress having returned to a subject regularly, than spending multiple hours on one subject and skipping it the following day. This means I have to be organized, keep sight of my goals, and approach my practice sessions purposefully and systematically. I keep a practice journal in which I write not only my goals and the work required to meet them but what I worked on that day and for how long. As I move forward to more complex music-making, the concepts become larger and broader and I no longer have instantly gratifying results. The journal helps me see what I have accomplished over a longer period of time which helps me stay motivated when I feel like I am not moving forward.
What’s one thing the average person doesn’t know about the kind of work you do?
Just one? There are so many! It’s not glamorous. I’ve slept in a lot of really gross places. You can’t just be a good musician alone and expect to get gigs. Touring and gigging is mostly just a whole lot of waiting around, so you want to be with folks who are a great hang. I get to write off a lot of purchases because I live my art. People often don’t want to get to know me; because I appear on stage it seems they just want to hold onto some sort of fantasy of what a rock star is and who I actually am is irrelevant. It’s hard for me to listen to music for pleasure because my brain is constantly trying to analyze and learn it. Going to concerts feels like work. However, when I am deep in a musical moment, I experience this incredible transcendence—it feels like I am channelling something outside of myself, creating something that is not mine and doing things I never thought I was capable of doing. Those moments 100% make everything else worthwhile.
Catherine Hiltz is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and educator who has called Vancouver, BC home since 2010.
As a session musician, Catherine has worked with artists Tegan and Sara and Rae Spoon, and producers Sylvia Massey (Johnny Cash, Tool, Red Hot Chili Peppers), Alex Hope (Tegan and Sara, Alannis Morisette), and Howard Redekopp (Tegan and Sara). Currently, she plays in Queer As Funk, Bad Pop, Rong, and Loose Fang; in addition to performing with many artists including Mathew V (604 Records), Hunting (Nevado Records), Khari McClelland, CR Avery, and Catlow. She has performed in groups with members of KMFDM, The Matthew Good Band, and Mother Mother.
Catherine provided the original score for OUTtv’s in partcular, barbara findlay (Becca Plucer, 2015), and worked as a music producer on Moving Images’ Dissolve: A Documentary on Drug Facilitated Sexual Assault (Michelle Porter, 2009). She has taught guitar, bass, cello, and theory to over 40 students per week, in addition to creating and teaching a curriculum for classroom guitar at an elementary school to students in grades 3 to 7.
