The Complete Musician Podcast: Recent Episodes
The Complete Musician Podcast
It’s 2026 update time! Join us as we talk about our summer music camp/festival adventures, along with the usual plethora of tangents into related and unrelated musical topics!
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Our website: www.cormotohorn.com
Our email: cormotohorn@gmail.com
Drew’s website: www.drewphillipshorn.com
James’ website: www.jamesnaigus.com
We have our next Cor Moto recital on September 15th (tomorrow, at the time of recording and posting this podcast). Join us as we talk through each of the pieces, including the origins of titles, the musical inspirations, and so much more. Then join us in person at UGA or online on 9/15/25 at 7:30pm ET for the show! Livestream link: https://music.uga.edu/edge-hall-live-streaming. A video of the recital or recital highlights may be available after the show, so if you are listening post recital, search Youtube, and/or stay tuned!
Please subscribe, like, comment, and share with your friends!
Our website: www.cormotohorn.com
Our email: cormotohorn@gmail.com
Drew’s website: www.drewphillipshorn.com
James’ website: www.jamesnaigus.com
Hold on tight, because today we are throwing down some hot takes.
Topics include:
- Ensemble audition placements
- General validation
- Composition
- The unraveling of Ravel
- Acknowledging your pianist
- And so much more!
Please subscribe, like, comment, and share with your friends! Also send us a message with your hot takes, or topics you’d like us to discuss!
Our website: www.cormotohorn.com
Our email: cormotohorn@gmail.com
Drew’s website: www.drewphillipshorn.com
James’ website: www.jamesnaigus.com
We’re back with more advice for students and teachers alike to start the 25/26 school year!
Topics include:
- Healthy life balance
- Doing your best
- Get a hobby!
- Live like a Sim
- Realistic expectations
- “You better warm up”
- Stay happy
Please subscribe, like, comment, and share with your friends! Also send us a message if you loved (or hated) this!
Our website: www.cormotohorn.com
Our email: cormotohorn@gmail.com
Drew’s website: www.drewphillipshorn.com
James’ website: www.jamesnaigus.com
You can’t spell fundamentals without FUN! And Damentals!
Topics include:
- What are fundamentals?
- Are they fundamental?
- Which is more fundamental?
- Are they fun?
- Are they mental?
Please subscribe, like, comment, and share with your friends! Also send us a message if you loved (or hated) this!
Our website: www.cormotohorn.com
Our email: cormotohorn@gmail.com
Drew’s website: www.drewphillipshorn.com
James’ website: www.jamesnaigus.com
Join us for a fun true/false game where we talk about the dos and don’ts of auditioning for music grad school!
Topics include:
- What do I play in an audition?
- What is the purpose of an audition?
- What is the panel looking/listening for?
- Why sight reading?
Please subscribe, like, comment, and share with your friends! Also send us a message if you loved (or hated) this!
Our website: www.cormotohorn.com
Our email: cormotohorn@gmail.com
Drew’s website: www.drewphillipshorn.com
James’ website: www.jamesnaigus.com
Y’all it is the end of the semester and we are COOKED but that doesn’t mean we don’t care enough to roast up and serve a hot and ready version of The Complete Musician Podcast for you! Today we talk about secret projects and finding authenticity in one of our shorter segments, while delving slightly into our history as a duo. Highlights include:
- Stop asking for permission to do stuff (or else)
- The villain arc of Drew and James
- Our first recital (there were no chairs)
- Do something because you love it
- Brute force the things you want to happen (within reason)
- Drew’s final words of the podcast
Please subscribe, like, comment, and share with your friends! Also send us a message if you loved (or hated) this!
Our website: www.cormotohorn.com
Our email: cormotohorn@gmail.com
Drew’s website: www.drewphillipshorn.com
James’ website: www.jamesnaigus.com
Audio Player
Dearest gentle listeners: welcome to another episode of The Complete Musician Podcast! We are absolutely nailing our new shorter format and are excited to bring you some creative thought today on how to write quickly if you every have to compose on a short time frame. Some major ideas discussed:
-A focus on first finding sound
-Making musical decisions before you start writing
-Placing yourself in the context of audience
-Hearing what you want in your head before you start writing
…and more!
Silly topics discussed:
-Inundation solving sinus issues
-If you can see us, we’re freaked out
-Lenny and D trumpet
-Another burn on our first few podcasts (for real, they are cringe)
…and more here, too!
Please subscribe, like, comment, and share with your friends! Also send us a message if you loved (or hated) this!
Our website: www.cormotohorn.com
Our email: cormotohorn@gmail.com
Drew’s website: www.drewphillipshorn.com
James’ website: www.jamesnaigus.com
Welcome to the second Q&A segment in our updated format. The big episode 5-0! Although we’ve done more… but in terms of numbering, this one is important. Keep submitting questions for future episodes! Some topics include:
-Epic Composer Battles
-Etude Brute?
-Why Kirby is the best
-What do the AI overlords want to know?
-Smashmouth Mouthwash
And even more!
Please subscribe, like, comment, and share with your friends! Also send us a message if you loved (or hated) this!
Our website: www.cormotohorn.com
Our email: cormotohorn@gmail.com
Drew’s website: www.drewphillipshorn.com
James’ website: www.jamesnaigus.com
In today’s episode, our topic is mock auditions. The good, the bad, the useful, the pointless – all to discuss what are the goals and educational outcomes, and how might we alter our methodology to best meet those goals.
Plus, we hear from our returning sponsor of the podcast: “Planet Fitlips!”
Please subscribe, like, comment, and share with your friends!
Our website: www.cormotohorn.com
Our email: cormotohorn@gmail.com
Drew’s website: www.drewphillipshorn.com
James’ website: www.jamesnaigus.com
Welcome to the first Q&A segment in our updated format. Thank you for everyone who submitted questions this time around – we’d love to hear from even more people for future episodes! Some topics include:
-How to improve your sight reading
-Working with music minors (not diminished)
-Old school vs. new cool
-Favorite pieces? (Not sure if we really answered this)
-How to REACH THESE KIDS
-Lumpy articulation
And even more!
Please subscribe, like, comment, and share with your friends! Also send us a message if you loved (or hated) this!
Our website: www.cormotohorn.com
Our email: cormotohorn@gmail.com
Drew’s website: www.drewphillipshorn.com
James’ website: www.jamesnaigus.com
Completely ignore the poppy audio and obnoxious refrigerator hum during entire the show…it’s been a while B’OKAY?!? But we are back and ready to party with a new format that is a bit shorter so you can listen between your practice sessions (and if you do a daily 30, then it’s just 45 minutes gone, so you’re in and out in under an hour, easy-peezy). Featured in this week’s episodes are:
-Things we wish we would have done in undergrad
-An awesome alarm that we have no clue how to describe it
-Would you rather take karate, coding, or bowling in college?
-Chamber music for fun!
-Burgers, popcorn, and Bruckner symphonies
-The worst ways to being a semester (stories from the past)
And even more!
Please subscribe, like, comment, and share with your friends! Also send us a message if you loved (or hated) this!
Our website: www.cormotohorn.com
Our email: cormotohorn@gmail.com
Drew’s website: www.drewphillipshorn.com
James’ website: www.jamesnaigus.com
You ever had one of those days where your chops are just giving a big ol’ NOPE to playing that day? We’ve all been there! And sometimes it can big mentally draining to try and overcome these moments (especially if you’ve got a rehearsal in like 10 minutes!), so what can you do? The Cor Moto Horn duo is here to offer some thoughts on how to combat these weird and random bad chops days and get you back to playing your best! Included in this episode is:
- Which instrument Drew can successfully warm up on (trumpet or horn)
- What things you can actually do when the lips just feel strange
- Colton snoring the entire episode
- The barf range
- Mouthpiece break points
- A teaser about the next podcast topic (it’ll be a doozy)
And even more!
Please subscribe, like, comment, and share with your friends! Also send us a message if you loved (or hated) this!
Our website: www.cormotohorn.com
Our email: cormotohorn@gmail.com
Drew’s website: www.drewphillipshorn.com
James’ website: www.jamesnaigus.com
We are back into recital season, especially at our universities, and thus want to provide you with suggestions and food-for-thought regarding programming as well as the importance of/ways to engage with your audience. Topics include:
- Breaking the wall
- Oral program notes – what should I say?
- Does your audience matter?
- How to pick rep/themes
- Doodle while you play?
- The intention behind intention
And even more!
Please subscribe, like, comment, and share with your friends! Also send us a message if you loved (or hated) this!
Our website: www.cormotohorn.com
Our email: cormotohorn@gmail.com
Drew’s website: www.drewphillipshorn.com
James’ website: www.jamesnaigus.com
What up party people?? Yeah that’s right, we told you we were back to doing this consistently (shoutout to the haters who thought we were gone again) and today we are all about talking some TV music and speculating about what Fantasia 2023 might sound like. So kick back and relax while listening (unless you’re driving) to this show with some of these highlights:
- The return of sound effects
- TV music and how it’s good
- Whatever creature James thought a “Blippy” was
- Drew eating cookies most of this episode
- The hurdy-gurdy and all its glory
- Why Australian sirens go backwards
And even more!
Please subscribe, like, comment, and share with your friends! Also send us a message if you loved (or hated) this!
Our website: www.cormotohorn.com
Our email: cormotohorn@gmail.com
Drew’s website: www.drewphillipshorn.com
James’ website: www.jamesnaigus.com
Quoting the podcast: “We’ve said this way too many times – and this is the final time that we will be saying this… we are back!” (No guarantees – your...
Happy Halloween and spooky season! The Cor Moto Horn Duo is here to celebrate Halloween with you (like we do every year) and play some fun spooky games that are...
We had a killer caption planned out…but then we blanked and forgot it. Which you will never do again, because we are talking today about memorization! Memorizing music is a...
Well she got her daddy’s hornAnd she played at the hamburger stand nowSeems she forgot all about the KoppraschLike she told her old man nowAnd with the symphonies blastingPlays along...
Go eeEEeeEEeeEEaaAAsy on us (with Adele) and be happy because we are back! The Cor Moto Horn Duo has gotten to come up for a breath of fresh air and we...
Happy Halloween and welcome to another spooktacular episode of The Complete Musician Podcast! We haven’t done a Halloween podcast in a while (like since last Halloween), so we are thrilled...
It’s the not posting a podcast for months at a time and then waltzing into the room (in 4/4 time) like we haven’t been gone for half a year for...
Contrary to what R.E.M. tried to make us believe, it is definitely NOT the end of the world, and we all know it! But what you also should know is...
Cough! Sneeze! Achoo! Ack! Something is afoot in our nation and it might be takin’ after Peggy Lee and givin’ you fever, or you may be just holed up in...
Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, and START listening to the newest posted episode of The Complete Musician Podcast (and you don’t even need to know...
Friends, viewers, fellow earthlings, pets, candlestick makers, chefs, VSCO girls, Fortnite Instagram influencers, Twitch enthusiasts, and all others, lend me your ears. A new episode of The Complete Musician Podcast...
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the Cor Moto Horn Duo! We hope all of you enjoy spending time with your families, eating lots of holiday sweets, getting tangled up...
Ain’t nobody got time for all this Christmas music playing in November before Thanksgiving, but EVERYBODY got time to listen to this new episode of The Complete Musician Podcast! We...
Howdy, how do, and how now brown cow(?) everyone, it’s time to be excited because another episode of The Complete Musician Podcast is available and this one is a hoot!...
Howdy, how do, and how now brown cow(?) everyone, it’s time to be excited because another episode of The Complete Musician Podcast is available and this one is a hoot! ...
Another episode of The Complete Musician podcast is here! James is out of the country and Drew decided to make some very short podcasts on what has been on his...
Another episode of The Complete Musician podcast is here! James is out of the country and Drew decided to make some very short podcasts on what has been on his...
Another episode of The Complete Musician podcast is here! James is out of the country and Drew decided to make some very short podcasts on what has been on his...
Another episode of The Complete Musician podcast is here! James is out of the country and Drew decided to make some very short podcasts on what has been on his...
Another episode of The Complete Musician podcast is here! James is out of the country and Drew decided to make some very short podcasts on what has been on his...
Another episode of The Complete Musician podcast is here! James is out of the country and Drew decided to make some very short podcasts on what has been on his...
It ain’t our fault that we are out here making news, and you can blame it on the Goose, the juice, or whatever, but you can count on the fact...
If you have two thumbs, two ears, and are missing a finger (or three) then this message and musical podcast is for you! The next episode in The Complete Musician Podcast is...
It’s that time of year again! Fresh pencils, new notebooks, crusty mouthpieces (yum!); the school year is starting back again and college students and teachers everywhere are returning to another...
Do you ever feel like a plastic bag drifting through the wind? Or paper thin, like a house of cards about to cave in? Or buried so deep when you...
Hello! Howdy! Bonjour! Jambo! Waves incoherently! Ciao! Namaste! HEY, LISTEN! (Wait, when did Navi get here? Get out of here you annoying fairy!) We’re wrapping (not rapping, and that’s because...
End of semester juries: stressful end of year playing exam or happy fun times full of bubbles, tacos, and your favorite Chumbawumba song? Feelings about juries are yours to decide...
You know what they say, “When the going gets tough, the tough get podcasting” and we have certainly gotten tougher (or maybe everyone around us is getting weaker at the...
Close your eyes. Relax. Breathe slowly. Travel back in time. Pretend it is January. Now you’re ready to listen to the most recent episode of The Complete Musician Podcast! It...
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the Cor Moto Horn Duo! We hope all of you enjoy spending time with your families, eating lots of holiday sweets, getting tangled up...
BOO! Happy Halloween to our friends, colleagues, pals, enemies, mechanics, pediatricians, and all of the picnics of witches out there! The Cor Moto Horn Duo hopes that you have a...
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, there were awesome movies that happened that have nothing to do with the fact that there is another episode of...
The Cor Moto Horn Duo just got back from a great trip to Wichita, Kansas (Drew’s never been before, and Spangles is his new favorite restaurant) where we performed, judged...
Another episode of The Complete Musician podcast has arisen from the deep, and this time it’s the beginning of a miniseries on creative technique! We define the word “creative” activity...
We’re back after a very busy summer (See Episode 13)! In this episode we talk about workshops. Should you go? What should you do? What shouldn’t you do? How can...
We’ve had a pretty busy summer so far and wanted to update our viewers about all the activities we have been up to and what we have coming up! This...
In today’s episode, we talk about warm-ups! How useful are warm-ups? What should a warm-up consist of? Do we make our students use our own warm-ups, or encourage them to...
In today’s episode, we talk about aural skills! How useful are aural skills? What kinds of games and exercises can you do to help your students work on aural skills?...
In today’s episode, we want to know what you think! How do we give our students the intrinsic motivation and willpower to practice and to play? How can we inspire...
In today’s episode, we talk about web presence! Should you have a website? How would you make one? What should you/shouldn’t you put on the internet? Are social media sites...
In today’s episode, we talk about balance! How does one balance the time and struggles of school or work with personal life? How do you balance practice with performance? How...
Thank you to everyone who watched our pre-concert stream. Due to technical weirdness, we didn’t get everyone’s comments in real time, and so we weren’t able to answer all of...
In preparation for our recital on 10/17/17 and Drew’s residency at the University of Central Missouri, we talk about the steps we’ve taken to prepare and the strategies we use...
In today’s episode, we talk about marketability! What are some skills a complete musician should have to increase their chances in the job market? What are some of the areas...
In today’s episode, we talk about recording! How can one use recording to help them practice? How can one use recording to help them teach? When and why should you...
We continue along our composition route today with talking about first musical ideas when putting pencil to paper and writing music for the first time! We discuss key, balance, accessibility,...
In this episode we talk about how to get back in playing shape after a break – recovering from and/or avoiding the infamous ‘summer chops.’ 0:00 : Introduction 2:48 :...
In this episode we talk about musical modes! 0:00 : Introduction 5:26 : Komposition Korner 12:56 : Teaching Tools Cor Moto is comprised of James Naigus and Drew Phillips. Find...
In this episode we talk about limitations! 0:00 : Introduction 3:13 : Komposition Korner 9:17 : Creative Colleagues – Jeff Agrell! Cor Moto is comprised of James Naigus and Drew...
Episode 1 of the Complete Musician Podcast: In this inaugural episode we talk about the format of the show and what to expect in future episodes.