Music Strong, LLC

01/05/2026

What a year..... I was a lot quieter over the last almost year and a half because I was deployed. I left October 2024 and returned 416 days later In December of 2025.

What started out well just got worse and worse and worse. You can see the stress in my face in these pictures, I don't even recognize myself.

My unit was deployed to the southern border and instead of what we were told, that we were supposed to go out in small groups as a surge unit, we were moved around the entire border.

One week in the desert in open Bay barracks, one month in El Paso, 2 months San Diego, 6 weeks and two hotels in Tucson, Arizona, and the bulk of it 8 months in the armpit of Texas: Laredo. Arguably the worst place I have ever been in my life.

The job went from incredibly rewarding: we were all actively involved with border patrol, catching drug smugglers and people smugglers, helped take 12 kilos of co***ne off the street. Just catching a jet ski (no small feet) working with the Coast Guard to staring at dirt and just trying to stay awake. We went from incredible views and a real sense of purpose to staring at (so much) dirt, feeling like we just had to get through this and we were just a number.

That being said, our unit saw more of the border than any unit in history in almost 14 months. I used to say they'd have to run out of girl scouts to deploy the reserve band. Well they did and we showed them that we are soldiers just like everyone else. 👍

Given the chance, I'd go back to Tucson or California and do that same job for a year any day. I never want to see Texas again. 😆

I did get to go to and I finally bought my own flute! A 602 With 14K lib and platinum riser, MZ-10.

I did get to go to DC for my first conference and stay at the incredible

I did get promoted (finally) The absolute last week 🙄

Now, back to business.

11/30/2025

So grateful! Music Strong now has not one, but TWO certifications through the !

Being certified as a Veteran-Owned small business or a Woman-Owned small business allows me to compete with the big boys for government contracts in specific areas where veterans or women (or in my case women veterans) are underrepresented.

Veteran owned business only accounts for 5.5% (about 300,000 out of 3-5 million) businesses in the US and while women own about 40% of small businesses, only a fraction are certified as WOSB. In fact, the goal of the Women-Owned Small Business program is to award 5% of federal contacting dollars to WOSB each year. In 2024, this fish was not met, with WOSBs receiving 3.44% of all federal contract dollars. As of 2024 only 4800 women-owned small businesses had been certified for the WOSB program.

I'm so grateful that these were approved and for the opportunity they present to get Music Strong in front of increasingly larger audiences and help greater numbers of people!

My next goal? Landing a government contract (maybe with .h2f ?) to be a contractor on strength and injury prevention to ALL military musicians!

If you've got a band - let's talk. Injury prevention can't start soon enough!

11/29/2025

Flutists have one of the highest injury rates among musicians, and after 4 playing related injuries myself, I decided enough was enough....for all of us.

Join me and the in a special class where I take the problems you are physically facing as a flutist and apply corrective exercise and strength training to help overcome (or prevent) them.

Free for members, $10 for non-members - once registered you'll receive a link to a survey so I can tailor this workshop specifically to the audience.

Rest and stretching can be good, but alone or misapplied they can make your symptoms worse. You HAVE to have strength and increase the endurance of the muscles that you use to play (especially the ones that hurt).

I'll show you how 😎👏💪

Drop your pain point as an instrumentaliat below and maybe I'll address it first!

11/23/2025

I'm redoing my series of short instrument specific workouts and I would so rather have a picture of an actual musician than a stock photo - drop.yours below or DM me and the winner will be featured - happy to promote you/your page/your music!

11/06/2025

Every once in awhile you stumble on to something that truly makes a difference in your body and is a FUN Challenge. Not often, but this one makes me and every one of my clients laugh, WHILE we're working on our shoulder issues.
https://musicstrong.com/bodyblade/
https://youtu.be/cgqOpzmckF8

I do not own rights to this music.These are a couple of my favorite ways to use a Body Blade to activate the muscles of the Rotator Cuff!Looking for more spe...

10/21/2025

When planks get boring , progress them. One way to do this is to add a level of instability, while maintaining stability. The stronger you are the less your hips will move.

Don't just keep doing something because it's familiar: progress it if it's too easy, regress it if it's too hard.

This exercise great for just about every musician, working the connection between upper and lower body, the cross body connection between hips and shoulders, increasing stability in the shoulder girdle and endurance in the deltoids, endurance in the abdominals and low back muscles and really can be progressed a lot of ways.

Join the Music Strong Membership for more exercises for musicians - link in bio!

If this helped you, please like, save and forward to a friend!

Https://www.musicstrong.com/membership