Category Practice
Well-Rounded or Specialized?
As a musician, should you be well-rounded, or should you specialize in doing one thing really well? It’s a tough question, one that does not really have a pure answer. Ask me on any given day of the week (or hour of the day) and I’m likely to sway to one side or the other. […]
Why Your Degree Title is Wrong
Students in colleges today put so much emphasis on their degree titles, on their specialty. Now, I firmly believe that to be great at what you do (and I believe anything less than great isn’t worth doing), you do have to specialize, in a sense. But I have a serious problem with the structure degree […]
Sightreading Sundays
Feeling very chromatic today. Useful to get you out of the comfort zone and mess with your muscle memory a bit. Download the Sightreading Sundays music here!
Sightreading Sundays
Something short and sweet for you and/or your students to sightread. Check back every Sunday. Feel free to pass these around. Download Sightreading Sundays music here!
Sound Bites / Air Movement
Move the air at the proper velocity immediately to avoid “scooping” the notes. The band camp season has officially begun for me, so I’m finding myself saying little statements like this all the time.
What Others Say / Will Durant
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” —Will Durant, summarizing Aristotle, in The Story of Philosophy (1991) Good advice for all the high school musicians heading to band camp soon. And for anyone in the practice room.
Long Tones: The Pursuit of a Life in Music 