Tag: Chicago piano instructor

  • The boring practice in piano or drums

    I’ve notice that people who have a stable life enjoy a very healthy amount of practice, and therefore make good progress with their instrument. And, at the opposite of the spectrum, that it is very difficult to keep spending time on the piano when your life is in transition. For example, if you’re about to…

  • Learning taste.

    I was watching a video with Vinnie Colaiuta playing in a fusion brass band. Vinnie, if you don’t know him, is one of the great drummer that ever lived. He has played famously for Frank Zappa or Sting among many, many others. He’s a great technician, for sure, but that is not the purpose of…

  • The conundrum of music.

    There are a lot of conundrums in music because it’s a very organic activity, and we are, after all, analog beings, prone to chaotic or non-sensical behavior and thinking. One of the common mystery is speed. Question: how do you work on speed? For fun, I’ll name the 2 common answers I see most often.…

  • Dry spell in music.

    I get them sometimes, but I think differently about them than most of my self-employed colleagues. I think of them as a little respite, almost a vacation that’s beneficial to my sanity. I am talking about dry spells. A dry spell occurs when your phone or your email box doesn’t ring with new prospects, when…

  • The importance of review in music.

    I am doing reviews these days. Not just for myself, but also for my students. I am trying to resolve that pickle for them: how do you make reviews interesting, even exciting? So, I am writing pages of exercises and composing music to play along in order to explore that concept. This is going to…

  • Emotion in music.

    I used to think that dynamics were the be-all and end-all solution to carry emotions in music. But, as I move forward on my journey towards ultimate music (I’ve still got a long way to go), I think that it’s a bit more complicated than that. Here I will mention something fairly obvious. For most…

  • Speed is not all that.

    I often see my students get obsessed with speed. You get the little shrimp, seven years old, ready to take on the world, and trying her best to speed the crap out of every exercises. Of course, some of them do it to get rid of said exercise as fast as possible, musicality be darned.…

  • Music and performance.

    Something is fishy in the kingdom of musicians. Let me tell you what it is. Some people barely practice and they’re able to perform whatever was assigned, and some people have to labor and slave and repeat the same piece over and over and still make mistakes once they’re on the spot. This is totally…

  • Mind blown.

    Every now and then, you are witnessing something and you get such pleasure that you can’t understand where it comes from, like a tsunami of emotions. Those kind of sensations happen to children and teenagers frequently and with great intensity. That might be the reason why all adults listen for the rest of their lives…

  • Studying with music.

    I probably did it as a father. I would put some CD on (it was the time of CD’s back then) while my two young children were quietly playing in their bedroom. Probably Mozart, probably something syrupy. Guilty as charged. The music was pleasant enough, for sure, just not very educational. What I certainly didn’t…