Tag: Chicago piano instructor

  • No, that is not a payment!

    When I first started in Chicago as a drummer, I wanted to explore the blues scene. It was a fascinating thing, really. The Chicago Blues was so popular I had heard of it in my little city of France. So, fresh out of Berklee College of Music, I started doing some jam sessions. For those…

  • Children learning

    People are disgusted with learning an instrument. It happens all too often in this form: an adult comes into my studio and tells me that they were forced to play the piano when they were kids. They hated it. The teacher was tough, the parents didn’t negotiate, the practice was a chore, the times were…

  • Messing around: the secret ingredient

    If you are reading this blog, I am assuming it is because you are studying either piano or drums. Or, at least, you are interested in those concepts. And so, most of the time, the study involves some technique, of course, and some more technique, of course, and some songs to play along with, of…

  • Dynamics are the emotion of music

    Dynamics in music seems to be a concept getting lost in modern music. By modern music, I mean what is played on the radio. We turn the thing on and the sounds come out at full blast. The singer is full blast, the drums are full blast, the bass are full blast, even the commercials…

  • Filling up a void in life with music.

    If you are in trouble. If you are getting lost. If your evenings seem boring and empty. If you find less and less reasons to get out of bed in the morning. If you numb yourself with different medications: alcohol, TV, drugs, internet rants, procrastination, social medias. If you find the burden of life to…

  • Here is what happened, part 2 (The revenge!)

    So, Bob was not doing good. And we talked. One of the difficult part of being a professional musician is to keep your confidence. By confidence, I mean self love, the drive, the energy to know you can do the job. Bob had to retain a little love and appreciation for his own talent in…

  • Here is what happened, part 1.

    The life of a musician is seen as chaotic, unpredictable, maybe even dangerous. And, although my life is fairly mundane and uneventful, it is common to experience dramatic upheaval as a working musician. A colleague was telling me about his band. They had a lot of gigs, the crowds seemed pleased with their performances, he…

  • Choosing a music teacher

    And here we are in September now, summer almost over, back to school time, the children thinking the fun is in the past, the parents looking to sign up their youngster for different activities. And if one wants to include music in their education, the question comes: how do you chose a piano teacher? How…

  • Drummers enter the academy

    The drum set is a very young instrument. Although there were some forms of dum set at the beginning of the 20th century, the instrument, as we know it, took its modern shape around the mid 1930’s with drummers like Gene Krupa. Little by little, after that, a drum set was more or less composed…

  • Technique 2. The fun part.

    Here is an exercise. You don’t necessarily need an instrument, you can use your voice. First, let’s think about summer. Make a sound, any sound with your voice. The summer gets hotter and more humid. Transform the sound you are making to match the description (don’t forget to breathe). If you want you can make…