Tag: Chicago piano instructor

Learning music is a strange proposition. Many musicians get lost in it. If someone wants to learn music, surely it is with the intent of extending the vocabulary, the tools in the box, so to speak. And, I suppose, that much is true: if someone studies music thoroughly, they will be able to comprehend more…

Human beings are always forced to cope with inertia. I’m talking about the object’s inertia. Which, by the way, I interpret as chaos. Take this harmless spoon, grab it firmly in your hand. Oh but, the fingers slip, the spoon lift up four inches from the table, come back down forcefully against the porcelain of…

I just came back from France. We were at the airport yesterday. As I watched the crowd shuffling by, I was struck by all these people, so different, so diverse, converging in the place. Maybe the difference of culture was the most obvious. African women with bright colors clothing, Indian women with their sari, people…

When I lived in Paris, people would come visit in the summer and tell me that the city was crowded, impossible to manage with all these people every where. And I remember thinking: “Absolutely not! Listen to that! The city is empty, or, at least, running low on people.” It is because during the summers,…

Music is fun! I would even argue that music is the most fun a human being can have. I give you a kitchen with standard equipment. I give you a bunch of kids from 3 to 77 years old. I give you the will to make something happening that is not cooking and, cataclop-cataclop! we…

It used to be that all the good gigs for drummers involved reading. I can confirm the fact and tell you that, to this day, the most profitable gig I’ve ever done implied that I know how to read. It is such an essential part of being a musician that when I went to Berklee…

A lot of people who start an instrument have a vision, or an inspiration. Because they fell in love with the concerto for Piano #2 of Rachmaninoff or a drum solo by Ian Paige (Deep Purple), they have finally taken the decision to try the piano or the drums. When they arrived at my studio,…

Practicing is not easy labor. It can become a chore very quickly. So, one of the thing that can help, is a routine. If we are accustomed to do some piano or drums everyday, preferably at a predetermined time, always with the same succession of exercises or subjects within the time of the practice, we…

This morning is quiet. I just went outside. I live on a quiet block of the Mayfair park area. I sat on the stairs of my house. Closed my eyes. Listened. A few birds were chirping in the trees near by. Almost no cars were passing by in front of the house, there was just…

Although I have a few female students, I’ve never had more female students than male students. I have always had more men than women. Now, before I think that it is just because of me, I need to say that when I went to Berklee College of Music, the ratio was about one woman for…