Tag: Chicago piano instructor
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…
What music teaches you.
A brand new student, eyes wide open, will have a ready answer to this age old question of what the purpose of music is. They will get on the seat of the piano or the drums and they will say “Fun!” as they play. At this point, that’s all that matters. They decided to take…
How I roll.
Hey, I’m not proud of it. Not at all. But that’s the way I operate, almost despite myself. When a student decides to stop lessons for reasons X, Y or Z, I never ever prevent them from doing so. First, I always remember that these people chose me every week for 1, 2, 3 or…
Knowing is freedom in Music.
There was a teacher in Paris that enjoyed a great reputation. Her name was Nadia Boulanger. Her and her sisters were in music since they were born. Nadia Boulanger’s sister, although predestined to be a great concerto player, died in her prime and never saw the fame and fortune her skills promised. Nadia became a…
For a drummer or a pianist sitting hurts.
The tittle of this blog says it all, today’s subject is a pain in the rear. This is a topic not enough talked about, maybe because most of the literature is geared towards beginners the kind of people who do not know yet the joys of aching vertebrae’s. I practice every day. Sometimes 1 hour…
My roots. Part 2
Once my stepfather had paid his dues on a small boat off the coast of Brittany trying to catch a living, we came back to my little village close to Switzerland. It was a very small and charming place where you had the lower part and the higher part of the community divided with one…
How music teaching came into my life.
Young and handsome, proud of my newly acquired skills, I was ready to wrestle the world, and make it bend to my will. I discovered the music world in a small French city that not even French people know. The place sits with a mountain on its back and is surrounded by the lace of…
Developing a singing tone. Part 2.
In part one I divulge the two categories of instruments we find in music: the one that breathe and the ones that don’t. Let’s talk about singing, since this is the title of the blog. In a melody, you get some high and some lows. The notes ascend or descend as the music plays. Let’s…