The Musician's Way Blog

“You are the one who will shape yourself
into the artist that you aspire to be.”
–The Musician’s Way, p. 296

The school year is getting underway here in the Northern Hemisphere, and multitudes of music students are resuming lessons.

Are young musicians prepared to make the most of their lessons? Continue Reading

“The details are not the details. They make the design.”
–Charles Eames, designer

For musicians and designers alike, our approach to detail largely determines whether our work soars or flops.

Compare, for instance, these two performers:

• Musician 1 performs with passion along with polished rhythm, tone, and intonation.
• Musician 2 is no less fervent, but heedlessly lets her timing drift and her accuracy falter.

Who would you rather listen to? Continue Reading

Itzhak Perlman

“The single most important goal for performing artists
is to see how they are doing.”
–Itzhak Perlman, violinist (The Musician’s Way, p. 202)

Suppose that you’re practicing a new piece. How do you know that one portion is learned securely enough for you to tackle another?

Later on, how do you determine that the music is concert-ready?

Then, following a performance, what enables you to pinpoint the aspects of your execution that need polishing? Continue Reading

I just finished watching President Obama’s State of the Union speech. Regarding education, the President said, “Instead of funding the status quo, we only invest in reform – reform that raises student achievement, inspires students to excel in math and science, and turns around failing schools.”

Do you see a problem with that statement? I do. Continue Reading

Have you ever been confounded by a thorny passage that wouldn’t come together?

You know, the sort of material where even after days of working on the music, you notice no real improvement.

Probably every musician encounters such problem spots from time to time. But these sorts of predicaments don’t have to be frustrating. Continue Reading

Why write about music and music education?

Is it as futile as that old saw – “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture” – would lead us to believe?

Continue Reading

Zoom H2 Recorder

Imagine that you’re watching an artist paint in her studio: She spreads color on canvas, backs up to appraise her work, and then returns to her easel.

Sometimes she brushes briefly and assesses quickly; other times she paints at length before pausing to reflect.

Correspondingly, when we musicians practice, we proceed through cycles of execution, evaluation, and revision.

But there’s a big difference between our medium and that of visual artists because music exists in time, not space.

After we play or sing a phrase, it’s gone, except for our memory of it. Continue Reading

My book The Musician’s Way emphasizes that, to build our abilities as performers, we have to develop personally effective ways to practice, collaborate, present concerts, relate to our communities, and stay in top form.

That is, we must assemble bundles of artistic, professional, and self-care skills.

To gather the know-how we need, we can and should learn from authorities, tap research, and observe and listen to other musicians.

But, in the end, we can’t become capable musicians by gathering information alone. Continue Reading