The Musician's Way Blog

Pablo Casals

“Don’t give notes. Give the meaning of the notes.”
–Pablo Casals, cellist (The Musician’s Way, p. 34)

What does it take to give meaningful performances?

To begin with, we have to awaken our imaginations so that every pitch we play or sing vibrates with life.

Then, we have to respond deeply to the emotional fabric of a composition, which is the subject of this post. Continue Reading

“Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.”
–Erich Fromm, psychologist and author

Is there a state of mind more adverse to creativity than rigid certainty? I doubt it.

To create, we have to generate ideas that take us beyond the familiar confines of certitude. Continue Reading

“At each concert, music is created anew,
according to a performer’s imagination.”
–The Musician’s Way, p. 112

Whenever we perform, we aim for that “in-the-moment” feeling. We strive to immerse ourselves and our listeners in the emotion of the music.

Yet although we aspire to be freely creative on stage, we also need to be consistently accurate.

Here are four ideas for uniting spontaneous creativity with technical security. Continue Reading

“Learning the basics in a rote, unthinking manner
almost ensures mediocrity.”
–Ellen Langer, psychologist (The Power of Mindful Learning, p. 14)

How does mindfulness apply to music making? When we’re mindful, we notice. We attend to our sound, emotions, execution, and coperformers.

We perceive accurately, without judging ourselves. We bring fascination to every note we play or sing. Continue Reading

“Routine drill is a poor substitute for the fun of utilizing
ears and rhythm for making music.”
–Abby Whiteside, pianist (Abby Whiteside on Piano Playing, p. 5)

“Tick, tick, tick,” drones the metronome. “Plunk, plunk, plunk,” goes the music student.

What’s wrong with this picture? Pretty much everything. Continue Reading

“For you to perform with native inflection, you have to listen and listen
until you break through to the soul of a style.”
–The Musician’s Way, p. 98

We all enjoy listening to music. But there’s a level of musical perception that transcends ordinary hearing.

Deep listening, as I call it, pierces the essence of a composition and the way in which it’s performed. Continue Reading

Wynton Marsalis

“Even the greatest virtuosos practice the fundamentals,
because they are the basis of all playing.”
–Wynton Marsalis (Marsalis on Music, p. 124)

Scales, arpeggios, exercises . . . boring stuff. Right?

I don’t think so.

In fact, I find the practicing of such basics to be endlessly fascinating.

Students, though, often view working on fundamentals as drudgery.

What are such students missing? Continue Reading

“If excellence is a habit (which it is), then students must consistently play in ways
that are fundamentally excellent nearly all the time.”
-Robert A. Duke, music educator

Whether we’re practicing or performing, all of us musicians are striving for excellence.

But do students really know what excellent musicianship entails? Continue Reading

It’s 10:00 a.m., and I’ve already practiced for a couple of hours. I practiced yesterday, too, and I’ll practice tomorrow.

Like musicians everywhere, practice is central to the rhythm of my life.

What keeps us musicians practicing? Self-motivation is a big part of it. But underlying our devotion to daily work is our intention to achieve specific goals.

And the more precise our objectives, the more energy and accomplishment we generate.

Continue Reading

In The Musician’s Way, I encourage the singing of solfège syllables, scale-degree numbers, counting syllables, and letter names as part of the process of learning, memorizing, and interpreting music.

In my own teaching and playing, I employ the fixed-do solfège system, and I’d like to offer some reasons why. Continue Reading