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A blog about performing music, teaching music and the business of music.
"The great aim of education is not knowledge but action."
-Herbert Spencer
Even the world's greatest teachers can not get a student to take the regular action required to acquire a skill. It is a teacher's job to share their knowledge and to inspire a student to apply that knowledge to their craft. After that, it is all on the student.
No amount of information will ever replace action.
"The one thing that we all must do is work and prepare....and to enjoy the preparation process because we spend much more time in rehearsal than we do on stage."
-Jessye Norman on advice to young musicians
All of the greats always talk about hard work. Every single one of them.
This is a transcription of Igor Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" performed by the "The President's Own" Marine Band earlier this year. The transcription is by Merlin Patterson and it is conducted by guest conductor Giancarlo Guerrero.
The playing and interpretation are simply top notch. Enjoy!
"If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got."
-Albert Einstein
If you are looking for different results in the practice room or a different career path, ask yourself what you've always done that maybe should be tweaked or eliminated. What do you have to lose?
“Deep practice feels a bit like exploring a dark and unfamiliar room. You start slowly, you bump into furniture, stop, think, and start again. Slowly, and a little painfully, you explore the space over and over, attending to errors, extending your reach into the room a bit farther each time, building a mental map until you can move through it quickly and intuitively.”
-Daniel Coyle from The Talent Code
I can not recommend the book The Talent Code enough for both teachers and players alike. It is a fascinating look at practicing and talent with lots of very easy to understand science to back it up. A lot of it immediately ended up influencing how I approach the horn and how I teach my students.
Every musician should read this book.
All that any of us instrumentalists are ever trying to do is sound like the world's best singers. The King's Singers are certainly some of the world's best. The blend. The intonation. The unified musical concept. All stunning. This group will take your breath away. You won't find a more beautiful rendition of Danny Boy than this one.
Enjoy!
"The tiny cost of failure is dwarfed by the huge cost of not trying."
-Seth Godin
Whether on the podium or in the practice room, we must fail, fail loudly, and fail often. It will lead to our biggest successes.
This clip is awesome. How anyone can debate the importance of music education is beyond me.
I was lucky enough to play in the Northwestern University Symphonic Wind Ensemble under both John Paynter and Mallory Thompson. Those performances rank as some of my most cherished in my career. The level of musicianship that was demanded of me by both conductors as well as the colleagues I was surrounded by was intense and exhilarating.
Filling the shoes of John Paynter, an absolute legend in the band world, was no easy task. Mallory Thompson stepped in from day one as if that job had been waiting for her all along. She remains one of the most rewarding conductors I have ever played for. Nothing gets past her ears. Nothing.
This is a fantastic recording of Johann Sebastian Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" arranged by Donald Hunsberger. As with all great university wind ensembles of this caliber, it is hard to believe these are college kids. And Mallory Thompson's interpretation is, as always, spot on.
Enjoy!
"Good playing is easy to vote for."
-Stephen Dunkel, Bass Trombone - Washington National Opera
Well that kind of takes a lot of the mystery out of things now doesn't it?
