To Festival or Not to Festival
Guidelines for deciding whether a student should participate in a Festival/Audition or not.
(Just) Playing Correct Notes or . . .
Playing Notes Correctly? There is a difference as I daily, repeatedly, demonstrably remind my students. Even when playing all the...
Knowing Right From Wrong (Notes)
So I have been teaching about 45 years, with a few gaps here and there. I have had a WIDE variety of students from super eager to "My...
Musical Goosebumps for Halloween!
October 31st will soon be here, which makes me think of my two favorite spooky pieces of music. The first is somewhat kid friendly: In...
How Jose Ferrer (In A Movie) Taught Me to Phrase
No, I never met Jose Ferrer, so this story is not about some grand meeting between a local musician and a great actor. No, this is about...
The Marine's Hymn is NOT American Born! WHAAAT!
Shocking isn't it? I just discovered this fact recently. One of my students started playing the Marine Corp Hymn in the Bastien Level 2...
