amateurmusicians.net

sensibility training

So what's this blog all about? Fundamentally.

blog review: music practice tips

(Update: the musicpracticetips.com website is no longer up and running. However, as this review compares web and print media approaches for teaching practice skills, you might find the info below useful for evaluating learning resources.) When I started this blog, I initially had this idea of a web resource for music practice advice. Providing such [...]

black slab of spirited energy

If a big bad building assails you with unsympathetic vibrations, can it be re-tuned like a musical instrument?

take in large doses, three times a day

Can listening to Mozart make you better-adjusted? Philosopher Manly P. Hall says: yes, but so long as you don't get too blissed-out.

elemental spirit

Tonight, I’ve been needing to hear a “loud and clear” message about the life-affirming properties of music. Found it in this article about the late great jazz drummer Elvin Jones.

5 expert ways to turbo-charge your practice routine

Feel your motivation flagging at the thought of yet another dreary practice session? Your instrument starting to pick up dust? Never fear! We’re living in a brave new age of gurus, and there’s a solution-head out there for every spiritual and practical problem that ails’ ya. Here’s a shortlist of techniques and approaches from trusted [...]

top 10 reasons why I don’t own an mp3 player

In life it’s often best to keep up with the Joneses. On the practical level, people ask less questions. On the existential level, you’re more well-adjusted. Or betterly-adjusted. So imagine this: I’m a musician, and I just woke up to the fact that I still don’t own an mp3 player. Pow! How could that be? [...]

why it’s easier to play for strangers

You’re ten years old, it’s Christmas eve. Uncle Fritz (fictitious name) has gotten in disguise: Santa’s about to distribute the gifts. The living room is packed with relatives, in dizzy anticipation at the surprises to come. Alas, before Santa Fritz can grab the first gift, your mom stands up, and blurts out to all ears: [...]

how to reset your central nervous system

Don’t have enough vein diameter to feed blood to your virtual avatar in Second Life? Need to relax, but find the practice of meditation too emotionally barren to pursue? Can’t even properly evoke the Slow Movement in your bowel displacements? Listen, friend. Don’t even think about “getting tased”. Rather, consider this quote by classical guitarist [...]

eine kleine schlafmusik, for puppies

Musicians are well-known for being hypersensitive freaks. Baring their souls to the world, they rarely suffer fools when it comes to lukewarm responses to their public performances. Indifference is the worst crime, in their view, to their appeals to be universally loved through their art. Combine this trait with a (barely concealed) conceit of wannabe [...]