“Could you play along on these hymns too?”

It seems like a reasonable request. A well-intentioned choir director wants to take full advantage of having a harpist participating in the service. So now you find yourself with a sheaf of print-outs of the hymns with notes to “play along on verses 2, 4 and 5, whatever you feel like.”

Quite possibly you are clenching your jaw...

Life, especially in these hectic days, has become a search for control.

We look for more control over our calendar and our working days. There is an explosion of books, blogs and courses about productivity, all aimed at helping us bring more order to order lives.

We meditate, exercise and diet to gain control over our minds and bodies.

All the while, we know that control, at least the way we...

Is your repertoire ready to play?

Imagine you received this phone call today:  

"Good morning [YOUR NAME HERE]. I'm so glad I caught you. We are having our church social coming up next weekend, and our committee thought it would be lovely if you could play for us. I know it's short notice but it would be so nice if you could come and play. Please say you will. Everyone would love it.

" ...

"Program notes? You want me to talk?!"

The time will come when you will be asked to “say something” about music that you are about to play.

I can’t remember the first time I was asked to speak about my music, but I do remember my mother’s urging me to “tell them what you’re going to play.” And I remember my first experiences as a twelve year-old,...

Ready to stress out?

It’s that time of year when our thoughts turn to…MUST GET READY FOR THE HOLIDAYS!! It feels like we are holding our breath, waiting on the starting block for the race to Christmas to begin.

Home furnishings and decoration sales soar as people get their homes ready for the holidays. And musicians slip into high gear too, preparing for parties, church...

Set the bar low for your next performance.  What?!

We are taught to aim for the best possible performance. We are accustomed to setting the bar high and going for the gold. And that's a good thing, right?

Not necessarily.

Sometimes setting the bar high can create more pressure, more self-induced pressure. We practice harder and longer as the performance gets closer, and we sweat the...

Have you ever thought about a simple soap bubble?

It’s a beautiful and amazing creation, air trapped in layers of soap film, a fragile phenomenon combining surface tension and elasticity.I always enjoyed playing with bubble wands, seeing how big I could make the bubbles and how long they would last. How hard it is to keep that bubble from breaking!

“Living in a bubble” is a...

Concert at the Paris Conservatory, 1843

The music conservatory: a hothouse for nurturing musical talent and an opportunity available to only the select few. For hundreds of years these elite music schools have trained world-class musicians and the tradition continues. The focused atmosphere and the access to instruction from the finest teachers and performers make a conservatory education the...

I don’t like starting a blog post with such a negative title, but I might as well admit it; sometimes we have to play music we just don’t like. You can probably instantly bring to mind that one piece of music you really can’t stand. Maybe it’s a holiday carol you’ve heard in too many shopping malls or maybe it’s just a piece that is definitely not your...

Practice, practice, practice; the story of the musician’s life. And we hope that by devoting many hours to practice, we will be able to perform when it counts. But we should be able to do more than just hope.

Preparing for performance, whether it’s a lesson or a recital, is a matter of practicing in three very different ways, and these three vignettes about a kick, an arrow and a...