Year: 2017

Seasons greetings! This final week for lessons in 2017. My students will have two weeks of no lessons during winter vacation. Nonetheless, my students and I will still be practicing

Nothing ever goes as planned. He takes a deep breath, blows, and only air comes out. She practiced hundreds of hours and spent weeks preparing only to have her performance

Creative Ideas for the Studio: Decorating a Recorder I love my students and their creative ideas. My students and their families are some of the coolest people in the world. I’m

Harmonics for Flutists What are harmonics? Why do flutists have to understand them? Are there exercises that use harmonics? Note that the terms “harmonics,” “partials,” and “overtones” refer to the

In a previous post, I talked about the miserable options for flutists using a marching lyre. In marching band, musicians often have to learn music quickly, and bringing sheet music

Unless you are a composer, every musician is guilty of appropriation. It’s the nature of our art: we take someone else’s music and make it our own. Indeed, the act

Singing In Tune: Intonation Ideas for the Choir Vocalists often struggle with singing in tune. How do we know if we are singing the right pitch? Training the ear is

Auditions offer life lessons Auditions are like job interviews for musicians. We prepare for hours but have one shot in front of the judges. It’s frightening, thrilling, and weird. My

Come play in the music sandbox! My flute student James told me about a new “music sandbox” website that provides mini lessons for the budding composer. James’ friend, Dennis DeSantis,

Choir Membership Teaches Many Life Lessons Singing in a choir allows us time to practice being together with a shared goal. In a previous post, I discussed 5 spiritual lessons of the