Performing
The Swan: a practice guide.
It lives! First off, thanks to the people who bought the first guide. Here’s the second one, dedicated to a piece that means so much to so many. Next up, some Bach!
adding it up
Now and again I go for a jog without music. After the crunchy/clear headed/isn’t this moment grand thing passes (and it does, without fail), I return to the usual fragmented contemplation that running is supposed to help alleviate. Cresting a hill today, an equation popped onto my mental chalkboard, the results of which were too [...]
bubbada bubbada
By hook, crook, bell, book and candle, I managed to infiltrate the ranks of the jazz department when I was at CSUN. Classically trained folks are usually a liability in such settings: stuck to the page, desperate for someone to just tell us what to play. I carved something of a niche for [...]
Inspiration, it's been too long. Welcome back. #fb
half-life
This poor blog! Withering and fading from neglect. It’s been a combination of frenetic activity, other priorities, and to be truthful, not having much to say (that would be appropriate for this venue, at least). Still, I don’t mind a dwindling internet life so much. There are richer things to behold than the telemetry for [...]
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idle chatter
I was talking to a friend of a friend the other day and the inevitable question came up: “What do you do?” These days, there are few things I don’t do- and before you say at least I’m not resorting to the world’s oldest profession, you should try getting a distribution deal for a book [...]
Read Moreof note
As the blogsophere continues to change under the fickle and shifting sands of internet cachet, one thing remains: good stuff is good stuff. The advent of Blogger, WordPress and Tumblr has made it easy for anyone with access to the internet and an inclination to opine to have a nice-looking page from which to [...]
Read Morewhat do you play for?
…and by play, I mean “do your thing”. I know this blog is read by all kinds of people who have nothing to do with cello: members of the military, lindy hoppers, business owners, retired folks (whose schedules are now more crammed than they were pre-retirement). In terms of answering this, I teeter between the [...]
Read Moreon cold-calling, swashbuckling, and sleep.
I think the reason I’m “self made” is because I’m impatient. While everything I do is long-term process oriented (developing a studio, creating a brand as a teacher, improving as a cellist, publishing, learning to work on bows) and takes time to germinate, I’ve never felt like I could trust someone else to act [...]
Read Moreletting go
Lindy hop as metaphor: my instructor constantly has to remind me to wait for a lead and then follow it to the end of the momentum, as I’m awfully clever at guessing what I think will happen… …and even if that’s not what my partner means, he’s forced to do it anyway. Probably a good [...]
Read Moreadding it up
Now and again I go for a jog without music. After the crunchy/clear headed/isn’t this moment grand thing passes (and it does, without fail), I return to the usual fragmented contemplation that running is supposed to help alleviate. Cresting a hill today, an equation popped onto my mental chalkboard, the results of which were too [...]
Read Morefrom the big man himself
Whoa. Click to enlarge what Santa had to say in response to our letters!
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