It’s always fun to write about technique. Perhaps this is a sign of madness, but I really enjoy being assigned a massive task—in this case, creating a primer on thumb technique for beginners through advanced players—with a hard word count…
The next practice stream/Q&A will take place on Tuesday, February 25 at 6pm eastern. Change of plans! Monday, February 24 at 6pm. You are welcome to join me—to observe, ask questions, do some of your own practicing, or hang out…
I’ve been looking for the right strings for Henri since, well, forever. As soon as the set he came with started to go weird and sound old, I replaced them with an identical set up: 2 Larsens, 2 Spirocores. It…
A little delayed what with the looting of my home country by teenage hackers in service of a lunatic racist on ketamine and a malignant narcissist signing executive orders.
It’s been quiet, but there are several monster posts in progress—the average working time on the larger technique-focused detailed piece is 10 hours from start to finish—and a video that follows the break-in process on a new set of Warchal…
You may have seen this graphic before: Today I’m going to tease these elements apart. mechanics and approach: the foundation What we do is, at its core, a physical enterprise. Yet, sometimes it can feel like this wild mental scramble…
I’d like you to envision the musician you’d like to be. Be bold, ambitious, un-self conscious with this imagining, even (or perhaps especially) if the qualities they embody seem remote. Answer these questions to really hone in: After you’ve spent…
In this edition of RoN, I am pleased to present a total banger of an Alvarinho that I paid $16 for at a local shop. Aveleda Solos de Xisto Alvarinho 2022 is just phenomenal! NOT ROT! I used to avoid…
I just canNOT get enough of Mk.Gee. His music has been in my head since October.
Just a short post on this last evening of 2024 to pass on something that has helped me remain motivated and satisfied with my progress through pandemics, spine surgeries, moving to a small town with no gig scene or in-person…
This list skews heavily Christmas-y, mostly quiet. Wishing you and yours peace and abundance in these wild and uncertain times.
I forget that I have a TeePublic store; or rather, I forget to tell people I have a Teepublic store. I add things throughout the year, and also am happy to take requests for artists and other personalities you’d like…
I’m still recovering from the trip to Los Angeles and working out some plans for a group class that should start in February, but in the meantime, the next episode of the LC podcast series about performance anxiety is up,…
This is the first in what will be a series where I explore performance anxiety through a number of different lenses. In this episode, Carly and I chat about perfectionism as it relates to performance and a novel form of…
Behold! The mighty tenuto! Language of origin/root: Italian, tenere meaning to hold. I’m starting this series with tenuto because I went three decades without truly knowing what this small but transformative line atop or beneath a note really did: I…
Enjoy!
In the coming weeks, the podcast will surge back to life with new interviews and episodes focusing on every possible aspect of performance anxiety: what it’s like, how and why it manifests, strategies that help, strategies that…don’t help…As well as…
The four aspects of excellent practice as I see them are: Today I want to talk about quality. Each of these elements contributes something powerful and distinct to the quality of your work. Right off the bat, sort these concepts…
Once a month, I’m going to stream a practice session on Zoom that is free to join, and afterwards, you can ask questions about anything you saw/heard or your own practice! The next practice stream will be on Tuesday, October…
In trying to come up with a grand unifying theory of performance anxiety, I proposed (at a talk I gave this summer) that the likelihood of its debilitating effects exist on the axes of two main components: preparation and self-concept.…
This is NOT rot! Delightful, semi-effervescent vinho verde. If it’s called vinho verde, it’s from Portugal, and although the literal translation suggests “green wine”, in practice, it just means young wine, not aged very long. Lower alcohol (as is the…
In 2015-16, there seemed a real chance that my spinal issues would cost me my career in music. My mind raced, trying to imagine a skill I was already in possession of that could become a new full-time profession. The…
Students frequently ask/beg/lament: what should I practice? How much? In what order? For how long? Should I write it all in a journal? Count my reps? While these are decent questions, I think the better one to ask is “how…
There are a few ways to approach shifts, each featuring subtly different orders of operation. The approach I’ll be talking about in this post is commonly known as old finger shifting. This name always makes me chuckle, as I imagine…
First off, if you’re here because you were looking for the Tamarack Arts website, hi! In the next month or so, this site will relaunch with a new, simplified look, and will gradually populate with new posts, events, podcast topics,…
Thank you for stopping by! The first iteration of this site was Stark Raving Cello: a Blogger site where I took turns opining, explaining, and ranting about whatever came into my 28-year-old brain. The name of the blog was accurate!…
If you have practiced, have faith that your instructor can see your work! Hitting a wrong note or three Take a moment and be reasonable. What do you think being a student is like? Why do we take lessons? Where…
