memorial day, 2012
Excerpted from Rupert Brooke’s sonnet 1914: III : The Dead Blow out, you bugles, over the rich Dead! There’s none of these so lonely and poor of old, But, dying, has made us rarer gifts than gold. These laid the world…
Category archive
on music, service, and making things right.
What the hell is going on around here, anyway? Where am I? Teaching? Playing? Dancing? Hiding under the sofa? All that, and more, my friends. So I went to Hopkins. No, wait. Let’s go back. In LA,…
rainy day
Everyone knows this picture, a demonstration of the lengths we’ll go to preserve a delicate instrument. Don’t know about you, but I find this to be more along the lines of accurate. It’s been really rainy lately.
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…
nice hat.
As a kid, I was no stranger to being bullied. I was as weird then as I am now, only smaller, with a better vocabulary and the optimistic assurances of those around me that things improve once you get…
better late than never
Finally whipped up the next 2 chapters in the YouTube series previewing AMCM. Recorded in the conservatory of the Josephine Butler center here in DC.
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…
summertime
Summer leaves the student musician with two options. 1. Get completely rusty and sound like Dorky McDorkersons come September. and 2. Be completely invigorated and sound like RockStar McAwesomepants come September. Like Black Sheep said:…
of 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 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!
introducing practice guides!
Designed to be affordable mini manuals for pieces commonly studied, practice guides are packed with miniature exercises, technical reminders, and tips on approach. The first one, La Cinquantaine, is available now for $3.50 here. Stay tuned for more, and…
what 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…
be smart.
Fact: I had to counsel a 9-year-old to lay off for a few weeks because she was developing tendinitis as a result of tension and misuse of her 4th finger. Fact: I began dealing with tension-induced injuries…
on 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…
DVD project!
I wrote AMCM to try and fill some of the gaps in the “how-to” canon. Mostly, I thought we needed a text featuring a bunch of pictures and the occasional justification/explanation for certain bits of technique. There’s another volume…
letting 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…
new adventures in music geekery
Perhaps it was growing up around a dad who seemed to know how everything worked (right down to the subatomic level) or maybe I’m just a junkie for the pedagogical process, but I’ve always wanted to learn how to…
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…
from the big man himself
Whoa. Click to enlarge what Santa had to say in response to our letters!
’twas the night before christmas
Click to enlarge our letters to Santa…
be careful what you fail for
Part of what makes my blog a little different from those of some other professional musicians is that I tend to expound about the sorts of things that highlight my frailties rather than serve as promotional material. It’s a…
perfectly imperfect practice
Practice is good. Common sense tells us it’s necessary for progress and essential to maintain our skill. In my lessons, I rarely teach people how to play- it’s mostly about diagnosing what makes something difficult and then developing strategies and…
If
I was watching SportsCenter when the coverage turned to NASCAR, whose championship was determined last night by the narrowest margin in history. It came down to the wire with Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart, who had been in…
Today
Veterans Day. This morning, I was scanning what people had to say in their blogs and various social media outlets. One guy, a friend of mine, said something to the effect of “Happy lip service day! Too bad…
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…
on happiness
Note: I sat on this post for nearly two weeks, debating whether or not to publish it. Few topics are as sensitive and reflective of one’s world view as happiness is. It’s easy to glibly opine about the stuff burbling…
Quantico
As a kid, people always asked what I wanted to do when I grew up. Maybe they could already detect my ill-fated and inconvenient relationship with music and were testing the waters for a more rational direction. It was around…
up and down
Getting good at something happens in cycles. My latest learning adventure has been Lindy hop. After my first 2 lessons, I was emboldened. I dove into the deep end and got crazy serious about it. I’ve had a few rough…
Beltway fandango, take 2
Ok peeps. Here’s the flyer for the Rockville lesson preview. I’m typically more old-school: I revere word of mouth and taking the time to establish a reputation, so being enterprising about lessons is a little uncomfortable for me. Nonetheless, I…
Beltway Cello Event!
EDIT: The date has changed for this event! I’ll have confirmation up ASAP. Thanks. As part of my expanding private studio, I’m brewing up a little sample lesson/Q&A session in Rockville on the 25th. Here’s the flyer for…