This month’s practice stream will be a little different: the last one had one of the attendees a little mystified as to why I didn’t do anything involving scales. I’m working on some pretty wild repertoire these days, so it’s…
For the first time since I shuttered Tamarack Arts (RIP, you were a good little org 🥹) I’d like to get a month-long focused class going. Please vote below to indicate interest. If you’d like to suggest a topic, you’re…
I was incredibly lucky with my first cello teacher, Catherine Graff MacLaughlin. You’ve probably heard me refer to her as my cello mom, a riff on Jackie calling William Pleeth her cello daddy. Fun fact: Cathy studied with Pleeth, too!…
Over the last few years, I’ve noticed a trend in community orchestras: the repertoire and rehearsal schedules are becoming INSANE. Programs featuring Liszt Les PrĂ©ludes, BartĂłk Concerto for Orchestra, that wild Ellington/Strayhorn Nutcracker arrangement, Strauss tone poems, and the like.…
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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.