From the mailbag.
Today, I got two emails. One, from someone I have known for a long time. Another, from someone I have never met before. Email #1: Hi again, I’m no avid reader of your blog but I do admit to checking…
Tag approach
A quick reflection about practice.
I was practicing yesterday and encountered, for the first time in a long while, the temptation to stop after the first 20 minutes. I’ve set about going through the Popper études and plowing roughshod through the repertoire to prime myself…
Dive in.
One of the most rewarding things about this blog are the emails I get from people who have been touched by something I’ve written. I react anywhere from “Aw, shucks” all the way to ten-minute cathartic bawl-fests, and I am…
Choosing Happiness
There has been much tragedy in my life. At least half of it actually happened. -Mark Twain I get a lot of stick from some of my most beloved blog/Twitter pals for being largely upbeat most of the time. I…
The Perfect Teacher.
It’s me! No, not really. Good gravy. But I frequently am the recipient of students who bring with them some seriously low expectations and occasionally, horror stories. Yesterday, I offered a few tips to help get the most out of…
The Perfect Student
Ah, yes: the perfect student. Doesn’t exist. Can’t, in fact, exist. Humanity gets the better of all of us, at some point. Malleable students lose themselves. Bright students preempt new concepts. Astute students set unattainable goals. Which is what makes…
ex machina
I think the most common question I get asked these days is, “What do you want to do?” If blogging and writing and private lessons paid the bills, then I would happily do that and feel like I was putting…
A word about regrets.
The perfect recipe for an unhappy life goes like this: make mistakes and either fail to learn anything from them or allow yourself to be so consumed by regret that you are not present for a single moment of your…
The how and what of good practice.
It happens more than it should: I walk into a lesson and the student is jaw-droppingly unprepared and the excuse offered is, “I didn’t have enough to practice.” It was a frequent occurrence in my own early lessons. I would…
Talent on the horizon
They say that the North American natives were taken by surprise, even though the towering masts of the Spaniards were on the horizon for nearly two days before they landed. It is thought they didn’t see the Spanish explorers’ ships…