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Category Archive for 'Random Thoughts'

Watching how great teachers teach is to take the study of a discipline (in this case conducting) to a meta level, studying teaching itself. Here follow some spontaneous and random observations of Leonid Korchmar’s and Oleg Proskurnya’s approaches to teaching. Good teaching is not about the ego of the teacher – ‘do things as I […]

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Snow Meditation

I offer a koan for winter – obviously a variation on a classic: What is the sound of snow falling? I came up with this last night, with the thought of listening to the sound of the snow while going to sleep.  But this morning it occurred that there may be something to it.  If […]

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Like most holidays, Thanksgiving gives us a chance to be reflective, which of course I love.  Musicians think in musical terms – about relationships between pitches and harmonies, rhythmic patterns on various time scales, the big picture of musical form and of the ensemble, and where we fit into it.  So we are naturally inclined […]

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It doesn’t matter how articulate or eloquent you are if you don’t have anything to say. This is true in both music and the liberal arts.  In music, being hyper-expressive is almost as bad as being completely inexpressive.  Imposing your ego and idiosyncrasies on a piece obscures the music and what it has to say.  […]

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