To study Music is to study the Self ~ Shunryu Suzuki
Posted in Conducting, Performance on Mar 25th, 2011
Once in a blue moon, if one is lucky, an artist gets to be a part of a project much larger than oneself that turns out to be an uplifting, even transcendent, experience that reverberates beyond one’s normal sphere. It is even more so when one can be involved in the creation of something for […]
Posted in Conducting, Habits of Mind, Practice, Trombone on Feb 7th, 2011
When you have a strict practice that doesn’t ignore the weak points of your practice, then eventually you will have good practice. – Shunyru Suzuki, quoted in Crooked Cucumber by David Chadwick A friend of mine, Keith Hill, notes (as have others) that on one level who we are is the sum of how we […]
Posted in Habits of Mind, Practice, Trombone on Nov 10th, 2010
The most basic part of pursuing music at any level is learning what it means to Honor your Craft. Many books address this topic – some of my favorites being Suzuki’s Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind (see my first post), Eric Maisel’s Coaching the Artist Within, Eric Booth’s The Everyday Work of Art, and Twyla Tharp’s […]