July 4, 2015 I am in the middle of a significant relocation – a cross-continent, cross-border relocation – that involves major upheaval, reams of paperwork, long periods of waiting, and unintended contemplation about the meaning of “home.” I’ve become accustomed...
Do you think that the triune creator of every creature that flies and swims and crawls and of every colour, shape and size of plant, and of multitudes of organisms that have not even been discovered yet would have created only one kind of beautiful? That seems...
Although this is our fourth week talking about technique, I feel that we have barely scratched the surface of the conversations we could have about its importance. We have talked about practice, magic, and exposure. And we have discovered that music is never simply a...
The XV International Tchaikovsky Competition began this past week in Moscow and St. Petersburg. One of the premiere competitions in the world, the Tchaikovsky invites young musicians in four categories, piano, violin, cello, and voice, to perform to win up to...
A loonie appears from behind the child’s ear. A sword goes right through the box, but the assistant comes out whole. And the classic –a rabbit pulled from an empty hat! We love to see magic tricks performed by the masters. We ooooh and aaaaah. We’re spell-bound!...
This week we return to Victor Wooton’s book The Music Lesson. We have explored groove, notes, articulation and saying ‘thank you’. Today’s lesson is technique. Technique is the skill or ability to carry out a particular task. It is the result of attention and...
