Music is a magic that can change the world
This category includes any kind of essay written on this site, including philosophy, psychology, musicology, music theory, and anything else related to being a musician. Some are more formal than others, but if I did any kind of research for the post, it probably ended up in this category!
This post (in two parts) outlines the piano techniques required for success in each variation of Mozart's "Twinkle Twinkle Variations" and provides resources for success in each technique.
One of the toughest parts of creating anything is figuring out how to start. The biggest issue for me is that there is just so much I want to write about, say, or do in a project that I get overwhelmed and many times end up pushing it off. There’s our answer: limit the scope of …
170 years after his death, Chopin still captivates audiences with his music. His set of preludes that cover all 24 major and minor keys are a great starting place to learn how to analyze his work, as it can be dense. This post looks at the qualities that make us feel the melancholy of the …
Claude Debussy's music creates magic wherever it goes. It frequently draws new students to the piano with the desire of playing his most famous pieces like Clair de lune and Arabesque No. 1. This post looks at how Debussy composed this music and what that has to do with being a performer of his music as …
Continue reading "Creating Magic: Debussy’s Arabesque No. 1"
As musicians, we spend a lot of time by ourselves in the practice room trying to acquire skills on our own, albeit with a little guidance from our teachers. It's pretty easy to practice when we first start out on an instrument. As the honeymoon phase comes to an end, however, we frequently find ourselves …
Continue reading "5 Ways to Find Joy While Practicing an Instrument"
On this day, October 17th, in 1849, Frédéric François Chopin passed away in Paris. "He had no predecessor and no successor.... Chopin came and departed like a comet from remote space," said Australian pianist, Ernest Hutcheson. History remembers Chopin as a morose and anxious man, one who composed a song to cope with his sorrows …
Raise of hands, how many of you feel like you're faking your way through life? Like you don't actually know how to do your job, or people think you're a lot smarter than you actually are? Impostor syndrome (also "imposter"), impostor phenomenon, impostor experience, impostorism, and fraud syndrome are all terms that encompass the idea …
Continue reading "Waging War: 5 Battle Strategies to Defeat Impostor Syndrome"
Recently, one of my professors shared this article by Tanya Kalmanovitch, a Juilliard graduate. The title, "How Quitting Music Made Me an Artist" sounds like clickbait with the promise of some revolutionary way of looking at a tradition that's ages old. Yet, I keep coming back to it, and I find something new to take away …
Mozart's memory is full of opposites. Known for both jumping on tables and meowing like a cat and for the mysterious inception of his final work, the Requiem, his work can be taken as both arrogant and irreverent or as profound and hauntingly beautiful. Yet, neither can portray the deepest essence of his being. Born 1756 …
Meet Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Пётр Ильич Чайковский for those who can read it). A flamboyant orchestral composer, he is best remembered for the range of his dynamics: the use of actual cannons in his 1812 Overture to his gentle The Nutcracker and heart wrenching Swan Lake. Born in 1840 in a small town in Russia, Tchaikovsky grew …