Author: Jonathan Harnum

Hi, I'm Jon Harnum, author, publisher, teacher, musician, and scholar. If you'd like to learn more about music or how to publish books, come check out my web sites and online courses. Lots of freebies so you can try before you buy. See you online!

Losing Your Marbles: Wintergatan’s Wondrous Musical Machine

I don’t have the words to describe how wondrous I found this, but I’ll just show you the sequence of videos and see if you agree. This is a real device, made by the musician, who I believe to be Martin “MacGuyver” Molin, but am still checking on that one. The set of skills he has in the woodshop is amazing all by itself. See the “making of” videos below for more on that.

Sax With Nozzle

What? You don’t have a sax mouthpiece for your bass saxophone? No problem. Here. Take this tuba mouthpiece.

How to Play A Wooden Plank Like a Boss

To practice is human, to play, devine. We all practice something. The focus of this blog is music practice. In the coming months, I’ll be posting interesting videos of people making music, showing the fruits of long hours of practice. Little (or no) commentary from me. The music will, I hope, speak for itself. That’s what music does…

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What if Feels Like to Learn a New Instrument

Destin over at Smarter Every Day creates such fun, informative videos. This one has nothing to do with music, but everything to do with learning (and unlearning) a complex motor neuron task, like playing an instrument. Think you could ride this bike? I bet you can’t.

No Instrument? No Excuse.

Instruments are expensive, especially the good ones. A bow for an upright bass or a violin can easily be found for $40,000 or more. A freaking bow.

Still, not having an instrument shouldn’t stop you from making music. Check out these guys playing on a broom guitar, and shovel bass.

Finding Flow in Practice: Glenn Gould

There’s a lot to like about the video of pianist Glenn Gould below. Three things happen in the video that show Gould’s flow state in practice (see clips below).

3 Free Books: Jumpstart Your Music

Happy New Year! I hope your music skills get a big boost this year. Here’s a gift of 3 great books to help make it happen. Click on the cover to get the free Kindle edition. Two of them are frequently #1 bestsellers in their category on Amazon.

Wynton Marsalis: 12 Rules of Practice

Wynton Marsalis knows how to practice. As a younger man, he was equally at home in front of a symphony orchestra playing the Haydn concerto, or laying down some serious jazz with Art Blakey. Check out his 12 Rules of Practice after the video.

Failing Better: The 4 Types of Mistakes (and how to learn from them)

Why Understanding These Four Types of Mistakes Can Help Us Learn By MindShiftNOVEMBER 23, 2015 SHARE by Eduardo Briceño This article was first published in the Mindset Works newsletter. We can deepen our own and our students’ understanding of mistakes, which are not all created equal, and are not always desirable. After all, our ability…

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John Coltrane on Practice and More

Right off the bat in this 1966 interview with John Coltrane, he touches on where he practices, and how he leaves his instruments out and at the ready, like when he says, “My flutes are by the bed, so when I’m tired I can lay down and practice.”
Strategies Coltrane mentions and many more are covered in The Practice of Practice. Check out the rest of the 1966 interview with John Coltrane below (start at 0:33).