Pro Tip: Replace every business (or other reference) with “music.”

I sang some tunes for the first time in public at a gig a couple of nights ago, between playing trumpet and rhythm guitar, and then this show came on the radio. Perfect timing. Almost. Before the gig might have helped a little. It’s a good program. To listen, click the photo of Diz and…

A long-form piece: well-written and thought-provoking. We know music is pleasurable, the question is why? Many answers have been proposed: perhaps none are quite right Source: It’s hard to know why music gives pleasure: is that the point? | Aeon Essays

The video course, Basic Music Theory: How to Read, Write, and Understand Written Music is FREE as I put it together. So far there are 12 lessons up, with more every couple of days. Today, the lesson on Note Names goes live. I’m still working out the design, production flow, and proofreading, so you might…

Great sounds without a conductor! Big band jazz has been doing this for a century or so, and it’s de rigueur for free improvisers, but we don’t often think of classical musicians performing without that person up there waving a stick. Enter Orpheus. (spoiler: jazz/pop/classical musician Branford Marsalis makes an appearance in the later vids.) This…

Transcribing (either by writing or playing it by ear) is one of the most valuable things you can do in your practice. Jazz, folk, and most pop musicians at this point are saying, “Duh!,” so this is basically for classical musicians. Case in point: Lizst’s transcriptions of all 9 Beethoven symphonies for piano. Classics (pun…

The video course, Basic Music Theory: How to Read, Write, and Understand Written Music is FREE as I put it together. So far there are 11 lessons up, with more every couple of days. Today, the lesson on pitch goes live. I’m still working out the design, production flow, and proofreading, so you might spot…

Allison was one of the generous musicians who shared her take on practice with me as I was researching practice for the book, The Practice of Practice.  One of the things she said that stuck with me is that sometimes, for a practice session, she’ll go into it with no plan, no goals beyond getting into…

When I wrote Basic Music Theory: How to Read, Write, and Understand Written Music nearly 20 years ago, there was no book like it. There still isn’t. I gave it away (digitally) for free and I stopped counting years ago, once I’d given away over a million copies all over the globe. Yay, Internet! Now…