The Practice of Practice

Super-cool. Thanks, Peter!

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 Wynton’s discography for more evidence of his skill and artistry. That’s what tens of thousands of hours of practice sounds like. Check out his 12…

Live music is best, for too many reasons to list. But as far as practice is concerned, when you see somebody play your instrument in front of you, your brain lights up in almost the exact same way as the performing musician. It’s called the mirror neuron system, a topic I’ve written about many times. Below is…

Song Exploder is one of the best music podcasts out there, IMO, in which musicians take apart their songs, and tell the story of how they were made. The guests are wide-ranging, and their insights are fascinating and valuable to one’s own practice. Go subscribe. This amazing podcast first came to my attention through John…

Sweet! Yellowstone National Park release massive catalogue of ambient sounds into public domain for your sampling pleasure (Some F-bombs in the article, so if you’d rather skip it and go straight to the clips, go here.)

If you aim to record an album of cover songs on the cheap, you’ll want to rifle through the resources below. For the first time in twenty years, a whole year’s worth of copyrighted works entered the public domain in the U.S. on January 1, 2019. Under the terms of the Sonny Bono Copyright Act,…