I’ve found that it’s best to learn one musical style at a time (blues, classical, jazz, etc.). Every genre has traits and performance practices that other genres don’t have, so you need to know the difference. Why? A client who hires you to play country music doesn’t want to hear you accidentally adding licks from other …

I saw a wonderful little documentary last week called “Herb and Dorothy” at a the Bryn Mawr Film Institute, a local theater. The film was about the lives of a long-married couple who built one of the most important contemporary art collections in history. And they did it on a librarian’s salary. Starting in the 1960s, …

This past Christmas I received a gift of a James Taylor DVD called “One Man Band.” This recent recording was filmed at the Colonial Theater in Pittsfield, Massachusetts in July 2007. In this performance, JT goes back to his roots – a guitar, a voice, and an audience. Watch a portion of the DVD here (this contains …

Frequently, and justifiably, thoughtful people bemoan the way “classical music” left its audience behind in the 20th century. This post was, in fact, spurred by just such a comment on one of my previous posts. This person and others with similar complaints are referring to the gulf between composer and listener caused by waves of abstract and …

I spend a fair amount of time with my students on modes. Modes are a system of seven scales dating back to the mathematician Pythagoras of ancient Greece. The modes are named Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian and Ionian. The modal system was in use before our present major and minor key system was …

“How do we bring Classical Music to a wider audience?” How many times have you heard that question? If there were a magic answer, music executives would have struggled their way to it long ago. Instead, CEOs of orchestras and opera companies, critics, performers, and concerned lovers of music stand around, shaking their heads, as if examining …

Many beginning musicians feel obligated to seek out classical training because they have been told that it’s the “best” training to get. Yet, the people who claim that classical training is the best haven’t operationally defined the word. What’s “best” about this form of training? That you like it? That it teaches the music your parents or teachers liked? …

In case you haven’t heard, the ukulele is back! There is something of a ukulele craze going on, particularly in Great Britain and now in the U.S. Ukuleles are replacing recorders for group playing in elementary schools and summer camps;  they are the new quirky instruments for indie rockers; and there are numerous ukulele programs springing up in …

Both Chuck Anderson, the jazz guitarist, and Elli Fordyce, the jazz vocalist, once told me something similar. They each said, separately: “People tell me they love my music even though they don’t like jazz.” Since Both Chuck and Elli are jazz musicians, these fans apparently do like jazz! What they don’t realize is that jazz …

There is no need to “understand” jazz to enjoy it. This misunderstanding stops many people from listening to and enjoying this American art form. Jazz doesn’t have to be intellectual any more than a painting has to be intellectual to be appreciated. As in language, there are many dialects in jazz – the same language …