Opinion

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Defining Music
What’s your favorite one-sentence definition of music? Are there any here that exactly copy your thoughts or can you take it to a more extreme edge? Lady Gaga puts music in a different perspective: “Some women choose to follow men,
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How to Keep Teenagers From Quitting Music
“Mom. I hate piano! I’m not practicing, and not going to lessons anymore,” my thirteen-year-old son announced on a wintery day after a frustrating attempt to play a piece of music that he’d been working on for—well it seemed like
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Learning Classical Music As A Child Helps Shape Adulthood
I have been asked to write about how my learning of a musical instrument as a child had influenced me in life. As a mother, I have also asked myself this question when thinking about my daughter’s education. I would
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Musicality is nature; musical ability is nurture
An article published in The Economist (‘Musical ability is in the DNA’) suggested that one’s musical ability is determined by genetics, and that despite Malcolm Gladwell’s bold statement that 10,000 hours of practice will guarantee expertise in almost any field,
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Repetition is life
One could argue that all creative process is improvisation: for that flash of creativity that generated the art, which distinguished whatever the artist was doing from merely replicating a past behaviour, was improvisation. Afterwards, the artist can do whatever he
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Improvisation is Repetition
In my previous article, I explained how improvisation is the basis for true creation. While creation implies the origin of something new, the process through which the improvisation leading to it develops is one of repetition. This seems paradoxical, but
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Improvisation is Life
Improvisation is one of the most important areas in which music can teach us how to live better. Because improvisation is life. Without improvisation, existence is not life; it is only the empty copying of old patterns – improvisation is
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Why Are Male Harpists So Rare?
Music is, unfortunately, no stranger to sexism. Right through the pop world to the lands of orchestras and opera, gender bias occurs more often than people wish to admit. So why do more girls play the harp, and how did
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