Blogs

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Name That Tune!
How on earth do you remember all those melodies, all those little turns of phrase and all that invention by all those composers? We know from brain studies that combining words and music is a positive way to combine both
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Music Lessons? 10 Tips for Parents
My parents were both musicians. There was never any doubt in our household. Music lessons were essential. I took lessons both on cello and piano with the requisite theory lessons, and that was that. No instructor, no teaching style, no
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Does She Really Love Him?: The Berio Ending for Turandot
Giacomo Puccini’s final opera was Turandot, set in exotic Peking. The story of a Chinese princess who keeps herself unattainable by the perplexing riddles she sets her prospective suitors, only to be brought down by a riddle that she, herself,
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CRAP—I Don’t Know What Comes Next!
Memorizing Tips
Have you had the horrible feeling when you’re playing a concert—“CRAP—I don’t know what comes next?” It’s demoralizing and embarrassing. A memory slip can destroy your confidence. Memorization is one of the biggest challenges for a musician—often causing panic, sweaty
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Pure Ephemera – or Not
You can’t tell the players without scorecard, as the old baseball metaphor goes, and in classical music, we use the program for the same purpose – who’s singing / playing / responsible for what. In UK theatres, you still buy
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The Dog Ate My Music — Excuses For Not Practicing
The dinosaur ate my homework. The dog ate my homework. The computer ate my homework. Through the ages teachers have heard extremely convincing excuses to not do their work. Dear music pupils: Don’t tell me you’ve practiced when you haven’t.
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The Speed of Poetry
When we hear Renaissance madrigals sung, we often hear these lovely, long-drawn out pieces of pure counterpoint and then forget why they were written. The Italian madrigal came out of what we might think of as the upper-class men’s clubs
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OH The Things Audiences Say!
I would be wealthy if I had a quarter for every time someone said, “that’s bigger than you are!” Dragging my cello around on buses, thrusting it under turnstiles, hoisting it onto airplane seats, taking it into stores—always brings on
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