You've heard of Shark Week, of course, and what a great idea to devote a week to these amazing nearly preternatural creatures. But this week, my musical friends, is SCALE WEEK. I hope you'll join me! Yes, it's a week to enjoy the foundations of our musical language and to practice scales every day. I [...]
I love April because although we can celebrate and enjoy poetry all year, we dedicate EXTRA love and attention to poetry this month. And that makes me happy! As always, I'm celebrating by writing a poem each day. This year, for the first time ever, I'm nine for nine - meaning, that I haven't yet [...]
I bought a dozen pearl arrowhead erasers - an affordable luxury at .19 a pop. So of course I had to sharpen some pencils to go with them! (Poems come from such small things, don't they? From pencils and and erasers and pencil sharpeners, from those who lived in our homes before us, from awkwardness, [...]
I'm thinking today that to be lucky and to know it is a double-gift - an extra-blessing. I've had two experiences lately that have impressed this upon me. Last week, I visited a wonderful school for children with severe challenges. The children depend utterly on their care-givers as none of them can walk or take [...]
Today, two suggestions and one story. Once upon a time, there was a girl who read constantly. She laid on her belly, propped up on her elbows, reading book after book as the afternoons of her youth flew by. As a young adult, she read even more, adding scholarly articles and essays to the fiction [...]
Creating is a joyful, unpredictable connect-the-dots, often with periods where no dots seem to connect, and with other periods when there are more dots than expected and no idea how to connect them. Case in point. I'm composing songs to accompany, and I hope amplify, some paintings by Winslow Homer (and perhaps other New England [...]
What kind of fuss do you love? What's your favorite mess? I think these are great and revealing questions because they point to what you REALLY love rather than to what seems like a good idea to love. All important endeavors involve mess and fuss - the physical mess of paints or sugar or potting [...]
Here's all the gear that I hauled through the rain to the car about a week ago, then into the Groton Public Library, then back to my car, then back into the house at the end of the night. (And that's Mish sharpening his claws on the amp). The performing life is a heady mix [...]
Today I want to share with you one of the most useful things I ever learned. It came from the wise woman on the right in the photograph, my dear friend Miss Helen Finn. Near the end of her life, I visited and asked her if she was ready for a small surgery that was [...]
So far, the sweetest, warmest, and brightest moments of this holiday season have taken place at the piano. Helping a student play a carol he or she loves and witnessing the moment of connection - when the music comes into the hands and heart and mind - is delicious fun, and a great privilege. All [...]
