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'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 [...]
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 walked deep into the woods to a swampy clearing where lilies grow and beavers build dams. It's muddy and ringed with poison ivy, and it's one of my favorite places on Earth. You could hardly stand in a more breath-taking spot when the wind blows. A hawk mewed in the pine tops, [...]
Believe me, I thought long and hard about how to price my ebook on Amazon. There are books three and four times as long as mine selling for half the price or less. Before I hit the button to set the price at $9.99, the usual questions and worries swarmed in my mind: But [...]
OK, so my title is indeed facetious, but this is an offer I've received many, many times. Of course, it does not come phrased in these words. Usually, it sounds more like this: "Would you like to perform at our festival/event/fair/market? Our audience is quite large, and you can sell your CDs." When you [...]
Mornings in The Bardic Academy begin with practice - this ancient love affair that never flags. For the last five or six weeks, Bach has been at the heart of the practice. I find myself visiting the piano three, four, five times a day to play through a sequence of fourteen of his short, [...]
