Yesterday I spent a most enjoyable hour on coaching a new student on Skype. We were spending time discovering how to play like a mule. Not literally, but in a purely musical sense by way of the wonderful American composer Ferdie Grofe. We spent a good deal on this particular video lesson realizing, in full […]

Just now I was listening to my 11 year-old daughter “practice.” Trouble was, she was confused about the process she was engaged in. It wasn’t practice, it was “un-practice.” You see, we can only practice what we know. The creative work we do before getting to the practice stage, is learning. And what we do […]

Well, it has been a while since my last note to you. And by way of explanation I’ll say that I was pretty full up in LA last week doing recording sessions for John Williams – ‘Tin-Tin’ – and Aaron Zigman – ‘Sex and the City 2’. One almost has to put John Williams in […]

Don’t know if you tuned in to the Oscars last night. It was great to see the very talented Michael Giacchino take home the award for best musical score. There is FEELING dripping from every note of the score to the movie ‘UP’. This morning finds me still thinking about vibrato, however. You see after […]

This morning, as we do every morning, ‘Star’ the dog and I went for out for a little walk/run about. In the course of it we did 4 hill sprints; about 600’ of vertical climb. It was enough to trigger an endorphin rush in me. Star just wanted to eat. So then I pick up […]

After a bracing early morning walk and training session with our new pup, I did my own training session, on the violin. It’s amazing how similar the work ethics are to produce good results in each. And recently I’ve been focusing on vibrato, this after uncovering some unruliness in mine. It’s something that just goes […]

The other day I wrote some words about playing with a partner. The Bach ‘Double’ was the particular piece in question. And in the course of thinking about that venerable masterpiece, I began thinking about another concern many violinists have; getting the two hands knit together. In the first movement of the Bach, for instance, […]

Before I get into the topic of the day, I’d like to mention that as the list of subscribers to these newsletters has grown so have the number of questions and comments that come in daily. And I’m thrilled to receive them, believe me. Yet because of the numbers I find it challenging to respond […]

A few days ago I wrote about some of the challenges and, ironically, opportunities arising from Beethoven’s loss of hearing; specifically as it impacted his spiritual life. And, as I said, the source for these thoughts was J.W.N. Sullivan’s book wonderful book of 1927, ‘Beethoven, His Spiritual Development.’ Well, what I really meant to get […]

A few days ago, after our return from California and just before undressing our little Christmas tree, I noticed that there were in fact 3 little presents that hadn’t been unwrapped. They were all from our assistant and friend, Heidii Ash. The one with my name on it contained a little book entitled, ‘Beethoven – […]

As you may be aware, the movie AVATAR is now in release, almost around the globe I believe. I mention it for two reasons. I saw this spectacular film on Saturday with my wife and a couple friends. And I happened to be concertmaster of the orchestra that assisted James Horner in recording his highly […]

Today during my practice I happened to run through the Bach “Preludio” in E Major. And when I got to the arpeggiated string crossings, around measure 16, I remembered that a fellow had recently written me regarding the technical challenge this passage presents. Now, as he also informed me he’d just ordered my little coaching program […]

I’m sure you’ve had quite a number of those ‘Aha!’ moments over the course of your life. They the times when an activity you were in the throws of mastering suddenly clicked. And what had required enormous physical and mental effort, as if magic, became ‘as easy as pie,’ as the saying goes. Well, spiccato […]