“It’s not about playing well by being comfortable and wiping out nervous energy. It’s about finding the right channel for all that energy” -Don Greene, sports psychologist The Musician’s Way, p. 184 We’ve all felt that adrenaline-fueled...
“It’s very gratifying to improvise in front of people. I feel I’m including them in what I’m doing, taking them someplace they might like to go and haven’t been before.” -Jim Hall, guitarist The Musician’s Way, p. 102 Improvisation is the most playful way that we can...
“Every musician needs a range of tactics to manage the causes and effects of performance stress.” The Musician’s Way, p. 147 I’m pleased to announce the publication of the Fall 2019 issue of The Musician’s Way Newsletter. This resource-packed...
“Forward-thinking students uncover multiple career avenues that they would enjoy.” –The Musician’s Way, p. 301 Peter Spellman’s article, 5 Essentials of Music Career Success, gives the following sage advice: “Your goal, to use marketing lingo, is to ‘position’...
“Don’t give up the dream, but build your competencies so you can pursue many dreams.” -Gerald Klickstein On March 18, 2019, I was pleased to record an interview in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with pianist Kai Talim for his outstanding “Skip the...
“The earlier the symptoms are recognized and treated, the sooner and more completely recovery occurs.” -Richard Norris, M.D. The Musician’s Way, p. 246 At some point in our lives, most of us musicians incur injuries that affect our ability to play or sing....
“Confident performance is not a fluke, but the product of imaginative and consistent synthesis of technical and emotional work.” -Frank R. Wilson The Musician’s Way, p. 146 Musicians who grapple with performance nerves typically hear plenty of clichéd...
“Three qualities are essential in a professional musician… the first is good health and the other two are the same.” Mark Hambourg, pianist -The Musician’s Way, p. 241 Whether we make music as professionals, students or amateurs, we strive to create transcendent...
“You don’t drown by falling in the water; you drown by staying there.” -The Musician’s Way, p. 196 In Chapter 10 of The Musician’s Way, I emphasize that musicians should view errors not as shameful failures but as neutral information. Having such a healthy...
