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As musicians, we often find ourselves caught between the exhilarating rush of speed and the serene precision of a slower tempo. Delve into the art of finding balance, honing our skills, and embracing the unique charms of both fast and slow practice.

You may remember from a couple of weeks ago that I was preparing for a concert, and I was struggling with one of the pieces. I’m writing this as a followup to my last post, Overcoming Defeat: My Process for Musical Success, so read that first if you’d like to hear more about the initial […]

Last Friday marked another rehearsal day with my baroque ensemble. A few weeks earlier, we’d had our first rehearsal, and I’d dedicated myself to daily practice in between. I’d taken it slow, worked with my metronome, and invested countless hours trying to get each piece of music sounding perfect. The initial part of the rehearsal […]

Grab your instrument, and let the music take you wherever it pleases, without the weight of judgement or objectives. It’s like musical freedom for the soul, a reminder of the pure, unadulterated joy that music brings to our lives.

This past week, one of my adult students, who has been playing fiddle for a few years now, told me that she feels frustrated because whenever she tries to go faster everything kind of falls apart. I think that all of my adult students relate to this frustration. Let’s start with the bad news: playing […]

Do you ever feel like just not being bothered getting your fiddle out? Trust me, we have all been there! Recently I was talking to one of my classes about ways to keep your motivation up! One approach to consider is playing music with others. It is much harder to get your violin out and […]

A few weeks ago I posted about how I am only practicing 15 minutes a day at the moment. I wanted to talk about that a little bit more. When I decide what kind of practice session I am going to do, I need to know what my goals are. In January, my goal was to work […]

When I finished my part of the recording in late January I was wondering where to go and what to do next. I am proud to say that I have practiced every day in 2023, and I thought I would share with you how I’ve been practicing. Right now I am mostly focused on maintaining my […]