Music, like life, is absurd.
And the sooner we accept this, the sooner we’ll be able to fully enjoy both of them. Last weekend I came across Adam Gopnik’s article in the Observer about his attempts to learn to paint…
Mindfulness
Love your voice unconditionally
At the weekend I was at a friend’s birthday party when the inevitable question popped up: “Can you teach anyone to sing?” As usual, this question was followed up with a statement that I hear…
Update & Breathing Exercises
Sing to Relax Like exercise, music can be a powerful way of calming the mind, easing symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression. A lovely way to help this process along is to start your day…
Update & Developing ‘Unitasking’
This week I’ve been reading Sherry Turkle’s Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age. In it she makes a strong case for what she calls ‘unitasking’ – the rejection of the idea…
Music matters, and it really doesn’t matter at all
Like many aspects of our lives, music is difficult to define because any attempt to pin it down seems fraught with caveats and contradictions. Music is organised sound.. and so is speech. Music doesn’t require…
Scale Evenness
Practise scales the right way Over the years I’ve found the students expect to start each lesson with a series of exercises – more often than not, scales. This is especially true of people who…
Update & Music to Focus
Music is Mindfulness The Sunday supplements these days are full of articles about how to let go of stress, anxiety and depression; how to move forward and find your way to truly ‘live in the…