My goal as a music teacher is to give the gift of the love of music to my students. Teaching private students in Connecticut, over the past few years, students have asked to study with me to prepare for regional and all state auditions. Especially as a Suzuki teacher, spending
Blog Archives
Healthy practicing vs. fear-based practicing
You’re on vacation,Enjoying beautiful weather, time outside, and fun times with friends and family. Oh no! You have a gig at the end of the week. It’s exciting that things are starting up again. You’re back with colleagues after not having played together for several weeks. You are receiving calls
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Productive pain vs. empty suffering
A homeless string programRecently, I have found myself in a difficult teaching situation. I won’t name the school or the program but it is a place where I have taught many students for many years. The issue is that for the foreseeable future, I will not have a dedicated room
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Look inside
The look insideIn case you are unsure what you are looking at here, it is a psychedelic rendering of a violin F-hole. When you look inside the F-hole, you see the maker’s label, possibly evidence of old repairs, and the sound post. The sound post plays an essential role. It
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Play like a beginner
Remember to take a breakIt is so important to get out there and play! We musicians work very hard to play our music to the best of our ability. It can require hours and hours, working mostly alone. After a while we might feel exhausted, frustrated yet inspired that we
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I’m on TV and Streaming
Recently, I was interviewed by Joyce St. Germaine on her Nutmeg TV show The Sacred Journey. Joyce is a talented interviewer whose show has been on the air for over 25 years. In the show, we talk about my Inspiration for Violinists card deck and card themes including violin technique,
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The bedrock of your creativity
Holding onto past beliefsIn her book, Who You Were Meant to Be, Lindsay C. Gibson writes about the extent to which people get turned around in childhood by family dysfunction and trauma, making it hard to see clear how to pursue dreams and live an authentic, truly fulfilling life. What
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The beauty of imperfection
You are the jewel. Your imperfections are what is beautiful about you. What are your imperfections? How do they enrich your life? A different way of thinking about imperfection Rather than calling attributes “imperfections,” why not call them personal style or “personality.” I had a teacher many years ago who
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Advocating for your health
Knowing what your body needs Taking care of your overall health is critical to carrying out any high level task in life. I am writing this post during a heatwave. I know that I get dehydrated very easily. Therefore it is really important for me to drink a lot of
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Forte vs. Piano
What do you like? Do you prefer playing forte or piano? Or does it matter to you at all? A few years ago I was trying violins at the same time as one of my orchestra colleagues. For part of the rehearsal we switched instruments. I really struggled to get
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