Author: Stewart

Last night I attended a concert of the Victor Provost Quartet, with guest artist Paquito D’Rivera. These are some of the world’s finest jazz musicians (google them for info). I was awed, as I always am by Victor, because his music is so amazing that I can greatly enjoy it even though I have little familiarity with his style of jazz. Truly, there is a level of musicianship there that goes far beyond anything many of us can imagine, and it’s clear where it came from: not just their obvious exceptional talent, but from a passion for practice. As they played this unbelievably complex music (I looked at one of the scores and it made my brain hurt), they were grinning and glowing, obviously enjoying themselves tremendously, and playing expressively. What a contrast to the way so many musicians just try to get through a piece without messing up. Continue reading “TEACHING FOR PASSION, PRACTICING FOR JOY by Laurie Riley”

I was recently talking to a friend who is an accomplished pianist. She mentioned a friend of hers who is a concert violinist. When her friend plays for her, she says that some of the notes sound slightly flat. She couldn’t understand why her friend plays that way. I have just the opposite problem. To me, some of the notes on a piano sound slightly out of tune as compared to what I play on my violin. I have a similar problem when I play guitar. Depending on which key I am playing in, I have to tweak the tuning a bit to make it sound more in tune. Continue reading “OF SCALES AND TEMPERAMENT by Stewart Hendrickson”