Music, Musings, & Me

Are you a musician that should be practicing? Are you in between practice sessions or rehearsals and just need to unwind and let your mind wander? Or do you just need a swift kick in the pants to inspire you? Well, sometimes you need to stop procrastinating, stop dodging and just face the music, literally.

#BaermannChallenge: Flawless, Fearless, Phenomenal

It’s ironic how the fear of failure often acts as the greatest roadblock to success. How out of a desire to play correctly we play safely; and how the disbelief we have in ourselves and our fear of not being good enough, like a self-fulfilling prophecy, leads us to fail and not be good enough; and how in failing we prove to ourselves, because of fear and doubt, that we’re not good enough and then never take the necessary risks or let go of the constraints, the tension, the old, unhelpful habits to realize excellence and be excellent -- flawless, fearless, and phenomenal.

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Berginald Rash and the Chamber of Music

The first of my newest series, Berginald Rash and the Chamber of  Music, I look at my current chamber music work and reflect on the process of learning and collaborating through this medium. One thing I'm noticing is that as the list of chamber works grows so does my enjoyment and appreciation for the art form. 

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The Sum of Its Parts : Todd Levy

"He would often compare his exactness in playing, the skills needed to refine and perfect a single measure, to flying a helicopter with all of its movable parts, gear shifts, levers, etc. and how at first thinking about and maneuvering all of it can be overwhelming until one day it all just clicks.  For him and those of us in his studio, playing the clarinet was and/or quickly became a carefully balanced dance between the air, lips, fingers, and tongue. To perfect the ballet they all have to be working in concert."

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The Sum of Its Parts : Dr. Frank Kowalsky

"He showed me time and time again that he understood the role one’s humanity plays in living, communicative art and that in living, suffering, laughing, crying, growing one can connect to a greater consciousness and transcend the physical. He showed me that all of this happens not on the note, but between the notes." 

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The Sum of Its Parts : Dr. Deborah Bish

"In waking up everyday at 7am to be in the practice room by 8am to get in my first hour of warm-ups, long tones, scales, thirds, arpeggios, and articulation before heading to class at 9am, she took the chaotic, jagged, bleeding fragments of my former person, of the life I had lived prior and brought a calm, rational, and reasonable structure that became a form of meditation and solemn prayer."

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