How To Never Miss A Practice Session!
Have you ever told yourself you were going to practice and found yourself wondering what happened 3 days later? Here are some tips to help ensure you never miss a practice session again. #1 Find your practice time Not all times of day work for me to practice. I simply cannot practice in the morning. […]
Improve Your Jazz With 6 Tips From The BSO Tour
As I write this blog I am two hours away from the end of a 13 hour flight back from Tokyo! This is probably the longest two hours of my life. For some reason going back is a lot harder. I’ve just finished a two week tour with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Asia. If […]
How To Achieve Continuous Growth Through Perspective
We create our own beliefs and reality based on our surroundings. It’s hard to believe the rest of the world does not look or operate like America. Especially if you’ve been living there for the past 29 years like myself. How could one possibly know or understand what other parts of the world are like? […]
Make More Progress And Practice Less, Here’s How
Yes that headline is correct. Stop wasting your time and actually make more progress by doing less. Seems too good to be true, right? Let me explain. Everyone usually wants to learn how to play an instrument or learn a skill, but no one wants to work to learn how to do it. And actually […]
5 Reasons To Go To Jam Sessions, Even If They Scare the Hell Out Of You
Jam sessions have been around and helping musicians ever since jazz was created. Musicians would get together and play music for the enjoyment of playing. Most of the well known jazz musicians we know these days frequented jam sessions when they were young as well. There are many stories about musicians such as Charlie Parker, […]
5 Jazz Piano Doubts Reversed.
Every unknown skill or topic has myths behind it that we all as individuals tend to create in our minds. This may be from our own creative brain power, or from a friend who is feeding us these terrible ideas. Have you ever heard “Oh you can’t do that, those guys are born able to […]
4 Considerations for Jazz Piano Comping (Written by Dr. Samuel Griffith, trombone)
1) Time Beginning jazz pianists frequently forget, ignore, and devalue the importance of comping IN TIME. This should be the number one consideration when comping! If a pianist comps with bad time, or is playing out of time, the power of everything they do is lessened. Sometimes, even more experienced players will sacrifice time to […]
The 6 Most Important Steps To Booking More Gigs
Does Wynton ever look bad? Nope, cause he’s a professional. There’s one thing that always makes me chuckle when I meet someone new. It’s the moment they ask me what I do for work. In our society everyone is judged by what we “do”. People who work a 9-5 are almost more respected than someone who creates their […]
