Proper practice requires focused attention on our weak spots. You need to view yourself with a keen critical eye (and ear!) and observe these weak spots, narrow them down, and start asking questions.

“Where is the place I am weakest?”…

I’ve always had trouble with “goal setting”. Ever since I was a youngster, I’ve been told that setting goals was the “secret” to success in any endeavor. Just as with that other truism, “Practice makes perfect,” it was handed down…

I’ve been struggling for a couple of months with a low-grade depression. A couple of months ago, the mother of my 21-month old daughter broke up with me … she said that life with me was just too hard. “We…

Everything is going wrong on stage. Your band is not performing as tightly as it normally does, tempos are fluctuating wildly, mistakes are being made. Your guitar player looks to be in an ugly mood, and your drummer appears to…

Everything is going wrong on stage. Your band is not performing as tightly as it normally does, tempos are fluctuating wildly, mistakes are being made. Your guitar player looks to be in an ugly mood, and your drummer appears to…

Is there such a thing as practicing too much? Why not ask a painter if there is too much paint on the canvas?

Of course, I’m speaking about practicing a particular tune or piece of music, not practicing in general…

This subject comes up time and again, musicians wondering how they can “overcome” stage fright and perform flawlessly on stage. Let’s take a look at the last part of that statement first.

To begin with, there are no flawless performances…

Why is it that we don’t expect anyone else, other than ourselves, to be perfect? And why is that we care so much about others not seeing how imperfect we are?

One of the difficult things about learning how to…

I am listening to a great audiobook called “The Tools”, by Phil Stutz and Barry Michels. I highly recommend it, both audio and print. Great narration, wonderful information.

The first “tool” that they discuss is called the “Reversal of Desire”…

Denis the Menace once said, “How come dumb stuff seems so smart when you’re doing it?” A typical sentiment of the young given voice by a comic strip star, it is also something many adults ask themselves.

As we grow…

I recently taught an introductory fiddle lesson to a seveteen-year-old young lady. At the end of the lesson, she asked me, “Why do you play the fiddle?”

That’s an interesting question. Why do I do anything? Certainly, I do not…