Australian double bassist Steve Abrahall wrote to me recently about a piece he wrote several years ago about how young musicians might want to approach the concept of practicing. Practicing is, of course, an essential part of each musician’s life, but the nuts...
A reader recently wrote in inquiring about my feelings on Thomastik Bel Canto strings and how they compare to Pirastro Permanents (my string of choice for many years). Here’s my response: Hi __________, Thanks for the message, and thanks for checking out the...
In 2008, I wrote a book titled Road Warrior Without an Expense Account detailing my experiences as a freelance musician. This book was derived from a series of ten blog posts written in 2006 and 2007 and is in many ways a cautionary tale about the pitfalls that many...
Here are a few classic posts about learning an instrument, practicing, getting ready for music school, and other such topics (from 2006-2008): Fifteen Practicing Mistakes that Students Make – These are a handful of common pitfalls that I have seen my students...
I wrote a post in the fall of 2008 with my opinions of the characteristics of various sets of strings. Though these are purely my own observations and not based of any organized research, this has proved to be a popular post, and several folks have written in with...
