Use the player above, or this link for direct episode download.

Jeffrey Agrell is a teacher, performer (horn), writer, composer, and improviser of contemporary classical music. His books, Improvisation Games for Classical Musicians and Improv Games for One Player are published by GIA Music. His day job for the past decade has been teaching horn at the University of Iowa. His first career was as a professional symphony musician during a rather lengthy visit to Switzerland. He has scratched a long-time creative itch over the years with over one hundred published articles, a horn blog, and several dozen published compositions (many recorded on CDs by various performers). He is a mostly former guitarist (folk, classical, jazz), but still has a closet full of guitars (some for sale) as well as an enthusiastic if mostly amateur percussionist. Jeffrey Agrell’s horn blog is Horn Insights and his web site is the University of Iowa Horn Studio Web Site.

Evan Mazunik is a composer/performer raised on the prairies of Iowa and rooted in Queens, NY. Fluent in Soundpainting, a sign language for live composition, Mazunik is composer/director of ZAHA, his experimental chamber ensemble. His compositions include commissions for jazz band, chorus, theater, dance, and film, and his work was featured in a documentary for the Finnish Broadcasting Company. Mazunik has performed with Anthony Braxton, Walter Thompson, Carla Bley, Robin Eubanks, Danielson, and Sufjan Stevens, and has played at creative music venues such as Roulette, The Stone, Barbes, and Galapagos. He received a Bachelors degree in piano performance and a Masters in jazz studies from the University of Iowa and has taught improvisation at the University of Indiana and the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Working with her has a special place in my heart because she reminds me so much of myself. Besides my own childhood propensity for rushing ahead to the next piece, she helps me to see when I try to push, force, or in Alexander technique terms, end-gain my way through all kinds of musical and non-musical problems. It’s the result of thinking,

“I know this already! What’s next?”

However. Breakthroughs and deep changes happen when we say to ourselves, again and again,

“What else is here to learn if I stay right here with this?”

Applies double for adults, “experts”, teachers, therapists, impatient people, busy people, and those who are sure they know how to do it. Bonus points for asking yourself the question when you’re in some type of pain.

What has been your experience with these two ways of being?

Use the player above, or this link for direct episode download

Glenn Kurtz is the author of Practicing: A Musician’s Return to Music (Knopf, 2007; Vintage Books, 2008), which the New York Times called “a thoughtful and fluid meditation” and Newsday hailed as “the book of a lifetime.” Practicing has been featured on NPR’s “Weekend Edition” with Scott Simon, “To the Best of our Knowledge,” and numerous other NPR programs. An Italian edition appeared in 2010. Glenn’s essays and reviews have been published in the New York Times, Southwest Review, ZYZZYVA, and elsewhere.

He is also the host of “Conversations on Practice,” a discussion series about the writing process and the writer’s life, held at McNally-Jackson Bookstore in New York City. Guests have included Jennifer Egan, Patti Smith, Arthur Golden, Francine Prose, Daniel Mendelssohn, and many others. A graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music-Tufts University Double Degree Program, he holds a Ph.D. in German studies and comparative literature from Stanford University and has taught at San Francisco State University, California College of the Arts, and Stanford University. He is currently on the writing faculty of New York University’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies. His website is www.glennkurtz.com.

The music on this podcast is “Tracing a wheel on water” (2003) composed by Kevin Siegfried and performed by Aaron Larget-Caplan. A recording of this piece is available on Aaron Larget Caplan’s CD “Tracing a Wheel on Water”.

You can hear Glenn and Aaron doing a reading and recital together! More details at www.GBHConcerts.com.

It’s been a fantastic experience. Not a comfortable one, but a great growth experience of the kind I really need. What an interesting thing to be an adult in the position of “student musician” at the same time as being a “teacher musician” in other contexts! It requires a very open mind, noticing when my ego clings to a technique or a habit as part of my identity when to learn something new would open up new musical worlds. It requires a lot of practice, actually practicing with focus and purpose, really consciously not just “playing through pieces”. But, it also requires remembering to play just for fun too.

I’ve signed up to play at the fall student recital, because I know I need solo exposure. I always need more practice being in front of an audience and learning to be visible and give what I’ve learned as a gift. It’s easy to hide in the practice room, staying teeny and focused on mistakes.

I thought this post at Tiny Buddha by Lori Deschene was a lovely look at assuming the best from your audience. What’s been your experience with performance anxiety – or excitement?

Alexis Del Palazzo is an Andover Educator trainee, active performer and devoted teacher residing in Central Pennsylvania. She is an ardent advocate of new music and creating performance opportunities in the local community. In early 2012, she premiered Peter Amsel’s Museum Triptych for solo flute at Moonstone Arts Center in Philadelphia, PA. At the community level, she is a board member and resident artist of the Wednesday Club of Harrisburg, PA.

Alexis teaches many private flute students and has taught at Corning Community College. Her passion for teaching and outreach has led to her work being published in Flute Talk magazine. She has presented workshops on teaching and practicing with extended techniques for the Rochester Flute Association and the Southeast Pennsylvania Flute Fest. Most recently, Alexis presented her workshop on Holistic Practice at the National Flute Association’s Convention in Las Vegas, NV.

She holds a Bachelor’s of Music degree in flute performance with special distinction from the University of Oklahoma-Norman where she studied with Dr. Valerie Watts. Other inspirations include Christine Moulton, Keith Underwood and Patricia George.

Twitter @sensibleflutist

Facebook facebook.com/sensibleflutist

Website: sensibleflutist.com

Erica Ann Sipes, pianist and cellist, received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in piano performance from the Eastman School of Music. She has also studied piano collaboration and accompanying with Jean Barr at the Eastman School and with Anne Epperson at the Music Academy of the West.

Ms. Sipes currently lives in Blacksburg, Virginia with her husband and baritone, Tadd Sipes. She is also an adjunct
faculty member at Radford University. In the summer of 2012 she officially launched her own business as a practice coach, offering coachings, workshops, planning sessions, and practice boot-camps for anyone that could use some help with practicing. Much of her time is spent accompanying young musicians, playing chamber music with friends and colleagues in the community, and accompanying her husband. She is also a prominent blogger, writing frequently about her views on performing, learning music, and the classical music world in general. Her blog, “Beyond the Notes” can be found at http://ericaannsipes.blogspot.com.

Semi-supine illustration with credit to http://www.alextech.homecall.co.uk

Hello my dear musicians and friends!

We had a great time in my June Alexander Technique class for string players! We read through a good deal of music while developing awareness about the body. There was hands-on time to get a deeper internal sense of the body, in sitting and in standing. We talked about the special issues that come up during difficult parts in music. There was laughter and talking and staying late. One of my favorite parts, though, was the beginning when we did an Alexander Technique semi-supine talk through on the floor to regroup and get thinking through our bodies.

I got some requests at the class to put a talk-through recording targeted for musicians online – so here it is! You can simply play it directly from the link, or if you’d like to save it to your computer, right click on a PC or option – click on a Mac, and select “Save Link As”.

How do you use your recording? Well, thinking through your body in the semi-supine (lying down with knees bent) position is one of the basic building blocks of the Alexander Technique. It helps you become aware of how your body feels and moves with your positional (kinesthetic) sense. One reason this is so great is that you won’t have to always rely on waiting until you’re in pain before you know something’s wrong – you’ll get better and better at sensing subtle hints of tension. Lying on the floor helps you get a great sense of your body’s support system, and helps you to know you’re breathing easily. You’re learning to decompress your body without effort, using your thinking. You’ll feel lighter and freer after doing it.

You’ll need a place to lie on the floor (not a bed, unless medical conditions keep you from getting up and down off the floor safely), a smallish-to-medium size paperback book to rest your head on, and approximately 20 minutes to lie down and listen to the recording undisturbed.

Have fun, and let me know how you like it by email, Twitter, or Facebook!

Come explore how Alexander Technique can help you play violin/viola/cello/bass while making music with a group!

You’ll gain tools to play and learn your best, get hands-on work with your instrument, and have a good time playing with others in a beautiful windowed studio!

Open to other instruments, just need to know for music selection purposes.

Space limited to 6.
$30/session.
(intro price – won’t be offered at this price again!)

7-8:30 PM
Thursday nights:
June 7, 14, 21, 28
7417 Piney Branch Road,
Takoma Park, MD
Call or email to register: 202-441-2868 or diana.rumrill@harmoniousbodies.com

I recently have been listening to the audiobook “The Music Lesson” by bassist Victor Wooten. I’m very grateful that was the form the library had, because I can’t imagine it being the same in written form without hearing the musical examples and interludes!

It summarizes his lifelong lessons learned about music – but in the form of a story/parable where he has many teachers. From learning through jamming, to notes being only a small part of the totality of music, to the importance of energy and intention – so many beautiful lessons that are so much more than what we traditionally think of when we think of taking lessons in music.

Last night I was at an orchestral concert. There I was, in the nosebleed seats, with a 7 year old girl next to me who had an unfortunate combination of a runny, snorty nose, extreme (and voiced) boredom, Mom’s Iphone to play games on, and a desire to bang her shoes and seat about 20 times per minute throughout the whole concert. I’m all for kids attending plenty of concerts, but she obviously wasn’t yet ready for such a long one. I had a running mental commentary about the whole situation that was distracting me from the music even more than her “performance”.

I figured it would be worse for everyone else if I got up between movements to watch in peace from the wings. So I decided to try a technique from The Music Lesson – but mentally. In the book, Victor’s teacher puts on some Miles Davis, and tells him, “Play!” He has him just improvise with the music, and asks him what Miles Davis is saying to him.

I closed my eyes and imagined I was improvising with violin to the Brahms symphony on the stage. I found myself inside the music, and all of a sudden I heard all the parts instead of focusing on the melody. Whoa, a bass line, and a cello line, I hadn’t heard before! I found myself going from melody-type parts to background parts, and found that I often anticipated what the violins were actually doing when I peeked my eyes open. Besides being a totally new experience musically, I was able to tune out my young seatmate’s noises – or at least they were a lot less annoying.

No matter your instrument or musical experience, you’re bound to get plenty out of this book. Definitely recommended!