Author: Randy

World records can’t be un-broken. Breakthroughs can’t be reversed. This would seem to be a good thing, and for the most part, it is. Someone being the “GOAT” is inspiring and motivating to nearly everyone. However, this one-way ratcheting of standards can have some consequences. Much like living in Manhattan, it is out of reach…

It really isn’t enough to just be able to play the music. What we want is the confidence and control that allows us to play it, understand it, and even feel comfortable varying and modifying it on the fly. We want to be in the moment, with the music as our natural vocabulary, used in a conversation, both…

Two kinds of practicing When working on a passage of music, it seems like there can be two different mental states we can assume. The first, a focused, precise, detail-oriented one, is probably the typical one we think of when we think of the idea of “practice.” Indeed, this is the kind of concentration we…

                    Do you find yourself getting “stuck” when you are composing? Not producing the work you would like? These are the issues we will discuss in this live online class. We will look at the natural flow of a creative process, along with the ways this…

In order to do lessons on Skype or other video-chats, I need to pipe the sound of my grand piano, sequencer and other computer audio signals to the computer. For this, I use my MOTU interface and various preamps. I also need a headset mic/headphone so I can hear the other person, without putting their…

When does something start being a “thing?” When writing music, I find this transition to be a very important moment, a bit like a birth. When a piece achieves “thing-hood,” it now occupies a new place in my mind.

                  Working on orchestra or other large-ensemble music using a sequencer can be very taxing on a computer system in terms of processor power, memory and disk usage.