Articles on Music

Throughout the history of Western Art Music, following the progression of its development, there are several ‘defining moments’ in terms of the systems that have been made available to composers.  I am not referring to the instruments, per se, but rather the...

The French Connection Following are excerpts from the book, Bourbon Street Black: The New Orleans Black Jazzman (Danny Buerkle, Jack V. Barker) Although we seem to romanticize the lives of famous jazz musicians from the past, the society and environment that they...

As a musician and a student of the Bible, there are several passages of Scripture that have become important to me, ones that I have embraced in my own journey as a creative and thriving artist. I have always admired King David, since he was a successful musician and...

When someone uses the phrase, ‘Classical Music,’ they are usually referring to a specific style of music, differentiated from Jazz, Rock, or EDM.  However, most people do not realize the importance of Classical music in the fabric of all other musical languages we...

When I studied at Juillliard, there were two main music courses, aside from private lessons and ensembles, everyone was expected to participate in.  They were: music theory and ear-training. While the phrase ‘ear-training’ sounds amusing (I imagine someone trying to...

Why Community Matters In our world today, the idea of community has been significantly altered by the internet.  What once was a simple concept has now become infinitely more complex and difficult to navigate.  With the emergence of Facebook, YouTube, Google, and a...

I have been involved in music-making of all sorts throughout my career.  When I first started playing the violin, playing in string orchestras, chamber music groups and full orchestras was a common practice.  While hearing songs on the radio was common, there was...

The subject of frequency is rich and ubiquitous.  In fact, everything we understand, scientifically, about universal structure hinges on the subject.  Light, magnetism, electricity, sound, planetary rotation, the list goes on.  (It is interesting that Albert Einstein...

Why Music Lessons Throughout the ages, great musicians desired to train their students in the art of music making so they could make progress in the most efficient ways possible.  What it took the teacher many years to coalesce, the student could acquire in a fraction...

Combined Learning There are three main ways we learn: 1) Hearing, 2) Seeing, and 3) Doing.  These are also referred to as Aural, Visual, and Kinesthetic, respectively.  Participating in one of the activities is stimulating to the brain.  However, when engaged in all...