Reviews and other general notes on music.
Pete Seeger [1919–2014] is probably the greatest influence on my musical development as a folksinger. Collins has taught me how to sing but Seeger has taught me how to be [if that makes sense]. He was the first folksinger I ever heard — I was 5 — seems a long time ago now. I came home from school and [...]
On Monday afternoon I do a good deed for the week. It’s so much more than that. If you want a term for it it is music therapy but I am not a music therapist, I am just a folksinger/pianist. At Fraser McDonald on Monday afternoons I sit at there really old, honky-tonk sounding piano [...]
This method is a natural extension of being a folk music buff as the learning material is drawn, in the early years at least, from folksong. When I was about 15, my singing teacher at the time introduced me to a method of writing called tonic solfa (explained in this video . I had only [...]
In this final posting on music education I will be talking about the way I teach music. Techniques I have seen inspire young people and that sometimes can work. My philosophy has pieces of all the methods and a bit of Rudolpf Steiner. But it has worked for me. As Suzuki said we must create [...]
Emile Jacques Dalcroze was a swiss music teacher in the early 20th century. He discovered that his University students had some skills lacking when it came to feeling a beat and counting. I first came across him when I was very young and went to music classes where we met So-Mi and his brother La-Mi [...]
The Suzuki Method has always been of special significance to me as it is the way I began my piano studies. However my teachers though they had the best intensions were not trained Suzuki teachers. [That’s another story, my musical development]. Shinichi Suzuki taught himself to play the violins in is father’s factory in Japan. [...]
Music has always been a part of my life since early childhood. Being blind, it is a stereotype that I would be musical [that’s another story]. I was one of the lucky people in this world to be musical and blind. Originally I planned to do an audio series with interviews of pedagogues from the [...]