The Everyday Musician

Each December of every year, Althea gave her piano students a music composition project. Althea was my beloved piano teacher for 12 years of my youth.
Althea’s annual composition project for her students was simple:  Start with a Christmas carol; keep the chord progression; change the melody to your own.
That’s a good way to get started […]

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Althea was my piano teacher, and one of my very favorite people ever.  She was positive about everything she said and taught.  She called her students “her children.”  For sure, her music studio felt like a foster home, safe from the emotional hazards of childhood.
There are many kinds of music teachers; I wouldn’t want to […]

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Do you play by ear, or do you sight-read music?
That question is too simply asked, when presented as either/or.  If you mostly play by ear, then a better question is:  Do you use chord charts or fake books or other notated musical “hints” as you play by ear?  Or, if you mostly sight-read, a better […]

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Confession:  I make lots of mistakes when I play the piano.  It’s just not in me to polish my performance of a piece, no matter how hard I try.  I rarely try very hard to polish a piece, except to have one on hand if I might be asked to play.  This means that any […]

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Music tells a story through sound. 
Many kinds of stories can be told through music, drawing from the full spectrum of emotions that can arise from within us.  Emotions can arise in a blink of time, such as fright in a dramatic instance of the unexpected.  Emotions can also arise gradually, such as a sense […]

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To describe oneself or another as an everyday musician doesn’t sound very flattering, does it?  It sounds like: ”just an ordinary musician.”
An everyday musician is not an ordinary musician.  An everyday musician is serious about his music making.  An everyday musician has serious fun making music.
Really, no individual is ordinary.  How can an individual, a unique […]

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This is a blog for everyday musicians.
You might ask: “Who is an everyday musician? Is this guy (Mark) writing the blog as an everyday musician himself? Why is he writing this blog?”
Fair questions.
Who is an everyday musician?
I get to define that for this blog. An everyday musician is a musician who does music every day. […]

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