Seattle Kids Music Magic

06/03/2025

How’s THIS for some amazing ancient music notation???? 😱

01/25/2025

This is how music school used to be!!! 🎹

12/10/2024

I have been promoting SLOW practice for years-probably the hardest thing for a kid to do! But so much more effective at getting mastery of a piece faster (which is what they're all after, isn't it?)

10/13/2024

PIANIST OF THE PAST.

THERE was never a moment of doubt. When I look back, I think I was born playing the piano because, before I realized what I was doing, I was sitting at a piano trying out various sounds and playing in a very natural way.
I had a feeling for the instrument. To me, even as a child, the piano seemed to be a continuation of my arms. On the other hand, natural gifts by themselves aren't enough.

They have to be developed, and I was fortunate enough to be aided in my development by Martin Krause, who had studied under Franz Liszt. So I inherited the Liszt tradition, and through Liszt, the Czerny and Beethoven traditions. Krause was the greatest influence in my life because he was my one and only teacher. I may have had the same career without him, but it would have been accomplished much differently.

I know many artists claim they have developed by intuition, but I don't believe it. Intuition is important, so is talent. But a teacher, a guide who helps you unfold and develop is absolutely necessary.
Also, that teacher has to be the right teacher for you, because the teacher-pupil relationship is a two-sided affair involving mutual responses. In a sense I worshiped Krause; I ate up everything he tried to put in front of me. I worked exactly according to his wishes.

Krause taught me the value of virtuosity. He believed in that absolutely, but only as a basis for what follows the meaning of the music, the interpretation of the music. Being a "piano player," no matter how brilliant, is never enough. I believe in a complete development of general culture, knowledge, intuition, and in a human integration in the Jungian sense of the term. All the elements, all the talents one possesses, should go into the personality as an artist and into the music the artist makes. Concentration should not be on music alone; to better understand music the artist must embrace, as it were, the total universe.

CLAUDIO ARRAU.

10/12/2024

JOHANNES BRAHMS was born in Hamburg on May 7, 1833, into a musical family. His father was a double bassist in the Hamburg Philharmonic. This could be one reason why Brahms, was greatly in love with symphonic music.

He started taking piano lessons when he was seven years old with a teacher named Otto F. W. Cossel. Being somewhat cut off from popular music trends, Brahms knew little about the works of Chopin or Liszt. This lack of exposure, however, ended up benefiting him. It allowed him to create his own unique musical ideas, setting his compositions apart from those of other composers.

In 1846, at Cossel's encouragement, Brahms, who was already more interested in composing music than in performing it, went to study with Eduard Marxsen, a well-known pianist and composer in Hamburg.

He met the Schumanns at their home on September 30, 1853, and that meeting changed his life. He admired and cared for both of them, finding them to be kindred spirits. After Robert's death in 1856, he developed feelings for Clara, initially hoping that this older woman and famous pianist might return his romantic interest. However, based on what we know and without any evidence to suggest otherwise, their relationship grew only into a deep friendship and close bond.

Brahms strongly disliked mediocrity. He often destroyed his own works if he felt they didn't meet high artistic standards, refusing to let his name be associated with anything that didn't stand up to musical and historical evaluation. For him, this wasn't just a habit; it was a matter of artistic integrity. He was very patient and had a clear sense of purpose, often working in solitude. Even when he didn't have a specific plan for his ideas, he carefully saved his best ones for future use.

Simon Soh.

10/09/2024

I have let my music page sit in the closet for about a year now. Hopefully I'll change that!

Yup.

07/10/2023

I'm excited to be teaching an in person beginner ukulele class at Dusty Strings this August! Registration is as easy as playing the C chord on Uke-on the Dusty Strings web site.
https://store.dustystrings.com/p-13023-aug-9-30-jammin-on-uke-with-audrey-goodman-7-12-year-olds-in-person.aspx

10/01/2022

A musical smile for Thursday.....thanks to Pianote for sharing.....♫

09/21/2022

John Coltrane-one of the best jazz sax players of our time.

John Coltrane Draws a
Picture Illustrating the
Mathematics of Music

The “Coltrane Circle,” which resembles what any musician will recognize as the “Circle of Fifths,” but incorporates Coltrane’s own innovations. Coltrane gave the drawing to saxophonist and professor Yusef Lateef in 1967, who included it in his seminal text, Repository of Scales and Melodic Patterns.
Lateef sees Coltrane’s music as a “spiritual journey”.
Musician and blogger Roel Hollander notes, “Thelonious Monk once said ‘All musicians are subconsciously mathematicians.’ Musicians like John Coltrane though have been very much aware of the mathematics of music and consciously applied it to his works.”

09/08/2022

http://www.coverbandcentral.com