Quantity of practice

In the matter of practice, I never urge a student to work so many hours a day. One may be enough. The musician is like a painter, who frequently spends his time in looking at the work he has done, and in thinking what he will make of it, without so much as touching the easel.

— Theodor Leschetizky

S. Hough, Rough Ideas: Reflections on Music and More, London, Faber & Faber, 2019, p. 137.

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Tally Ho!
> Title: Tally Ho Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Piano Duet Level: Piano I – 1.1 (five finger position with movement to the 6/4 position) Product medium: PDF score and MP3 accompaniment track SAMPLES: (Audio sample of accompaniment track only)
I am the Lord your God – Psalm 80 (81)
Title: I am the Lord, your God. Text: Psalm 80 (81): 10-11ab, 12-13, 14-15 Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: SATB and piano Product medium: PDF score and part Sample:
Gershwin’s romantic side
Rodney Greenberg describes a side of George Gershwin’s “romantic side”: He wrote a little waltz-song, which he would sing and play to his current dating partner.  It was, in effect, what his friend Kitty Carlisle (who later married playwright Moss Hart) described as his “mating call”, because he left a blank space in the lyrics […]
The essence of music
I believe that there is no one the world so insensitive, so leaden, that he is not moved by song. Theophrastus rightly said in the second book concerning music that the essence of music is the movement of the soul, driving away the evils and troubles that have invaded it. If music did not have […]
Wagner’s observations on the English and oratorios
Wagner attended a performance of Messiah at Exeter Hall in London with a chorus of 700 voices. He recorded in his autobiography: It is here that I came to understand the true spirit of English Protestantism. This accounts for the fact that an oratorio attracts the public far more than an opera. A further advantage […]
The inner drama of man
It is not what the artist does that counts. But what he is. Cézanne would never have interested me if he had lived and thought like Jaques-Emile Blanche, even if the apple he had painted had been ten times more beautiful. What interests us is the anxiety of Cézanne, the teaching of Cézanne, the anguish […]
In the Sight of the Angels I will Sing your Praises – Psalm 137 (138)
Title: In the Sight of the Angels I will Sing your Praises Text: Psalm 137 (138): 1-5, 7-8. R. v.1 Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: SATB and piano (unison verses) Product medium: PDF Score and part Sample:    
Shedding light on what is invisible
When we create something, whether it’s a one-woman show, a video animation, a poem, a song, whatever—we’re taking what’s inside of us and stepping it out. Now it can be shown or heard. Now it can be experienced, transmitted. Now it can be shared. When it’s shared, parts of us that were once invisible, hidden, […]
The key of E-flat
“[The key of E-flat] was reserved mostly for moments of sublime seriousness, appropriate for dying thoughts, or of love unto death, whether human or divine.” – Heartz, Daniel (2003) Music in European Capitols. New York: Norton. Cited in: Siblin, Eric (2009) The Cello Suites. Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin, p. 144.
Karajan and direction
Seiji Ozawa recalls Karajan’s overarching concept of music: I really shouldn’t start comparing Karajan and Bernstein. I’m thinking of the word “direction” – the direction of the music. In Maestro Karajan’s case, he had it from birth – the ability to make long phrases. It was something he taught us, the ones who studied with […]