Editions

If you can’t play five tones, then play four. If you can’t play four tones, then play three. If you can’t play three tones, then play two. If you can’t play two tones, then play one.  There is space inside… Continue reading Tone

I am interested in color, shading, and shape in music. I am interested in how colors, gradations, and shapes sound and feel. I am not remotely interested in gaining approval. I am interested in old stories, poetry, mobiles, and paintings.… Continue reading Artist Statement

Thich Nhat Hanh adaptation by JC Heisler To perceive always means to perceive some thing. We believe that the object of our perception is outside of the subject. But that is not correct. When we perceive the music, the music… Continue reading Perception, Thich Nhat Hahn

We must take music seriously. It is the language of the unseen, the language of the intellect, the language of the heart, the invocation of the soul, the choreography of the body, the architecture of the mind, the physics of… Continue reading Music is Serious

One cannot rehearse tradition; one observes and LIVES a tradition…or not. Tradition fashions by consequence of its boundaries, extolling awareness upon one’s unique personhood in THIS specific time and space. To create is an indictment, to DARE to DECIDE. It… Continue reading Traditions

98% of teaching is waiting…patiently… …to observe when, how, and why the student becomes socially, emotionally, and psychologically self aware within “this moment” of the art form. You will know what to say when you decided to Be Quiet. –… Continue reading Be Quiet

“If you understand the cause of conflict as some fixed or one-sided idea, you can find meaning in various practices without being caught by any of them. If you do not realize this point you will be easily caught by… Continue reading Find Your Own Way

“Let your own inner tension be your guide. Honor the amount of concentration you have. That’s part of honoring yourself.” – K. Werner

You cannot judge a work of art for what it isn’t.

Imitation is not art. – JC Heisler

“Practice loving yourself without evidence, unconditionally. Don’t wait until you’re the right kind of person, have the right kind of job, etc. to love and honor yourself. Don’t wait until you’re noticed. Practice noticing yourself.” – K. Werner

Do not practice in order to avoid mistakes. In doing this, you will make avoidance and anxiety a performance habit; then they will became part of your aesthetic. Your weariness will always be arrested by hypotheticals and “someday” will never… Continue reading Mistakes

“All of these amazing personalities in the music I embraced and really tried to understand the music and the feeling behind the rhythm of it all.   Because everybody has their own rhythm.  And when you can execute your own… Continue reading Music Within the Music

A “teacher” must be humble and articulate enough to be remade in the music. – JC Heisler

Learn to understand how the non-harmonic tones work.  So I’m talking about appoggiaturas, I’m talking about escape tones, and cambiatas; movements like these anticipating and delaying cadences in consonance and dissonance. There is a great depth of experience to behold… Continue reading Non-Harmonic Tones “The Great Dramatists”

Cadences are of the utmost important attribute in music. The cadence is nothing more than an arrival. To cadence expresses that we have arrived at a new place within a musical narrative and cadences may happen in many, many different… Continue reading Musical Arrivals

There are unique intrinsic values to each one of the arts.  Of all the arts, music is the most abstract. Music’s arrest on thought memory and emotion can be so indelibly fleeting that its ambiguities and pronouncements may linger in… Continue reading Beguiling Music

The architecture of music is the happiest encounter. Understanding what every single note means with specificity in a symphonic score, or piano etude, or in a trumpet solo deepens the spirit. The meaning of these notes are detailed in how… Continue reading The Happiest Encounter

Music’s arrest on thought, memory, and emotion can be so indelibly fleeting, that its ambiguities and pronouncements may linger in instants undetected within present moments of timeless experience.   It may be the most beguiling and the most powerful of… Continue reading Musical Arts

Create an artifact in union with frequencies & sound waves. As light waves travel, absorbed and reflected in constant motion illuminating our perceptions all around us; so too are sound waves moving among us and through us, engaging and affecting… Continue reading Listen

I feel that the the most substantive part of music is melody.   Melody is structured by the physics of pitch manifested within the patterns of the harmonic series.  Tonal meaning is derived from the experience of these acoustic principles.… Continue reading Melody

The idea of tonic is very abstract; yet it is a predestined experience for all of us here on planet Earth.    This is how the physics of sound are manifest to us through the organization of standing waves and… Continue reading What is Tonic?

Music must be “taught” by a rich experience through the art form. Analogies may give intellectual, conceptual, and philosophical perspective to “the student” by referencing relatable experiences to the pupil; this is not music. Therefore, any postulated analogy must be… Continue reading By the Art Form

You can only give away what you have. You are not the music; The music is the music. You have to be made in the music, to share through the music. I know nothing extra of what I can share,… Continue reading Made in the Music

“Don’t torment yourself with ‘I should’s‘… Don’t expect your capacity to match someone else’s. Absolute understanding trumps general understanding. Be sensitive to your capacity, honor it, work within it.” – K. Werner

People learn how to speak before they can read or write.  The skill of speech begins to manifest after 18 months of imitation.   A child begins to learn the process of writing one letter at a time between the… Continue reading The Reality of Literacy

No teacher… not one person… can tell you what Music tells YOU.  This is between you and Music from the vey first moments.  A discerning “teacher” is a musician who understands they are simply a guide in function, form, and… Continue reading Music is the “Teacher”

THE ORGANIZATION OF THOUGHT Educational and Scientific BY A. N. WHITEHEAD, Sc.D., F.R.S. What is the ‘first commandment’ to be obeyed in any educational scheme? It is this : Do not teach too many subjects. The second command is this : What you… Continue reading Scraps of information have nothing to do with it…

My Desire is to… …create an independent phrontistery of musical study and art making that is peaceful, calm, and positive; that serves people’s need to be valued and accepted while honoring their individual hopes through meaningful musical experiences of performance,… Continue reading For My Studio

“If you compare one thing with another, you are merely lost in comparison. You can understand something only when you give it your complete attention, and any form of comparison or evaluation is a distraction. In observation, memory has no… Continue reading The Actual

Let me put it in this way, “I don’t have it, if you don’t have it”.  Because, I have it, only to the extent that I can give it away; “that I can give it up and to, all others.”… Continue reading Learning a discipline is not a matter of forcing yourself.

An essential aim of Education is to provide the pupil with the freedom and safety to process mistakes and misunderstandings without shame.   The teacher’s role (in so much as teaching can be practiced) is to give a wholehearted “living… Continue reading Aim of Education

My Answers to… QUESTIONS FOR JAZZ EDUCATORS (Part 2) Brad Goode: August 16, 2021 Facebook Post and Thread Q1. One can improvise by using material applied to chord changes, either written or memorized, OR one can improvise by playing from… Continue reading Questions for: “Jazz Educators”

“Nothing touches a work of art so little as words of criticism: they always result in more or less fortunate misunderstandings. Things aren’t all so tangible and sayable as people would usually have us believe; most experiences are unsayable, they… Continue reading Rilke

“So here I am, in the middle way…trying to use words, and every attempt is a wholy new start, and a different kind of failure because one has only learnt to get the better of words for the thing one… Continue reading T.S. Elliot

THE ORGANIZATION OF THOUGHT Educational and Scientific BY A. N. WHITEHEAD, Sc.D., F.R.S. There is only one subject-matter for education, and that is Life in all its manifestations. The mind is never passive; it is a perpetual activity, delicate, receptive, responsive to stimulus.… Continue reading The best procedure will depend on several factors…

It’s not out there. It is in you. – JC Heisler

“(Practice) does not have to be hard labor. Just allow your body and mind to rest, like an animal in the forest. Don’t struggle. There is no need to attain anything. I am writing a book, but I am not… Continue reading Healing Practice

Presence of Attention Objectifies Developing Coordinations. Impartial Observation is Creative Liberation. Vivid Aural-Imagination Manifests Performance. – JC Heisler

Deeper into self, and the art, and the mysterious trials of wonder. – JC Heisler

Every inception within the performance act by virtue of its very nature, is original. There is never a moment within the performance act at which any person can re-create anything.  Re-creation is a false premise. The performance act is pure… Continue reading Absolute Present

“Can this be taught to the students: to remain with the Fact; the Actual, happening now, whether psychologically or externally? Freedom is from the beginning, not at the end. It is not to conform, to imitate; (to) accept first and… Continue reading Freedom is the Beginning