Author: JC Heisler

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 of each tone; there is space inside… …movements, worlds, beauties, resonances, tastes, feelings, energies, smells,… 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. I vow to be completely arrested by the shared moment so as to be led… 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 is us. When we hear the music, the music is the object of our perception.… 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 sonority, the meaning of silence, the movement in all life’s patterns, processes, and ways, the… 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 is not to cajole, try, convince, preserve, nor replicate. NO ONE, can stand in for… 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. – JC Heisler

“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 some particular way, and you will say, “This is excellence! This is perfect practice. This… 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 come. Create. Do not analyze. Do not compare. Act decisively with your essence and be… 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 rhythm inside the harmony, with the melody, then all of a sudden you’re starting to… 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 in studying the non-harmonic tones.   They really bring everything together and learning to hear… Continue reading Non-Harmonic Tones “The Great Dramatists”