Author: JC Heisler

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 considered as a step further away from, and not a source of, the actual experience… 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, that equals the experience of what only music gives. – JC Heisler

“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 ages of 3 and 6.  This begins the process of translation and phonation of written… 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 performance.  A sensitive guide is attentive and submissive to how Music is continually manifesting 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 teach, teach thoroughly.  Culture is activity of thought, and receptiveness to beauty, and humane feeling.… 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, study, and composition; that gives people help, support, inspiration, and wonder in their own engagements… 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 place. The Actual; is what is Actually Happening.“ – J. Krishnamurti

“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.” But, in order that people may master these disciplines, (and this is the responsibility of… 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 experience” (as opposed to inert information) to the pupil so as to guide, encourage, and… 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 instinct and ear over song forms that have been internalized. Are these two different art… 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 happen in a space that no word has ever entered, and more unsay able than… 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 no longer has to say, or the way in which one is no longer disposed… 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. You cannot ‘postpone its life until you have sharpened it’. Whatever interest attaches to your… Continue reading “The best procedure will depend on several factors…”

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