Author: JC Heisler

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 ways. One way to cadence is melodically, another way harmonically, while even another way may… 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 instances undetected within present moments of timeless experience. It may be the most beguiling and… 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 they relate to one another.  It is simply the relationship of tones to one another… 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 the arts.   Musicians have a uniquely vulnerable immediacy in mode of expression that is… 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 our lives in sympathetic resonance.  Music is always singing, rhapsodically telling us something very important. … 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. It is the intervalic relationship between pitches; the measurements of their distances, that imbue communal… 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 pitch.  The standing wave’s frequency (the pitch we hear) measured in hertz, is the fundamental… 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 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