I subscribe to a blog called The Bulletproof Musician, which deals with the psychological aspects of music making, including, but not limited to, performance anxiety and practicing. The author of the blog, Dr. Noa Kageyama, cites scientific studies in his posts as evidence of the efficacy of different methods of conquering a particular musical choreContinue reading “Learning new music”
Tag Archives: Sutton Foster
Show Up or Show Off
One thing that is misunderstood about performers is that we do this because we need to show off. Because we are full of ourselves, we think we’re all that, we’re too big for our britches, we’re extroverts, we’re superficial, and all the other things m̶y̶ ̶m̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶s̶a̶i̶d̶ that people often say. And perhaps there areContinue reading “Show Up or Show Off”
What the Actual…
The word fach sounds like a bad word. It is a German word meaning “compartment” and is used in opera to describe particular voice types, often in incredibly specific detail. There’s: soubrette lyric soprano light lyric soprano full lyric soprano lyric coloratura soprano lyrico-spinto soprano dramatic soprano drammatico-spinto soprano helden soprano heldensoubrette (okay, that one wasContinue reading “What the Actual…”
“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”
The phrase that is the title of this blogpost is attributed to Oscar Wilde. Actually, it was first written by a British writer named Charles Caleb Colton. Wilde’s version of it, written nearly 100 years later, added the phrase: “that mediocrity can pay to greatness.” Well, that’s quite different. We have heard tons of amateurContinue reading ““Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery””