Music Blog

When it comes to matters of romance, I get virtually all of my advice from popular song lyrics. Now you may say that this is not in fact a good source for romantic advice, and that self-help books, friends and family, or a therapist might be better choices. You would be wrong, because popular songs… Read more: You Can’t Hurry, Love?

When it comes to music, most people do not listen to the words. They listen to the music. They want the words to be there, and they usually want to understand them, but they don’t really listen to them. That is, they listen to the sound of the words but not the meaning. Lyric writing… Read more: Listening to the Words

A musician friend of mine, who passed away recently, once told me that he had stopped listening to sad music entirely, and only wanted to hear happy music. He said that life was sad enough on it’s own and that the purpose of music was to alleviate that sadness, not add to it. Another musician… Read more: Crying

I often tell my young students “if you make friends with music now, music will be your friend for life”. At least in my own life, I have found this to be true. I have considered music to be my close friend for more than forty years now. Of course like any long friendship, it’s… Read more: Music is Your Friend For Life

In 1935, with the country in the grips of depression, President Franklin Roosevelt created the Federal Music Project, part of Federal Project Number One, which included related programs for visual artists, writers, and the theater. Despite his patrician upbringing, FDR was not a great patron of the arts, and was only lukewarm about the program.… Read more: Artists as Workers