Be Intentional about Your Improvement

Want to get better? Be intentional about it. Plan out your development. Think about what you need to do to improve and build a schedule or routine. This isn’t just for weight lifting, but for most anything in life. A month ago I was playing some hymns on my flute and realized that I hadn’t [...]

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Why Music? A Multitude of Reasons

At the Kelley household we have a standing rule with regards to our homeschool: you must pick an instrument and take lessons in it. Any reasonable instrument is acceptable. So far my oldest chose the traditional guitar. His younger brother has gone complete non-traditional and went with ocarina. Ocarina can be a serious instrument, especially [...]

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What’s your theme music?

It was in the movie I’m Gonna Git You Sucka that I first heard a quote about every hero needing theme music. Given that the movie was a parody, it mocked the fact that previous movies would do just that. However, a lot of us have a song or two that gets us going. For [...]

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Review: Hundred More Years

I really enjoyed Francesca Battistelli’s first album, My Paper Heart. It quickly became one of my favorite albums from my collection though I’m typically a Gospel rap and urban Gospel kind of guy. For instance, her song Beautiful, Beautiful chokes me up every time I hear it. As a result, I was really looking forward [...]

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Creativity Goals for 2010

I’m evaluating the goals I have for 2010, and I’m breaking them based on a rough area of focus. The first list I really have together is the one of my creative goals for this year. They are: Learn to Sew – I really want to learn how to sew, and sew well, for this [...]

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Review: Jazz in the Bittersweet Blues of Life

After reading one book by Wynton Marsalis, To a Young Jazz Musician: Letters from the Road, I went looking for more. I have an awesome public library, one that was rated the best in the nation a few years ago. They have a couple more books, including one that’s part biography and part auto-biography, Jazz [...]

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Review – To a Young Jazz Musician: Letters from the Road

Hopefully Wynton Marsalis needs no introduction. If he does, follow the link! I’ve followed him for a long time as he represents one of the greatest musicians of our generation. And as a great musician, not just a great jazz musician, as he is sometimes thought of, he took the time to impart some of [...]

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Arturo Sandoval – A Recipe for Helping Cope with Loss

The last few days have been harder than the initial shock of losing the twins.  Reality has replaced shock and my heart aches. A few folks who I’ve talked to or emailed with have expressed that when they went through a similar circumstance, there was an empty feeling inside. I know that feeling. I’m still [...]

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Review: The Hymn Fake Book

A little while ago I blogged about trying to get back to playing every day. I’m still working on that one. However, in order to play more religious music, I picked up The Hymn Fake Book when I was down in Charleston presenting to the Charleston PASS Chapter. Tonight was the first night I really [...]

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A Little Jazz Flute

Today I embarked on my goal to play flute at least fifteen minutes every day. It’s been a while so my chops are a little rusty, meaning it can sometimes be a bit difficult to switch notes, but nowhere near as bad as would be on a brass instrument (having played trumpet and french horn [...]

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