Grammy winning guitarist and composer Pat Metheny was featured in a one-hour interview and live performance on NPR’s Talk of the Nation today. If you didn’t catch it live you can listen to streaming audio of the program here: Pat Metheny: Live and on “The Way Up”.

I’m often burning CDs for my students but I’m too cheap to give them a jewel case or CD sleeve with it. I figure if they value the CD they’ll find a way to protect it. Well, yesterday, I discovered a method to make an origami CD case out of a standard 8.5 X 11 sheet of paper. It’s handy, economical, and cool. I know I’ll be using this a lot. You can download the instructions here, and as usual I’ll keep the info available on the student resources page. Happy folding!

Like a lot of folks I suppose, I love collecting quotations. You may have even noticed that each page of this site contains a random quotation (usually relating to music) at the very bottom of the screen. I have just added a new page that shows all of the quotations in the database. I’ll be adding to it as I run across new gems. You can check it out here and it will be permanantly available via the student resources page.

Here are “The 12 Rules of Practicing” from the PBS series, “Marsalis on Music”. In part 4, “Tackling the Monster”, Wynton Marsalis talks with cellist Yo-Yo Ma about hating to practice, doing it anyway, and how you can do it correctly. Continue reading 'Wynton’s 12 Rules'