How to Practice Happier

How to Practice Happier: Episode 7: The Rite of Spring

Welcome to How to Practice Happier, a podcast to help you think differently about practice and your artistic process: because practice isn’t about making music, it’s about YOU making music. The context of your life and your thoughts and experiences matters, and when we go on stage we bring all of that along with us.  In this episode, come with me as I play the solo from the Rite of Spring for the first time and realize that I am a lot more confident than I thought I was.

How to Practice Happier: Episode 6: As within, so without

Welcome to How to Practice Happier, a podcast to help you think differently about practice and your artistic process: because practice isn’t about making music, it’s about YOU making music. The context of your life and your thoughts and experiences matters, and when we go on stage we bring all of that along with us.  In this week's episode, I'm talking about how the bad things we believe about ourselves might be keeping this industry from making the changes we desperately need. As musicians we have to challenge these norms, support victims of abuse, and demand better from institutions.

How to Practice Happier: Episode 5: Recurring existential ennui

Welcome to How to Practice Happier, a podcast to help you think differently about practice and your artistic process: because practice isn’t about making music, it’s about YOU making music. The context of your life and your thoughts and experiences matters, and when we go on stage we bring all of that along with us.  This week on the podcast, I'm talking about how I cope with my quarterly existential crises.

How to Practice Happier: Episode 4: Coping with a chaotic week in the orchestra

Welcome to How to Practice Happier, a podcast to help you think differently about practice and your artistic process: because practice isn’t about making music, it’s about YOU making music. The context of your life and your thoughts and experiences matters, and when we go on stage we bring all of that along with us.  This week on the podcast, I'm talking about an odd week in the life of an orchestra musician. Rehearsal cancellations, haunted theaters, working without a conductor, and the intricacies of musical cognition.

How to Practice Happier: Episode 3: Grief and Tchaik 4

Welcome to How to Practice Happier, a podcast to help you think differently about practice and your artistic process: because practice isn’t about making music, it’s about YOU making music. The context of your life and your thoughts and experiences matters, and when we go on stage we bring all of that along with us.  In this episode, I'm talking about my experience playing Tchaik 4 during a difficult personal time.