Tension Myositis Syndrome. TMS. It’s a term coined by Dr. John Sarno in his books on chronic pain. But anything that ends with “syndrome” is just a description of a thing that exists outside of the label. In this case, calling fibromyalgia TMS is not really saying it isn’t fibromyalgia. It is saying that fibromyalgia […]
When you are fresh out of music college, you imagine teaching in collegiate terms. I’ve had many young teachers who work at my music school, Kaleidoscope, advertise that they teach (say) guitar, songwriting, music theory, composition. The reality is that your entire evening might be six- to ten-year-old students who are beginners. Scales suddenly become […]
When I was going through a divorce and living in downtown Bellevue, I went driving one night on Somerset, the Big Hill to the SE. I didn’t really know why, but just felt called. Maybe getting up and above the city, or getting out of it. Then I moved to a townhome at the feet […]
On what authority do I offer advice on the Craft of Writing? Well, I am a published author. In 2000 I had the privilege of adding to and rewriting local treasure Harvey Manning’s guidebook to the trails of Cougar Mountain, published by nonprofit organization the Issaquah Alps Trails Club. In 2003 I wrote the bulk […]
I was asked a couple years ago, almost accusingly, how I could possibly have so many private students… week in and out. The tone of my inquirer suggested either a) I was using some sort of voodoo magic or b) I wasn’t playing fair (taking more than my fair share of the available clientele in the […]
When you start teaching, you really have no idea what to expect. You imagine that you’ll be working with students on the kind of highbrow topics you studied in university. My childhood guitar teacher told me how he inherited a student from his dad, also a career teacher. But you don’t start out imagining what a […]
They say it takes 10,000 hours to master an instrument. I’ve definitely played more than 10,000 hours in my 37 years as a guitarist, bassist, keyboardist and drummer. But what I didn’t anticipate when I embarked on a professional music career in 1991 was spending 25,000 hours (and counting) teaching. Teaching music is the only full-time […]