Making Your Masterpiece Week 3: Polish that Sucker Up!

by Michelle Markwart Deveaux | Dec 16, 2015 | Inspiration, Technique

This is my very favoritist bestest love-it-the-mostest part of learning new material. It’s my favorite part because this is the time when you inject the piece with YOU and your unique sound and personality. You’ve done the work of Inspecting and Chiseling. You finally...

Making Your Masterpiece Week 2: Chisel it Out

by Michelle Markwart Deveaux | Dec 9, 2015 | Technique

So you’ve looked over your piece, and your minds-eye can see it on the page, even when it’s not in front of you. You know the basic details and have taken the time to make some initial connections with the music and the lyric. Refresh your memory here, if you like....

Making a Masterpiece Week 1: Inspect

by Michelle Markwart Deveaux | Dec 2, 2015 | Technique

The work of learning new material is daunting, especially on a time crunch. How can we get from page to stage, ready for performance, with less wasted time? In the work of taking a piece of solid, non-descript, hunk of hardness to, say, The David, a sculptor moves...

Don’t practice until you get it right. Practice until you cannot get it wrong.

by Michelle Markwart Deveaux | Nov 11, 2015 | Inspiration

How many times have I had a student say, “I must not be a singer” or “I guess I am not good enough to go to (insert big name college/city of choice here)” or “Maybe I am not cut out for this”. Gasp! So sad! So untrue! Or is it? Lotsa times, I have to agree with those...