December 27, 2021
The end of a year is usually the best time to evaluate results of the previous twelve months in many fields and areas. Here are twelve books that, for me, represent the best and/or the most interesting, what has been published on topics related to music. […]
November 30, 2021
New album from the legendary Canadian brass quintet, playing their own renditions of famous Canadian authors. This is their 108th album on the 51st anniversary of the group. Here is a collection of songs from famous Canadian authors like Joni Mitchell, Rush, k.d. lang, Bruce Cockburn, […]
October 31, 2021
Recently, at the ‘Neighbourhood Chilli Cooking Competition’ our kids had a chance to present their musical achievements. They showed how accomplished both of them are. Victoria, who just turned 13, played a violin concertino, while Martin (8) played an ‘ad-lib’ improvisation based on his previous practicing. […]
September 30, 2021
Playing a music instrument has become an activity mostly done by kids or professionals. It is like bringing kids to a playground and watching them play while sitting comfortably on a nearby bench. We know that kids need some activity and so we are willing to […]
August 31, 2021
Two new information popped up recently from my readings, that may seem to be quite similar. When you think about the meaning of these two words – ‘strange’ and ‘outsider’ – wouldn’t their meaning be rather close? In my understanding, if someone is an outsider, it […]
July 30, 2021
It was in 1972, in the country that doesn’t exist anymore, called Czechoslovakia. In the town where I was living, the communist regime allowed to build and open a new department store, as a part of a larger chain called ‘PRIOR ’. As was common in […]
June 30, 2021
It was year 1983 and after a lot of deliberations and persuasion, my parents relented and agreed to speak with the uncle living in the West Germany, about a possibility to purchase and send me a new keyboard synthesizer. This was not an easy task. Especially […]
May 31, 2021
New technological developments on one side and challenges of the current pandemics on the other side, force everyone to adapt to be able to survive. That includes the music industry. Over twenty years ago, the music industry was terrified by the internet and its capabilities to […]
April 30, 2021
Sa-che-ti-za-tion. Have you heard this term before? Because for me it is completely new. Not that I don’t know what ‘a sachet’ means. But how does it relate to music? My Google search for the word ‘sachetization’ returned only 2,100 results. So it is quite new, […]
March 31, 2021
Today, while listening to the radio, I heard this very interesting news. There is a Canadian company working on a project, that will allow identify people who have COVID-19, from their voice. Simply using their phone. The way how it works is, that the software analyzes […]
March 31, 2021
Music and Mental Health. How do they work together? Does music have a positive or a negative impact on humans’ Mental Health?
February 25, 2021
Why are some music teachers and musicians ‘killing’ music for others? Their students? This question popped in my mind recently, when we were trying to find a new music teacher for our children. I have decided to describe this experience, because I am sure this happens […]
February 23, 2021
The year was 1976 and my cousin, by some ubelievable stroke of good luck, managed to get from abroad a bunch of new vinyl LPs. It was a true miracle for us! We were growing up in the former Czechoslovakia, where the access to the western […]
January 11, 2021
Do you start a New Year with a new set of resolutions? Here are 4 musicking habits, that can improve your life in 2021
December 29, 2020
This era of the global pandemics is not easy for anyone. Still, if there is one common pleasure, or an activity, that can make it more bearable without any ‘side-effects’, it is music. For my family, music plays a very important role. I dare to say, […]
November 30, 2020
Christmas is upon us and if you are still missing few gifts for your loved ones, or you are completely clueless about what to buy, here are some ideas that could inspire you. Our recommendations are for simple Christmas gifts that don’t break the bank, but […]
October 30, 2020
This is an idea I got while watching YouTube and really liked it, because it can very well relate to music and the broad benefits of musicking. Don’t know about you, but not always I am happy about my own productivity. As the internet is full […]
September 30, 2020
I keep chuckle on the following picture. Let’s imagine there is this situation in the future – some 70 years from now: a music therapist meets with a new client, who is an old lady with dementia. She doesn’t know much about the world around her, […]
August 31, 2020
What happens when 11,000 (yes, eleven thousands!) music composers participate in a competition to write a music score for a scene from the HBO’s sci-fi series Westworld. When in May 2020 the successful producer of audio libraries Spitfire Audio announced a music composing competition, I am […]
July 7, 2020
Yesterday was a beautiful, hot summer day. Normally, the media would suffer from a summer slow-down, trying to pick anything to fill the time. Not this year though. In spite of the deluge of the negative corona virus related news, one other sad message toppled them […]
June 17, 2020
June 21st has a special meaning in the human history for thousands years. People used to gather and celebrate the longest day of a year and the beginning of summer in the Northern Hemisphere. To strengthen the importance of this particular day, various other celebrations and […]
May 31, 2020
As I had been researching information for my previous blogpost about bedroom orchestrators, I couldn’t avoid watching videos from Christian Henson. He is an award-winning film composer and one of the founders of Spitfire Audio – the company behind one of the most popular orchestral libraries […]
April 30, 2020
What could be the opposite from the very basic music making, that Musicably promotes? I don’t mean an absolute professional music virtuoso, although that would be one of the possibilities. But if we want to stay in the non-professional area. What would be the opposite to […]
March 31, 2020
I am sitting at home, locked down with my family, like hundreds millions people all over the world. Raging pandemic is destroying lives and inflicting serious injuries on the most of the world’s societies and economies. In this situation one of the best tools helping suffering […]
February 29, 2020
I mean ‘scissors’ between music ‘makes and make-nots’ (like wealthy haves and have-nots). Because that’s what is happening and it doesn’t help almost anyone, except for the tiniest group of 0.01% on the top of the music industry. Is this political? Sure it is! At least […]
January 16, 2020
With the change of a decade, all the media got flooded with charts and evaluations of the past decade. That has inspired me to look at music of the last ten years and choose albums, that I liked the most. The music on these albums has […]
December 22, 2019
The moment after Americans finished their Thanksgiving dinner and stormed stores for the Black Friday shopping spree, the atmosphere has changed for the next big seasonal holidays – Christmas. As it is every year, with changes in shop-windows, came also a new seasonal music repertoire for […]
November 28, 2019
The title of this book says it all. I have spent countless hours researching and pouring through the online data to figure out the answer to this question. Now the author Indre Viskontas put it succintly in her little book titled How Music Can Make You […]
October 30, 2019
A while ago my interest caught an email — an invitation to a workshop. Organized by the BRAMS – International Laboratory for BRAin, Music and Sound Research, what is a unique centre dedicated to research excellence, located in Montreal and jointly affiliated with the University of […]
September 30, 2019
After a handful of books I have reviewed recently, I had decided to focus on different topics in my writings, at least for a while. But then I discovered this new book from Gayla M. Mills and I couldn’t resist. It is as much to the […]