First impressions can be deceiving, but they can also be quite revealing. When it comes to music, we will often form an opinion or judgement based on just a few notes’ worth of playing. Most recently, I auditioned a drummer at the university and motioned for him to stop playing after only four or five seconds of music. Unfair? Hardly. This is like a psychiatrist who once told me when we were discussing his ability to correctly diagnose someone with psychopathic tendencies, “I can spot ‘em a mile away.” It’s the little things that reveal our musicianship, our excellence as well as our shortcomings. I was in Korea a few years ago as part of a film-music-in-concert production that featured an orchestra with jazz band playing the score to La La Land while the film was projected in the Olympic Stadium located in Seoul. The second half of the concert […]

October 2022 Issue