Is This What Being Vulnerable Feels Like?

i’ll run the risk
of being intimate with brokenness.

~ Sleeping At Last

Beginning, EquanimityDaron LarsonAugust 19, 2015Sleeping At Last, music, musicians, self, memory, growing up, struggle, risk, intimacy, hope, vulnerability, equanimity, liberation, Martin KlimasComment

Serene Isolation

"The serene isolation that can be felt in a crowded and often chaotic world." ~ Genevieve

See Out, Hear Out, Feel Out, Feel In, Clarity, EquanimityDaron LarsonSeptember 22, 2014musicians, music video, Company of Thieves, loneliness, solitude, peace, equanimity, Genevieve SchatzComment

Every Day

Musician Emily Caudill believes that life is a song, and the music is composed by our stories. Her life-saving chemotherapy treatment causes her to lose her hearing. Her response to this obstacle is an inspiration to anyone engaged in daily practice regardless of the day-to-day results.

Daron LarsonSeptember 3, 2014Emily Caudill, musicians, hearing, illness, hope, practice, persistenceComment

Passing through Light and Into Shadow

Daron LarsonOctober 29, 2013Ari Picker, Lost in the Trees, chiaroscuro, impermanence, music, musicians, relationships, shadow, videoComment

The Same Source

Daron LarsonJuly 18, 2013Henry Miller, complete experience, creativity, making, musicians, poets, quietComment

Étude

Daron LarsonApril 28, 2013Felix Blumenfeld, James Rhodes, commitment, constraints, hands, learning, music, musicians, piano, practiceComment

All the Things We Couldn't See

Daron LarsonDecember 20, 2012Cloud Cult, music, musicians, videoComment

Attentional Fitness Training for Musicians

Athletes and musicians -- and anyone else who has committed effort over time toward the development of a specific skill -- tend to have some advantages when it comes to these strategies. But what if there were exercises and drills to add to the mix that could systematically support the development of concentration, clarity, and equanimity in the context of rehearsal and performance?

Hear In, Hear OutDaron LarsonSeptember 27, 2012music, musicians, practice, performance, mindfulnessComment

This is My Stage

Daron LarsonSeptember 8, 2012aging, hope, mundane, music, musicians, performanceComment

Breaking through the Illusion of Transparency

"You're sort of in this three-dimensional landscape of sound and that's where I really like to be with my music. Like when I'm on stage, that's where I am. I'm not on stage in front of you, I'm in this landscape of sound. I can almost see the way the music happens, but that's not seeing people playing and it's not seeing somebody conducting.

It's not seeing an audience watching it. It's very much like this feeling of, What does the sound look like? The sweep of the sound, the way it moves up and down, or rushing forward."

~ Zoë Keating

Daron LarsonFebruary 24, 2012Taylor Clark, Zoe Keating, anxiety, excerpt, fear, musicians, neuroscience, performance, stage frightComment

The Person that You Really Help

Daron LarsonJanuary 12, 2012Eric Schwartz, friendliness, kindness, metta, musicians, self/otherComment

Feeling Emotion Conveyed by a Performer

“The brain processes musical nuance in many ways, it turns out. Edward W. Large, a music scientist at Florida Atlantic University, scanned the brains of people with and without experience playing music as they listened to two versions of a Chopin étude: one recorded by a pianist, the other stripped down to a literal version of what Chopin wrote, without human-induced variations in timing and dynamics.”