music – Joel Stoppenhagen

Honing Your Skill

Dem Höchsten Gott allein’ zu Ehren, Dem Nechsten, draus sich zu belehren. With this little couplet, Johann Sebastian Bach, the great Lutheran Kantor, began his collection of short hymn-based pieces titled Orgelbüchlein. This “little organ book” was quite literally a little book, for which the Kantor had lofty intentions: its pages were marked for 164Continue reading “Honing Your Skill”

Improvisation

I firmly believe that every true musician should be able to improvise. It’s an absolutely essential skill, even if you can only execute it in the most basic way. If one cannot freely speak their own musical ideas through their own instrument, how can he or she expect to perform another composer’s work with thatContinue reading “Improvisation”