“We live two lives, the second one starts when we realise we only have one.” Confucius I am a sucker for a thought provoking quote. It is very hard to write a short letter, and in this time of all you can eat information and extremely short attention spans – a short snappy but thought … More Later never comes
Well guitars duh! I am conscious however that music shops can be very daunting for new musicians let alone those more experienced – which is bizarre! Surely if you sell guitars – you want to make your shop as welcoming and enjoyable an experience as possible! So people want to come back, buy some picks, … More What do I look for in a Guitar Shop?
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-rich-roll-podcast/id582272991?i=1000455875975 I stumbled across this podcast due to the fact the host Rich Roll is an ultra runner with quite an inspirational story himself. (You can find out more in his book ‘Finding Ultra’ – which is on my reading pile). I enjoy listening to podcasts as they can be consumed easily when travelling/shopping/mowing the … More Pride Before The Rise
Every year like many, many others I set myself lots of New Years resolutions, perhaps going a little overboard when it comes to time scales and goals and what is humanly achievable. My biggest challenge when it comes to teaching guitar to date, is getting my students to practice between lessons. I only see them … More Three Tips To Nail Those New Year’s Resolutions!
Heard recently on a moving TED talk by Tim Ferris about fear setting: “We suffer more often in imagination than we do in reality” – Seneca I grew up with a couple of ‘fears’ which I have brought with me in to adulthood. Two of which I have found hard to avoid in adult life: … More Overcoming My Fear(s) Pt1
Crumpled and coffee stained, one of my more mature students apologetically hands over a worksheet in his lesson today. There’s absolutely no need to apologise – I am so, so pleased that the worksheet has seen daylight since the last lesson. As the piece is played it is performed beautifully. There seems to be an … More Crumpled & Coffee Stained
There are many points I could list here, but I have boiled them down to three. Once again, these are focused on musical performance but also could be adapted to any presentation or event where you’re on the spot. To make it even easier to digest – they rhyme: PREPARE Head in the sand isn’t … More 3 Lessons From 300 Hours of Performance (& they rhyme!)
Ok, one or all of these may be controversial. But they apply not just to a career in music. You may hold these beliefs without realising and have unknowingly created artificial hurdles to progressing. Let me know your thoughts: 1. “I’m not good enough” I hear this a lot. Especially when encouraging students to start … More Three common myths (of your own making) holding you back
April four years ago, I had signed up to compete (or in my case hopefully complete) a triathlon. I had completed some in previous years, but this one was different, I would be swimming in open water. Cue trying to squeeze lake swimming practice in to an already overflowing schedule. I had finished work and … More Near death experience – what I learnt and have taught ever since
This week Twang’s Guitar School visited a secondary school in Maidstone and challenged the year eight students to solve a problem which has been around for centuries. As captured in Johannes Vemeer painting – ‘Woman with lute’ c1660, the lute player is shown tuning the instrument – reflecting the common joke of the time … More TGS @ STEM Enrichment Day!
Twang's Guitar School 