Resources and Free Downloads

Open Culture Is The Bomb

“The best free cultural & educational media on the web.” Links to free: audio books (550), online courses (1,100), MOOCs (1000+), movies (700), language study (300 lessons), textbooks (200), eBooks (700), business courses (150), K-12 education, art & images, music. Such a deal!

8 Diatonic Patterns

Playing scales only straight up and down in octaves in of limited usefulness and is soon boring. Spice up your routine by practicing various patterns!

Lifehacker – Advice and Tips on Life

Lifehacker.com  We love stuff like this: all kinds of bits of information about all kinds of things. Sample article titles: “10 Professional Kitchen Tool I Use in My Kitchen, “Coding isn’t about commands; it’s about learning concepts”; “Most Popular Business Card Printing Site”; “8 Surprising Household Uses for Chalk”; “Remember people’s names and faces by creating visual hooks for them”; “The best time to buy anything during the year.” And so on.

Do Nothing For 2 Minutes

Let’s face it: we’re all adrenaline junkies. We do too much, can’t sit still, check our email/Facebook too much, have forgotten how to de-stress, relax, shut down even momentarily the shrill blah blah radio in our heads (this becomes especially important when we’re trying to perform on the horn). This web site shows a lovely photo of the ocean at sunset and challenges you to simply listen to the sound of waves and watch the sunset for 2 minutes without interruption. If you can’t (even moving the cursor), you “fail.” But you can try again. It’s harder to do than it looks. Give it a try.

Groove Based Practice

As far as the rhythmic aspect is concerned, traditional horn etudes use mostly simple (duple and triple) meter and rhythms. Contemporary etudes may use more complex rhythms or meter, but often aperiodically or irregularly. What’s missing? Groove!