Duo.Hansen to Perform at grooveLIVE on October 15th

Duo.Hansen to Perform at grooveLIVE on October 15th

A very cool, very high quality live experience is coming direct to your desktop or mobile device on Monday, October 15th….

Join us for the inaugural grooveLIVE stream on FB!

Adam and Julia Hansen are an innovative American violin and cello duo. They have been performing, improvising and composing together for over a decade. Due to the limited library of works available for violin and cello duo, in 2013 they began focusing their attention on composing and arranging new works to expand the repertoire. In 2016 they began featuring these new works on their YouTube channel Duo.Hansen, which has now reached over 1 million views.

Product Review: Sabian 20" Zen China

Product Review: Sabian 20" Zen China

Sabian has certainly cemented itself as one of the major cymbal manufacturers along with Zildjian (my personal fave) and Paiste. Sabian is a relatively newer company (although many companies are newer than Zildjian, which was founded in 1623 - yes, you read that right).

One of the lines of products I have thought highly of has been Sabian’s HHX line, which is somewhat analogous to Zildjian’s K series. The pieces are mostly darker in tone, more geared towards jazz than rock, although you will find many rock players with Sabian HHXs on their kits.

Creativity in Decline?

Creativity in Decline?

There can be no reasonable dispute that creativity is an integral part of innovation and of entrepreneurship. One of the problems with thinking about creativity as a life skill is that creativity is difficult to quantify and measure. More on that in a minute.

The “traditional” advice that kids should study hard in school, get good grades so that they can “get a good job” misses a very large point. I use the quotation marks to show some disdain for traditional thinking. Traditional thinking is a good way to get suck in a rut and put yourself far away from your goals if you aren’t careful.

Here is the point that the traditional advice misses: the effort of the students is only one aspect of the development of creativity.

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Book Review: Creative Quest, by Questlove

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Book Review: Creative Quest, by Questlove

Perhaps one of the most prolific creators of today is Amir K. Thompson, who is better known as Questlove to the millions of people who see him lead The Roots every weeknight on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.  For most performers, The Tonight Show gig would be the capstone achievement in a career. Not so here. The Tonight Show gig is really only one of a handful of Questlove’s simultaneous creative pursuits that seemingly defy human capacity.  How does he do all those projects, and do them all at such a high level?  

The mind reels when you consider that in addition to co-leading The Roots with Tariq Trotter, Questlove: 1) teaches at New York University; 2) has published multiple books, and several of those of those books (including Creative Quest) have landed on the New York Times Best Seller List, which I’d argue is still the gold standard of legitimacy (or at least commercial viability - more on that later); 3) gigs extensively as a DJ and 4) runs The Roots Picnic, an annual summer music festival in Philadelphia that is hugely popular.  This list is non-exhaustive, and omits the radio show, the podcast and quite a few other things, but you get the picture.