LOCATION
1235 SE Division Street, Suite 111 :: Portland OR 97202
(503) 577-2311 call/text
squirrel @ whirlingsquirrel dot com
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WHIRLING SQUIRREL 101
“Study hard what interests you the most in the most undisciplined, irreverent and original manner possible.”
Richard FeynmanCLASSES
- Portland Metal Guitar Lessons
- Portland Electronic Music Lessons
- Portland Mandolin Lessons
- Portland Beginner Piano Lessons
- Portland Ukulele Lessons
- Portland Rock Guitar Lessons
- Portland Beginner Guitar Lessons
- Portland Fingerstyle Guitar Lessons
- Portland Blues Guitar Lessons
- Lessons for Kids: Beginning Guitar, Piano or other
- Portland Ableton Live Lessons
- Portland Voice Lessons
- Portland Beginner Piano Lessons
- Whirling Squirrel Music Scholarships
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INSPIRATION
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool."
Richard Feynman
"All children share the quality of free play, open access to their spontaneous creativity and imagination. Although each of us carries that essential source of creativity within us, as we grow older we develop layers of inhibition and judgment that shut us off from this source. Whether or not we are artists, we have a need to express ourselves, but much of the time we feel blocked and frustrated. Our capacity for critical judgment makes a wonderful servant but a terrible master!"
Stephen Nachmanovitch (link here)
"Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through."
Ira Glass
link here
“I don't know what's the matter with people: they don't learn by understanding, they learn by some other way — by rote or something. Their knowledge is so fragile!”
Richard FeynmanRecent Comments
Blogroll
Author Archives: amanda
Disk Allocation in Digital Recording
Many musicians just randomly open their DAW (Digital Audio Workstation such as Pro Tools, Logic, Sonar etc) and create files and hit SAVE when done. No bueno. You are definitely going to have file problems. Disk allocation in music recording … Continue reading
How To Buy a Guitar For Your Child
Buying A Kid A Guitar Related Articles: • How to buy an inexpensive guitar • How to buy a child a beginning guitar • How to buy strings When it’s time to go guitar shopping for a child under the age of 11, … Continue reading
Recommended Music Stores & Repair Shops In Portland
Recommended Music Stores & Repair Shops In Portland There are a lot of great shops, here are the shops run by my good friends (they also happen to be the best). For me it’s important to not only recommend people … Continue reading
Posted in buying an instrument, portland oregon, technical articles
Tagged buy a guitar pdx, buy a guitar portland, buy a keyboard portland oregon, music store, music stores, pdx, portland guitar, portland keyboards, portland music shop, portland oregon guitar shop, portland oregon synth shop
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Sampling 101
This is an excerpt from a private lesson entitled Sampling 101 Class with Whirling Squirrel Music. To schedule a lesson at the Portland Oregon music studion or over Skype for distance education, click here. This is not a lesson for … Continue reading
How To Buy A Cheap Beginning Guitar
How to Buy a Cheap Guitar For A Beginner Related Articles: • How to buy an inexpensive guitar • How to buy a child a beginning guitar • How to buy strings 1 – Avoid High Action – but not so low that … Continue reading
Posted in buying an instrument, How to: buy a stringed instrument - guitar, mandolin, bass, ukulele, technical articles
Tagged adult, beginning guitar, buy a guitar, cheap guitar, children, guitar beginning, guitar shop portland, oregon, pdx, portland buy a guitar, portland oregon shop, purchase a guitar
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Lego Robotics
Tomorrow and Sunday, I’m a judge for the Oregon Lego Robotics tournaments. I’m lucky enough to be able to do a lot of interesting things, but I’m posting this to the Whirling Squirrel site because it involves kids. I’m so excited … Continue reading
In the studio: recording metal with Pro Tools
I’ve been recording a political heavy metal album that’s still kinda secret, with a few friends. This project will involve a LOT of editing on my part, as we are editing our music around clips (which clips exactly, will remain … Continue reading
Music Teachers
I get a the occasional email or phone call from other music teachers, requesting information on how to teach music and run a music lesson business. I’ve received these kinds of calls for years and I’ve finally implemented a solution. … Continue reading
Posted in guitar lessons, music lessons, portland guitar teacher
Tagged ableton live, consulting, guitar, music teacher for music teachers, musician, musician consulting, portland, portland guitar lessons, portland mandolin, portland music lessons, portland synth, portland ukulele, running a music instruction business, running your music business
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What kind of strings should I buy for my electric guitar?
What strings to buy for a guitar? String gauge This is the “thickness” or diameter of the strings. Musicians refer to guitar strings by the gauge of the high E string. A “set of 10′s” is lighter (smaller in diameter) … Continue reading
Portland Lessons: Ableton Live, beatmaking, programming electronic music
Let’s make some beats I’ve been teaching the guitar in Portland for 11 years. Over time I became bored with the guitar, and focused on playing synthesizers, and using programs like Ableton Live and Reason for music performance and production. … Continue reading
Posted in ableton live lessons, electronic music, synthesizers
Tagged ableton live, ableton live instruction, ableton live instructor, portland guitar lessons, portland guitar teacher, portland keyboard lessons, portland music, portland music teacher, portland piano lessons, portland synthesizer lessons
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