LOCATION
1235 SE Division Street, Suite 111 :: Portland OR 97202
(503) 577-2311 call/text
squirrel @ whirlingsquirrel dot com
CLICK HERE FOR A MAP
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
JOIN THE POSSE
FACEBOOK
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
Tag Archives: portland music
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
5 Comments
new logo-ish
Wow. I can play the guitar, teach guitar, and program computers, but I sure as heck can’t design. Here’s my hilarious “logo.”
Lessons for “ADD” people
ADD people … are they just bored? I taught a 7 year old the basics of “Fake Plastic Trees” by Radiohead yesterday. After that, another student, age 8, learned about key signatures and inheritance of accidentals in key signatures, … Continue reading
Posted in motivation inspiration creativity, music lessons, portland oregon
Tagged portland guitar lessons, portland guitar studio, portland guitar teacher, portland mandolin lessons, portland mandolin teacher, portland midi, portland music, portland music lessons, portland music production, portland piano lessons, portland piano teacher, portland synths
1 Comment
Kinesthetic Music Lessons
Last week, one of my new students (a longtime sculptor) said, “Amanda, when I look at this piece of paper, something weird happens in my brain.” Interestingly, the student/sculptor was describing the logic behind one of my teaching methods. … Continue reading
Posted in motivation inspiration creativity, music lessons
Tagged auditory, kinesthetic, learning concepts, learning music, music, music theory, portland guitar lessons, portland guitar teacher, portland mandolin teacher, portland music, portland music lessons, portland piano teacher, portland voice teacher, visual
2 Comments