When Teens And Kids Grow As Musicians, They Also Grow As People

I founded NYC’s largest rock-and-roll summer camp back in 2008, when my own kids were small. (They are now 15, 19 and 21.) Since then, some of our students have signed with major labels, or have become professional musicians or music teachers. But most simply enjoyed playing in bands, writing and arranging songs, performing shows and making friends as they grew up. Either route is awesome. Ultimat

In Spider Man: No Way Home, teenager Peter Parker and his friends have a big problem–and it isn’t a supervillain or a rift in the space time continuum.  It’s worse: they don’t get into their dream college. In fact, it is a desperate attempt to reverse fate and get into that highly selective school which results in a plague of supervillains from other dimensions.  As I sat in the th

I’m passionate about guitar–and I’m super passionate about self-improvement, practice routines and being an effective parent to my three kids. To my surprise, when I started writing blogs about those topics, they received way more engagement (and student signups) than the previous posts about scales and barre chords. So, here’s another parenting blog from a guitar school founder and guitar p

Yes! It’s Called A RITUAL. Here’s How It Works. When there is so much craziness in the world, what is the point of reading (or writing) articles on effective habits and routines? Simple–we need our personal peace and effectiveness more than ever! Having better habits helps us be more resilient and effective in adversity–and it’s more fun, too!  In my last “habits of greatness” blo

The Bad News? As Parents In Uncertain Times, We Can Pass Fear And Anxiety On To Our Children.  But The Good News Is That We Can Also Teach Them Faith And Resilience. Fellow parents, we are raising our children in uncertain times!  There are unpredictable–and disturbing–winds blowing. In this blog post, I’m going to show that when we communicate to our children the truth that

When there is so much craziness in the world, what is the point of reading (or writing) articles on effective habits and routines? Simple–we need our personal peace and effectiveness more than ever! Having better habits helps us be more resilient and effective in adversity–and it’s more fun, too!  In my last “habits of greatness” blog post, I wrote about the power of using everyda

  As parents, we want to raise capable, self-reliant children who can reach their goals and have healthy relationships.  We also want to raise children with the courage and skill to be a positive influence in the world.  Right? In this blog post, I’m going to promote the use of a single word—with a question mark—as a way to empower your child to get better results as an individual and as a contrib

  Practicing and playing music is good for ourselves and others. There’s a famous phrase, “Nero fiddled while Rome burned” which expresses the idea of totally missing the point in a moment of crisis. It’s based on the story of the famously depraved and ineffective Emperor playing his violin on the walls of Rome as a great fire swept the city. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, this story is

  Musings From Parenting In Quarantine        Like me, I know that you and your family are well into a reality that includes coronavirus, and probably some anxiety and uncertainty as well.      For most of us, our children are in the lower risk category, which is a relief. Our society’s response is, quite properly, focused on preventing the spread of coronavirus to protect those who are at more ri

       Do you ever have screen related conflict with your kids? I do! And I feel kinda bad about it. In fact, sometimes I wonder if it is worth the strain on the relationship to insist on things like no screens in bedrooms, reading before screens, etc.      But guess what I just figured out? Awesome people who are parents who don’t have screen rules also feel bad about the whole screen thing.