Having been both a musician and music educator for most of my life, when I hear about cutbacks in music education, I often find it hard to bite my lip and keep quiet. Close to 200,000 teacher jobs bit the dust last year, and many school music programs were either hit hard or obliterated altogether. So to ring in the new year, I decided this

Like a serene ocean it sits — silent, massive and enchanting. The world of music is both vast and fascinating. Specifically, learning to read music can be alternately dull and exciting. You must endure the moments of the first to get to the moments of the last, which usually come when you are reading music as you are