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Learn with Mike

by Michael Compitello

Thoughts on history, culture, music, the details of our world, and how learning matters. Written by a musician and professor, Learn with Mike provides insight and resources for those looking to maximize their creative potential through developing the skill of learning. Also posts from On Learning Percussion, my more practical posts about musical learning that I hope are helpful for curious learners.

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Featured Post

Coincidences, Coincidences

Dear Reader, I have an obsessive personality. It’s not great for watching Battlestar Galactica, but is a net positive. But, when I become fixated on something, it’s helpful to ask why my brain might be pointing me towards something. This week, a few obsessions became unwittingly intertwined, and I felt the need to shed them in preparation for a new semester of teaching. The locus: a hairpin. Coincidence #1 I’m currently reading Christopher Berg’s Practicing Music by Design, a fascinating look...

over 1 year ago • 5 min read

LEARN WITH MIKE Thoughts on history, culture, music, the details of our world, and why learning matters. From Michael Compitello 04/19/2024 Most of the time I write about “sticky” thoughts: ideas that have remained front of mind across numerous disciplines. But, while I’m reading about maps, Chopin’s placement of dotted 8th/16th note figures, and wondering about how referees train to execute basketball jump balls, I’m trying to put into practice ideas about how to make the teaching of musical...

22 days ago • 3 min read

ON LEARNING PERCUSSION Practice tips, musings on musicianship, and ideas about productivity, advocacy, and more. From Michael Compitello 03/08/2024 With a little bit of space between performances, and a number of doctoral students graduating this semester (get it, team!), I’ve been on a pedagogical kick, rounding up materials I’ve generated over the past few years and working to connect the dots between theory and practice. The scaffolding of my work on learning has become more clearly...

2 months ago • 1 min read

LEARN WITH MIKE Thoughts on history, culture, music, the details of our world, and why learning matters. From Michael Compitello 02/29/2024 I’m pleased to announce the release of the MikeDrop Podcast, a joint venture between myself and percussionist Mike Truesdell: Logo by Shaun Tilburg Mike and I chat almost daily about our approaches to music-making, productivity, pedagogy, and more, and we are going public, sharing some of our insights into issues facing contemporary musicians while...

2 months ago • 1 min read

ON LEARNING PERCUSSION Practice tips, musings on musicianship, and ideas about productivity, advocacy, and more. From Michael Compitello 02/23/2024 Happy Friday! Timber I'm back from a tour with Beyond This Point, an interesting multi-disciplinary ensemble based in Boston. We traversed some crazy weather around AZ for a number of performances of Michael Gordon's Timber, which, for those of you unfamiliar, is scored for 6 planks of wood. For this version, Reclaimed Timber, we sourced locally...

3 months ago • 1 min read

ON LEARNING PERCUSSION Practice tips, musings on musicianship, and ideas about productivity, advocacy, and more. From Michael Compitello 01/29/2024 Mike Truesdell and I have been steadily recording in advance of our eventual MikeDrop podcast drop. We got impatient and went live last Friday to share some ideas, tips, and best practices for college auditions. You can watch it here: Mike and I offered some specific tips and things to consider before auditioning. But, our minds drifted to the big...

3 months ago • 2 min read

LEARN WITH MIKE From Michael Compitello 01/29/2024 We were fortunate a few weeks ago to host my dear friend Leilehua Lanzilotti here at ASU for a program at ASU’s Humanities Institute, in which she discussed concepts of Radical Indigenous Contemporaneity, specifically related to her new opera project Lili‘u, which looks amazing.Also, I love that she has a historical context website. After hearing her piece ahupuaʻa performed by the Argus quartet in Tucson and performing Leilehua’s Gray, both...

3 months ago • 4 min read

ON LEARNING PERCUSSION Practice tips, musings on musicianship, and ideas about productivity, advocacy, and more. From Michael Compitello 01/19/2024 Today is the end of our second week of classes at ASU, and with a return to the semester comes a renewed focus on fundamentals. It’s hard to get more fundamental than our fulcrum. Talking about fulcrums is like talking about Bach: everyone has an opinion, and everyone else is WRONG! Thus, I’ve hesitated to share my own thoughts on the topic. In...

4 months ago • 1 min read

ON LEARNING PERCUSSION Practice tips, musings on musicianship, and ideas about productivity, advocacy, and more. From Michael Compitello 12/22/2023 The Importance of Thinking Big to Acting Small I started On Learning Percussion with the intention of sharing out the pedagogical materials I’ve developed over my years being inspired by mentors, peers, and students. Creating a publicly available database of ideas about learning and practicing percussion is important to me, as I believe there is a...

5 months ago • 4 min read

LEARN WITH MIKE/ ON LEARNING PERCUSSION From Michael Compitello 12/06/2023 If you’re not a percussionist, you might not know that I write a weekly (well, quasi-weekly) newsletter with practical practice and learning tips for percussionists and, I hope, other music-makers. I’ve covered topics from warming up (it’s also practicing), charting practice progress (go charts), refining one’s writing (editing is your friend), reflection (not just for mirrors), and more. It's a more...

5 months ago • 14 min read

ON LEARNING PERCUSSION Weekly (kind of) practice tips, musings on musicianship, and ideas about productivity, advocacy, and more. From Michael Compitello 11/17/2023 Hot on the heels of my college application guide, I bring you some tips on writing personal statements. Many schools, fellowships, and festivals ask for a personal statement on the application. Telling your story in a powerful manner can be challenging… Wait, don’t stop reading! Practicing writing is exactly the same as working on...

6 months ago • 4 min read
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