Practicing is not only playing your instrument, either by yourself or rehearsing with others - it also includes imagining yourself practicing. Your brain forms the same neural connections and muscle memory whether you are imagining the task or actually doing it.

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I remember when I was growing up. My great wish was to understand who I was and how I fit in the world.

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Classical music is one of the best things that ever happened to mankind. If you get introduced to it in the right way, it becomes your friend for life.

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Bach takes you to a very quiet place within yourself, to the inner core, a place where you are calm and at peace.

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Music enhances the education of our children by helping them to make connections and broadening the depth with which they think and feel. If we are to hope for a society of culturally literate people, music must be a vital part of our children's education.

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When we have a good balance between thinking and feeling... our actions and lives are always the richer for it.

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I play an instrument that has four strings, and I'm still trying to get it right. What I've tried to do in the process of playing these four strings is to try and understand the people I meet, the stories they have to tell. And then become an advocate for them and their stories through music.

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I think one of the great things about being a musician is that you never stop learning.

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The worst thing you can do is say to yourself, "I want to be just like somebody else." You have to absorb knowledge from someone else, but ultimately you have to find your own voice.

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Nobody else can make the sound you make.

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