. . when the initial excitement of playing starts to evaporate, good habits are needed to sustain the learning process.

Failing to remember is the primary reason for most performers' poor practising habits.

The most valuable practice aid is patience.

It is the height of professionalism to be able to make an ordinary piece of music sound good. When playing routine melodic studies the player must treat them as if they are musical value.

The underlying aim of practice . .is to create certainty through the development of high-quality listening.

Good listening is always the first step in the process that creates technique and capability

As soon as effective listening takes place, the ear identifies what needs to be done and guides the techniques search for a solution

Sound is not simply what we hear or play, but equally a feeling in the body

The central truth that serves as the platform for Christian marriage — and for all Christian relationships — is that in Christ we are at every moment eternally loved and genuinely significant.

The biggest difference between between religious people and gospel-loving people is that religious people see certain people as the enemies, when Jesus-followers see sin as the enemy.

My heart thrashes in time with my feet pounding across the cold, hard ground. I can’t run any faster, longer, and yet I must. My life and my family’s survival depends on it.

when true purpose calls, double mindedness, confusion and frustration come along.

I guess mercy is a muscle like any other. You got to exercise it, or it just cramp right up.

I wanted no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses into the human heart.

In my experience the difference between a straight and a bisexual is about four pints

Creativity thrives on a consistent diet of challenges and opportunities, which are often one and the same.

We could say the government spend like drunken sailors, but that would be unfair to drunken sailors, because the sailors are spending their own money.

When you get older your dad becomes this other man rather than a scary man, and you have a friendship.