2. If you cannot manage to get through with study of work set for you, inform your teacher of it before beginning lesson. A few measures practiced thoroughly are better than a whole exercise or piece studied superficially.

3. Never waste time strumming on piano. The more conscientiously you practice, sooner you will be able to play anything you like. Five or ten minutes well applied will do a great deal towards improving your technique. Never practice, however, without being properly seated and without concentrating your whole mind upon your work.

4. Never begin to practice before having ascertained and made clear to yourself all about key, time, rhythm, and phrasing of piece. Think over every measure and determine upon best way of playing it.

5. When taking up a new exercise, carefully guard against first mistake. Remember: "prevention is better than cure;" it is always easier to avoid a mistake than correct it. The fingers are only too apt to repeat mistakes once made, and thus to accustom themselves to bad habits.

6. Every technical difficulty must be overcome and mastered by a special exercise. Similarly, every passage or part in a movement must be practiced, or worked up, till it can be played with exactness and precision of clockwork. Every detail in a piece must be studied and mastered separately, until whole can be rendered in a truly artistic manner.

I’ve gotten hooked on “American Idol.”

I know, I know, I wish one of y’all would just walk up and slap me right now. Bad thing is, I can’t figure out why. I didn’t watch one episode of it first three seasons it was on, and it didn’t bother me in least. I thought people were crazy for putting so much emphasis on Ruben, Clay, and Fantasia. I mean, if you multiplied any one of them by a thousand you still wouldn’t have someone worthy enough to help Elvis get dressed for a show. But, despite all that, I’m hooked.

It started innocently enough. A few months ago, I was in front of TV one night with my daughter Alison, and she mentioned that “American Idol” was about to come on. I was going to get up and go do something else, but she asked me to stay and watch it with her. And that’s how it all got started.

The show was broadcast out of Las Vegas or St. Louis or somewhere, and thousands of people had shown up to audition. The auditions themselves were pretty simple - contestants walked in and sang in front of three judges, Randy, Paula, and Simon, who collectively decided whether or not to pass them on to next round. When first contestant came out, my curiosity perked up a little.

She was a tad on healthy side, no, let‘s be honest, she didn’t look like too many Butterfinger bars had ever escaped her grasp. What made it even worse was that she had this black dress on with things that looked like octopus tentacles hanging off bottom. I could tell that judges wanted to laugh out loud, and when she started singing, man oh man, a truck full of hogs running into a crate filled with ducks would’ve sounded better. She was simply horrible. And right at that moment, I became hooked, and then I figured out why....