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tradition is but a springboard—from there, bonsai is limitless
from the blog
How Limitation Can Spark: Keith Jarrett’s Köln Concert
Keith Jarrett arrived in Koln, Germany to discover the grand piano he’d requested for his concert wasn’t there. By mistake, a baby grand sat on stage at the opera house, in a condition a lot worse than just out of tune. The pedals didn’t work. And it had poor bass and a tinny upper register. […]
Bonsai Integration
A couple weeks ago I posted about a Yellow Cedar, and got a few comments which said it wasn’t integrated. Which is a great critique. Because it isn’t. And I teach integration. Let’s use this Cedar as a sacrificial example, and compare it to others that are well-integrated. And then I’ll explain why I’ve not […]
An Important Distinction: ‘Decandling’ and ‘Breaking’ Pine Shoots
This is an edited post from 2016 on a topic I get asked a lot—deciding whether to break or decandle a pine. For starters, let’s define decandling and breaking— Breaking (or pinching) means taking part of the shoot off, usually with fingers, as the shoot is extending in early to mid-spring, and before the needles […]