arrange • compose • conduct
My newest arrangement is now in print! “Castaways” is a great bossa nova tune that happens to be have been written for the Nick Jr. show The Backyardigans” in 2005. It later became a TikTok meme in 2021. I thought it had fantastic potential for a vocal jazz arrangement – […]
Fun and learning are not either/or. We’re taught pretty thoroughly – and consistently – in school that there are two tiers of behavior. There’s relaxed, fun, social behavior and there is serious, focused, studious behavior. The outcome is that students don’t know how to have fun while learning. They have […]
Communication is key. It’s easy to choose the shortest necessary communication. We’re all overworked, we’re all stressed. But for the sake of long-term relationships, we have to choose surplus communication. Extra words show respect, show collegiality. They tell the people we’re working with that we value them. This could look […]
Aspiring creators say yes to any gig – because they’re striving to be able to make their mark, to make their living, to make their art. They just want to make. As we get busier and more established, we still tend to say yes to as many gigs as we […]
When my students haven’t mastered things I’ve been teaching, I always assume it’s for one reason. I haven’t convinced them of the value of mastering that knowledge. If I don’t know why something is important to know, I personally have trouble holding onto it. I assume it’s the same for […]
This is where we start. I think the best educators, leaders, and collaborators have love in common. Above any skill, above any vision is love. The best educators combine a love for their subject matter with a love for each student who comes into their classroom. They love each student […]
Students can learn from watching their teachers try, fail, and try again. You’d think that consistency in one place would imply consistency in another. But even though I write every day here, with no gaps in close to 9 years, I am utterly unreliable in my weekly notes to my […]
How do you stay focused on the big picture when it’s hard to get beyond today? The tasks, the responsibilities, the small crises that make every day new just keep coming. But I try to give a few minutes every Sunday to staying ahead of the daily surprises. A couple […]
Point it out. The thing about personal growth is that it’s often hard to see. Hardest, most of all, to see in yourself. Students work hard, day after day, to develop their skills, but the incremental growth is either invisible, or so gradual that it goes unnoticed. That’s part of […]
We don’t take enough time to really talk about how hard it is to sing music well. Especially difficult, harmonically rich music. But really any vocal music. If I’m rehearsing a saxophone quartet, and the tenor plays a B-natural instead of a B-flat in a C7(b13) chord, I might stop […]