arrange • compose • conduct
I’m on a backpacking trip with my son and a few others this weekend; I’m thinking about the process for planning for a backpacking trip. Backpacking effectively is about essentials. What do you need? Because you’ll have to carry it all. When you really assess the essentials, you can tend […]
One of the gifts of teaching music beyond the Western canon is the opportunity to teach music that does not hold score fidelity as an essential ingredient. Vocal harmony music – vocal jazz, contemporary a cappella, and related genres – offers a multitude of opportunities to teach beyond the score. […]
It’s time to talk about gathering. There’s no better source for rethinking gatherings than the amazing book The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker. I reread it last month in preparation, and am writing a series of blogs next week examining each chapter and what it has to say about […]
Big transitions leave me adrift. Unable to focus, I wander. Unable to move fluidly from one state to the other, I vacillate. In the end, I move through the big transitions by: Making lists. Trusting the passage of time. Distracting myself with unrelated projects while never leaving the transition, mentally. […]
Are you ready? That’s the message I’m sending to my students this week. Are you ready? Because the calendar moves steadily along. Because there’s so much music-making, learning, and camaraderie in store. Because we’re almost there. Are you ready? I’m rested and rejuvenated from a month of family. Rested, rejuvenated […]
Every performer in the world needs an audience. And to get one, they have to ask people to come and see their performance. No one will come to your thing unless you personally ask them. That’s a message I always try to drive home before my Aces Concert, because they […]
When I was teaching my kids to swim, I had a mantra that I repeated and asked them to repeat. “You’re Always Safe With Dad.” If they were going to take the risks they needed to take to learn to swim, they needed to know that their safety was utterly […]
Don’t you worry about repeating yourself? That’s a question that might be lobbed at a prolific blogger or author or composer. I certainly used to worry about it with regards to my posts here, or even with my composition and arranging – I felt I should always seek to say […]
One of my main criticisms of typical “acapop” arrangements comes down to this question: Would it sound better if those parts were being played by instruments? So much of pop a cappella consists of straight lifts from original band recordings, and minimal adaptation to vocal writing. The problem is, that […]
When a portrait artist starts work, they start with clear shapes and bold lines. Over time, those shapes and lines are softened with shading until the picture becomes clear. But the artist can’t just start with the shading: they build to it. I think experienced professionals are sometimes hesitant to […]