arrange • compose • conduct
You don’t decide on your personal voice. Your personal voice is the outcome of a million decisions. Or a handful of decisions, made over and over again, until patterns emerge. The patterns reflect your preferences, your outlook, your insights. And when the patterns become well-established, you discover you have a […]
I’m transcribing a standard from Ella and Louis right now – phrasing and all. It’s…hard. Because Ella’s phrasing is so complex and hip. The back phrasing floats across beats in a way that swings and is completely ineffable. So the question becomes, how do you balance accuracy and readability? On […]
There are skills I’ve built already as a teacher during the pandemic. There are skills I hope I never have to use again. And there are skills and tools I’ve tried and said, “I’ll keep using this.” I’ll keep using remote one-on-one mini-lessons. These have been a great way to […]
I was reminded today of a yearly event that the Rockford Aces used to participate in. The local Education Foundation (nonprofit) would conduct an annual phone-a-thon fundraiser, with calls going out for six nights over two weeks. Volunteer supporters would be given a script, a stack of contact cards, and […]
I’ve been thinking about an important step in my creative process that I sometimes forget to factor in. Polishing. After I finish the arranging or composition work on a piece, my desire is to get it to the commissioning ensemble as soon as possible. But first, there needs to be […]
As my son navigates his first weeks playing the clarinet, of course he is squeaking and squawking as he learns to navigate the instrument, control his embouchure, and so many other basic skills. I reminded him that those cracks, those squeaks and squawks, are a natural part of learning to […]
I wrote for an hour today and then threw it all away. Was it a waste of an hour? It’s easy to say yes, because I finished the hour precisely NO closer to completing the project. And I’d be lying if I didn’t walk away from that precious hour a […]
Pop music tends to focus almost exclusively on romantic love as its main subject. Of course there are plenty of exceptions, but the vast majority of popular songs in the last 75 years or more have had a romantic core. (Or an obsessive core, or a core regretting a lost […]
I try to address pertinent areas of music theory musical literacy throughout my teaching – whether private, academic, or ensemble. Here’s why. Mastering musical literacy makes everything else you’re doing work more efficiently. It’s the grease on the axle that keeps you moving swiftly. The point of musical literacy is […]
I have been writing and rewriting a challenging bridge section of a piece. (It’s always the bridge, isn’t it?) For these challenging sections, it’s all about multiple drafts for me. I write, I print, I markup with a colored Flair Pen. I revise, I edit, I start again. It’s hard […]