jedscott

“Must be nice to have all those Snow Days!” said many people. Well, here we are at the end of April, and I can unequivocally say: Nope. Set aside the curriculum adjustments and the uncertainty over when the school year will end with make-up days tied up in the state […]

Conducting is a way to enable people to give their best. And, of course, that takes a certain amount of control. […] Sometimes, conductors become too control freaks. […] I want them to set the standard for, also, a younger generation of conductors to be actually talking about making music together […]

One of my favorite places to reflect on pacing and its effect on success is in the studio. When a studio session is going well, one good take leads inexorably to the next good take. A flow evolves that seems to induce better and better singing/playing out of the group. […]

How often do you say “I made the wrong call” in the course of a school year? Not to yourself, or to a confidant. How often do you say it to your singers, to your students. As small as “I made a wrong call on the phrasing of this piece.” […]

It’s a great mantra for anyone learning anything new. Slow. Down. “If you can’t sing it slow, you can’t sing it fast,” my mentor would say. But of course it’s true for everything from writing to cooking to teaching to learning. We start slow. The unspoken corollary, and one I […]

The hardest part of teaching is being present. Truly, deeply present. The hardest part isn’t grading the essays. It isn’t selecting, teaching, and honing the right octavos for festival. It isn’t preparing a masterful lesson on the quadratic formula. The hardest part is being present – truly, deeply present for […]

Had a day where everything clicked? Do it again tomorrow. Had a day when nothing went right? Do it again tomorrow. The repetition is what makes progress happen. Don’t get over-confident when you have a great day, and don’t get discouraged on a bad one. Just keep doing the work, […]

Great works of art are always worth the wait. Michelangelo’s David will impress when you get to Florence – no matter how long you’ve waited. Same with the Mona Lisa, the Great Wall of China, the Eiffel Tower. The Real Group live. In all cases, you can get a sense […]

Have you tried replacing a demand with a question? Instead of “Have this memorized next Monday!” – ask the question. “Can you have this memorized for next week?” Not a rhetorical question. Wait for a response. Overwhelmingly, in my experience, the answer is “yes.” And with that yes comes more […]

On our college choir tour, we jumped off the bus for our free day in Paris – and ran hand-in-hand to Notre Dame, where we heard Sunday Mass with Duruflé sung by a stunning choir. Quite the spot for a first date, nineteen years ago in May. Notre Dame has […]