jedscott

The biannual ACDA 2019 National Conference starts tonight in Kansas City.  Although I won’t be attending this year, I have many friends and colleagues who are, so I’m sharing some previews. I’ve prepared a cheat sheet of conference offerings that appeal to my particular interests: vocal jazz, TTBB Choirs, and composing/arranging. I’ll offer separate posts […]

So far, our school district has had fifteen – fifteen! – Snow Days in the 2018-19 school year. But Snow Day is a catchall phrase. We have had school canceled due to: Snow Freezing rain High winds Glaze ice Sub-zero temperatures And even, in September, heat! So it got me […]

Welcome to Week 18 of The Definitive Version, a regular feature of my website. You can read more about the project here and read all past entries here. Song: “All Of Me” (1931)Composers/Lyricists: Gerald Marks and Seymour SimonsForm: ABACStandard Key: C Major. Marks & Simons were both successful Tin Pan Alley songwriters with […]

“Painting should make you happy, if nothing else.” – Bob Ross There are those who seek to make Art with a capital A. And they are likely to disdain those painters like Bob Ross, who made joy the point of his art. Well, count me with Bob Ross. Choral music […]

Here are four vocal warmups I’ve been experimenting with, along with rationale for their use. Mississippi – the state everyone loves to spell as fast as possible. It introduces two concepts simultaneously – odd meter/metric division and clear diction. And the spelling is familiar enough for American singers that it […]

In the wake of the truly historic school-canceling winter we’ve had, I have heard this question a few times: why can’t we have online school on Snow Days? I suppose we could have “Digital Snow Days”…if we solved the following problems. Contracts need to be renegotiated to provide for teachers […]

Whenever I feel stress about succeeding in an upcoming project, I lean heavily on this self-reminder: “I’ve never not.” I’ve never not overcome a temporary block to finish writing. I’ve never not made it to the end of the concert. I’ve never not gotten caught up on sleep…eventually. I’ve never […]

My family adopted a dog this past autumn, and we soon discovered that she’s a walker. Big time. She needs a minimum four miles a day to be settled at the end of the day. Her upper limit for daily mileage? We haven’t found it yet. The magic of this […]

There are times when your students are learning, and you want to give all the knowledge to them. Here’s bitonal chords! Jacob Collier! Don’t forget The Mills Brothers! Ella Fitzgerald! Audra McDonald! John Cage! Einstein on the Beach! Alice Parker! Gene Puerling! Stravinsky! Rhapsody In Blue! Sondheim! Diminished Scales! Schenkerian […]

“Saying the quiet part out loud” is a description used for when a politician accidentally speaks their inner monologue, rather than the “official” line. In other words, they are revealing the deep inner motivations for their actions. You might buy that interpretation of a politician’s actions, and you might not. […]