arrange • compose • conduct
Posts specifically about choral music
I want my students to graduate with the same constellation of skills, regardless of the year they graduate. There needs to be some consistency to the experience, year after year. I want to have novelty – I am teaching between 15 and 20 pieces per year to each of my […]
I am very occasionally late to rehearsal. I don’t love it, but I do like to learn one important thing about the ensemble. The ensemble that is owned by the conductor waits for the conductor to start. The ensemble that is self-owned starts when it’s time to start. I love […]
Last week I said a contemporary choral piece we’re working on “sounds kind of metal to me.” I got pushback: this isn’t a metal piece by any stretch of the imagination, and moreover, it’s being sung a cappella – metal has thumping bass, distorted guitars, massive drums. But I stand […]
Two recently resurfaced arguments that in my brain are long-settled. “You can’t sing straight-tone healthfully.” I can’t believe vocal educators are still saying that, when the evidence is clear that that is simply not the case. Any style of singing can be healthy. Any style of singing can be unhealthy. […]
I’ve been busy this week, among other things, prepping three of my old scores for publication. These are arrangements from various dates in the past – the oldest more than 15 years old. I am certainly no longer emotionally tied to these old scores, which allows me to really assess […]
I stopped rehearsal last week to ask an important question. “I just said to make that AH vowel taller. But was I talking to everyone?” No, probably not. So I followed up with, “Who here has taller than average vowels in the group?” About a third of the group raised […]
A big part of singing close harmony is personal time spent learning your parts. “Sing it like it’s a solo” my teachers would say. But a big part, and one I didn’t hear as often as a student, is that you have to make friends with the dissonance. Dissonance can […]
We talked in rehearsal today about the skill of initiative, in the context of working our way through John Wooden’s Pyramid of Success. One of my students succinctly defined it as, “Doing things without being told to do them.” (He also said his mom is often telling him to find […]
This is just a semi-regular reminder that arranging is composition. Aside from creating a melody, every aspect of composing is exactly mirrored in arranging. Key selection, shaping of form, orchestration choices, methods of development and creative adapting of the melody: these are all present in good arranging as well as […]
I start out each week planning the perfect rehearsal. Efficient! Fun! Productive! There is music, and laughter, and camaraderie, and mutual respect among all people in the rehearsal. This, of course, never happens. I plan the perfect rehearsal, but I never plan on the perfect rehearsal! Why? There’s a sporting […]