arrange • compose • conduct
Writing music to impress is an essential stage of a composer’s development. You might need to impress your early supporters, your teachers, your classmates and colleagues. It’s an essential stage. Let it be a stage. The best music you’ll write is on the other side of that stage. When you […]
A piece and your ensemble’s relationship with it will continue to evolve after its first performance. Best to let that evolution happen before the official premiere! Premiere performances can bring a lot of stress. The performers feel a duty to bring the piece to life in its first performance. There […]
Get art as close as possible to its final form to hone the last 10%. I’m looking at a printed draft of our tour program for next month. After several hours over a couple of weeks cleaning it up in InDesign, I realized that I needed it on paper. There […]
How do you know it’s your passion? I have written music at every hour of the day and night. I have the times I gravitate towards in 2023, but 2013 me used different parts of the day, and 2003 me was frantically writing a thesis and arrangements for class – […]
I love the magic of a piece before we sight read it. But it can’t last. Especially when it’s a new commission, the time between having the piece in hand and passing it out to students is particularly magical. First, because I’m the only person in the world who knows […]
I’m busy editing a number of scores. What else is new? It’s a privilege that I get to work with new works by other people frequently, in addition to my own writing. As I work through the editing process, I realize that the editing process is really never, ever finished. […]
Don’t take your creations too seriously. At least, I don’t. The third time my students read a rhythm differently than written yesterday, I changed it on the spot. As I said to them, “Just because I wrote it doesn’t mean I got it right!” I can make mistakes in my […]
Theory is good for understanding music. Well, the right theory for the right music. Roman Numeral analysis isn’t so great for understanding contemporary pop. Jazz theory isn’t great for Renaissance motets. Counterpoint is a great tool to clarify some aspects of much music, but if you’re trying to understand an […]
The more clarity you can give to the musicians reading the music, the better the reading will be. Nowhere is that more essential than when in a reading session like the Rockford Choirs Cabaret I do every year. We have a full band and allow just five minutes per song […]
I believe in the value of the D.S. It can save space in a score, making it easier to print; it can make it easier to learn a piece, because you don’t have to notice that a section is identical – it’s the actual same measures. It is also a […]