arrange • compose • conduct
Posts discussing creativity, both in and outside of music
Every activity that we engage in – work, hobby, personal – asks us to prioritize it. But how can you prioritize everything? What does prioritizing look like? As a freelancer, I have a lot of projects I’m working on at any time. For those, I prioritize based on immediate need […]
I have a lot of ideas that don’t amount to anything. We all do. When I’m trying to create, I often try a lot of ideas that don’t lead to very much. It’s only when I stumble (it often feels like stumbling) across a unifying concept that the creative work […]
I heard this conversation on the latest episode of the wonderful and uplifting Harry Potter and the Sacred Text podcast. Casper ter Kuile: In some ways you might get more out of reading the same thing 100 times, than out of reading 100 things once. […] Stephanie Paulsell: Absolutely. I […]
Alice Parker describes two silences: first, the inchoate silence, the preparatory silence before music begins; and second, the silence of completion, after the music ends. One of the most intriguing dances of creation is the dance with inchoate silence. I am composing a set of canons right now; and I […]
Adam Grant: I have noticed, over the last couple of years, that you seem to really enjoy contradicting yourself. Malcolm Gladwell: I do! AG: Why? MG: Well, I’m more worried about not contradicting myself. So, I would be very concerned if I was still saying the same things today as […]
Most creative projects have two distinct phases: Make it. On your own. Share it. With the world. The bridge between phase 1 and 2 is a tiny, gigantic step: showing it to someone. Showing the creative work to one person can be scarier than going from that person to an […]
Sometimes Sir Ken Robinson’s passionate, funny, brilliant keynote speeches (there are many) move me to tears. Here’s an extended quote from one he gave a few years ago at the California Teachers Summit. [The quote begins just before 9:00 in] In it, he differentiates three related terms: learning, education, and […]
I have recently begun a new practice of posting my daily post early on Patreon. In terms of my writing work, there has been no change. At the moment, I write in the evenings, as my kids get ready for bed, or just after. (My practice changes over time, because […]
In this excellent podcast conversation, Brené Brown and Adam Grant discuss the difference between pursuing success and pursuing mastery. Success is an external motivator – its focus is in how you are received by the world. Mastery is an internal motivator – its focus is in how you interact with […]
Real artists are generous. Even as they work to make a living at their art, they give as much as they collect. This month, our family ordered some chocolates from a Belgian artisan that we believe makes some of the finest anywhere (and which figured in our early dating, while […]