arrange • compose • conduct
Posts discussing creativity, both in and outside of music
I’m a big believer in not waiting for the muse to strike in my creative work. I don’t wait for the muse to inspire me to bake bread: I bake bread when the bread bags are empty. In the same way, I do creative work when there is creative work […]
Alice Parker, describing her work for Robert Shaw, pointed out that she was writing her arrangements while raising five children and maintaining a home. She discovered that the only way to get it done was to write while cleaning, write while cooking, write while doing all the tasks that we […]
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 […]