arrange • compose • conduct
Posts discussing education, both in and outside of music
Leadership means asking for feedback to spur your own growth. That’s why I’m doing my first-ever exit interviews this year. I get faculty evaluations at the college, and I get feedback from students and parents in the form of emails, notes, social media posts. But this year I’m going beyond […]
Keep reminding yourself. In the past few months, there’s been more and more of a sense of “back to normal.” Putting aside whether normal exists and whether pre-pandemic behavior is where we should want to return to, there’s this to remember. Most of the “back to normal” events I’ve had […]
Sometimes, the outcome is frustrating even when you do everything right. Nothing to be done: sometimes forces outside your control prevent you from succeeding. Today, half a dozen small and large events too the wind out of the sails of the Aces recording session. In a session, momentum is everything, […]
Encouragement isn’t always simple positivity. “True encouragement consists not so much of burbling as of detailed attention.” Stephen Sondheim, in a letter to Adam Guettel I personally struggle to five encouragement that isn’t simple positivity. I desperately want my students and mentees to keep going – to build on what […]
You start the school year with a fresh new candle. It’s meant to last you till the last day of school. Every hour spent in class, grading, lesson planning, chaperoning, meeting with parents, etc. burns your candle a little more. But you don’t worry, because by the time June rolls […]
This unsung hero of the choral program deserves a round of applause. I’ve written before about the value of good graphic design tools for choir directors. Many other tools are rightly recognized: pianos, pitch pipes, recording tools; even Spotify or Apple Music for sharing example recordings. But what of the […]
Working with students requires you to occupy three places on the timeline. First, you have the past – what they needed when you started working with them. When this school year started, students needed love, psychological safety, and routine. Second, you have the present – what they need today to […]
As we’ve gotten back into events that we haven’t done in a while, I find myself having to approach them differently. The event the Rockford Aces hosted last night, for example, ran since 2012. In 2019 it had to be canceled unexpectedly, so after seven years of running it, there […]
Spacing project completion is a hallmark of successful work. When I’m managing my work schedule well, projects overlap only as much as necessary. They have a staggered finish date, so that I’m not frantically completing too many projects at once. Sure, there are busier and quieter moments, but if I’m […]
Choose remarkable, not predictable. Every bowl of Cheerios I’ve ever eaten has tasted exactly the same. That’s a feature of grocery store food – predictable is better than remarkable. And we’ve come to expect that predictability in a larger and larger part of our lives. Actually, though, in other human […]