arrange • compose • conduct
Posts discussing education, both in and outside of music
My preferred place to be when walking into a rehearsal or class is three steps ahead. I want to be far enough ahead to anticipate any questions, to be prepared with accurate answers or advice, and to guide my students smoothly forward in their learning. But you can’t always be […]
I’m in love with the mental challenge of working on two versions of the same song. Currently, the Aces are learning a TTBB version of the Star Spangled Banner, while each of them is learning an SATB version in their curricular choir. It’s hard. It’s especially hard if you’re singing […]
In a podcast interview, Seth Godin was asked some details about his early work and journey to the present. His response was insightful: “I’m just very uncomfortable talking about this journey of mine, cause I don’t think it’s that interesting cause I was there. […] But I do think the […]
“When will I use this?” is the common refrain. Whether it’s obscure knot-tying in Boy Scouts, SOH-CAH-TOA mastery in trigonometry, or the 18th Century voice leading that contemporary music majors are asked to learn. I understand the question. We want to understand the applicability of the skill before we commit […]
For many of the things in our lives, there is something holding us there. A paycheck. A graduation requirement. A life commitment. When I look around the room of my ensemble in rehearsal, I think, “There is nothing holding them here.” No obligation, no law, no requirement. The only thing […]
As I see it, there are four types of people for a game like chess: Non-playerBeginnerPlayerObsessive You can’t be a chess grandmaster unless you fall into the Obsessive category. Come to think of it, you can’t be a grandmaster at anything without being an Obsessive. All professional athletes. High-level music […]
For teachers, ain’t no tired like a first-week tired. The nights…you crash. It’s easy to think, at the end of the second or third day of school, that you will never, ever, under any circumstances, make it through the year. You say, “I’m going to be in bed exhausted at […]
VI do not know which to prefer,The beauty of inflectionsOr the beauty of innuendoes,The blackbird whistlingOr just after. from Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird by Wallace Stevens I do not know which I prefer,The perfection before journey begins,Or the joy that comes from beginning the journey,The last night […]
Humans tend to think of hard borders between things. Binary. Black & white. But the world is more nebulous than that. Think about a the Mississippi River flowing into the Gulf of Mexico. You might want to draw a line and say, “This side, river. That side, ocean.” But the […]
It turns out, you can go back again. Thirty years later, I successfully and cheerfully finished a backpacking trip with a Scout troop, much like the one I remember on Isle Royale when I was thirteen. This one was through the Porcupine Mountains in the UP of Michigan, and it […]