arrange • compose • conduct
Posts discussing education, both in and outside of music
Do you find time to watch experts do your job? When you were in college, you observed experts teaching and rehearsing. Every rehearsal I’ve ever sung in included ample opportunity to watch the conductor do the work of running a rehearsal. Every well-taught class I’ve been in was well-taught, and […]
How is it not obvious? It seems an almost universal challenge to learn to differentiate between things we do to make ourselves happy things we do to make the people around us happy. As an educator, it’s essential that we master the art of helping our students find what makes […]
Playlists in music streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music are powerful tools for curating the music you listen to. They can also be of great use in creating passive and active learning. Here are three ways to advise students to more effectively use the playlists you create. (For example, […]
What’s the equivalent of quiet quitting in school? In the work world, we’ve seen a big increase in so-called “quiet quitting” – a decision to do the minimum required, rather than overtaxing yourself for the sake of your job. (There was a very interesting discussion of this on Dr. Brené […]
Take a deep breath, and consider what it means to be emotionally professional. Here’s Simon Sinek: “If you’re having a bad day, you can say, ‘Listen, I’m a little off my game today.” But you can’t sit in the meeting and be grumpy and give one word answers. That’s emotionally […]
Here’s how I see my job as a private instructor. My goal with private students – whether in composition, voice, jazz piano, or anything else – is to serve as an extra brain. It’s not my job to criticize or diminish (though I may, when warranted). It’s not my job […]
One of my goals as a teacher is to help train my students’ minds to find, and enjoy, flow state in rehearsal. I feel like I’m juggling 1,000 different responsibilities on any given day – bouncing back and forth, trying to stay on top of as much as I can. […]
Today, I could take a test in pretty much any high school math class and earn a passing grade. People are almost always surprised that I can still perform trigonometry, algebra, geometry, removed over a quarter century from my last math class. Doing math isn’t the superpower. But being genuinely […]
Stepping in to prevent failure is a great strategy, if you plan on continuing to step in indefinitely. Failure – or at least falling down – is an essential way to get your legs under you, regardless of the discipline. Great leaders know that a little bit of failure, particularly […]
Those are my favorite words in rehearsal. When you make room for that, there are several great benefits. You empower your ensemble members to have a creative voice. You show that experimentation and discovery is at the core of artistry. You get the chance to show that failure is on […]