arrange • compose • conduct
Posts discussing education, both in and outside of music
“Just delete TikTok” isn’t good advice to students struggling to succeed in school. It’s easy to imagine some peers in secondary and higher education who are likely to say, “Just delete TikTok off your phone and you’ll have all the time you need to prepare for your classes.” (I am […]
You’ve got plenty of time to build the skills you want to have. I was reflecting recently on all the things I’ve learned to do since I finished formal education. Musical skills, life skills, cooking skills, hobbies, parenting, and on and on. It’s a lot. It’s a lot for you, […]
Maybe designing schools to work like factories isn’t such a good idea. The one-size-fits-all, lockstep education approach that is pervasive throughout the world is best described as the “factory educational system.” Indeed, there is some evidence that the designers of modern public education in the 1920s-30s turned to factory owners […]
Yesterday, I wrote that our education system is the core cause of our young people to be afraid to fail. I wrote, “We need to change direction.” So a savvy reader asked the natural question: “How. How do we change direction?” I think it’s complex, hard, and worth doing. Here’s […]
If you’re too afraid of failure to play Wordle, I blame the education system. I heard recently about some high school students who had given up playing Wordle because the fear of breaking a streak by failing to guess a word was debilitating. They would rather not play it than […]
Once upon a time, “Because I said so” was a valid answer to the question, “Why am I learning this?” No more. Young people are savvier now, more aware of the world and what matters, and more inclined to balk at learning material that they don’t consider to be of […]
On and off, I write weekly letters to my ensembles, emulating but by no means coming close to the legendary “Dear People” letters of Robert Shaw. On and off because my life commitments don’t always allow me to give these letters the attention they need soon enough to be useful. […]
As I’ve continued working on a jazz solo project with Shades of Blue, I’ve gotten a better idea of the interests and musical preferences of my students. As such, I spent a while this morning playing Album Matchmaker. For the last two weeks, I’ve been pushing them to listen to […]
When we’ve moved past notes and rhythms into singing for musicality, I really like to invite ensemble members to “Give three intentions for this run-through.” The intentions might be as specific as “I want to nail that transition on page 5” or as overarching as “Dynamics!” They might be a […]
When I bake bread (and I bake a lot of bread), I invariably get some flour on the counters. Whether it’s the mixer throwing some out of the bowl, the extra flour I spread on my cutting board to do a final knead, or just the inefficiency of pouring flour […]