arrange • compose • conduct
One more for the old cognitive dissonance file. I want my students to know that there is no hurry on achieving their dreams. If it takes a little longer to complete your music degree, or to learn to belt an A, or to find your musical community, that’s okay. We […]
My strength may not be your strength. If you are interested in fitness as a hobby or as a path to wellness, you likely find that there are many kinds of fitness. You might be focused on cardio, as I did when I was running every day. Or you might […]
How can you not? It’s so often what happens, though. How many students you know who have poured time and effort into activities they clearly don’t love? There can be so many other factors that drive us to do things besides love, but there’s also the complicating factor that sometimes, […]
The intuition of experience is remarkable. I can look at a new score and find the spots that won’t work with good success. I’ll play through a section and say, “That won’t work.” I can go back and think about why, but the answer comes before I consciously know the […]
Sometimes the important work you do today isn’t what looks like the work. For example, today’s studio session was great – we tracked three songs for the Aces in three hours, plus a little bonus track really quickly at the end! They worked hard, grew, and put down some great […]
For the first time, I am starting a semester at GRCC with an identical ensemble to last semester. No drops, no adds. It’s a situation I’m very excited about. As I often say, the best part about the first semester of a vocal jazz group is the second semester. It […]
Have a vision for what you want to create, and take steps to create it, but don’t expect it to happen as soon as you’re ready for it to happen. How much you want to change and how much you can change are two different things. When you enter a […]
Having a guest clinician in front of your choir is like having a good proofreader. Anything longer than two sentences, I want a proofreader. It’s not because I think I’m a poor writer – I’ve got a handle on the basics. It’s simply this: mistakes creep into everyone’s writing. We […]
We’re not very good at assessing and categorizing errors, especially when it comes to differentiating between momentary mistakes and problems in need of our attention. More than once, I have directed an ensemble that freaked out about a sudden pitch problem – maybe they went significantly flat during an a […]
What is the thing professionals can do that amateurs can’t? Okay, there are a lot of things – not least, the facility on their instrument, their reliability, their reading chops, etc. Maybe the most significant skill pros have is the ability to adjust in the moment, while keeping the big […]