arrange • compose • conduct
Tell me what’s the worst part of a conducting job, and tell me why it’s auditions. It can be ensemble auditions or solo auditions – any situation in which I’m expected to make decisions via audition. I don’t have anything but the best interests of the students who audition, and […]
Assumption of Positive Intent is hard to practice. It’s easy to assume malicious intent – that people are out to get you, or don’t have your best interests at heart, or just don’t care enough about what you care about. In Dr. Brené Brown’s Dare To Lead, she writes, “Daring […]
I’m an irrepressible forward thinker. I’m always looking ahead to the next things. Today, though, I’m fighting hard to not look ahead. I’m working to stay present and relive the moments of an incredibly special concert last night. The 15th Annual Aces Concert was an amazing experience – my students […]
Overprepared is a myth. There is prepared and there is unprepared. Any preparation beyond the baseline of prepared simply moves you farther beyond the average level of preparation and into excellence. Come see my students tonight at 7pm (or if you’re not in West Michigan, watch online) as they show […]
It can be hard to invite people to your thing. For a lot of different reasons. I start several months before the Aces Concert each year (it’s tomorrow, May 26 at 7pm – free admission!) letting my students know that the best way for them to get an audience to […]
Pity it happens at the end. One of the great tragedies of school ensembles is that they end just when the group locks. My ensemble learned new notes and basic choreography in mere minutes today – things that would have taken much more time in September. They lock because they […]
How high do you prioritize an activity? Does it change from week to week? “Most of the time, I don’t ask you to make this your top priority. But for one week, you must.” That’s part of what I said to the Rockford Aces in the lead to their concert […]
It’s easy to think that lack of motivation connotes lack of interest: if I’m not motivated to work on something, it must mean I’m not interested in it. The truth is more complicated. I might lack motivation because I’m tired. I might lack motivation because the goal is so distant […]
Worry more about what you’re going to do tomorrow than about whether it connects to what you did yesterday. Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. – Soren Kierkegaard I try to remember to not try to make my life make sense. I know that […]
Get comfortable with not understanding things; it means you’ll get to understanding them faster. If only all realms of learning were like math. Math builds sequentially from one concept to the next. If you understood the last bit, then this bit is the next logical idea. Music literacy is not […]