arrange • compose • conduct
Knowing how long it will take to learn a skill is essential to maintaining a positive outlook – and succeeding in learning it. Learning to sing an A on command in rehearsal reliably takes my students a couple of months. Learning to scat like Ella will take 1,000 hours of […]
Sometimes we need reminding that we aren’t totally in control. You can be reminded by an illness that flattens you, or a mistake in performance that never happened in rehearsal. You can be reminded by other humans around whose plans undermine your own. My favorite way of surrendering control, though, […]
After you get a vaccination, you’ll often have a day of “flu-like symptoms.” This is off-putting to some, and actually probably accounts for a fair bit of vaccine hesitancy. We aren’t very good at differentiating between the pain that strengthens us and the pain that weakens us. It’s the same […]
Starting a small project is relatively straightforward. Ask yourself, “What do I need to do?” Then start to do it. Starting a big project is different, because a big project almost always includes something you’ve never done before. Before starting a big project ask yourself, “What do I need to […]
Learning to align actions with goals is a hallmark of maturity. But it’s not as easy as we adults sometimes make it out to be. Lots of parents and educators might shout, “Make better choices,” but if a young person hasn’t taken all the necessary steps, it’s just not very […]
This popular adage is wrong. “Don’t cry because it’s over; smile because it happened” is something people like to say to anyone getting emotional at the end of something good. As a director and teacher, I regularly interact with students going through painful endings: high school, a beloved ensemble, an […]
Get good at being able to answer this question: How many hours will it take to complete this project? Knowing the pace of your work is essential for three reasons: I know how long it’ll take me to write an arrangement, and how that differs from writing a composition. I […]
I remind myself frequently that most things we use are simply good enough. Not perfect. Good enough. That goes for our technological devices – good enough to do what we need them to do. (Unless, maybe, you’re using a school-issued device…) It goes for our musical notation system, which has […]
It’s essential to come back to yourself as often as possible. Every day, if you can, make a practice of returning to your center. What that practice is is not important. It could be yoga or meditation, but it might be a favorite song, or sitting at the piano, or […]
Communication is key. It’s easy to choose the shortest necessary communication. We’re all overworked, we’re all stressed. But for the sake of long-term relationships, we have to choose surplus communication. Extra words show respect, show collegiality. They tell the people we’re working with that we value them. This could look […]