arrange • compose • conduct
That’s how it always is. “I think if you look at the history of completely overthrowing systems, that often doesn’t work great.” […] “The Utopian crowd is all like, ‘Oh, these are problems that will naturally fix themselves.’ No. These are problems that will fix themselves because [anonymous] is working […]
Humans are complex. Our family recently watched Amadeus – it’s a beautiful, funny, and powerful film telling a fictionalized story of Mozart’s life. In the end, my eighth grade son enjoyed the film but didn’t love it. When I asked why, he said it was because of Mozart. To paraphrase, […]
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 […]
Just stay the right amount ahead. I like to stay ahead in preparing for things. But if you get too far ahead in your preparations, there are several hazards that can pop up. First, your advanced preparations can be unusable, because situations evolve over time. If I’m prepared twelve weeks […]
Teaching is an adventure. It should be. If you aren’t finding every day different – every hour different, even with the same lesson plan! – you have lost what is essential about teaching. Teaching is not about conveying information. That is done more efficiently by books, by Wikipedia, by educational […]
Here’s a story of trying to give back by paying forward. I can’t possibly repay my mentors for the way they shaped me. But I can celebrate them, tell them what they mean to me, try to honor them with my own teaching, and when the opportunity presents itself, I […]
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, […]
“Follow your heart, and you’ll never work and day in your life.” So goes the aphorism we tell young people – heck, we tell ourselves! And it’s just not true. Doing things well is hard, whether you love doing them or not. That’s the truth. It’s also still a good […]
Communities take time. One of the best things you can do for your choir is to craft a community they can be a part of. Call it communityism. Being a part of a community makes everything easier. You know who to call for a favor. You know who can solve […]
Do you incorporate any made-up rituals into your rehearsals? The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos explores the way we make decisions that we think will make us happier but don’t, and also offers researched techniques that actually do improve our happiness. In a 2020 episode, she discussed the idea […]