arrange • compose • conduct
Feeling stressed? The best thing you could do is head for choir rehearsal. Deep breathing is recognized as the only method for calming the fight-or-flight response; the breathing seems to stimulate the vagus nerve, which interrupts the stress response. (Dr. Laurie Santos has described this effect, which is well-researched.) It’s […]
Is appearing mysterious as an educator a plus, a minus, or something in between? I used to admire and respect the distance certain professors maintained between their professional and personal lives. It made sense to draw a strong boundary and keep them separate. It was admirably mysterious. Later, I recognized […]
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, […]
The right amount of self-discipline is just enough. I have enough self-discipline to write here daily since 2014, to create new monthly compositions and arrangements for my Patreon, to plan weekly, monthly, yearly, and multi-year projects. I have enough discipline to write daily, but not enough discipline to consistently write […]
The question shouldn’t be “What’s next?” It should be “Which is next?” When you finish a project, you are invariably asked “What’s next?” Often, that is an unwelcome question – you’ve just poured all your energy into getting a project out the door. Why in the world would you be […]
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 […]
We sing a lot about love in choir. I guess we sing a lot about love anywhere. My long-standing policy for pronouns has been that you should sing with whatever pronouns feel right for you to describe a loved one. Certainly for soloists, but I think it could plausibly work […]
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 […]
There is a particular anxious-excited, scared-joyful feeling you have when you’re tackling something big and new for the first time. As you repeat similar projects, that feeling ebbs, even if you continue to feel jitters or nerves. I think of the first European choir tour I organized, or the first […]
There are a lot of reasons for feeling unmotivated. Knowing the correct reason can help you take the correct action in response. Maybe you’re unmotivated because: You’re overcommitted and have no free time —-> carve out space for yourself and see if motivation returns. You’re no longer interested in the […]