arrange • compose • conduct
There’s something magical about the first snow, isn’t there? It uplifts, even as it chills you. That same snow, falling in March, wouldn’t have the same effect. We want to maintain our joy in the things that we do, but it’s simply not possible, always, when we’ve been doing the […]
I start out each week planning the perfect rehearsal. Efficient! Fun! Productive! There is music, and laughter, and camaraderie, and mutual respect among all people in the rehearsal. This, of course, never happens. I plan the perfect rehearsal, but I never plan on the perfect rehearsal! Why? There’s a sporting […]
Some high school music educators get accused of playing favorites, or “Only really caring about the future musicians.” They mean future music majors and future music/performing professionals. Yes, I care about encouraging my future musicians to flourish. Future music professionals.Future music educators.Future church choir members.Future college choir members.Future community choir […]
If you’re looking for the best songs, ask everyone. As I’m working through the song selections for our annual Cabaret, sometimes I think that I should put tighter rules around the songs – even going so far as to making a limited song list students should select from. The thing […]
I have been doing a fair bit of tutoring trigonometry this fall – my son has a strong mathematical mind, but his previous trig units came during the first weeks of the pandemic and then in an all-online (teacherless) Algebra 2 class, so he’s been playing major catch up, and […]
I’ve read about readers who like to slow down as they come to the end of beloved novels – they don’t want them to end, because they want to live in the imagined world a little longer. I understand the motivation – I sometimes want to stretch May and June […]
Every ensemble I’ve ever led has had some balance of satisfied:unsatisfied. For many students, we need to work very hard to teach them to be unsatisfied. We are teaching them to be critical listeners, to be motivated to practice, to aim for excellence. But for other students, we have to […]
At a Scout campout earlier this year, a fellow parent pointed out that, “The boys never seem to realize that if they put in even a tiny bit of prep work, their meals would be so much better.” It’s really true – they tend to choose for meals the foods […]
I think the key to succeeding in math classes was to do enough problems to see the patterns. Then, when confronted with a new problem, you can say, “I’ve solved a problem like that.” And while the path might be different, it isn’t that different. There’s an element of that […]
This school year is easier and harder than last year. Everyone I talk to seems to agree. It’s easier because we’re closer to normal interaction; there are concerts, regular rehearsals, and more of the normal events we associate with the school year. It’s easier because we can connect as humans […]