arrange • compose • conduct
One of the gifts of teaching music beyond the Western canon is the opportunity to teach music that does not hold score fidelity as an essential ingredient. Vocal harmony music – vocal jazz, contemporary a cappella, and related genres – offers a multitude of opportunities to teach beyond the score. […]
My family spent some time recently with a good self-taught musician. He plays a number of different instruments, and can communicate intelligently about music; but to my knowledge he never received formal musical training. I think he is deservedly proud of his hard-won musical skills, but I think some self-taught […]
A 4-bar phrase might take me half an hour to finish, if I’m working carefully and meticulously. it might have taken me twice or three times as long when I started writing. That same phrase will only last 5 seconds when performed. When we’re writing, time loses clear meaning, and […]
When we differentiate between foreground, middleground, and background parts in vocal music, the shorthand tends to be about dynamics – volume. Louder for the foreground, quieter for the background. But there is more to differentiating these parts than just pure decibel change. Volume change. Naturally. Timbre change. Brighter, more core […]
The longer I write music, the more I think in terms of timbre minimum. Timbre, to my ears, is more important than specific voicing. What kind of sound is it? Is it unison? 2-part? 4-part close position? 4-part open position? 6-part? Is it vocal percussion, vocal bass, and three part […]
More and more, I’m enamored with chords I can’t label under a triadic/diatonic/jazz framework. They might be quartal chords, whose labels never seem to quite successfully describe how they work. They might be the passing clustery nonsense in Alice Parker’s arrangement of “Vive L’Amour“, which work great because of the […]
There are almost always many different ways to notate the same thing. As simple a change as 4/4 vs 2/2, to more complex metric changes (3/4 in 1 vs 6/8 in 2, e.g.), enharmonic notation, even notating a rubato vs. just using fermatas. When you have to decide how it’s […]
I have observed consistent memory challenges throughout this year. Music that students have shown no problem memorizing in the past have stymied students this year. They just can’t seem to hold onto the salient details. I think it comes down to a few things together: Singers have had less frequent […]
Sometimes, when my ensemble is having trouble with a spot, I say, “and now…a pause for literacy.” Actually, I usually say music theory, but music literacy is s friendlier and more accurate term. Sometimes a problem spot is a problem spot because there is some structural component that the ensemble […]
I’m wrapping up lessons for the semester at Grand Rapids Community College, and I’m reflecting with each student on goals and what they’re carrying forward. At the heart of all my teaching is this: tools not tunes. I’d rather my students learn one fewer new tune in a semester, but […]