arrange • compose • conduct
I’ve found an unanticipated gift in my increased commitment to preparing sung part recordings for my students. I’ve written before how they have positively impacted my students, and why I came around to a tool I was initially opposed to. It’s certainly not the time and effort – I wasn’t […]
Should you spend more time studying a language, or studying linguistics? We talk about learning music theory as if it’s learning a language. It isn’t. Music literacy is language-like – it’s learning to read, and translate music through eyes and ears. Music theory is much more akin linguistics: the study […]
Those are my favorite words in rehearsal. When you make room for that, there are several great benefits. You empower your ensemble members to have a creative voice. You show that experimentation and discovery is at the core of artistry. You get the chance to show that failure is on […]
Knowing whether to start with rules or whys is a key to effective teaching. I love starting with why in my teaching. “This is a problem we had. Here’s how we solved it.” It’s a great way to get engagement and investment in our students. When I teach the story […]
I could write volumes about what I have learned spending time talking music with Alice Parker. Actually, I hope someday to do just that. But what struck me most on my most recent visit, when we set aside an hour or two every day for little musical projects, is her […]
It’s a question I get so often from guests, especially friends of my kids. “Do you, like, always have music playing? Well, yes. (And even when there’s no music playing, there’s music playing…in my head.) It’s always enlightening to learn the ways in which you’re not normal – clearly we’re […]
I remember when I first spent time in my college’s music library. The sheer magnitude of music available was a jolt of electricity and a continued revelation throughout my time there. Now, of course, a physical archive of commercial recordings is utterly pointless. The magnitude of music available on any […]
What would an alien know if they saw a group of people playing cards? And what does the answer tell us about teaching music? They wouldn’t know if the people were playing poker or canasta or euchre, and if you told them what the game was, the alien would assume […]
Vague tempo markings are unhelpful. So are the opposite. I’ve written before about vague tempo markings. And certainly I would be happy to never see “Moderately” over bar 1 of a score again. But in the most recent crop of piano-vocal scores, I’ve also seen several that skew too far […]
The small things are important. But they can be agonizing. Half Time 12/8 feel (quarter=90) Half Time, 12/8 feel (quarter=90) Half time (quarter=90) 12/8 feel quarter=90, 12/8 feel Half time, 12/8 feel 12/8 feel, quarter=90 These are just some of the metronome markings I considered for a particular spot in […]