arrange • compose • conduct
We work in interlocking skills in performing ensembles. What about discrete skills? Performing a piece requires to simultaneously focus on vowel, tone, pitch, balance, diction, phrasing, drama, and about a dozen other things. All of them. At once. These are interlocking skills if we want to be successful. But skills […]
A lot of my jobs involve me saying some version of this sentence. “End sustained notes with shadow vowels.” Yes, that’s usually true…but not in this moment/piece/style. “Keep your feet firmly planted.” Yes, that’s usually true…but not in jazz. “Look to the conductor for the sense of the beat.” Yes, […]
Are two modes from the same parent scale actually the same scale, just starting in a different place? I had a student make that statement recently – that C Ionian and E Phyrgian, for example, are not different because they contain precisely the same seven notes. What I should have […]
I spent plenty of time as a kid in music class learning how long notes last. A quarter-note lasts 1 beat, a half-note lasts 2 beats, etc. But that knowledge, on its own, obscures and possibly undermines more sophisticated approaches to music-making. The important questions are “What beat does this […]
Ask the choir to get aggressive with their releases. Rhythmically accurate entrances are much more easily attainable than accurate releases. Young singers just seem to want to…arbitrarily stop the sound at the approximately correct spot. Particularly in rhythmically active music, and particularly when you can’t add a shadow vowel (say, […]
To me, one big component of the Christmas music I choose to listen to is that it feels Christmassy. In other words, it reminds me of past Christmases. That’s a big challenge when I want to adopt any new music into my rotation. How do I feel nostalgia from something […]
Yesterday, I wrote about how much music benefits from percolation, especially in the form of multiple performances. Why not, then, program less music? I tend to program between 15 and 20 pieces of music for my ensembles each year. Why not cut that to 10 or even 8, and repeated […]
I arrange vocal jazz because I love it. I sang in vocal jazz ensembles throughout school and listen to vocal groups all the time because I love it. I teach it because I believe in it. I believe that learning to sing the close harmony we encounter in vocal jazz […]
I teach a jazz theory class and (don’t tell anyone) recently finished my third draft of a jazz theory book aimed at choral musicians. Full disclosure: I say “jazz theory” but I honestly don’t like either one of those words in this context. I always prefer “music literacy” to “theory” […]
Last week I said a contemporary choral piece we’re working on “sounds kind of metal to me.” I got pushback: this isn’t a metal piece by any stretch of the imagination, and moreover, it’s being sung a cappella – metal has thumping bass, distorted guitars, massive drums. But I stand […]