arrange • compose • conduct
I taught myself to use a new notation software today, and I did it by being almost completely uncreative. I use notation software throughout my creative process – to complete scores, but also as I am composing and arranging. It is a creative tool. But when you’re using a new […]
Early correctives are so much more effective than late ones. It’s the beginning of the year/semester/trimester/quarter. Now is the time to make gentle correctives. A small, gentle corrective of a student in the early weeks can profoundly affect their trajectory. A much bigger correction at the end of term will […]
“In preparing for his oral qualifying examination, a rite of passage for every graduate student, he chose not to study the outlines of known physics. Instead he went up to MIT, where he could be alone, and opened a fresh notebook. On the title page he wrote: Notebook Of Things […]
I’m a big believer of digging in and doing the work. One of my favorite expressions is JKMF. Just. Keep. Moving. Forward. But it’s also acceptable to take some time off. To let go of the ever-present To Do List. JTSMF Just temporarily stop moving forward. Give yourself permission. The […]
A lot of it is just, knuckling under and, what’s the right analogy? Man, you just gotta dig harder and slow it down. Slowing stuff down is the biggest thing. You can see kind of a recurring theme here. My desire to create works of quality at a certain rate […]
Algorithm : a procedure for solving a mathematical problem (as of finding the greatest common divisor) in a finite number of steps that frequently involves repetition of an operation broadly: a step-by-step procedure for solving a problem or accomplishing some end Merriam-Webster This week, my mantra has been, “I’m all about the algorithm.” […]
My son mentioned recently that any possible arrangement (there are 43 quintillion) of a Rubik’s Cube can be solved in 20 moves or less. (This is confirmed mathematically.) But it’s not the solution most of us are going to take. We’re more likely to look at a scrambled cube and […]
“What choices would the me that I want to become make?” That’s as good a motivating question as I can think of. Of course, it leads to other questions: Who do I want to become? What choices do I make unconsciously every day? How do I change entrenched choices? And […]
Ira Glass, in an interview I read a long time ago, talked about an important early step in his growth. (I’m sorry I can’t currently find the link.) He described the three weeks of full-time mixing of his own voice that it took for him to stop feeling uncomfortable listening […]
A lot of people are taking up new music practices this spring. Learning new instruments, learning to sing, writing songs, or learning new repertoire. It’s a good reason to remember this truth: Perfect is a trap. Perfect is unattainable, and if you wait for your art to be perfect, you’ll […]