arrange • compose • conduct
Today was one of those days where the mundane crowded out the creative. In the midst of many important jobs that didn’t require my musical creativity, I found 4 minutes to be in front of my notation software. I pulled up my current project, hit the playback, and listened. I […]
Have you tried whisking left-handed recently? (For me, that’s whisking right-handed…what I mean is your non-dominant hand.) It feels weird. I’m pretty agile with kitchen tools, but in my “wrong” hand, I feel like a novice all over again. I sometimes do just that, to remind myself the way that […]
There are so many stories of creators who got over the hump of creating while working full time by “waking early.” (I proudly chose this practice for many years, writing from 4:30-6am.) Just get up a little earlier, they say, and do your work before the world wakes up and […]
In the fall of 2014, I committed to writing daily. The reasoning was that I was having trouble prioritizing my weekly-ish writing, and I didn’t want to miss too many weeks. A daily habit would be harder to forget about. It’s really true. These days, the hardest days to write […]
I’ve just started digging into Atomic Habits by James Clear, and it’s already evident that there’s a lot here applicable to music education. Consider: Your outcomes are a lagging measure of your habits. Your net worth is a lagging measure of your financial habits. Your weight is a lagging measure […]
I have come to believe that more than anything else, creativity is a habit. Whether it’s Beethoven, Emily Dickinson, or Lin-Manuel Miranda, we hear stories of them prioritizing their daily creative time above all else. They knew that doing the act, day after day, is the best way to get […]
If when I fail, it won’t be for lack of trying. I will fail because I made a bad decision. I will fail because we didn’t have the right resources, or the right skills, or enough time. I will fail because I choose to quit, having gotten into a project […]
Many experts have written in the last few years about the effectiveness of triggers to forming habits. I find it just as important to have anchors to my day – the things that I always do that help me see my day and get my work done in response to […]
We spend so much time practicing singing in choir, and give so much feedback on singing better…but how much time do we spend practicing listening and giving feedback on listening better? I can sometimes sing and listen critically to what’s happening around me at the same time. Not always. The […]
I actually quite enjoy making part recordings. I like getting inside the music in a different way. I like finding out what the pitfalls are before my students find them. I like the work involved in creating something of use for my students. I like using my skills and gear […]