arrange • compose • conduct
Fun and learning are not either/or. We’re taught pretty thoroughly – and consistently – in school that there are two tiers of behavior. There’s relaxed, fun, social behavior and there is serious, focused, studious behavior. The outcome is that students don’t know how to have fun while learning. They have […]
Know how to recognize that. Sometimes I’m talking to the whole ensemble. Sometimes I’m talking to one person through the ensemble, so they don’t feel singled out. Sometimes it’s in between. To know whether I’m talking to you, you have to be engaged in the rehearsal. You have to have […]
I love the magic of a piece before we sight read it. But it can’t last. Especially when it’s a new commission, the time between having the piece in hand and passing it out to students is particularly magical. First, because I’m the only person in the world who knows […]
For every extended rehearsal you plan, ask yourself this question: Have I scheduled past the point of diminishing returns? I always want to maximize available time and use every minute for the growth and improvement of my ensembles. But I have been in situations where other leaders have scheduled a […]
Here are my top five recommendations for people new to being in front of an ensemble in rehearsal. These are the ones I say over and over to my students when they are starting out running sectionals or portions of rehearsal. (I do my best to sit in the corner […]
Do you incorporate any made-up rituals into your rehearsals? The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos explores the way we make decisions that we think will make us happier but don’t, and also offers researched techniques that actually do improve our happiness. In a 2020 episode, she discussed the idea […]
I almost always love it. Coming back from a break, you can feel apprehensive about an ensemble: they have been away from the music, away from each other, away from the rigors of rehearsal for a length of time. (For me, this Winter Break was even longer because of COVID!) […]
About halfway through rehearsal tonight, I remembered. Rehearsals are always chaotic and significantly less productive when we rehearse here. (“Here” is a just different room, having vacated the choir room to allow an extra warmup room for an elementary concert tonight. I don’t know whether it’s the novelty of the […]
Playlists in music streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music are powerful tools for curating the music you listen to. They can also be of great use in creating passive and active learning. Here are three ways to advise students to more effectively use the playlists you create. (For example, […]
I don’t mean, “What’s on the agenda today?” I mean, what detail should you include in the agenda you send out? A rehearsal agenda can be as detailed as a rehearsal plan: with specific targets, timing, and strategies. It can be as vague as a list of the pieces you […]