arrange • compose • conduct
Every year around this time, the Rockford Choirs are shaken with the latest “battle” an ongoing “war” between Mrs. and Mr. Scott. “Oh no,” they say, “Mrs. and Mr. Scott are fighting about Christmas again.” Even our kids, now, take sides in the argument. We are arguing about the pronunciation […]
I stopped rehearsal last week to ask an important question. “I just said to make that AH vowel taller. But was I talking to everyone?” No, probably not. So I followed up with, “Who here has taller than average vowels in the group?” About a third of the group raised […]
I start out each week planning the perfect rehearsal. Efficient! Fun! Productive! There is music, and laughter, and camaraderie, and mutual respect among all people in the rehearsal. This, of course, never happens. I plan the perfect rehearsal, but I never plan on the perfect rehearsal! Why? There’s a sporting […]
I’m on a backpacking trip with my son and a few others this weekend; I’m thinking about the process for planning for a backpacking trip. Backpacking effectively is about essentials. What do you need? Because you’ll have to carry it all. When you really assess the essentials, you can tend […]
It’s time to talk about gathering. There’s no better source for rethinking gatherings than the amazing book The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker. I reread it last month in preparation, and am writing a series of blogs next week examining each chapter and what it has to say about […]
Many of the activities that bring me the most joy in life are all the things that require – or compel! – total focus from me. Writing music. Writing words. Puzzles. Making music with an ensemble. Ensemble music is the trickiest, because it relies on the whole ensemble committing to […]
I had a little bit of a down day today. For unimportant but real reasons, I was feeling frustrated, tired, and run down. (I mean, we are still in a pandemic. That alone is enough justification for all of us to have these occasional days.) I almost canceled my rehearsal […]
We get to pause in warmups to answer a musicianship question that would otherwise eat up too much of rehearsal. We get to devote time to our team, with formal and informal team building. We get to learn how to be successfully internally motivated by the love of music-making, rather […]
Certain breads use what’s called a sponge to enhance the final loaf. The baguette recipe I use (from Baking Illustrated) explains that using a pre-ferment method like a sponge enhances the flavor of the final loaf by enabling the yeast to fully mature rapidly in an unusually proportioned dough-batter (water, […]
Setting intentions at the beginning of rehearsal is great. For example, I might say, “Let’s set an ensemble intention to have fewer side conversations during rehearsal.” But this intention is more effective if, in the previous rehearsal, I provided feedback at the end. In other words, setting an intention for […]