Uncategorized

A very short letter to high school students debating between staying in choir and taking one more AP class. You need choir more. The end. I mean this truly, deeply. I see a vast percentage of students who are weighed down with academic and societal pressure. What you need, and are fortunate to have […]

As I see it, the entire hearing population hears you sing in one way – through air vibrations – minus one person. You. You hear yourself through a combination of air vibrations and bone vibrations. It seems many of the vocal production errors young singers make stem from this disconnect. Assessing your singing voice, […]

In Michigan, public schools are given relatively few options to raise funds beyond what’s allotted by the state. One unexpected option is to pass a county-wide Enhancement Millage. Individual school districts can’t, but Intermediate School Districts can. The Kent County ISD is offering it’s first attempt at a millage vote today. […]

I can (eventually) do this. The way our prove-your-skill education system works, if you can’t accomplish something the first time around, there’s generally no going back to fix it. Your grade goes down, and with it your sights and your dreams. The truth is, for anything worth doing, it may take […]

Have you seen this short video from the World Science Festival? In it, Bobby McFerrin demonstrates that the pentatonic scale is truly hardwired into our brains. In helping some students practice sight reading recently, I discovered that his insight has an important practical application. When our anxiety is high, we’re going to revert […]

Near the end of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Book 5), a massive battle unfolds at the Ministry of Magic. It culminates with Professor Dumbledore facing off with arch-villain Voldemort. Dumbledore finishes this epic battle with Voldemort at the end of the chapter and doesn’t waste a second. He calmly […]

In this week’s stellar On Being conversation between Krista Tippett, Sheryl Sandberg, and Adam Grant, Sheryl shares the following wisdom from a documentary filmmaker friend. “when I film movies and I do documentaries, I can’t write them in advance. I have to let the story unfold.” We’d all do well to recognize that […]

Breathing warrants diligent practice–just as much as notes, rhythms, text, and all other aspects of good singing. Since breathing is an automatic behavior, we tend to focus on it only in distress; but consciously practicing it can lead to amazing results for choir members and soloists. This was all driven home to me the […]

The best phrasing. Entertaining and remarkably versatile scatting. Creative arrangements. (Including “forgotten words” arrangements and some of those iconic scat solos) Deep respect and for the American Popular song. The sweetest, most flexible voice of the recorded era. There is virtually nothing Ella Fitzgerald couldn’t sing well. Her vast recorded legacy […]

Maintaining engaged rhythmic physicality when we sing is vital. Particularly in rhythmically intricate music, but even in the subtlest of rhythmic music, putting the macro- and micro-beats can make many things better. It can be extremely small or greatly exaggerated; it can be formalized (group step-touching) or independent. But it ought to be […]