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Want more. That’s my goal for students. Not more stuff. Not more “likes”. More change. More connection. More influence. More success. Too much of our education teaches our students to want less: their desires become passing the class, surviving finals, making it to Spring Break. Maintaining a Snapchat streak. In […]

Q: I’m working on extending my jazz standard repertoire. What songs do you recommend I add? Your repertoire should reflect your own personal artistic self, while remaining primarily in the jazz standard repertory. That list, of course, contains hundreds and hundreds of excellent songs, so choosing a few that connect well shouldn’t be a […]

Sometimes the best way to say yes to your dreams is to say no to something else. Our lives get full with things we’re passionate about. But when potential opportunities are impossible because of time, it’s time to reconsider our passions and priorities. What are you doing that someone else can do? Can you delegate […]

I get anxious at the start of Spring Break. Of course, everyone involved is ready for a week of rebuilding capacity: the students, the teachers, their families. Nonetheless, it feels like a huge momentum stopper, just at the final buildup to the year’s final peaks. In the last seven weeks of the school year, […]

Happy Gene Puerling Day! Let’s take a lesson from his writing today. Born on March 31, 1929, Gene Puerling didn’t invent close harmony singing, but he perfected it. With two remarkable ensembles (The Hi-Lo’s and The Singers Unlimited), Gene developed a vocabulary of distinct sounds that remains the bedrock of vocal arrangers to this […]

Repeat: Try. Learn. Grow. Repeat until the very end.

To high school students everywhere, here are two sentences worth memorizing for those two questions you always get from well-meaning adults. Q1: What do you want to be when you grow up? Your response: What did you want to be when you were sixteen? At sixteen, I was certain I was going to […]

A recording studio session can be a powerful learning tool for students. I wish more high school students had the chance to spend a few hours tracking in a studio; they can learn great lessons about: Consistency Musicianship Musical Process Personal responsibility Patience Ensemble trust and forgiveness Breaking down a well-learned piece of music […]

One of the best results of embarking on a new personal learning journey is the educational insights it brings along. As educators we would do well to remember that there is often a time when a skill is being developed that no progress is apparent. You are learning and growing, but you cannot show–or […]

I remember my Latin professor laughing at a joke in Horace one semester as class began, and then asserting that the best way to recognize your fluency is when you “get the joke” in another language. I was reminded of this the other day, when I was able to make some members of The Real […]