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On belief in God, Blaise Pascal reasoned thusly: I have never put much stock in that particular argument – I’m not sure you can reason yourself into faith. But Pascal’s Wager can definitely be applied to plenty of other scenarios. You might use it to justify studying in case of a pop […]

As conductors, one of the traits we most seek from our singers is teamwork. But there are many different ways to induce that teamwork into being. Strong, positive leadership. Team bands together because they genuinely want to please the leader. Strong, negative leadership. Team bands together as a reaction to the leader’s negativity. Weak, positive leadership. Team bands together to attain […]

Note: this is the second of a series of posts investigating the leadership style of John Wooden and its applicability to choral music education. John Wooden made ENTHUSIASM the second of two cornerstones of his Pyramid of Success. Here is where John Wooden differentiates hard work from INDUSTRIOUSNESS. Wooden says, “Hard work is transformed into Industriousness when […]

Our resistance to change and growth is strong. A natural desire for security gets confused with a desire for stasis – for no change. This can cause us to actively resist even the changes we desire. I’m sitting down today to write out three work habits I’d like to adopt between now and Christmas […]

Saturday night I got to introduce about 28 high school students to Gene Puerling. Mandy asked me to help introduce “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square,” arranged by Gene for The Manhattan Transfer, during the Rockford High School Chamber Singers retreat. I told them that, just as Alice Parker is my metaphorical […]

Tomorrow is the last Monday in September, 2016. Your last September Monday with these students. Your last week of writing in September. The months only pick up steam from here, and you’ll be conducting at commencement before you know it. How can you make tomorrow matter? You’ve had great days and […]

The other day I tried a little change-up in my vocal warmups that yielded great results. I was thinking over how one of my most important priorities in vocalizing is to get the ensemble to hear each other and sync up, particularly with regard to vowel placement. As we sang one of […]

You’ve seen it in your smarter–a slow slip towards disengagement. They master things more quickly, and then they’re “bored.” I will admit that an ensemble can’t move together as quickly as every individual might be able to, for lots of reasons. However, there’s no reason to be bored in rehearsal. Here are a few […]

There is a place for conductor control of musical decisions. But it is not the only viable option. Next time a singer asks how they should interpret something, don’t demonstrate, don’t decide, don’t decree. Ask, “What do you think?” Let the ensemble debate, think, decide for themselves. Your knowledge of performance […]

Note: this is the first of a series of posts investigating the leadership style of John Wooden and its applicability to choral music education. John Wooden made INDUSTRIOUSNESS the first cornerstone of his Pyramid of Success. Call it hard work if you want, but “work” in Wooden’s mind had lost its meaning by the time […]