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It’s possible you never will be. Try now, fail fail fail, have undeserved success, capitalize on luck, fail some more. Get ready by trying now.

Last night’s family poem came from Roger McGough: The Leader I wanna be the leader. I wanna be the leader. Can I be the leader? Can I? I can? Promise? Promise? Yippee, I’m the leader I’m the leader OK, what shall we do? Leadership means saying “Yes.” It means taking on […]

We got my oldest son’s state standardized test scores last night – he did exceptionally well, which was no surprise. It was really hard not to praise him for it. I have told him again and again that his worth is in no way related to his performance on the test. […]

As I see it, there are five stages of engagement between an ensemble and a piece. Sight Read Learned Memorized Polished Performed Sometimes we can alter the order – you might polish before you memorize, you might perform before you’ve finished polishing, you might skip memorization and learn/polish at the same […]

Be human the first day. Be you. Be yourself, be welcoming. Don’t be a caricature of authority. Be you. If you see a list of do’s and don’t’s for starting the school year, ignore them. Be you. Happy First Day of School to most Michigan teachers and students! (I’ve been in […]

I played a lot of chess yesterday during our family’s screen sabbath. My sons play with various levels of skill and concentration, but several times I had to contend with losing. Contend is the wrong word – I had to experience the unmitigated joy of losing. If you teach, your goal must be […]

Do you love this Gandhi quote as much as I do? Be the change you wish to see in the world. I love it, but I think I tend to focus on that first word as a call to action – to living the best version of your life. I think I […]

Yesterday, I wrote about our human ability to notice differences more easily than similarities. I used an example of Shakira, who in her early years sounded much more like Britney Spears than I recognized at the time. I wish human brains were better equipped to note similarities as well as differences, but […]

So, I’ve been unwittingly exposed to the back catalog of Shakira over the last few weeks, thanks to her wonderful Try Everything and my sons’ subsequent obsession. What has amazed me has been hearing her earliest music. What I remember from her first big hits around 15 years ago was a mixture pop […]

  My students have their first Thursday rehearsal today; it’s a chance to work on drills, build practice skills, enhance camaraderie, test their team’s strength – all without me around as an “authority figure.” Would their hour be more effective with me planning and leading the rehearsal? Probably. Would they get as […]