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Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead From the culture in your classroom to the future of the nation – be thoughtful, be committed. Take action and change the world. We’ve got this!

We all have artistic potential. Can we all be Picasso? McFerrin? Baryshnikov? Of course not. But we can all reach further than we might think, and we are all leaving too much potential behind. That’s why arts educators are important. We help to uncover potential, and empower students to tap that potential to […]

It used to be there were two states for people: motion or stillness. In recent years, we’ve created a third category between the two. Let’s call it static motion. Kinetic stillness. In static motion, we get the feeling of momentum, even as we are still. It is facilitated by the screens that occupy […]

Musical plagiarism can be hard to explain for non-musicians. Because of the ubiquity of certain chord progressions, there are things that sound like copying but are really more like convergent evolution. (Like, bats didn’t copy their wings from birds…) A distant cousin, Rob Mathes, recently served as an expert witness defending Led Zeppelin in a […]

Sometimes we’re cautious with young students about insisting on public performance. Do the work, learn the pieces, move on. Young musicians can be apprehensive about performing, and of course we have all heard the nightmare stories of blank minds in kids’ recitals. But there is a profound value in having the […]

What the world needs now…is compassion. We all need the ability to see every other person as worthy of love, as precious. I personally know adults (and so do you) who seem to have no compassion for any other person. They mock, they disparage, they criticize. They never build up, find common […]

I’ve been really enjoying watching my teacher friends travel, relax, having summer fun. (Michigan lakes, of course, figure large.) The break from teaching is, in fact, an important part of their effectiveness within the current system. Why? What is this break for? For teachers, it’s for building a stock of infinite patience. […]

It’s very simple. Your students started reading in kindergarten. By first grade, most could get through a moderate picture book. By third grade, a straightforward children’s novel. Many don’t start seriously trying to read music until middle or high school. At that point, their taste is at the musical equivalent of “The Hunger […]

After a 3-year hiatus since my wife returned to full-time teaching, I’ve elected to take on a few private students this summer. I opened a limited number of slots, and offered lessons in voice/repertoire, audition skills, theory, composition/arranging, etc. I recently finished first lessons with most of my students. First lessons are […]

How do you tune into that quiet voice? The one that guides you, and is so hard to hear, especially with the noise of the world coming in from all sides. Here are some actions I’ve found reliable for  getting in touch with it. Write. Write whenever, whatever – eventually I can hear […]