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We have piano lessons on Wednesdays. That’s what we do. I had two sons balking at piano lessons yesterday – one tired after a long day with a sub at school, the other who had stayed home from school with a little cold. I was unapologetic in my insistence. They […]

There’s a certain variety of student who aspires for things but doesn’t want to bother anyone. If they want to audition but the slots on the signup are full, they won’t audition. If they get sick the day of auditions, they will shrug their shoulders and say, “Oh, well.” Newsflash: […]

At a recent rehearsal, I was missing roughly 1/3 of my group (4 of 13) for various reasons. Several of them wrote and asked for what we worked on, so they could keep up on their own. What responsibility! Here is my response. We worked on: FOCUS. STAMINA. ENSEMBLE. EXPRESSION. MUSICALITY. […]

Expressive singing doesn’t happen automatically, particularly in the puritanical USA where emotions are so often viewed as something to be controlled and hidden. Particularly not in a TTBB choir, where traditional views on masculinity consider sensitivity a flaw. Particularly in teenagers, who are self-conscious and cautious of being seen as different. Here, then, are […]

More and more students have smartphones: it’s up to us to help them realize that the smartphone can be a tool for efficiency in the practice room. Here are a few of my favorite apps for practice. Metronome: MetroTimer [iOS] – there are lots of fine, fully-featured metronome apps. I like this one because it […]

I’m passionate about what I do, and one of the things I feel most strongly about is bringing new music to the world. I’m involved in the commission and premiere process on a number of different levels – writer, conductor, and something in between. All three of these roles have exciting new movement […]

One of the things I envy most of the musical stage production our students participate in every year is the repetition. Not the rehearsal repetition. The hours required to learn dialogue, staging, choreography, music are massive! No, what I envy is the performance repetition. Bright students can learn so much from each […]

I had a friend recently ask me what my rate was for guest coaching a choir. It depends, is the answer. It seems to me that freelance work comes down to one big question and two followups. Do I need the work? If yes, take the work and charge whatever you […]

This week I heard about abhorrent, racist behavior in my hometown. It made me terribly sad on many levels. But this is a blog about education and music, not politics and racism. The first article I read about the events had this quote: School officials said they hope this type of […]

Two weeks…two long weeks of no rehearsal while my students were busy putting on a musical. Last night we got back together to rehearse, despite our mutual exhaustion from 3-show-weekends, DST, and a new trimester. And: they sounded better. They had practiced individually, which helped. But perhaps more important was they started […]