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I loath the idea of networking, because it implies something so transactional – meeting people for the sake of building a network that you can use in the future. What I love is having a network. I love being able to, on short notice, find a sub bassist for a […]

I’m about to embark on a months long preparation to compete in the World Choir Games with my ensemble, the Rockford Aces. I’m very insistent about establishing a healthy competition attitude upfront, to deal with these competing ideas. I want my students to earn a gold medal when they perform […]

The balance as you seek to grow, evolve, and improve the work you do with your choirs is important. Innovate: try new things, experiment (with the singers’ knowledge!), change things you think can be improved. This promises the risk of failure. Know that up front. Retain: keep what has worked, […]

Here’s something new I’m trying this year to encourage personal practice outside of rehearsal, based on some of my reading of Brené Brown this summer. The issue has been that personal practice is hard to maintain, even with an accountability group chat and a very reasonable goal (5 minutes x […]

I love cognitive dissonance: the concept, but also when I come upon an intact example in my own thinking. Cognitive dissonance is the idea that we can hold two seemingly opposing thoughts at once. It’s not just possible, it’s beautiful – to be able to live in a world where […]

It seems like in music education we’re often talking about the two ways of learning music – by reading and by rote. We tend to denigrate rote learning in favor of gaining the musical skills to be able to read; this piece isn’t meant to disagree with that. But it […]

Sometimes I have ideas ready when I sit down to write this daily post. Sometimes I have to start at the computer screen for awhile before any words come out. And I’ve noticed an ebb and flow: it will be relatively easy for a few months, and then I’ll have […]

When you’re a freelancer, working out of your home, it’s awfully hard to not “take your work home with you.” It’s very easy to work, talk shop, and generally stay engaged in your work every day, all day. Even when you’re engaged in other things, it’s not far from your […]

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. Sarah Frances Brown, NOT Mark Twain You […]

I’ve been sewing a bunch of patches onto my son’s Scouting BSA shirt the last couple of days – new rank patches, new leadership role, new patrol name, etc. It got me to thinking about the unseen stitching in the shirt. I think I did a pretty nice job of […]