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More than any one concrete skill, more than any particular song or style or technique, here’s what I want my students to leave being able to do. Talk music. I want them to be able to “get the joke” – to be able see the big picture, understand what a […]

This morning, I answered a prompt from On Being for a “found haiku.” Sometimes you can say more with less, yes? Music Everywhere. I yearn for silence,But there’s music everywhereSince I learned to hear.

I love Austin Kleon’s map of “The Life of a Project.” Nowhere does the process move faster to the “Dark Night of the Soul” than when you pass out new music to the choir. You go from the excitement of getting new music in your hands to the hard work […]

“Music has the ability to uplift our lives and heal us from within.” Esha Alwani Music educators and music therapists need to take a few minutes to listen to this wonderful TED talk from Esha Alwani, describing her experience with Tourette’s Syndrome and the relief she gets from making music. […]

“I just did not realize how much of the pie chart in my brain was the hustle versus the art.” Amanda Palmer, on the Tim Ferriss Show Amanda Palmer was talking specifically about how her transition to Patreon, and the support of 15,000+ subscribers, has changed the way she makes […]

In his excellent music podcast Broken Record, Malcolm Gladwell was without his cohost Rick Rubin for his interview with Pentatonix. Maybe that explains the following exchange: Scott Hoying: We usually learn everything on our own, and then come to rehearsal, and then, if we have it all learned, it comes together very […]

As neuroscientists have documented, music has perhaps the most direct connection to our emotional core of any art form. Thus it’s no surprise that we turn to music to help us feel strong emotions. The last week, though, I’ve paid attention to a very specific phenomenon: that of extending a […]

“Must be nice to have all those Snow Days!” said many people. Well, here we are at the end of April, and I can unequivocally say: Nope. Set aside the curriculum adjustments and the uncertainty over when the school year will end with make-up days tied up in the state […]

Conducting is a way to enable people to give their best. And, of course, that takes a certain amount of control. […] Sometimes, conductors become too control freaks. […] I want them to set the standard for, also, a younger generation of conductors to be actually talking about making music together […]

One of my favorite places to reflect on pacing and its effect on success is in the studio. When a studio session is going well, one good take leads inexorably to the next good take. A flow evolves that seems to induce better and better singing/playing out of the group. […]