Spring is Here

Spring is here, I hear. Part of the artistry of Rodgers & Hart – alongside Lorenz Hart’s clever, wry, heartfelt lyrics and Richard Rodgers’ beautifully crafted melodies – stems from the fact that their songs are endlessly malleable. Tempo, mood, feel, form, harmony – all can be stretched in service […]

A Chance To Give Love

Here’s the mantra that keeps me going through many of life’s daily challenges.   I love that I can emphasize virtually any word in the story and find new variations of meaning. Absolutely everything you do is a chance to give love. Absolutely everything you do is a chance to […]

Why?! Why?!

A long time ago, I created a mnemonic for teaching the order of whole-steps and half-steps in a major scale. We Were Happy When We Were Here. (I usually couple it with a joke along the lines of, “Hopefully you’ll say this about your time in this class…”) When, last […]

Read My Mind

A choral conductor might joke, “learn to read my mind” when an ensemble is a little slow catching up to them. But the truth is, every ensemble learns to read their conductor’s mind. They know where you’re going back to, they know what piece you’re going to rehearse next, they […]

Limiting Reagent

Do you remember the term “limiting reagent” from high school chemistry class? When you were calculating the output of a chemical reaction, the amount of substance formed would be determined by the limiting reagent. Every chemical reaction has at least one limiting reagent. So does every group. In every group […]

Arts Advocacy Day

Advocacy is among the most vital aspects of arts educator jobs that doesn’t get enough attention. Effective advocacy at every level is essential to the future of the arts, and yet arts educators are too busy and overcommitted to attend to it themselves. If you’re an educator too busy to […]