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Here are a few things that I want you to say at the end of a year singing in my ensemble: I worked hard. I was respected by my fellow singers and my conductor/teacher. I made and achieved musical goals. I personally affected the music made by the ensemble. I […]

A group was having trouble with a portion of an arrangement I had done, and called today for advice. After some back and forth, we settled on an approach that we thought would work. But in the process, I discovered that the biggest stumbling block was the block of text I had used in the score. […]

Should I add this new event/experience/opportunity to my choir’s calendar? To answer yes, it should have to pass this New Event Test: Does it enhance the musical education of my students? …or… Does it enhance the character education of my students? …or… Does it provide a unique experience my choir is well-placed to offer? …or… […]

March is around the corner. Your rehearsals since the New Year have probably become routine. Maybe a little too routine. Time to shake it up a little. This week, why not try temporarily eliminating some daily routine from your rehearsal. Replace it with something else, or just remove it and move on to the […]

Take a walk around your neighborhood at the end of a 50-degree late-winter day. Chances are that even if you had several inches of snow on the grass, it’s mostly or all gone now. But the snow piles–the three- and four-foot tile piles from driveways and sidewalks–are still basically intact, having resisted melting and soaking […]

If you talk with your choirs about vowel modification at extreme vocal ranges, this recent movie song should be in your back pocket. The other day I heard a student singing the song and subconsciously using the same vowel modification as the performer. Once you’ve got the concept, it’s much easier to implement in […]

My son loves a series of art tutorials on YouTube. With friendly narration and a close shot of a page of paper, he is taken step-by-step through the drawing of some creature, or character, or scene. At first, I was turned off by the whole idea – I’d rather see […]

After our first round of the Michigan Choral Commission Consortium, I took a year off to reflect, as well as tackle some other big unrelated projects. Now I’m back with the second edition of MC3, and I’m hoping it’s now going to be an annual thing. In essence, we’re joining together […]

Yesterday marked the 50th anniversary of the beginning of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. Today I was struck with this quote: “It’s not so much what we have in this life that matters. It’s what we do with what we have. The alphabet is fine, but it’s what we do with it that matters […]

George Washington wrote in a letter to his nephew, True friendship is a plant of slow growth and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation. So it is with great ensemble singing. We cannot attain the deep, intimate, soul-stirring performances of our […]