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A brief quote from an old podcast interview of Kurt Elling by Elysabeth Alfano. KE: My luck has come from a lot of hard work, and a lot of desire, and wanting it more. You have to want it more. And you have to work for it harder. EA: More […]

My 10-year-old is a music-learning machine. He’s been at the piano every day for a long time, building an ever-long medley of songs including movie themes, Beatles songs, and more. The thing is, I think that a lot of kids are music-learning machines. The difference is my son has consistent […]

“I’m game!” It’s a more nuanced statement than, “I want to do [X].” “I’m game” comes with implications. It might mean: I’m not familiar with whatever is being proposed. I’m open to trying this. This wouldn’t be my own top choice, but I am willing to do it. I trust […]

I had to reschedule a rehearsal with my students for next week, due to a scheduling conflict with our school musical, Mary Poppins, which has a fast-approaching opening night. In approaching the situation this morning, I wrote the following note to my students, outlining the difference between IMPORTANT and URGENT. […]

There is a very steep learning curve to setting up a sound system in a new space. If you’re a sound-intensive group, like a vocal jazz ensemble or an a cappella group, it’s very likely that you’re going to sing out of tune when the system first goes on in […]

I’ve decided not to wait until I can give anything my undivided attention. My attention is always divided. So is yours. Between current projects, upcoming projects, housework, lessons plans, score study, kids’ health, and 1,000 other things, I never have undivided attention. Instead, I do what I can. I allow […]

Priya Parker often says that the best gatherings have “a specific, disputable purpose.” That the purpose is disputable is essential to creating meaning, because an indisputable purpose is going to give rise to gatherings where little growth can occur among the participants. If everyone agrees, no one can grow. I […]

Is there a less helpful interpretive marking than espressivo? What I mean is, in what context would you not play the music expressively? Under what circumstances should you sing without expressing the emotions of the text and music? Of course, espressivo is a good reminder to sing with expression, to […]

Children love non sequiturs. Silliness in picture books – even full on absurdism – is accepted and appreciated by five-year-olds. Not so much for kids in their second decade, generally. We generally tend to seek more “realism” in our literature as we age. A five-year-old doesn’t think that being silly […]

When a couple new people joined the ensemble, as they were working to get up to speed on a difficult piece, I pointed out that, “The fact that everyone else eventually got there is proof of concept. I know you can, too!” Proof of Concept is a real-world example that […]