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“Love is at the root of everything — all learning, all parenting, all relationships — love or the lack of it. And what we see and hear on the screen is part of who we become.” – Mr. Rogers Love is at the root of choir directing, too, of course. […]

I was recently finishing a commissioned arrangement and had a spot that wasn’t quite working. That is, when I wrote it, it made internal sense despite going harmonically far afield. But playing it in context, the harmony seemed too jarring – my ears didn’t have time to adjust. As I started experimenting with other […]

Gene Puerling loved to have his final cadences include bitonal chords – often either a major II chord in the treble over the I chord in the bass, or else a I chord in the treble over a bVII in the bass. It’s beautiful, shimmery, and beguiling, but it’s not actually the […]

If you want to rank jazz singers, there’s little question that Ella Fitzgerald is probably going to end up on top. We can debate the Ella vs. Sarah, and should mention Joe Williams and Frank Sinatra and a dozen others, but in all likelihood, Ella knocks them all down, every time. But she is hardly […]

You know where your car’s blind spots are, right? And when driving, you have practiced behavior to ensure safely avoiding having cars in your blind spots. But you also should remember that other cars have blind spots. It’s important not to stay long in another car or truck’s blind spot, so that they don’t cause […]

Austin Kleon recently wrote: If you give the same book to 100 people, they’ll read 100 different books. The same is true for music. If there are 14 different people in your choir…or 40…or 100…they will each sing a different piece while holding the same octavo. They will bring their own life experience, perspective, […]

I put my money on practice over prodigy, any day of the week. Put the practice in, day after day, and you will see results. A prodigy might get there first, but a practicer will often achieve more long-term, as the gifts of a prodigy might not grow with time after the initial burst. Prodigy […]

If you don’t know what to say…   Be silent.   If you don’t know how to say it…take the time to consider your words.   If you still don’t know what to say…say “I don’t know.” This works for anyone, everyone. For learners and teachers. For leaders. There is power […]

Watch this video of Jacob Collier talking harmony:   Jacob is a genius of harmony – his explorations have taken him in fascinating and aurally challenging directions, including things like dividing an interval symmetrically to create unusual colors (for example, dividing a descending minor third into four equal steps). What he drives home in […]

Students can enter a course with vastly different reference points; this can make it difficult to deliver information simultaneously to the entire class. We need to develop a common language. Common references help us communicate more clearly, efficiently, and effectively. Here are some ways to work on building this common language in your ensemble class: […]