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One of my favorite strategies in teaching a mixed-knowledge-level group (and aren’t they all) is to talk above them, then wait. This, mind you, is for fundamental concepts, presented in the way I want them understood. For example, last night I spent close to 15 minutes on the functional meaning of […]

There are two very different types of mistakes you can make in performance. First is the kind everyone makes, no matter how prepared. It’s easy to have a slight slip of focus that leads to an error, but it’s just as easy to pick up from it. This kind of error is no […]

Three of the most important lessons I want my students to carry away from our time together: Personal responsibility/ownership of success. Cooperative mindset. Faith in their ability to grow and improve. Please note, none of these three have anything specifically to do with music. You can learn these lessons on the basketball […]

I love to know the numbers that describe my work. For example, in 2017: I baked 100 loaves of sandwich bread and another 20 boules. I wrote 73,961 words on this website, in 369 posts. I read 22 books. I count crunches and miles run (5 1/2 this week…). I count stairs (14 in my house; I can […]

I, like many conductors, reserve some time immediately before my rehearsals to plan the rehearsal. Over about 20 minutes, I have a two-step process for planning: first, I note my goals on scrap paper and write down any business I want to discuss; second I transfer that information to a plan in a spiral notebook […]

You know how to make your art. Whether you’re a composer, a conductor, and author, or a painter – you know all the finely balanced work that makes your art successful. Other arts, you’re probably in the dark about. All the more reason to dig into other arts. I don’t have any […]

Changes must be made. A new year calls for new ideas, and for fixing past mistakes. If I notice a problem, I try to do more than point it out. I try to go beyond the problem and arm myself with the following: A fully thought-out solution. When I point […]

A break is worthwhile for anyone – time to reconnect, disconnect, eat well, sleep an extra hour. If, at a week in a break, you aren’t ready to get back to the work, then you just failed the Vacation Test. Why did you fail? You are too burned out from long-term overexertion. Vacation […]

New beginnings are seldom clear cut. We want our new beginnings, new habits, to be like New Year’s: one second, it’s 2017; the next, it’s 2018. Most of the time, new beginnings are much messier. Two steps forward, one step back, four steps sideways, and then a brick wall. New beginnings […]

I wrote yesterday in my year review that I received several “No” responses to big dreams I put into the universe. While I don’t want to dwell on that, I do want to make it the subject of this year’s personal goal. (I’m not actually big on resolutions per se…). Because the “Yes” responses all […]