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Rehearsals while sick can be a blessing. No matter what role you are in the ensemble. As a singer, you can take notes and listen, often learning more than you usually do in rehearsal. Even if you can’t sing a note, being at a rehearsal can be so beneficial. As […]

The Beatles are rightly praised for many things they did well as a performers, as collaborators, and as composers. One thing they aren’t praised enough for is their brilliant harmony singing. Today it seems we have two tracks – the harmony group, a.k.a. boy band, that sings bland pop music, and […]

As someone who primarily works with student musicians, I always appreciate the chance to collaborate with professionals – it makes me up my own game, and I always learn from watching them work together. I left last night’s rehearsal with a pro rhythm section impressed with how quickly and intuitively they reacted to […]

At every stage in a creative career, you need to be able to say “I don’t know where this is going” – and then keep working. In a culture of lockstep education, of factory-modeled jobs, of paint-by number culture, it’s increasingly difficult to say “I don’t know where this is going” and not […]

Students learn at different speeds; too often we can lose the fast movers as we continue to teach notes to the ones who struggle a little more. It doesn’t have to be that way, though. We only lose those bright students because they’ve been taught through lockstep education to do what is expected […]

Students regularly need to change teachers, find a different mentor. It happens in private lessons, it happens in creative and in academic subjects at every level. The wise teacher and the wise student both understand not to blame the material. And they know not to blame themselves or each other. […]

I remember the feeling of being late to class in college (trekking across campus through the snow, or getting caught up in the practice room, or just missing an alarm…). It often took all my willpower to enter a classroom late, even if only by a couple of minutes. The disruption, and the […]

A common inquiry: “Hey, can you tell me some good jazz songs? Like Frank Sinatra’s Misty?” (First, ignore that Misty isn’t Sinatra’s any more than Over The Rainbow is Judy Garland’s. We’ll get to that, later. I try to recommend a classic interpreter of jazz standards, which most often to me means suggesting a deep […]

There are a lot of voices out there telling you what kind of music you should teach. Simon Carrington says every program at an ACDA conference should include some Renaissance or Baroque music. Your state organization might insist that you program from a certain list to participate in festivals. I strongly […]

I’m excited to announce the second edition of the Michigan Choral Commission Consortium (MC3). In 2016’s inaugural edition, ten choirs collaborated to commission “We Are A Chorus” from the inimitable Alice Parker. This year, we’ve commissioned Andrea Ramsey to write the lead work. She will be writing a mid- to up-tempo […]