arrange • compose • conduct
Yesterday, I finally got to share one of the projects that has been occupying my work daily for the last couple of months. This arrangement, a lullaby version of the Beatles’ “Golden Slumbers,” was written in a flurry the week after we lost a former student, Katherine, at 22. She […]
It’s been a long dark nightAnd I’ve been a waitin’ for the morningIt’s been a long hard fightBut I see a brand new day a dawningI’ve been looking for the sunshineYou know, I ain’t seen it in so longAnd everything’s gonna work out just fineAnd everything’s gonna be all rightThat’s […]
Great songs don’t require rhymes. Great poetry doesn’t, either. So why do so many have them? From Shakespearean sonnets to the Beatles to Stephen Sondheim, rhymes have a massively important place in the creation of both song and poem. But none of it is required. The art form includes them […]
I last missed a daily post her on this day in 2014. Tomorrow begins year seven of my daily streak. (Wolfram Alpha tells me that’s 2,192 days) But it’s November 3 I remember. I remember where I was in 2014, why I missed posting. I commemorate it and move forward. […]
I learned in debate my freshman year of high school to carefully select the facts that contribute to my case – to the story I want to tell. This idea of choosing narratives to support a story was emphasized over and over in the essay writing I did throughout high […]
When I experience the sensation of writer’s block, a good strategy for me is to make it meta. I write about the writer’s block. I write about strategies that have worked in the past to get me through it. I write about the circumstances that might have led to the […]
I’m transcribing a standard from Ella and Louis right now – phrasing and all. It’s…hard. Because Ella’s phrasing is so complex and hip. The back phrasing floats across beats in a way that swings and is completely ineffable. So the question becomes, how do you balance accuracy and readability? On […]
When I started writing daily, it would have been easy to get in the habit of labeling each post with a few content tags. Even six months, in, it wouldn’t have taken me long to go back and amend the 180ish posts to more easily find topic-based essays. Now I’ve […]
Vacations take vigilance. I’m writing this on May 28, patiently waiting for Final Cut X to render a video for the Aces Concert on May 30. That, of course, is long in the past. To really take a break from your chosen work is harder and harder. Double it if […]
Don’t write it down until it’s the same three times. I learned this rule from others, especially Alice Parker, who has written with her usual clarity about her process in her books. As I’m writing, I’m constantly singing (shakily) and playing (barely passably) whatever I’m working on. And until it […]