arrange • compose • conduct
…you’ll never get close. I think this is true regardless of where you’re headed. It’s not enough to say “I want to be a musician” or even “I want to be a vocal performance major.” That’s nowhere near precise enough of a direction to aim. Some vocal performance majors are […]
…doesn’t mean I’m more right than you, who are new. I’ve directed the Rockford Aces for 15 years, and that means I’ve learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t, generally speaking. I’ve learned from hard mistakes I’ve made, and I’ve learned from successes. I’ve seen cyclical patterns, learned […]
In everything I do, “build it to outlast me” is an organizing principle. I want the ensembles I have started or directed to continue after I finish leading them. I want the music I write to continue to be of use after I’m not conducting it. I want the words […]
20-year-old me would be terribly impressed by all the things I know today. That’s the magic of time: spend long enough diligently studying something, and you’ll find you’ve made a lot of progress. Maybe that’s not reassuring to young people hoping to master something big, but I find it so […]
Playlists in music streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music are powerful tools for curating the music you listen to. They can also be of great use in creating passive and active learning. Here are three ways to advise students to more effectively use the playlists you create. (For example, […]
Knowing how our brains work should help understand why certain practice techniques work better. Synapses are the connections that allow electrical impulses to pass from one neuron to another. At first, these electrical impulses move slowly, but as a synapse is used more often, the brain covers it in a […]
Milestones are a good time to reflect on all you’ve accomplished and learned, and I’ve certainly done that in the past. But maybe it’s just as worthwhile to think about what you haven’t learned yet. I haven’t learned yet… …to choose to read (which I’d prefer) when there’s a phone […]
What’s the equivalent of quiet quitting in school? In the work world, we’ve seen a big increase in so-called “quiet quitting” – a decision to do the minimum required, rather than overtaxing yourself for the sake of your job. (There was a very interesting discussion of this on Dr. Brené […]
Take a deep breath, and consider what it means to be emotionally professional. Here’s Simon Sinek: “If you’re having a bad day, you can say, ‘Listen, I’m a little off my game today.” But you can’t sit in the meeting and be grumpy and give one word answers. That’s emotionally […]
It’s short. The most consistent block I find in my creative work is my self-judgement. I have a hard time objectively assessing the work I create, because all I can see and hear are the flaws. But I come with good news. The half-life of that self-judgement is so, so […]