arrange • compose • conduct
Do you find time to watch experts do your job? When you were in college, you observed experts teaching and rehearsing. Every rehearsal I’ve ever sung in included ample opportunity to watch the conductor do the work of running a rehearsal. Every well-taught class I’ve been in was well-taught, and […]
Drop some balls today so you won’t have so many to juggle tomorrow. The only way to stop feeling like you’re triaging your work life, day after day, is to turn away from today. Drop everything, for a little while, and look further ahead. Two days, two weeks, a month […]
Anger alienates. Always. Communicating with anger rarely solves a problem, and can often make it worse. As and educator, I believe that anger is never a tool that teaches, so if possible, I never want to use it at all. This goes for all types of communication, and double for […]
How is it not obvious? It seems an almost universal challenge to learn to differentiate between things we do to make ourselves happy things we do to make the people around us happy. As an educator, it’s essential that we master the art of helping our students find what makes […]
You might not know what’s going to work in your plans. But today’s surprises will be tomorrow’s staples. Mirror glazes, dry sponge cakes, under-proved breads, and a Paul Hollywood handshake are just a few of the stapes of the Great British Baking Show. I’m willing to bet almost none of […]
…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, […]