arrange • compose • conduct
Piano/vocal scores have the most ambiguous tempo markings. Things like: Moderately. Medium Tempo. And my current favorite: Sturdy Ballad. I got to wondering today: why, oh why, are they so vague? I try to offer as much specificity as I can in my scores – often a descriptor plus a […]
If you’re looking for the best songs, ask everyone. As I’m working through the song selections for our annual Cabaret, sometimes I think that I should put tighter rules around the songs – even going so far as to making a limited song list students should select from. The thing […]
I’m in the middle of my annual (well, almost annual…thanks, 2020) speed-writing of 30-40 band arrangements for a Cabaret performance our choirs present. I’m doing it for the first time in Dorico, which is costing my some speed at the beginning, but I think will lead to better looking and […]
We spend so much time practicing singing in choir, and give so much feedback on singing better…but how much time do we spend practicing listening and giving feedback on listening better? I can sometimes sing and listen critically to what’s happening around me at the same time. Not always. The […]
Allow me to offer a first listen to my long-delayed canon based on Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky, best known for its appearance in Through The Looking Glass. I completed the piece in late-2019, and would have premiered it with the Rockford Aces at the 2020 World Choir Games. We all know […]
John Wooden famously wrote, “You haven’t taught until they’ve learned.” In my opinion, a teacher should view every success as a result of the student’s hard work and every failure as a result of the teacher’s ineffectiveness. I try to give all the credit for a good performance to my […]
There’s a moment in my favorite sitcom, Aaron Sorkin’s Sports Night, when one of the lead characters, tv producer Dana Whitaker, acknowledges her failings in the situation. She (Felicity Huffman) says to her boss, Isaac Jaffe (Robert Guillaume): Dana: We did a big thing badly.Isaac: I know.Dana: Can I try […]
Ben Folds: You don’t end up with a 140,000 word book that you end up cutting down, you actually get there. Nick Hornby: Right. I always underwrite, for a start. And it’s when I’m reading it back and doing a second draft, it gets longer, not shorter, because I can […]
One of my challenges as a leader is to accept the power differential between me and my students. Personally, I tend to think of myself as a peer to my students – students of any age. We are all fellow travelers on a journey of learning, and I know that […]
It’s my first time writing our annual Cabaret Show in two years. In the meantime, I’ve made the switch from Finale, which I used from 1993 to 2020, to Dorico. The element that is most important to me in writing our Cabaret Show is speed – I try to get […]