arrange • compose • conduct
I personally think it’s good for students to see their teachers and leaders figuring it out. The idea of the teacher/leader as a fount of knowledge, issuing decrees from a position of authority and wisdom is tempting, but it isn’t very realistic. We are all human, we are all figuring […]
I taught myself to use a new notation software today, and I did it by being almost completely uncreative. I use notation software throughout my creative process – to complete scores, but also as I am composing and arranging. It is a creative tool. But when you’re using a new […]
The worst lesson to learn from six months of a pandemic is, “it’s always like this.” It’s hard, at 43, to learn that lesson. Your sense of normal does evolve over time, but I have had enough life experience to know that it’s not always like this. In the nearly […]
Early correctives are so much more effective than late ones. It’s the beginning of the year/semester/trimester/quarter. Now is the time to make gentle correctives. A small, gentle corrective of a student in the early weeks can profoundly affect their trajectory. A much bigger correction at the end of term will […]
I heard auditions today for the Rockford Aces – outside, distanced, masked. They were auditions – nerve wracking in the best of times, and probably doubly so when the singers haven’t had sung with a choir since at least March. So I simplified my audition protocol, I removed aspects, and I tried […]
“In preparing for his oral qualifying examination, a rite of passage for every graduate student, he chose not to study the outlines of known physics. Instead he went up to MIT, where he could be alone, and opened a fresh notebook. On the title page he wrote: Notebook Of Things […]
Nobody knows how Greek Fire was made. Nobody quite knows the recipe for Roman concrete, or the process for Damascus steel; nobody knows the smell of silphium. There are countless examples of past knowledge lost to time. It might be reassuring to think that knowledge builds on knowledge – that […]
Host Drew Carey began episodes of the improv comedy show “Whose Line Is It, Anyway?” with the tag phrase, “the show where everything’s made up and the points don’t matter.” If there ever was a phrase for the utter reinvention of education in 2020, that’s it. And if we recognize […]
What albums could you listen to all day? What’s your “All Day Music”? For me, the music I can let play over and over has certain characteristics: timeless feeling (not totally wedded to a particular era). depth of musical expression that rewards repeated listening. personal connection to a time or […]
We can choose to seek many different destinations: Novelty Satisfaction Curiosity Distraction Dissociation Connection Peace Conflict Comfort One of the main lessons I seek to imbue my students with is to make the destination you seek beauty. Prioritize seeking beauty. To me, the outcome of all art should be beauty. […]