arrange • compose • conduct
I’ve written about tempo markings and “repeat and fade.” My third and final pet peeve with piano-vocal sheet music is crazy road maps. With the motivation of saving 1 or 2 pages of printing costs (a moot point for a growing segment of digital-only music readers), so many piano-vocal scores […]
My 10-year-old son came out of his hour-long basketball practice red-faced and sweaty. He had worked hard. But what he mentioned was the team on the next court over, whose coach had been loudly giving his team laps. “My coach doesn’t give us laps. He’s really good at showing us […]
I wrote recently about one of my pet peeves in piano-vocal scores: the ubiquitous “Repeat and Fade.” Here’s another frequent frustration in piano-vocal scores of pop tunes. Moderately. I have seen tempos ranging from around 90 to around 160 labeled as moderately, and in the 30+ piano-vocal scores I’m working […]
I’m teaching my daughter to tie her shoes right now. She’s successfully avoided learning for quite awhile, owing to flats, crocs, and other tie-less shoes. But the time has come. It occurred to me that the skill of tying your shoes is a lifetime skill – learn to do it […]
If you truly want to be happy during winter, though, this is the wrong approach to the season. Changing your mindset can do more than distracting yourself from the weather. It turns out that in northern Norway, “people view winter as something to be enjoyed, not something to be endured,” says Leibowitz, […]
I made my first flipbook since middle school a couple of weeks ago – inspired by the wonderful YouTube channel Andymation, which I’ve been watching with my kids. Flipbooks are a wonderful window into how our brain works, because we make the panels one at a time, but if make […]
Once you establish your expectations for your ensemble, how do you enforce them? There are lots of options: Punishment for failure Cheerleading positive behavior Regular testing for personal effort Clear communication of expectations in rehearsal Setting a consistent example Tirades Increasing individual buy-in Deadlines Encouraging in-ensemble leadership to show more […]
You must develop quality before speed. My son mentioned that one of his friends makes excellent snowballs. When prompted, he recognized, of course, that the friend developed this skill with practice. But more important, it’s how his friend must have practiced. Before he could get good at making snowballs quickly, […]
Art can feel rare and elusive sometimes – especially for artists, who pour all of their energy into their creation. But I really think that making art is the default. And I was reminded that most forcefully tonight as I watched a dozen performers create a truly remarkable 2 1/2-hour […]
There are situational limits on the trajectory of the ensembles you conduct. A top-tier 4-year school’s top choir is going to make music of a different caliber than a y’all come 9th grade chorus. There are situational limits, but far more important are expectations. What you expect an ensemble to […]