arrange • compose • conduct
For a lot of skills, you get faster as you level up. What used to take you six hours takes you three. What took you an hour takes a couple of minutes. If you are charging an hourly rate, this can be a problem. And even if you don’t, it’s […]
I love daily streaks. I love them because they pile motivation on top of motivation to keep going. A 1-month streak is harder to let break than a 5-day streak, and a 6-month streak is much more motivation than that 1-month streak. I also think that the easiest streaks to […]
The article I recommend more than any other is also the article I reflect on more often than any I’ve ever read in The New Yorker. Late Bloomers, by Malcolm Gladwell, asserts that we make a mistake with this common assumption: Genius, in the popular conception, is inextricably tied up […]
A while back, I noticed something peculiar about my drive to the library. On the way there, I would stop at 6 stop signs and two lights. Returning home, I would hit the same two lights–and zero stop signs. Sometimes the direction you’re driving makes as big a difference as […]
RULE SEVEN: The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something. It’s the people who do all of the work all of the time who eventually catch on to things. 10 Rules for Students, Teachers, and Life by Sister Corita Kent Read all ten rules. But […]
The second-best part of Halloween after the trick-or-treating is definitely the trades. My kids will spend a remarkable amount of time devising increasingly Baroque trades of candies to optimize their stash to their tastes. This always strikes me as ironic, since much of their candy ends up uneaten, even months […]
“You won’t understand anything about the imagination until you realize that it’s not about making things up, it’s about perception.” From The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman (Chapter 9) I came across this quotation today and was struck by it. Do you think of imagination as invention, or as understanding? […]
Memorization is a consistent challenge in ensembles, and I think that a big part of it is an overarching strategy that musicians learn with experience. When I’m memorizing a piece of music, I am often focusing more on the differences, not details. That is, I recognize that music almost always […]
Tired piles on tired as activity piles on activity. What does the director do? Demand a vigorous rehearsal, denying the exhaustion of the singers? Slow down, offer sympathy and a restful, unproductive time? Surely there’s a middle ground to find – one which honors the time that the singers have […]
Our family set aside the afternoon today to watch a movie we’d seen before – Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli masterpiece Spirited Away. Why watch it again? Because we were able to see it as intended: on the big screen, thanks to a special event re-release. Artwork has an intended medium, and […]