arrange • compose • conduct
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 […]
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 […]