arrange • compose • conduct
Intention matters, and beginning a new school year is a great time to consider your intentions, whether as a student, a teacher, an administrator, or a parent. You are on an educational journey for the next nine months: what is your intention for it? What do you hope to get […]
I was reminded tonight of this classic bit of cooking wisdom: the first crêpe never comes out. (Actually, in my case it was more like the first four crêpes….) The reason probably has to do with the metal of the pan getting to the right temperature and sufficiently covered with a […]
Success in life requires reaction in the moment. Faced with new information, we often need to make decisions immediately, or at the very least alter our behavior in response. Of all the classes we can take in school, none prepares us for this moment-by-moment reaction better than singing in choir. […]
As we start another school year, a reminder to teachers that we are building moments. How many moments will your students remember from your class this year? How many do you remember from any one class? Instill values. Teach concepts and build factual knowledge. But most of all, create moments. […]
Welcome to Week 4 of The Definitive Version, a new weekly feature of my website. You can read more about the project here. Song: ‘Round Midnight Composer: Thelonious Monk/Cootie Williams Lyricist: Bernie Hanighen Form: AABA, 32-bar Standard Key: E-Flat ‘Round Midnight is said to be the most-recorded jazz standard composed by a jazz musician. […]
Sometimes we overdo it to the point of utter exhaustion. And sometimes in that exhausted state, we make a bad choice or lose perspective on a situation.* If we’re not careful, there can be long-term repercussions, professionally or personally. What we need to learn is to recognize the point before […]
We choral conductors, as a group, are guilty of a fatal bit of virtue signaling. Too often we use “difficult” as a synonym for “good” when describing music. Consider how many times you’ve described the repertoire of an ensemble as “really hard” as a measure of praise, or how often […]
For me, a well-designed game contains multiple elements that interact in interesting and subtle ways – giving you choices to make that influence the outcome. Nerdgames like Catan or Dominion or Ticket to Ride give you lots of different approaches that are viable. The same is true with classic card games from […]
Smart leaders build in unscheduled time to their schedules. They know that things will come up that require them to react, and they know that if they overbook themselves they will have to scramble to cover all of their responsibilities. (They probably learned this by dropping a few too many […]
We choral directors, as a group, are doers. One of the ways we most effectively understand the world is through interacting with it. So while the summer hiatus is great for recovery, inspiration, learning, growth, and balance…it’s not so great for doing. By the beginning of August, there’s an itch […]