arrange • compose • conduct
When a new record comes out by one of your favorite artists, how do you listen? My preference is for a deep dive. My musical tastes encompass a wide swath of music, but when it’s something brand new (or new to me) by a favorite artist, I become fixated on repeated listenings to […]
As in past years, I devoted an hour of my weekly two-hour rehearsal this week to a guided listening. For an hour, we listen to different interpretations of the same Christmas classic. It enables us to focus on tone, interpretation, creativity, and any number of other factors. Here are 2014 […]
I was grading listening assignments yesterday, and writing brief responses to their reflections. One thing that struck me as I responded to a couple dozen short essays on various artists: I didn’t need to re-listen to know what the music meant to me. I could write intelligently on every album that they […]
Part recordings are a great tool to make choral rehearsals more efficient – for students who cannot play their own parts, these recordings can be lifesavers for learning notes outside of the rehearsal. But they should only be one piece of your personal practice arsenal. Here are some other things to […]
One of my goals as a conductor this year (I always set three personal goals alongside my students) is to back away. Give the ensemble more autonomy, more control, more time without me in front of them in concert. It must be working, because when a sick kid kept me away […]
A good ensemble can give an excellent performance – within narrow parameters. The right space. The right amount of warmup. The right standing arrangement. The right specific cues. The right time of day. A great ensemble can give an excellent performance – regardless of parameters. No matter the space, amount of warmup, standing arrangement, […]
We are what we repeatedly do. So goes the maxim by Will Durant, writing on Aristotle. As musicians, though, we are what we repeatedly listen to. Frequent exposure to new music, of course, is vital to our growth. But we are, most of all, the sum of the music we hear most. Our […]
When you start to get good at juggling three balls, often you think the next move is to add another ball. That’s not the next move. Going from three balls to four requires a completely different set of moves – it’s not addition, it’s reinvention. When you get good at juggling, rather than […]
The wonderful YouTube science creator Mark Rober said the following during his cool video about winning the board game “Guess Who.” “Teachers don’t make a difference. Awesome teachers make a difference.” I think he’s right. And you’ll have to watch the video to get the context, because it’s sweet, and because his quote sounds […]
You will not love every piece of music we do together. Every piece will offer something to you. You will not identify with the point of view of every composer. That’s not the point. Making music from many points of view is a great way to widen your worldview. With every piece […]