arrange • compose • conduct
If you want to get back on track after one or a few slip-ups, two big steps are required. First, you have to face your errors. Second you require forgiveness. Our brains are pretty powerful at putting up fog to keep us from really seeing our mistakes (until they wake us up at 3AM!). Finding a way to blow […]
My son gets really frustrated with his piano practice. Often I have to sit with him just to counteract his negative self-talk; he says again and again, “I don’t like this.” “I can’t do this.” or just screams and slams the keyboard. Usually. The past two weeks I’ve been really on […]
What is it about the vocal jazz repertoire that merits a college ensemble or all-state high school honor choir devoted to it? What does it provide that wouldn’t be better provided in a pop a cappella group, or a show choir, or a madrigal ensemble? For me, vocal jazz ensembles provide […]
Walt Whitman penned the line, “I contain multitudes.” And while he seems to have contained greater multitudes than many, all humans contain multitudes. We aren’t always encouraged to acknowledge the multitudes. With questions for kids like, “What do you want to be?”, for physicians, “What is your specialty?” for the […]
Today you’ll see lots of people giving up things for Lent; it can be a noble cause, regardless of your religious beliefs, and many cultures include a season of fasting or other asceticism. Putting hard limits on things has a way of clarifying our own minds. But in the long run, six weeks of […]
We tend to think of intervallic consonance on a relative scale – maybe octaves at one end, minor ninths on the other. In between you have every other interval – M3, P5, TT. It has long been my sense, though, that relative consonance is built on a sliding scale. Where one person draws the line […]
We all make epic mistakes. Sometimes (if we’re lucky) they only affect ourselves. Sometimes they’re seen live by a billion people. In every case, compassion is what’s needed. Compassion for people given false hope. Compassion for the people who have to fix the mistake. Compassion for the people who made […]
Want more responsibility? Do your best at the responsibilities you have. Want better gigs? Do your best at the gigs you have. Want a better job? Do your best at the job you have. Want a bigger role? Do your best in a smaller role. You know when you’re doing your best. You […]
I first knew I needed to make music my path when I spent a few days at a pre-orientation for a top technological institute. I was around intellectual peers, had real science-y experiences and loved the beautiful campus. But the lack of music made my heart ache, and that was how I knew. […]
A choir teacher has many jobs. But in the end, the most important one coincides with this cherished quote from Howard Thurman: “Do not ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” Choir […]