arrange • compose • conduct
Do you agree that a mistake is not wrong, and that making mistakes are a vital part of learning? Then we must spend more time teaching students to recognize mistakes. Far too many students are going through life making one of two assumptions: I probably got it right, or I probably got it wrong. […]
In his new book Lit Up, David Denby quotes NYC Beacon High School principal Ruth Lacey saying: “High schools should have the same warmth as elementary schools.” Is it any wonder that the choir room is the most welcoming room in the school? For many students, choir class is the one […]
Last rehearsal, I had a student who wasn’t able to phonate (still at rehearsal, though!). He listened with score in hand and asked to stay after to ask me a question? “How do you decide what to work on?” In other words, with all the things to be fixed, to work on, […]
I’ve been immersed in the words of Derek Sivers recently, and one phrase has echoed over and over, both in my mind and out of my mouth. “The standard pace is for chumps.” He says he learned this lesson from Kimo Williams, a music professor at Columbia College Chicago who gave Sivers four music lessons […]
In his TED talk last week, Astro Teller of the Google X Laboratories said: Sometimes shifting perspective is more important than being smart. He described his teams as actively working to find the flaws in their projects; they strive to spot the weaknesses that make their own goals impossible. They do this because the sooner […]
“Rajaton is our favorite vocal group in the world, actually,” said Morten Vinther of The Real Group during their joint concert in Stockholm last week. Of course, many people would use the same phrase to describe The Real Group, so you can imagine just how amazing a shared concert would be. About […]
A recent post about Broadway singing gives an important reminder: don’t try to sound like the record. It’s true regardless of genre. Commercially released recordings are all – all – engineered to within an inch of their life, because of the nature of digital recording and the increasing use of headphones. […]
I’ve been thinking about the “educational” computer games that are increasingly prevalent and available. Especially the idea of gamifying education. In my experience, they’re generally a failure on both educational and gaming fronts: the games aren’t as well-designed as commercial games, and they generally don’t help kids learn any faster. I know that […]
A recent Facebook discussion renewed my faith in humanity. The poster asked, “Do you let your students go to Festival with neon colored hair?” Overwhelmingly, the responding conductors said, “Of course!” Responses ranged from “Yes. Full stop.” to “Absolutely. I can’t imagine any choir being adjudicated by the color of their hair.” […]
How am I going to wake up my students? How do I shake them loose from their long weekend, their ACT worries, their algebra homework, their family drama, their dating life – and get them to start making music together? Sometimes the hardest part is dropping the baggage at the door […]