Jed Scott Music

As each arrow left for its target, the archers were caught between success (hitting the ten) and mastery (knowing it means nothing if you can’t do it again and again). -Sarah Lewis, The Rise: Creativity, The Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery It means nothing if you can’t repeat it. […]

Yesterday I said that we should strongly avoid standardized assessment in music class. As soon as I finished it, I heard the protests – but the Senate bill is a great advocacy of of our subject – how can we scorn it? What should we do instead? What we should do instead […]

Music is at the core of our society. It is not a “core class” as we are intent on defining it in the U.S. Along with “core subject” status comes the need to know that students are proficient in this area. And the only way we know to assess their proficiency is … to assess […]

At today’s ACDA-Michigan morning, our president Jared Anderson asked us to share our “ACDA Moments” – those touchstones where this organization affected us most profoundly. Here’s mine. I was not a music education or conducting student as an undergraduate or in grad school. At Western, I effectively majored in Gold […]

As you’re building your practice habit, have you found a solid trigger to precede your action? Just as important is what you do after you practice. Reward yourself. It doesn’t need to be a big reward. Food is tricky, if you want to stay healthy. Some small thing you love that can show up […]

Precious students you’ve seen daily for four (or more) years are heading out to college in the coming days and weeks. You’re excited to see them rise to new heights, anxious to hear about their successes, and sad not to see them in your choirs and community going forward. Here a few thoughts for them. […]

For over a year, all of our work books have been in boxes. Choral texts, fake books, theory tomes and a dozen other boxes have been packed up since a flooded basement forced us to get rid of two large bookcases. Last week we installed new shelves, and the books came back into the […]

If you could look into your own future, what would you consider a success? Or if you went to your twentieth reunion, say, would you be reflecting on a career so far that would make sense to the you of twenty years earlier? I don’t know quite what I envisioned […]

So, our half-marathon yesterday. As I wrote yesterday, circumstances brought us to the big day underprepared. Our response was to listen to our bodies, run as much as we could, and walk the rest. The result was we finished hand-in-hand, proudly running across the finish line, solidly in last place. It […]

I have good reasons for being underprepared for today’s half-marathon. But Steve Zegree, my mentor and inspiration for this race, made a mantra of “No Excuses” – so I’m not going to even mention them.   So what do you do when you’re underprepared for a challenge? Say, a concert, or a contest, or an […]