Jed Scott Music

When you’re competent, you get asked to do things. What a flattering experience: to be trusted with a new project, a new job. But saying “yes” to every offer means taking time away from other important activities. The thing to do is look ahead. Where do you want to go? […]

I used to marvel at how many outstanding choir directors are also wonderful pianists. Seems a weird coincidence, doesn’t it? Why piano in particular? (As a comparison, I didn’t learn any significant piano skills until college.) It’s no coincidence. And it’s not because you need prodigious piano skills to be a great […]

There are increasing reminders that social media is having a profoundly damaging effect on people prone to depression. It’s profound because it lets them hide so thoroughly behind a facade of happiness. On social media, people don’t see us. They see the part of us we want them to see. […]

We are all prone to making mistakes. It’s part of being human and it’s an important part of growth. Here’s a concept I’m working to imprint into my sons brains – and my students, too. [Something happens – forgot homework, dropped and broke a plate, etc.] Son: Oops, I dropped […]

When I teach relative minors to my students, I always end with a call and response of them giving the relative minors to a given major key. I start with easier ones and build. What’s the relative minor of C major? A minor D Major? B minor F Major? D […]

I have a bunch of smart musicians in the Rockford Aces: guys who show a lot of interest in arranging and composing, and a lot of discrimination about quality. I almost never get an arrangement from them for the group. I think it’s their good taste that keeps them from […]

Did you learn mnemonics for notes growing up? I did. Every Good Boy, Great Big Diamonds, All Cows Eat, and so on. No matter how well you know your mnemonics, you can’t really read music. It’s a transitional phase. It’s like a five-year-old starts out sounding every letter to figure […]

For the new Rockford Choirs CD coming out on May 27, I had about 5-6 hours of live recordings from concerts last summer in Europe. That was far too much to listen to objectively, selecting the best version of each of 16 songs. So before I started, I developed this […]

At least half of the U.S. states have some sort of vocal jazz honors choir; for whatever reason, Michigan isn’t one of them. This is of course, surprising, because so many leaders in vocal jazz have been Michiganders: Steve Zegree, Duane Davis, April Tini, Greg Jasperse, and Sunny Wilkinson, to […]