arrange • compose • conduct
Every day across the country there are dozens of amazing performances you and I would love to see. At jazz clubs in big cities; Broadway shows; touring acts not near to us; orchestras; operas; comedians. None of them close enough to attend – and that’s on top of the acts […]
There are plenty of signs that your practice is effective: your proficiency is increasing; your teacher notes your progress; what used to be hard is now easy. The best sign? When the timer goes off and you want to keep going. You want a couple more chances to get it […]
Amateurs are the best. Amateurs do something because they love it, not for remuneration. I am an amateur baker, cook, graphic designer, sketcher, and any number of other activities. And I try to carry the spirit of the amateur into all the professional things I do, as a conductor, arranger, […]
I don’t know who invented the pithy lie, “Those who can, do…those who can’t, teach.” But I do know that it’s time to stop repeating it. Teaching is a skill that takes years of practice – it isn’t a matter of simply knowing the subject matter. I’ve been around my share of […]
All right, choir teachers. Many of you are returning to school today after Spring Break. After a week of re-centering, relaxation, and reflection on the year so far, it’s time to jump back in and sprint to the finish. It’s easy to relax just a little here at the end […]
I’m in the middle of mixing the Rockford Aces‘ third studio album. It’s an exciting and mentally exhausting process. That’s a lot of tracks to mix… This time around, I’m thanking myself for being more demanding in the studio. Even though time is money during the tracking sessions, every minute […]
In the introduction to Alice Parker’s groundbreaking “The Anatomy of Melody: Exploring the Single Line of Song, she writes, Western music is the only society to list harmony right up there in the trinity of msical greats. But I don’t think it belongs there. If melody (tones) and rhythm (time) […]
We know there are glass-half-empty and glass-half-full people. People who focus on the good there is, and those who focus on what could be better. I think there are two more types to consider: Bigger Glass People (BGP) and Littler Glass People (LGP). They are a step beyond the types above. […]
I have a student working on becoming an arranger, and we’ve been meeting occasionally to review his writing. On our last meeting, I recommended he sing through all the other parts of every piece of music in his choir folder. It’s not enough to know the theory and build chords […]
The nature of the voice means it’s important to not start private lessons until much later than most instrumentalists begin – middle school at the earliest, if not later. The problem is, the practice habit that is so important to build in the early years of studying is far harder […]