arrange • compose • conduct
If you spent 6 hours a day for two work weeks on a skill, how much better would you get? That’s two weeks of 9-4, Monday-Friday with an hour for lunch. How good would you be at yo-yoing? How much more efficient would you be at washing dishes? Long division? […]
I missed my Monday night rehearsal this week. It hardly ever happens, even if I’m pretty sick, but tonight it was unavoidable and for the best of reasons. This Saturday I was in Rhode Island and Massachusetts to celebrate my grandmother’s 100th birthday. I thought I was able to plan […]
Yesterday was my grandmother’s 100th birthday. As I watched her get up from her chair to greet the many family members visiting her Massachusetts home, I thought, “if I can stand up that fast at eighty I’ll be happy!” She lives at home and continues to share new stories from her […]
Why I Don’t Mind Auto-Tune If you listen to pop music now, it’s hard to find anything competently produced that doesn’t use some auto-tune software to improve the intonation of the singer. As a rule, I don’t have a problem with that. Using current technology to improve the overall production […]
Time was, a student would say “who is Stevie Wonder?” Or “I’ve never heard the Mozart Requiem.” And I would bemoan our culture. How can they not know these things? What is wrong with our society that a seventeen-year-old doesn’t know this? But no more. Now I say this: I […]
Starting a new habit? Maybe daily practice or blogging or early rising? You will slip. You’ll miss a day or two in your quest. Perhaps you’re about to hit double digits on a practice streak when you miss a day. Missing a day isn’t the end of the world unless […]
The ACDA Michigan 2014 Fall Conference was a great and weird experience for me. Great because it’s always valuable to reconnect with colleagues, share trench stories and get inspired. Weird because I was missing half of my brain. My wife and I have been attending conferences together since January of […]
It might be surprising to you, but I’ve had an incredible response from my choir members (boys age 15-18) when I have included mindfulness meditation in my rehearsal plan. Maybe it shouldn’t be so surprising – American teenagers are clearly overstressed and spiritually undernourished. Plus, in my experience choir members […]
I want to make a sign to hang over our office door. It will read: IT TAKES LESS TIME THAN YOU THINK! What takes less time than you think? Almost everything. Writing a blog post, finishing your homework, mowing the lawn, replying to that email, planning a rehearsal. What will […]
What are two opposing thoughts you hold in your head? Tonight in rehearsal a student mentioned that they had mistakenly sung a different pronunciation of Christmas in class. We usually pronounce it with a short i in the second syllable (rhymes with Swiss Miss) but in class they often pronounce […]