Category :Blog

Unless you are a composer, every musician is guilty of appropriation. It’s the nature of our art: we take someone else’s music and make it our own. Indeed, the act

Singing In Tune: Intonation Ideas for the Choir Vocalists often struggle with singing in tune. How do we know if we are singing the right pitch? Training the ear is

Auditions offer life lessons Auditions are like job interviews for musicians. We prepare for hours but have one shot in front of the judges. It’s frightening, thrilling, and weird. My

Come play in the music sandbox! My flute student James told me about a new “music sandbox” website that provides mini lessons for the budding composer. James’ friend, Dennis DeSantis,

Choir Membership Teaches Many Life Lessons Singing in a choir allows us time to practice being together with a shared goal. In a previous post, I discussed 5 spiritual lessons of the

Note Reading is one of the most fundamental, but difficult, skills for beginner musicians. In this blog post, I will share with you one of the novel approaches invented by

Music and Politics Songs have been used to foster patriotism; national anthems, patriotic songs, and campaign jingles arouse the spirit. Anti-government songs are the other side of the political music spectrum:

Where Does Silence Begin? Claude Debussy famously quipped “Music is the silence between the notes.” Or consider this wisdom from an old Zen koan: “It is the silence between the notes

Banishing Negative Self-Talk For the first several years after I started my job as music director, I had a lot of anxiety about the job. I often came home on

3 Listening Lessons for the Choir As part of an ongoing series about spiritual practice and music, this blog post will focus on the art of listening. Music practice is