#167. Beauty

#167. Beauty

Of all the incredibly significant things we need to teach, or more importantly, help our students understand, learning the meaning of beauty – in music – must number near the top of the list. I know it is vital that each of my students come to understand what beauty...
#166. Never Say “Do It Again” Again

#166. Never Say “Do It Again” Again

Of all the things we repeatedly say in rehearsals, the phrase “do it again” must rank high, actually very high on the list. Though we have an extraordinary number of euphemistic instructions to vary our speech, such as “try it again,” “one more time,” or “give it...
#165. “I Can’t Wait…”

#165. “I Can’t Wait…”

Let me tell you about a conversation I overheard recently between two high school students who were days away from starting this new school year. I don’t know if they knew I was listening, and I doubt it would have made a difference to them. After hearing many of...
#164. Appreciating

#164. Appreciating

Having heard savvy sayings like “You’ll never appreciate what you had until it’s gone” throughout my life I have come to realize the absolute truth in those words. But maybe those powerful words ring true now more than ever. It had been 464 days – 11,136 hours – since...
#163. “…The Way Things Turned Out”

#163. “…The Way Things Turned Out”

It seems that every day brings something different about our “new normal.” And though much is new; nothing seems normal. We are constantly needing to adapt, reverse course, shift, adjust, restructure, and change our approaches, methods and techniques on a dime. We...