When I start to feel the weight of all that we have to teach our students, and the tiny amount of time we have to do it, my pace starts to get faster and faster. Often the...

What got you hooked on music? Was it practicing scales in a practice room? If it was, you are a sick individual in need of professional help. It was performing music! Sadly, I...

At a music education symposium last week, I was asked a question that really gave me pause. Actually, it stopped me dead in my tracks. Ready? Here it is: “Dr. Boonshaft, if you...

If I had a dollar for every time I instructed an ensemble “to listen” in a rehearsal, I would be writing this blog on my private island in the Caribbean. Sadly, most of those...

I got into a routine, well, more like a rut. During rehearsals, after stopping to correct something. I would identify the problem spot, state what was troubling me, and what I...

“If we don’t change the direction we are going,” a Chinese proverb suggests, “we are likely to end up where we are heading.” So I try to ask myself questions like, “Are we headed...

The renowned tenor, Andrea Bocelli, once said, "If an artist wants to move the listener, he or she must have something intense and convincing to tell through the singing.  This...

I once met a young man – a college first-year student – who excitedly talked about his goal of someday being a music teacher. I asked him about what led him to that decision. His...