I’ve always felt that the pace of a rehearsal was best when it was broken down into small segments working on different material. So maybe I’d spend 11 minutes on the...

At the start of your next rehearsal, gather the ensemble’s attention and simply write this remarkable quote on the board: “Play the music, not the instrument.” Then simply start...

A few weeks ago I wrote about changing statements like “do it again” in rehearsals to make them actionable. Let me share with you another often-non-actionable statement that...

Xun Kuang, also known as Xunzi, who lived from 300-230 B.C., wrote: “Not having heard something is not as good as having heard it; having heard it is not as good as having seen...

So often as I look out at students in an ensemble, I see lots of them doing one specific thing that causes many different problems. It can show itself with any instrument, and...

We have all witnessed ensembles do more than we thought possible or go farther than we imagined. When that happens, it is a reminder that so often the sum of the parts is so much...

Have you ever tried to memorize a list of things only to remember the beginning and the end, forgetting most – if not all – of the middle of that list? Me too, and sadly way too...

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 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...