In the classroom:  This is the time of year when I have to be especially intentional about balancing my desire to check everything off my rehearsal to-do list with the need to make meaningful progress. There’s so much material that it’s easy to equate completion with success and to feel stressed when every box isn’t checked. In reality, the work only matters if we’re making meaningful progress and helping performers understand how to carry that improvement into their individual practice.

To be clear, I’m not advocating against planning. My most effective rehearsals are always

In the classroom - I NEED YOU TO…: A world-class educator completely shifted my paradigm on engaging and correcting student behavior.  Her challenge: stop saying “I need you to…” in rehearsal.  In reality, my needs are irrelevant to the majority of my students, and yet, I frequently catch myself telling a student what I need.  Want more buy-in and engagement in rehearsal?  Find a way to reframe rehearsal expectations and musical improvements that remind

In the classroom: We have a concert Tuesday night, and it isn’t going to be pretty. 😛The kids are doing great, but we’re going in too many different directions - musical pit, solos, chamber ensembles, large group lit, not to mention losing four rehearsal days to the ice storm in North Texas.  I’d like to blame it on the ice, but truth be told

In the classroom: As our group dives deeper into ensemble skills (esp as we remember what we sound like after taking 4 days off last week for a significant ice storm in our area!!), I find it helpful to remind the kids why we ‘warm up’ together.  FWIW, I prefer the term Ensemble Skills over ‘Warm-ups’ or Daily Drill.  It reminds all of us that there is a purpose to doing this practice together.  (My favorite definition of ensemble is ‘together we’ - more on that another time).

But really,

A bit of wild winter weather in my part of the world reminds me of the need for efficiency both on the podium and off.  What have I done in the background to accelerate the learning process in the classroom?  Have the weekly expectations been clearly defined?  Am I providing regular opportunities to assess progress outside the rehearsal space so the performers feel motivated to prep before rehearsal?  Am I providing enough notice of what they’re expected to know so that they can prepare?  When I’m on the podium, am I using the most articulate and concise approach, or am I entertaining myself with anecdotes that the performers neither need nor want? Are my scores marked? Is the rehearsal scripted, or

I’m starting recordings again this week.  I find SO much on my recordings that I miss in real life.  They can be hard to listen to in the early part of a concert cycle, but everyone gets better faster when I do it.  If you talk yourself out of recording because ‘its the first day back,’ ‘so & so is in a lesson,’ ‘tomorrow will be a better time,’ congratulations - you’re normal! 😛BUT, don’t wait for a ‘better time.’  Record today & then