Elevate musicality with trigger words
A simple approach to instantly approach every piece with more musicianship, storytelling and emotion - for us, and our ensembles!
Going beyond the notes: Conducting with Expression
Want to go from being a human metronome to embodying all the emotions in the music? We need to know the music, and know ourselves.
Are you creating or obeying? What I learned about conducting from theatre director David Mamet
The vast majority of our musical training is spent in pursuit of an impossible perfection. Deluged by the demands of technique, we forget the entire purpose of our art is to connect. To move people. To change people.
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Giving an A - How to Immediately Embody Who You Want to Be
If, one year from now, you were to give yourself an 'A' grade for how you showed up in life as a person, partner, conductor, teacher - who would you have become to earn it?
Lessons with Ben Zander #1: I'm diffident?
How one conducting lesson helped me see and unravel what had been holding me back, not only as a conductor, but as a person.
Listening for Who Has the Melody
Even though we're not playing together, we can still practice listening for who has the melody in our ensemble music. Plus, how to turn this into a 5-minute score study activity.
Conducting Success in 2020: How to ditch old conducting habits, and make new ones
Do you have a bad conducting habit that's been annoying you for a long time? That thing that you remember once for 3 seconds when you're on the podium, then then next time you think of it is an hour later? Here's how to solve that problem, for good.
Top Holiday Gifts for Conductors ($10-$100+)
What does every conductor wants under their tree this year? Whether someone's buying for you, or you're buying for yourself, here are my top picks for last minute conductor gifts to suit every budget.
Three grade 3 pieces to promote independence and creativity
So much of our job is telling players what to do and how to do it. It's so easy for us to get stuck on the podium, dictating to students every element of what and how to play. It feels good - we say something and the sound improves! Yay! But this method is actually really inefficient. What if the students could be making their own judgements about the music, adjusting in the moment and, essentially, rehearsing themselves? Sound impossible and idyllic? It's not.
