More from Daniel Coyle: Tip #16 – Each Day, Try to Build One Perfect Chunk Coyle notes, “In our busy lives, it’s sometimes tempting to regard merely practicing as success. . . But the real goal isn’t practice, it’s progress. As John Wooden put it, ‘Never mistake mere activity for accomplishment.’” He then […]
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Stick Time: Stressing Stress
Read this line aloud: “The President conferred with congressional leaders this afternoon on matters of global importance.” Now, read it again, placing stress on the capitalized syllable: “The Pres-I-dent CON-ferred with CON-gress-i-onal lead-ERS this af-TER-noon on mat-TERS of glo-BAL im-por-TANCE.” Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? In any language, syllabic stress is a critical […]
Speaking the Two Languages of Technology
Can you list all of the “music technology” that you use in your work? It’s a trickier question than you might think. First, there are general tools which help us organize and communicate. Tools such as web browsers, Google Docs, e-mail and text messaging can be an essential part of our toolkit, but we use […]
Stick Time: 500-Year-Old Surround Sound
In the current world of home theatre installations, “surround sound” is all the rage. Various companies schlep incredibly expensive systems intended to give the listener the impression of “being there” while watching a movie. Note to the sound-system companies: Your “new” system is not entirely new. We choral folks have been at this for, […]
Stick Time: Text vs. Musical Line
Today, let’s consider how manner in which text is set affects performance. Mini history lesson. One of the ways in which the upheaval of the Reformation affected music is the how texts were set. There was at that time a movement against florid polyphony, or as Thomas Cranmer said, “the song that shall be […]
Name That Choir Tune (No. 20)