Regardless of the subject matter, those of us in the education profession are constantly seeking creative ways to distill complex structures down to a point where our students can grasp the concept at hand. Look at the clever way students in a public school broke down the multifaceted historical events surrounding the Reformation into a […]
Others
Books Worth Reading IX
One more book before I go in a new direction: Twyla Tharp’s The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life. I’m fascinated by creative people in other arts than music. Since I’m married to a visual artist (who loves music, luckily), I often get cross-pollination of ideas from another viewpoint (and she […]
The Best Overtone Singing I’ve Ever Heard
Name That Choir Tune (No. 9)
Stick Time: Hand Me a Whip! (Music with Sacred Text)
It’s a common scene in summertime blockbuster movies. The hero has just overcome some tremendous obstacle and just as he (and we in the audience) breathes a sigh of relief, all you-know-what breaks loose. The walls cave in, imminent danger rears its ugly head, and our hero finds himself scrambling for his life. That […]
Speaking of Voice: “My Go-To Warm-Up” by Brody McDonald
MY GO-TO WARM UP, by Brody McDonald (Kettering High School) This is a simple, chordal warm-up that I do regularly with my choirs. I didn’t write it, but rather “borrowed” it from a barbershop chorus rehearsal I attended. There are five total chords, and while I’ve notated them in quarter notes (then a whole […]