Latest Blog Posts

I think the best of the books about John Wooden's teaching (which really was the bulk of his approach to coaching) is You Haven't Taught Until They Have Learned, by Swen Nater (one of Wooden's players at UCLA) and Ronald Gallimore (a psychologist whose research was in teaching, and who with his colleague Roland Tharp […]

October weekends are great for viewing fall foliage.  The stunning colors, crisp air, comfy sweaters, and steaming cups of hot apple cider combine to make it one of the wonderful experience of the year.  For those of us in southern climes, autumn is considerably less vibrant.  As a consolation, enjoy the guitar of the great […]

It may be Academy-Award winning actor Sidney Poitier's face, but it's our dear Jester Hairson doing the singing.  Amen!  

COMPOSITION SPOTLIGHT ~ by Jack Senzig   (Each week we look at one or two of the best choral works posted in the Composition Showcase here on ChoralNet.  This is where we store a treasure trove of works that your choirs will love to sing and your audiences will love to hear.)   Psaume 42 by Anthony Sylvestre for […]

We have no scientific data to support this, but it seems reasonable to guess that many (dare one say “most”?) current choral conductors were at one point in their very young lives singers in an honor choir.  The present writer was certainly one of those kids; weren’t you?   But what about the next wave […]

 (img src:sibelius.com)   We are fortunate as Internet-era musicians to have access to a vast collection of music resources online through collections such as the Choral Public Domain Library, Internet Sheet Music Library Project and Mutopia. With such a volume of music available for free use, ranging from new compositions shared under public license to editions of standard rep […]

(An excerpt from the Choral Journal article, “Scheduling Choral Programs and Community Relations” by Robert L. Garretson)          What choral conductor has not received numerous requests for programs from various groups in the community? Each conductor must determine how many and on what basis these programs should be accepted. Throughout the country a wide […]

The Your Are Not So Smart website and podcast are really interesting. This episdoe of the podcast, consists of a discussion of a number of issues surrounding learning, memory, and motor skills (all important issues for musicians). The intervewee is David Epstein, the author of the book The Sports Gene. They discuss a number of things, including […]

MY GO-TO WARM UP, by Ian Yeung (Fort Worth Academy of Fine Arts)   PURPOSES I use a warm up for my girls’ choir to build: A sense / accuracy of half-step ascending and descending; Tuning of a chord (or any harmonic structure), especially cluster harmonies, while moving; Referencing of intervals from other vocal parts […]