Latest Blog Posts

Here’s a guest blog post on barbershop tuning from Mike O’Neil, who taught high school for five years before becoming a music educator for the Barbershop Harmony Society (formerly known as SPEBSQA). He wrote to me offering a guest post and I happily accepted. Incredibly helpful and useful information. He included a couple examples of exercises […]

Many of us have gravitated towards a system of "just" intonation, rather than the tempered scale that's used for tuning pianos. You may not have even thought about this and simply accepted that the piano is the arbiter of what's in tune and what's not. However, equal temperament is really a compromise tuning system (and […]

COMPOSITION SPOTLIGHT ~ by Jack Senzig   (Each week we look at a piece of useful repertoire from the ChoralNet Community Composition Showcase.  A variety of voicings and levels of difficulty will be presented.  Enjoy!)   Fear Not, Dear Friend by Jake Runestad TTTBB a cappella (click for PDF and AUDIO-SATB version) Level: College or higher Uses: General Concert Use […]

As I started to outline potential posts in this series I came up with a ridiculous number–only some of which may actually happen before the summer hiatus! One of the problems is that so many areas overlap–you can't talk about vowel without talking about vocal technique or your idea of an ideal sound. So some posts […]

There have been several sightings of ACDA’s award-winning poster “Vibrant Harmony” (by S Design Inc.) around the national office in Oklahoma City.  Have you seen it in your office, rehearsal room, or lobby?  Snap a photo and post it to the American Choral Directors Association Facebook group – and you will be entered in a […]

Science has long attempted to quantify art.  From the numerology associated with St, Mark’s Cathedral, to the mathematics at play in the works of Bach, to recent studies highlighted in an article called “This is your Brain on Music,” all forms of art have been subjected to objective examination in order to explain their properties. […]

COMPOSITION SPOTLIGHT ~ by Jack Senzig   (Each week we look at a piece of useful repertoire from the ChoralNet Community Composition Showcase.  A variety of voicings and levels of difficulty will be presented.  Enjoy!)   A God and Yet A Man by David Madiera SATB a cappella (click for PDF and AUDIO) Level: High School or higher, advanced Church Choir Uses: […]

Amid the echoing thunder from vicious terrorism in Massachusetts and a tragic explosion in Texas, the American Choral Directors Association recalls the event that took place in Oklahoma City on this day in 1995 and shares this message of hope and of healing from the 2009 ACDA National Conference.