Latest Blog Posts
Stick Time: What Can Junior High School Singers Do?
What can junior high school singers do? Well, if this sample from a recent ACDA division conference is an indication, the answer is a resounding, ANYTHING! They are singing a work from the standard repertoire (clearly edited for these developing voices) and doing so with musicality, blend, balance, poise, and healthy use of the voice. […]
Amazon is redefining publishing
i occasionally look over to the book publishing world of Amazon and booksellers and I wonder if their struggle with the new digital economy will have an impact on ours. With that in mind, I saw this the other day (see below). Publishers and authors are being warned, beware of Amazon. I’m trying […]
Mark Twain on Creativity
Stephen Downes always points towards great material, this time from Mark Twain: Mark Twain was someone who saw through the more persistent myths of his time – and ours. “It takes a thousand men to invent a telegraph, or a steam engine, or a phonograph, or a photograph, or a telephone or any other […]
Musicians vs everyone else
Jeffrey Tucker writes about the isolation of musicians, saying that church musicians live in their own little world and it’s hard for pastors or parishioners to communicate with them. He says that parisioners have a sense that they have no more business intervening in the world of music than they have in telling the plumber […]
Saturday Respite: Beep Beep!
Saturday morning? CARTOONS! For the next six minutes and sixteen seconds my only concern is do I want a chocolate doughnut or the powdered sugar one?
CJ Replay: Blend, Part 3
(From the multi-part Choral Journal article, “In Quest of Answers,” by Carole Glenn.) In response to the questions, (a) Do you have any preferences in terms of blend? and (b) In terms of blend, how do you handle an outstanding solo singer in a choral situation Howard Swan (California State University, Fullerton) replied: […]
CJ Replay: Blend, Part 2
(From the multi-part Choral Journal article, “In Quest of Answers,” by Carole Glenn.) In response to the questions, (a) Do you have any preferences in terms of blend? and (b) In terms of blend, how do you handle an outstanding solo singer in a choral situation? Kenneth Jennings (St. Olaf College) replied: (a) […]
CJ Replay: Blend, Part 1
(From the multi-part Choral Journal article, “In Quest of Answers,” by Carole Glenn.) In response to the questions, (a) Do you have any preferences in terms of blend? and (b) In terms of blend, how do you handle an outstanding solo singer in a choral situation? Harold Decker (University of Illinois) replied: (a) […]
CJ Replay: What is a Conductor?
(From the Choral Journal article, "Warm-up Exercises for the Conductor?" by S. Vernon Sanders." "How does one learn to conduct? The current answer is 'By acquiring routine' – which means by being let loose, without technical knowledge, on works, orchestra, and audience, in order to acquire through 'experience', in the course of long […]