Latest Blog Posts

This year, I decided to take a vacation after Holy Week and Easter, so I have more mental bandwidth than the past 2 – 3 weeks. As I learned from 2020, if I go too long without time off, stress builds up. With all the activity this calendar year such as The Secret Garden and […]

The May 2022 issue of Choral Journal is available online. This issue includes several articles on the topic of women in choral conducting ACDA members can log in with their username and password to view and download the newest edition. You can also read our electronic version. If you are not already a member of ACDA, join […]

Does your entire choir SUFFER from choir senioritis? Are your choir seniors RUINING your rehearsals with their NEGATIVE attitudes? I have news for you….this IS avoidable If we want to avoid the senior burnout, apathy, and negativity, we must make the final months MEANINGFUL FOR THEM. SENIORITIS IS REVERSIBLE, just like poor behavior in the […]

“He, who every morning plans the transactions of the day, and follows that plan, carries a thread that will guide him through a labyrinth of the most busy life.” Victor Hugo This Choral Ethics Blog repeat is from a few years back. I hope you are able to enjoy all your hard work for this […]

In American choral music three sight-reading methods are most commonly utilized by educators.  These methodologies include Moveable “Do,” Fixed “Do,” and Numbers, with Moveable “Do” being the most common.  As choral educators begin their career, they must decide which method to incorporate in the classroom.  Not all methods are equal as each has its own […]

“The study of asana is not about mastering posture.  It’s about using posture to understand and transform yourself.” B.K.S Iyengar A few weeks ago, I received an exciting message in my inbox from Yoga Alliance, the primary professional organization for yoga advocacy, standards, and research.  YA regularly tracks legislation or regulations that can have an […]

One commonality between my experiences singing in the middle school and high school choirs was the largely disproportionate ratio of male to female singers—a ratio that did not exist in the more advanced choirs offered by the two programs. Conversations since with other middle school and high school colleagues around the Southeastern United States echoed […]

If you are interviewing for a new choral job, there’s a good chance you will be asked to give a choir demo lesson.   A demo lesson is a make or break for landing your next (or very first) job. Unfortunately, most choral directors do not know how to plan a successful demo lesson.   […]

This episode is a pastiche of sorts from several sources. We will start with the introduction from my “Togetherness Activism” live presentation from Colorado in January. In that segment I tell the story of what I have learned about discourse and discussion from starting a show in which I put forward opinions in public for […]

“If you make listening and observation your occupation you will gain much more than you can by talk.” Robert Baden-Powell Last week, Choral Ethics began a new series on listening, a very important skill for a choral musician, or ANY musician, to have. I listed a few types of listening skills and blogged about another […]