Latest Blog Posts

Picture the eager undergrad. Just starting freshman year, a nervous excitement envelops them as they begin their first day of coursework. Ahead of them lies a colorful, four-year list of classes. Courses in conducting, teaching methods, and applied voice top the charts. The path to being a choir director is taking shape! Fast forward several […]

By Dr. William O. Baker In preparation for recent performances of Beethoven works, I read Jan Swafford’s magnificent biography of the composer: Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph.  If you enjoy reading about our musical heroes, I commend this book to you.  I also highly recommend Swafford’s earlier biography of Brahms. In Beethoven’s “middle period,” the composer […]

The October 2021 issue of Choral Journal is online and features an article titled “Breath, Body, and Being: A Yoga-Inspired Choral ‘Practice’” by Ramona Wis. You can read it in its entirety at acda.org/choraljournal. Following is a portion from the article. _________________ Don’t you know yet? It is your light that lights the world. —Rumi The triad of […]

When it comes to sight-singing, the ability to label notes on a staff is a skill that is often overlooked! In fact, note-labeling is one of six skills in total that singers need in order to be successful at sight-singing. This new blog post explains the other 5 but focuses specifically on note-labeling. Until your singers can labels their […]

Classrooms have become ground zero for the problem of political polarization. What is being taught, who is teaching it, how it’s being taught, how it is funded, etc. Are we teaching Critical Race Theory, or are we not? Should we be? These and many questions have become a toxic political football. The problem of this […]

I am taking a bit of a Choral Ethics break during the summer, and today we have a guest blogger.  I will be working on the fall’s Blogs during the summer, so if you have a Choral Ethics dilemma or query or comment, please email me: . Choral Ethics Guest Blogger: Issues for Our Time […]

Last month, I told you about my Solutionary Choral Curriculum. In summary, my middle school chorus focuses on a cause for the year. They not only have a fundraising concert at the end of the year to raise money for that cause, they also work on finding Solutions to help the cause throughout the year. […]

Midweek Meditation: Five Minutes to Focus by Steve Grives In this entry, I’ll take you through a guided meditation that I’ve developed for use with choral ensembles. While my meditation practice is a spiritual practice, one designed to cultivate both wisdom and compassion, the basic tenets of mindfulness meditation can be used to build life […]

The newest issue of Choral Journal is available online. Following is a list of the articles you will find in this issue. 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 today to start receiving […]

Here is a true story. This happened this past Friday night. We had another family over for dinner (non-musical family), and the wife says “My husband is Tone-deaf.”   Well, she was willing to BET me her husband was tone-deaf.   The BET was: If I can get her tone-deaf husband to sing decently, they […]