If we are performing solo vocal music, we should have it memorized, not only because it looks odd to have music in front of us as a soloist, but it also allows for better connection with the audience. Luckily we have an advantage over instrumental…

Words are the main thing that sets vocal and instrumental music apart from one another. The text adds many layers to the music both in meaning and technically. They can serve as a guide in interpretation and phrasing. The vowels can affect how we sing a…

The use of the falsetto range is a huge benefit for male[i] singers. Unfortunately many choral directors and voice teachers do not know how to speak to singers about the use of falsetto, let alone work with them to expand control of the register. Female directors and directors with mostly instrumental backgrounds are at a particular disadvantage, the former due to the physiological differences between the male and female voices, and the latter due to potential lack of training or experience with singers in general. The issue is complicated….

Ear training is extremely crucial for all musicians. The ability to sing and play in tune is necessary if we are to collaborate with others at all. Each instrumentalist has their own particular challenges when it comes to intonation, but since…

I recently had the realization that I have been teaching in some capacity for twenty years. I started with swimming lessons in high school, and that led to the private music lessons I teach now. In between there I have taught private lessons, group lessons, clinics, and in classrooms of all types. In thinking about ….

As society changes we must adapt as musicians and teachers. The past few years have seen an expansion of our understanding of gender identity. When looking at the terminology around vocal studies it’s clear that so much of it is locked into the traditional binary in regards to gender. The reality has never …

In my years of teaching I have had a wide range of students in terms of age and skill level. Beginning string players are some of my favorite students, no matter the age. While the majority of my students have been high school age or younger, I have had multiple adults come to me as beginning students. They tend….

For years now in my lessons I have used a Rhythm Sheet handout I designed based on some ideas presented by Neil Swapp at the 2015 New Mexico Music Ed Conference. The method starts students off with sixteenth notes, forcing them to subdivide…

When I introduce people to the Song Interpretation Layers I often do it in a few stages. The first is simply getting the basics of what the Layers are and how they are best used. That was covered in this post. This…

A terrible thing has happened; you have to teach viola. Perhaps you are a private violin teacher and a student showed up with what they thought was a violin. Maybe you’re a cellist who moved recently and needs to take a viola or two to fill out your schedule. Maybe you’re a band or choir director who has been

The thing you dreaded has happened. Through some circumstance you find yourself teaching choir. You took methods classes sure, but that was a while ago, and you never expected to have to use it. You’ve got the books to study but wouldn’t it be nice to have a quick list to triage things? Something to help you get

Performance is a type of communication. As musicians we communicate the notes, rhythms, and words that are written on a page. But if that is all we’re doing, if we only communicate the written music, our performance won’t be very good. It might not be bad, but it won’t be good. In order to communicate the

When I was directing my small church choir in Colorado I had a student from the local college come to observe my rehearsal. I am a big believer in making practicum hours actually practical, so toward the end of my warmup time I told him to come up and do one. He stammered that I had done all the ones that he’d

You dreaded the possibility. You’ve been given an orchestra class. Sure you may have taken a string methods class in college, but you’ve slept since then, and the first day of school is rapidly approaching.  Fear not, I’m here to give you ten things to pay attention to immediately, that will help set both you and your

Note reading is one of the trickiest things to teach beginning string players. Many people are intimidated by music notation in general before they even pick up an instrument because it looks like a strange and complicated set of hieroglyphs. Add this to the fact that the beginning string player has to learn how to