The eagle-eyed reader will already have noticed that at some point since my last blog post (a mere 1,364 days ago), my website has undergone some major changes. It's not that I haven't had any thoughts worth sharing during that interim. (And here, the discreet reader will refrain from commenting on the "share-worthiness" of any of the posts archived here.) It's that, since 2020 or so, life has...
I'm thrilled to announce that, starting this month, all of my students will be invited to participate in a new program I call "Note of the Month." Because we all—whether we're singers, pianists, songwriters, or actors—use the same spectrum of sound as the medium for our art-making, it's important that we gain confidence and skill at using all of the pitches we have at our disposal. What better...
I wrote the following as an "open-ish" letter to the cast of a high-school show I music-directed back in 2014, and originally shared it with them as a post to the cast Facebook group, on the day of the "Apollo Awards," a local fundraiser event that mimics the Tony Awards, but for high-school musicals. Seems like every year at this time (and sometimes at other times) I feel an urge to revisit...
My good friend, the amazingly and multi-facetedly impressive Sarah Jebian, recently asked some of her colleagues if they'd be willing to write blog posts that Sarah could share with her voice and acting students in her monthly newsletter. Here's mine:I saw it coming. I knew a solid 8 bars before the high G♯ that it wasn't going to come out. We had learned the notes and marked the breaths and...
Every year the day I get the "testimonial" interviews back from the videographers takes me by surprise. It's been a few weeks, by then, since the frenzy of preparations for DMGS3 reached its zenith and quickly subsided and I crashed into bed with a huge, relieved sigh of "DONE!" and fell deeply asleep with a smile of gratitude on my face. So to have this reminder of the day arrive in my inbox...
There must be something in the air. Several times this week I've paused in the middle of teaching to interrupt a student's spiral of self-deprecation and frustration. The spiral is easy to recognize, either by the words that accompany it— "This doesn't sound right." … "That note is so high!" … "Why can't I get this?" —or, once you know what to look for, by the slow-blinking, eyes-downcast head...