Let’s face it; lyrics do not generally make any sense. And they aren’t supposed to! Song writers use exaggeration, hyperbole, flights of fancy, and all sorts of other jibber-jabber to try and create a mood, or an emotion. No one really believes what songs are saying, do they? I mean, when Bryan Adams sings “Everything […]
Category Archives: Music
It Was All Downhill After I Broke the Toilet
Ah, November. The season of auditions and thankfulness. It seems like I am in New York auditioning more than I am home these days, but if you want the gigs, you have to do the auditions. I was back in the city yesterday for yet another one, but it didn’t go as well as I […]
The Seven Steps to Singing a Successful Concert
Last night I sang a great concert. “Of course you did,” you are thinking to yourselves, “you are a great singer!” Well, thank you. But I was not always the great singer that I am today. It took years of practice and refining my skills, until I arrived at the fool proof method for singing […]
Little League Games and Middle School Band Concerts
The first time you try something, you are probably not going to be very good at it. And if you are good at it, you will not be as good at it as the twentieth time you do it. Even if you have previously gotten good at all of the skills that you will need […]
Music and Sports
It is Olympics season again. This is good news for nearly everyone in the world, but not for me. I hate the Olympics. All of my favorite shows are pre-empted in favor of hours upon hours of boring people running around or hopping up and down. The Olympics are a global celebration of everything that […]
Oboe He Didn’t!
I have a few lessons on rehearsal etiquette for a certain oboe player who shall remain nameless, as I do not know his name. We were never properly introduced. In fact, my first contact with him was when he stopped our rehearsal last week in the middle of the piece and said “I can’t play […]
Elmo’s Got the Moves
We have a new obsession at our house. It is a brand new, kind of weird, autotuned, Sesame Street dance number called “Elmo’s Got the Moves.” It is presented for your viewing pleasure here: We listen to this song approximately four bazillion times a day, and each time is met with joy and dancing. Crazy […]
The Sanitization of Children’s Music
I remember music when I was a kid. I remember my cassette tapes and campfire songs. Music has a way of sticking with you long after other memories have faded, and so I recall most of the words and melodies of the tunes I sang lustily as an eight-year-old. Now, as a parent, it is […]
My Favorite Song
I am a musician. Perhaps this explains why people are always asking me what my favorite song is. Or perhaps people ask everyone that and I am not special, but it always stands out in my mind, because I don’t really have a favorite song, but I have always felt that I should. There used […]
Are Our Brains Being Rewired Against Classical Music Concerts?
When I worked at Chorus America, I spent a lot of time around choruses and talking to them about their pressing issues. I have sung in more choruses than I can count (not true, I am just too lazy to count them), and there are a few issues that spring eternal. One issue was the […]