I’m a guy who mostly lives in the “right now.” I never thought too much about yesterday, and probably never thought enough about tomorrow. Composing and producing music (often on a deadline), tends to keep the Present in the forefront of my [...]
It’s always interesting to see a young person discover something old, and think that it’s new. I remember when my younger son, who was about fifteen at the time, came to me and said, “Dad, I just heard this awesome CD by a band called Weather [...]
Most of us have been “pigeonholed,” or creatively typecast at some point in our lives. For all I know, it’s human nature to reduce another person to a particular thing, so we can better identify them. Yes, it’s lazy. But it’s awfully [...]
I love the movie, The Princess Bride. William Goldman’s brilliant screenplay is one of the most quotable scripts of the last twenty years. And one such line happened when Miracle Max tells Inigo Montoya that his friend, the man in Black, [...]
Generally speaking, music appeals first to our emotions. What is it about a beautiful melody, or evocative harmonies that appeals to the heart? And if it has a great beat, music reaches some primal drive in us. Music can also appeal to the [...]
Robert Sterling’s For Unto Y’All is a delightful gospel musical based on the Biblical Nativity story… In this version, however, whilst the characters’ and town names remain the same (Joseph, Mary, Bethlehem, Nazareth) we are in Wyoming in [...]
My previous blog on the importance of piano accompaniments in choral arranging drew a healthy response from readers. And more than one person wrote to ask (and I paraphrase): “What about those piano parts that are basically a boiled-down version [...]
There are lots of different ways to accompany choral music. Piano, organ, brass ensemble, symphonic orchestra, rhythm section, bluegrass band, and every thinkable combination between. But the large majority of choral anthems are accompanied by [...]
The word amateursometimes gets a bad rap. Besides describing one who follows a pursuit without being paid, amateur also means “inept” or “incompetent.” But there are a lot of amateur athletes, musicians, and performers who [...]
I am reading a book, The Sound of Broadway Music, about the men who orchestrated the Broadway musicals of the 1930s-1960s. The author, Steven Susskin, studied the handwritten scores and hand-copied instrumental parts of over [...]
