The Noisy Room Down the Hall

 When the school year started, I had the best of intentions in sharing my experiences of navigating this school year. And then the school ye...

So I started this post yesterday (Sunday) and I was feeling fairly OK. But I think that line about feeling guilty about not being more stres...

Borrowing from my friend Joe Guarr , I want to try my best to document whatever ::gestures all around:: this is and will be as we navigate t...

Discussion of whether or not most states should even be returning to in person schooling aside, let's talk band. After the prelimina...

So everything is cancelled until further notice and we'll all be spending some a lot more time at home in the coming weeks to slow and p...

There are a lot of people in the instrumental music world who are mad as hell right now. Making the calculated decision to use a pen name to...

For the second summer in a row, our building is under some serious construction. The end of the year  has been a frenzy of packing and movin...

For those playing along at home, I had a moment (embarrassingly, much more recently than I'd like to say) where I used female pronouns i...

In case you were living under a rock (which was still likely warmer than much of the Midwest), Michigan and surrounding states were smacked ...

In two hours, we'll be hosting our instrument rental night and within a week, nearly 200 new instrumentalists will begin making mus...

Somebody (quietly points to self) has been slacking. There's been a lot of stuff happening over the last six weeks or so that I would...

I had an odd moment a while prepping for our Spring Concert. For the first time since playing Anne McGinty's Red Balloon  several years ...

I completed my Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association (MSBOA) adjudicator training last December, with the thought that next school...

There are a lot of rules for attending Festival (Contest, Assessment, etc), and many are in relation to music selection. Things like: A ...

I was one of those directors that an adjudicator brought up to our Solo and Ensemble coordinator today. "Who's the director at Hart...

Early in my career, a student came up to me after class to say she couldn't make Band Festival because she was going to her mom's fo...

Yep. I went there with the title and I'm going to roll with it. I have a brass problem and I need help. I knew it wasn't great, bu...

As my students did their Genius Hour projects this year, I've been working on my own. It's something I've wanted to do for...

Progress! Students are working hard on their projects. This year seems to be going better than last, and a lot of that has to do with having...

Student projects are already starting to take shape and I've gotten to start working on my inventory project as well. Student projects...