As a musician, your work demands creativity, focus, and energy—sometimes all at once.

From teaching to practicing, performing to dealing with all the behind-the-scenes admin work, it’s easy to feel burnt out creatively, lose focus, and lack motivation.

You’re balancing multiple jobs and projects at any given time. But it’s not just about being productive—it’s learning how to find clarity and reset your focus.

Pushing through when your attention starts to wane isn’t always the best strategy. Instead, what if the key to doing better work was knowing when to take a step back, when to take a break?

Have you ever thought about how you give praise and offer encouraging words in your teaching? Is there a way to do this that promotes learning?

How can you use your words to foster the development of intrinsic motivation and a positive self-image in your students?

“Be in practice, not in pursuit.”

I read this in a newsletter from The Design Lab last week. Owner Nicole Yang wrote, “I think growing as a person often has much more to do with the ‘little’ unseen ways that we change rather than the big obvious ones.”

Things like:

• Becoming a better listener and communicator.

• Slowly moving from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset.

• Developing mental toughness and resilience.

• Learning how to ask better questions, in teaching and in learning.

One of my favorite ways to kick off the New Year is by diving into a new reading list. It’s become a tradition here on the blog to share my book picks at the start of each year—a mix of business insights, inspiring memoirs, thought-provoking nonfiction, and a few captivating novels to round things out.

Happy New Year's Eve!

It’s my tradition here on the blog to share a year-in-review post on December 31—a look back on the highlights and the things we learned, made, and experienced during the year.

2023 was a challenging year in a lot of ways, but also a year of personal and professional growth. We are grateful for all that we have, all that we learned, and all that we carry with us into 2024.

Here's a look back on our year:

Six weeks until Christmas, and Santa dropped out, our emcee was stepping down, and the Night-of Coordinator couldn't commit. Oh, and the Christmas tree is dying.

Our neighborhood has a longstanding tradition (104 years, to be exact): On Christmas Eve, neighbors gather at the end of the street under a big spruce tree strung with colored lights. 

Song sheets are handed out as the crowd begins singing “Deck the Halls,” then “O Come, All Ye Faithful,” and so on. 

December is my favorite reading month of the year. I’m wrapping up my reading list for the year, reflecting on everything I’ve read, and simultaneously making my list for next year.

I made a book list at the beginning of the year (as is my tradition here on the blog) and it’s always interesting to see how this shapes and informs my reading for the year.

Have you seen Ted Lasso? 

The Apple TV comedy-drama is one of our favorites. The show centers around Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis) an American football coach who’s hired to coach a British soccer team. What he lacks in sports knowledge, he makes up for with enthusiasm, joy, and unshakable optimism.

His Pollyanna outlook on the team, their record, and the season ahead seems unrealistic and unfounded, but ultimately, it’s what brings them all together. 

What I love about the show is his ability to build community, bring people together, and work toward a shared goal.

If you’re a music student, you probably have anywhere from 2-6 hours a day to practice your instrument. Maybe more. Though certainly an intense time with many early mornings and late nights, most music professionals see that kind of practice time as a luxury.

Once you begin your music career, you may find your days otherwise occupied with gigs, teaching, traveling to gigs or lessons, writing, emailing, coordinating, marketing, networking, and other miscellaneous admin tasks.

When is there time to practice?

The secret is in the margins—those pockets of time you have in your schedule in between things, even if it’s only 30 minutes.

If you’re a church pianist or organist, you likely have lots of opportunities to use hymn arrangements and creative hymn-playing techniques (like, multiple times in every service!).

But knowing what to do, finding well-crafted hymn harmonizations, and accessing published resources can be challenging. In some cases, these resources aren’t available at all.

The good news is, you don’t need to rely solely on published resources to add creative hymn arrangements and harmonizations into your service-playing. You can learn to do some of this yourself.