Jeanie’s Blog

Recently, I was called upon to give a talk to an mixed audience of teachers (new and experienced), classical and not, speech language pathologists, students (all ages), and interested amateurs. During the breaks of the seminar I again encountered people who came to me to say, “I’m so glad you are saying these things. This ...

Fear of success, fear of failure. They can exist in one person. If they do, they will surely prevent the person from getting anywhere, no matter what they attempt or say. Unfortunately, we can encounter these two psychological states in any student. It takes a while for a teacher to discern these patterns, but after a ...

If you can hardly sing at all, is it good to try to sing a little bit of everything all at once or just do one thing? We really don’t know the answer to this question since the idea of cross training (in an athletic sense) hasn’t really existed before, in terms of singing. We don’t ...

Everything evolves but some things evolve faster than others. Classical music does change but not very much. The tenors today don’t sound all that different than the old recordings of Caruso. The current sopranos don’t really seem all that different than Rosa Ponselle. CCM styles change more frequently, probably about every decade or so. The “popular” ...

I have written here recently about economics and how it influences everything. Politically, I could be described as a screaming ultra-liberal Democrat, which I consider myself to have been since the Vietnam War. The world I would have liked to have seen now absolutely doesn’t look like the world that we have actually created since ...

We live in a time when people do not really have much interest in “keeping their word”. Not so long ago a handshake was considered a valid legal agreement because it meant that you had “given your word”. Now, because we live in a time when there is no one reliable source of information that ...

It’s helpful when the people who are in charge of an artistic endeavor have knowledge, experience and skill. It’s helpful if they have developed tastes and a broad perspective. It’s very helpful if they look at their art as an opportunity to make a contribution to the world by shaking things up, by allowing the ...

Some people like to cause a stir. They exist to constantly get underneath other people’s skin. It makes them happy to make other people unhappy. People like this do not do well in organized institutions where “collegial cooperation” is paramount. People who have a strong will and strong opinions are considered overbearing and irritating. People who ...

I had occasion this evening to attend an amateur singing competition for kids and young adults. They had been selected via video clips and were in a semi-finals to compete for a nice package of prizes and money totaling about $25,000 as the grand prize for the winner. Unfortunately, the range of ability in this competition ...

I’ve heard recently that recording artists have so much done to their recordings that it’s nearly impossible to know what they actually sound like live. They probably don’t know themselves what they sound like live. I don’t view this as a good thing. Yet, sometimes you can find really wonderful music in your local neighborhood “joint”. ...

What is excellence? Isn’t what we are watching on the Olympics representative of excellence in every way? Of course. Still, the commentators are criticizing the gymnasts, the divers, the runners, pointing out where they have fallen short, lost a tenth of a point, been “slightly off”. It boggles the mind. Yet, in our own profession, not ...

I once looked up the root word for music and found (somewhere) that it had the same origins as the word magic. For those of us who are musicians, that’s not surprising. Music is magical. It can totally change things. The power of music is being studied seriously in many places. It has the power ...

When I was young, I was very sure I did not want to teach anyone anything. Then, at 22, I found myself vocal directing a production of “Finian’s Rainbow” in Connecticut that had, in 1971, a budget of $20,000. I directed the chorus and understudied the lead, Sharon, and I got good feedback about my ...

The world we want is not the world we have. The world we want is always in the future, it is perfect, it is constant. The world we have is none of those things. The world we want is one in which all things are balanced and fair. This has never been a reality and ...

Being “politically correct” is very tricky. Many people who depend on university positions in order to support themselves or their families are unable to speak up vigorously about various departmental issues, lest they anger their colleagues and perhaps lose their jobs. This is particularly true of adjuncts, who have no protection, but can also happen ...