What follows is a revision of the speech I delivered to the underclassmen at my school’s band banquet in May of 2012. If this speech is of use to any of you who address your students at a formal gathering over the next year, please feel free to quote as needed as you prepare your program. The purpose of the speech was to challenge the students to add the dimension of accountability to their musical...

Ironically enough my readings this past week at Kent State, a Facebook discussion thread, and  Valentine’s Day collided at spawned this post. Pushing students to achieve levels of tonal and rhythmic accuracy is important – it is all part of getting them to a point where they have the technical proficiency they need to execute the big fundamental structure of a piece of music.  Tone quality and intonation...