I'm a teacher -- it's part of my calling, I believe. I also noticed lately that I've used teaching as a block to expression. I asked myself recently -- who am I so grateful for because they wrote that song, novel, poem, painted that painting? Stephen Sondheim, Victor Hugo, Emily Dickinson, Honthorst (a painter I was always drawn to at London's National Gallery). And endless list of folks -- Richard Rodgers, CS Lewis, Billy Collins, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Madeleine L'Engle............ Yesterday in a lesson, I thought -- here's a teacher, a student, and a collaborative pianist all gathered around "A Foggy Day" by the Gershwins. We're reaping the riches from this tune 100 years later. So, why am I holding my songs and stories back? Maybe one person might enjoy it or want to sing it one day. If I write a song, and it makes one person's day better, that's a complete sharing, and it's worth it to me. I have a recital date on the calendar at the Conservatory in October, and I decided it's going to be original songs. Most of them I haven't written yet. I'll keep you posted. What are your creative ways to block yourself? And what kind of thing will someone be so grateful you shared?

Today was words and music together and make sure you're off book day. And most of that work happened walking from train station to a class I taught at Berklee today, then on the train platform and taking the trash out. Terrific thing about singing is your instrument is always with you. I didn't have one moment in front of a piano today, and I still was able to layer in some helpful work. Here's a disjointed video from Back Bay Station and....my garage. Trash take out night. Oh wait -- I just got the link between "You Will Still Be Mine" and "She Used to Be Mine." Whoah https://share.descript.com/view/mmaxCXu0unt

It was a doozy of a day in the Calla-house. We made it through, phew. Trying to get your stuff done and parenting two lil growing nuggets with love and sturdiness will humble and test you -- Here's putting the music and lyric together with imagery. I worked backward, noticed some new things, found some wrong notes I'd learned and got a deeper sense of Earl's MO -- I'm also feeling confident all this will be confidently in the grey matter by Thursday's rehearsal. Also a testament that you can get some good work done when you just feel like watching TV and collapsing. Having folks to show up for always helps, too. https://share.descript.com/view/KL0j49TNRv3

Earl journey day 2 -- Today I go through the chords, check out what's musically interesting, and see what Sarah B was doing -- she's so smart. Use of minor to relative major, lots of minor second moving in the bass line that makes thing tense and close, and some surprising out of-the-key chords. If it gets boring 2/3 of the way through with me noodling around, just jump to the end with overall comments about what I notice. Asking yourself what the music's telling you about the story, huge. Such an interesting song, tells the tale well. https://share.descript.com/view/EF79Vmgh2h0

I'm doing a concert version of WAITRESS on Friday, and I'm singing Earl. I'm gonna take you through my prep process this week. Today is text -- Rest of the week is M - music only, think about the words during day, images, identity of Earl T - Words and music together W - Words and music together deepening images, noticing questions that come up, layering in character memory related to the mages, off book Th - Ready for rehearsal, off book Here's a video of how I worked through the text on this one: https://share.descript.com/view/bT1QGps6N1l