Admin

Harmony University was awesome!  That's an event that brings together some six hundred ardent a cappella singers from around the world for a solid week of first-rate education and instruction in the a cappella arts.  This year of course they asked me to offer Owning The Stage as a 12-hour class, and I think it was a huge success.  Both the morning and afternoon classes had a great time, and covered some really interesting ground.  I believe they all walked away with a better understanding of what it takes to put a great performance on the stage.

Even better, I've been inspired - I've got more than 30 article ideas in the hopper now, which I'll be writing and posting over the next few months.

Tomorrow I leave for Columbus, Ohio to teach Owning The Stage as a class for the very first time!  Actually it's not quite the full class, which takes 12 hours, but more of a 90-minute sampler.  Even so, I'm flattered that it's far and away the most popular class being offered at the JAD "Apple Corps" district school.

I've designed a 90 minute experience that focuses on the importance of an authentic story.  We start by demonstrating that it's important, then we talk about how to create a great story for a performance (the "4-things" model that I am so fond of), then we get some victims up to the front of the class to show everyone how it works.

Wish me luck!

Tom

Hi folks,

Clearly we're still working out the kinks in the notification system.  It was set to send everyone an email when a comment was posted on an article, which was NOT my plan!  Ritchie Lavene stepped on that land mine today.  Thanks, Ritchie, for being my #1 notification tester! ;)

So if you're wishing you received more or less in the way of notifications from Owning The Stage, you can now log in to your account and set your preferences.  You can get immediate emails, or you can get a daily or weekly digest - whatever you like!  Just click on "My Account" once you're logged in and go to town.

OK, after a late night coding session and too much coffee, the coach directory is now enabled for reviews.  So if you've had a coaching session recently with someone in the directory, you can go ahead and enter your thoughts!

We're rebuilding this directory "for real" now, and barring a natural disaster or other inconvenient Act of God, we will not lose any of this valuable coaching and review data again.  Apologies for not being able to bring over the existing coach records and reviews!

And now, on with performance-related articles.  Thanks everyone!

Tom

Hi everyone,

The new and vastly improved Coach Directory is half ready!  That is, you can sign up to be in the directory right now, but I have not implemented reviews yet.  Reviews are coming soon.

In the mean time, if you are a coach, you're welcome to sign up.

Cheers,
Tom

Hi folks,

No doubt you're a perceptive sort, and you've noticed two things lately.  (1) I have not written as many posts to this blog, and (2) I've made obscure references to a secret project.

Well, if you've been burning with curiosity, or even if you haven't, my secret project is "done" at least to version 1.  Rather than look for another software job, I've started my own company and I've finally finished an online application for managing a large choral or other musical group.  I've wanted to write that application for YEARS, dating back to when I first started directing a big chorus and realizing some of the frustrations inherent in that game.  I started designing and building it long ago, and the last few months have been my perfect chance to finally finish it.

You can look here for details:  http://www.groupanizer.com

The product is called SING! and version 1 is available to choruses, church choirs, symphony orchestras, etc.  It's hosted online for a monthly fee, so it's very affordable even for groups with a limited budget.

Cheers,
Tom

You may be familiar already with the Seven Deadly Sins of olde, but in case you are not, they are lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride.  Yes, even though it reads like a list of what everyone wants to do at Club Med, they are still nasty sins and you should avoid them, or face peril!  Reading through the list, you might have noted one or two that you're not avoiding as well as you used to...

But this blog of mine has nothing to do with sins of that kind.  We're all about performance here, so rather than focus on sins of the biblical sort, we're going to publish a list of the Seven Deadly Sins of Performance - those actions and inactions that when committed, turn what might have been a great performance into something less satisfying for all concerned.

Why seven, you might be asking?  Well, there's no really good reason for that, but when I started putting together a list, they seemed to group into just exactly seven items!  Previously I had also noticed that there were seven major activities involved in performance, namely skill development, wise purpose, artistic insight, planning, rehearsal, preparation and execution a.k.a. actually performing or just "performance."

So apparently the universe organizes itself in sevens - who knew?

In the next few weeks I will put together seven articles, each describing one deadly sin for each major activity listed above.  I'll tell you how you can tell a performer has committed that sin, and why they might have done it, and how to fix it!

I'm excited - I hope you are as well.