Welcome back to blog land readers as we continue on the whacky world of college teaching!

One of the best things about teaching is seeing that light bulb go on in a student, be it a private lesson or an ensemble rehearsal (or even a casual conversation you have walking down the hall one day!). Today was one of those days.

The ensemble at my school has decided (well, I decided for them..........) to take on the task of performing all of Steve Reich's monumental percussion ensemble work "Drumming". This is a piece that in total is about 1 hour long and requires tremendous concentration by all of the performers. It also requires a lot of trust as at some point in the piece EVERY member of the ensemble (12 performers) is the leader. It is not so common to see the entire work performed (many groups just do part I which is the actual drum part) and even less so to see it done by a predominately undergrad. ensemble (and by undergrad I mean 3 freshman, 5 sophomores, and 4 seniors!). So needless to say it has taken awhile to get it going. But today it started to happen. Students started to start to see how Reich's masterpiece fits together and to be able to hear how all of the parts connect to each other. It was an exciting time for all.

As musicians it is important for us to always challenge ourselves (and as teachers our students). It is often easier to do something that you get an immediate return or satisfaction from, but then you don't get to have days like today when something they have worked on and struggled with starts to make sense! That's the sort of music making I want to be involved with every day.