Editorial: Welcome, Fall

Ashley Danyew.png

September 2019

It all starts with that first breath of crisp air. The quiet mornings with fewer bird songs. The announcement from Starbucks that the Pumpkin Spice Latte is back (sad, but true). 🍂

These are our cues that Fall is here, and with it comes the thrill of the new.

For some, it’s a new school; others, a new job or city. For most of us, it’s new routines and perhaps some new school supplies (because you’re never too old). 📓✏️

Regardless of the stage of life where you find yourself, there’s something thrilling about the return of this season — one marked by new chapters, new beginnings.

We enter into Fall a little older and wiser than we were last year. And though we may not feel like much has changed, we’ve learned a little more about what it means to live in this world, connect with others, and do our best work.

And so, we begin again.

This month’s blog theme was about beginning — the joy of discovering and trying something new: helping young piano students learn how to practice, developing your choir’s sight-reading skills, building community among your adult choir (icebreakers!), and learning how to offer praise that is genuine and meaningful.

You’ve heard me say it before, but as musicians and teachers, we’re never done learning (and that’s a good thing!).

Whether this Fall is a new chapter for you or you’re returning to someplace wonderfully familiar, I hope you find an opportunity to try something new in your teaching, ministry, or creative work: a new teaching approach, a new curriculum resource, a new rehearsal format, a new genre of music, a new daily ritual.

Here’s to new chapters and new beginnings. 

Letter from the Editor_Ashley Danyew.png