Creative Ideas for Church Music and Music Education | Ashley Danyew
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Five Ways to Celebrate the End of the School Year

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Five Ways to Celebrate the End of the School Year

From August or September until May or June, choir and ensemble members of all ages gather in communities across the country week after week. They sing, they smile, they learn, but most of all, they give their time to be part of something bigger than themselves.

It’s a commitment, and often one that includes the whole family. This alone is something worth acknowledging and celebrating.

But then there’s the wonderful work that you do together throughout the year—the music you learn, the songs you sing, the services and programs and concerts you present, the community you build.

Here are five ways to celebrate the end of another wonderful year and show your appreciation for your choir and ensemble members this spring.

Rearranging My Home Office (Again)

Rearranging My Home Office (Again)

It started last summer with the drafting table.

My 89-year-old neighbor was sorting through items in his garage and rediscovered an antique drafting table he once used for his photography and design work. It had a cast iron pedestal base (painted saffron yellow) and a large mahogany-stained top, which he custom-built.

“I have another one in the house,” Joe said in his cheerful Southern accent, his eyes sparkling behind a pair of round black glasses. “Would you like it?”

And so it was that the drafting table with the yellow base found its way into my attic studio/home office.

5 Reasons Why Your Rehearsals Feel Monotonous (and What to Do About It)

5 Reasons Why Your Rehearsals Feel Monotonous (and What to Do About It)

You know what it feels like:

Uninspired.
Laborious.
Boring.

It’s easy to slip into a rut in rehearsals from time to time, but I think we can all agree: these are not things anyone wants to feel or experience.

You don’t want to feel like you’re just going through the motions each week; you want to feel excited and energized to sing or play and learn and make music together.

What We Can Learn From Winter

What We Can Learn From Winter

The sun came out today, which reminded me how dark it’s been lately. 

We expect that in winter, don’t we? Cold and dark and gloomy. “We’re having a real winter for the first time in several years and I’m kind of mad about it,” I said to a friend on the phone last weekend.

It’s not that I don’t like the snow. We’ve skied and cross-country skied and hiked more this year than the last few years combined. It's more about another week of not seeing the sun, not seeing temperatures above 30. Another personal loss and wave of grief. Another devastating news cycle.

It’s hard. Or at least that’s what I’ve been telling myself.

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Finding Balance As a Music Freelancer: Nine Ways to Take a Mental Break & Reset Your Focus

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Finding Balance As a Music Freelancer: Nine Ways to Take a Mental Break & Reset Your Focus

As a musician, your work demands creativity, focus, and energy—sometimes all at once.

From teaching to practicing, performing to dealing with all the behind-the-scenes admin work, it’s easy to feel burnt out creatively, lose focus, and lack motivation.

You’re balancing multiple jobs and projects at any given time. But it’s not just about being productive—it’s learning how to find clarity and reset your focus.

Pushing through when your attention starts to wane isn’t always the best strategy. Instead, what if the key to doing better work was knowing when to take a step back, when to take a break?

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Ways to Praise: Words that Inspire, Encourage, and Motivate in Music Teaching

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Ways to Praise: Words that Inspire, Encourage, and Motivate in Music Teaching

Have you ever thought about how you give praise and offer encouraging words in your teaching? Is there a way to do this that promotes learning?

How can you use your words to foster the development of intrinsic motivation and a positive self-image in your students?

What Do You Need This Year? (+ a 1-Question Survey)

What Do You Need This Year? (+ a 1-Question Survey)

“Be in practice, not in pursuit.”

I read this in a newsletter from The Design Lab last week. Owner Nicole Yang wrote, “I think growing as a person often has much more to do with the ‘little’ unseen ways that we change rather than the big obvious ones.”

Things like:

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My 2025 Book List

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My 2025 Book List

One of my favorite ways to kick off the New Year is by diving into a new reading list. It’s become a tradition here on the blog to share my book picks at the start of each year—a mix of business insights, inspiring memoirs, thought-provoking nonfiction, and a few captivating novels to round things out.

2024: A Year in Review

2024: A Year in Review

Happy New Year's Eve!

It’s my tradition here on the blog to share a year-in-review post on December 31—a look back on the highlights and the things we learned, made, and experienced during the year.

2023 was a challenging year in a lot of ways, but also a year of personal and professional growth. We are grateful for all that we have, all that we learned, and all that we carry with us into 2024.

Here's a look back on our year:

The Year It All Went Wrong

The Year It All Went Wrong

Six weeks until Christmas, and Santa dropped out, our emcee was stepping down, and the Night-of Coordinator couldn't commit. Oh, and the Christmas tree is dying.

Our neighborhood has a longstanding tradition (104 years, to be exact): On Christmas Eve, neighbors gather at the end of the street under a big spruce tree strung with colored lights. 

Song sheets are handed out as the crowd begins singing “Deck the Halls,” then “O Come, All Ye Faithful,” and so on.