A stage musical requires a high amount of friction to lose retention. A viewer has to overcome caring they spent good money on a ticket, the time traveling to the theatre, and the imposition to the people around them if they leave any time other than the intermission. A recorded work is a low friction… Continue reading On Retention
Author: Joël Dubé
Less Better
More good will never be as good as less better. Clear as mud?
The Service Industry
Writing songs for any sort of theatrical project is an act of service. Service towards the story, service towards the character, and service towards the project as a whole. Beautiful things get cut, that’s just how it is. There’s any number of reasons a song could be cut that has nothing to do with its… Continue reading The Service Industry
Batting Averages
In baseball a batting average of .300 is considered great, and it is great. But everything has a batting average, and in many areas .300 is unacceptable. What’s a great batting average for showing up to work when you don’t want to? .800? If someone doesn’t work a fifth of the days they don’t feel… Continue reading Batting Averages
Professionalism
Professionalism has the most value when everything is burning down around you. It’s not hard to be professional when things are going well.
Incompetence
All skills are born out of incompetence, we’ve all heard adages about how the professional has made more mistakes than the amateur. But there’s a caveat. Someone who is very skilled likely doesn’t repeat mistakes, because the tension between the mistakes they’ve made and the standard they set for themselves is so painful they… Continue reading Incompetence
Hyper-informed
Is there a benefit to being well-informed? Sometimes, it depends. A maxillofacial surgeon who is well-informed beyond the point of what is required to earn their title has, by necessity, divested time from their specialization. I don’t care if my surgeon is well-informed; that’s a GP’s job. A specialist’s job is to be myopically hyper-informed.… Continue reading Hyper-informed
Backups
If you don’t have a system for cloud backups of your ongoing work you either have terrible risk assessment or you don’t care that much—both are a bad look. Life will come to kick you in the teeth at some point. Just buy the mouthguard and be done with it.
Leading
When you’re doing vocal production for a project it’s easy to feel pressure. But the performers are under pressure too, and understanding that (and the position you’re in respective to them) is why it’s so important to be kind and not present any of the internal stress you’re dealing with. Showing performers you’re stressed serves… Continue reading Leading
Actions
I am currently on a 5 hour layover in Seattle to get to Atlanta to then get to Jacksonville so I can meet a singer who’s on board for A Dog’s Life. He’s based in New York but currently touring with Jesus Christ Superstar, and since I felt like I needed to hear him in… Continue reading Actions