Here’s a solid list from art critic Jerry Saltz about “how to be an artist”, much of which is applic­a­ble to musi­cians as well. (I don’t know how artists relate to Saltz—I suspect with the same circum­spect suspi­cion with which musi­cians regard our critics. But that’s fine—we’re not their audience.)

I liked the follow­ing chunk partic­u­larly; just replace “state­ment” with “program note”. 

Don’t use art jargon; write in your own voice, write how you talk. Don’t try to write smart. Keep your state­ment direct, clear, to the point. Don’t oppose big concepts like “nature” and “culture.” Don’t use words like inter­ro­gate, recon­cep­tu­al­ize, decon­struct, symbol­ize, tran­scen­den­tal, mystical, commod­ity culture, liminal space, or haptic. Don’t quote Foucault, Deleuze, Derrida. Those guys are great. But don’t quote them. Come up with your own theory. People who claim to hate or have no theory: That’s your theory, you idiots!

Impor­tant things are hard to write about. That’s the way it is. Deal with it. And if it’s preten­tious to say, don’t say it.

I find that most program note writing suffers less from overuse of tech­ni­cal “art jargon” than simply from a reliance on bromide and cliché; Jeremy Denk goes into this in his indis­pen­si­ble mani­festo from a few years ago.