One of the things we must understand about classical music is that it wasn't intended to be something people just listened to sitting silently in a concert hall. In an excellent article in the New York Times, the author wrote, "When Chopin played his Variations on “Là ci darem la mano” with orchestra, the audience … Continue reading Inside Music Appreciation, Part 2
Author: mramusicplace
Inside Music Appreciation
For some years now, I have been interested in music appreciation. I have come to consider it something of an oddity. At the center of any text or class on music appreciation is the premise that in order to appreciate music, one must understand how music works; how it is put together. The listener, or so the … Continue reading Inside Music Appreciation
Going Beyond Liking or Not Liking a Song
I often find that my students have a very limited view of the musical landscape. Many of them listen to one kind of music and see no reason to spend their time exploring new genres or styles. Knowing this, I have always felt that it was part of my responsibility as a music educator to … Continue reading Going Beyond Liking or Not Liking a Song
Music Literacy is More Than Reading and Writing Music
Literacy is a word that is easily associated with reading and writing. It is a form of the words literature and literary. But not all literature is written down. Many cultures preserve their literature through oral traditions. In these cultures, a literate person is one who knows the literature from memory and can recall it, … Continue reading Music Literacy is More Than Reading and Writing Music
Invisible Tonality
When we think of something being invisible, surely things that cannot be seen come to mind. The air we breathe, for example, is invisible because we cannot see it (though we can see the effects of it moving an object on which it blows). We know air is all around us because we breathe it … Continue reading Invisible Tonality
From Where Does the Pleasure Music Brings Come?
There used to be a slogan going around about music--maybe it came from MENC (now NAfME)--that was "music makes me smile." Arts organizations, including symphony orchestras, have marketed themselves with various claims and slogans over the years. "Music for Life, " "Do It To Music" "Life Is Better With Music," "Priceless Music Absolutely Free," "Got Music?" … Continue reading From Where Does the Pleasure Music Brings Come?
Repeat, Vary, and Extend: Three Skills for Creating Artistic Work, Part 2
Note: This post is a continuation of another post from October 19, 2015. In part 1, I laid out a lesson for teaching students to extend rhythmic ideas, starting with language and then translating the sentence examples to rhythms. If you missed that post, you can click on the link above and get caught up. … Continue reading Repeat, Vary, and Extend: Three Skills for Creating Artistic Work, Part 2
Be Positive: Teaching Kids What they Need To Know Before They Will Learn What You Want To Teach
Perhaps more than teachers of other disciplines, we music teachers tend to be highly critical of ourselves and others. Our main focus in rehearsals is often error detection and correction. We fix mistakes, shape musical phrases, and pretty much spend most of our time turning sonic chaos at the first rehearsal into a splendid musical … Continue reading Be Positive: Teaching Kids What they Need To Know Before They Will Learn What You Want To Teach
Repeat, Vary, and Extend: Three Skills for Creating Artistic Work
I once had a music theory professor in college who wondered aloud why it was that so many composers wrote variations before writing in other forms. To him, writing variations was more difficult than developing themes in sonata form. I remember taking my cue from this comment and, though I wasn't at all experienced at … Continue reading Repeat, Vary, and Extend: Three Skills for Creating Artistic Work
How Music Education Helps Students with Social and Psychological Development
In the high stakes testing environment prevalent in today’s American schools, two areas in education that are too frequently overlooked are the psychological and social development of students. To be sure, school districts have provided social workers, psychologists, and teachers trained in educational psychology and child development, but apart from planning developmentally appropriate instruction and … Continue reading How Music Education Helps Students with Social and Psychological Development
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