Most ideas and words can easily be misunderstood without context. Take the word chair. If I sit on the chair, he'll expel me from the committee. If you were thinking of a piece of furniture, my sentence didn't make much sense. You had to know I was talking about the chair of a committee; a person. … Continue reading What Is The Context?
How Are We Doing Preparing Students for Careers in Music?
Preparing studnets for careers in music is appropriately done in electives rather than in required general music classes. The latter will typically have a small percentage of students who intend to or are even considering a career in music, so focusing on career preparation in general music quickly results in a relevancy problem for most … Continue reading How Are We Doing Preparing Students for Careers in Music?
How Fun Does Music Class Have to Be?
If there is one thing that will make or break a lesson, it is how the teacher gets the class started. Any delay in engaging and capturing students focus will result in a slow start from which it is difficult to recover. Ways to do this have been given different names for different generations. Madeline … Continue reading How Fun Does Music Class Have to Be?
Helping Students Audition
Now that the winter recess is over, one of the first things I will be doing is holding auditions for our spring musical. Each year I and two other teachers put on a musical, usually from the Broadway Jr. series. Our show includes students in grades 3-8, and rehearses 2-3 times per week for ninety … Continue reading Helping Students Audition
Poetry and Music: Steps to Composing
Much like a writer of prose, a poet or a composer ought to have an intent in mind when writing a poem or musical work, respectively. The use of language in a poem can be quite expressive, going beyond the literal meaning of prose, and the notes in a musical work are always expressive because … Continue reading Poetry and Music: Steps to Composing
What Is Creative Musical Thought?
It has been my observation that the words creative and improvise are among the most misunderstood in the field of music education. Both of these words often given a connotation of being original or of being made for the first time from ideas that are vowel or heretofore unknown. Before discussing creative and improvisation as … Continue reading What Is Creative Musical Thought?
Reflections On Attending A Live Performance With Students
As I write today's post, I have just returned from a trip to the New Haven Ballet's production of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker. This is a trip I have been taking with my fifth graders for several years now. Some look forward to the trip, some are skeptical about seeing ballet, and a few are sure they … Continue reading Reflections On Attending A Live Performance With Students
Five Lines and Four Spaces–Which Way Does It Go?
Maybe it's because the letter names of the notes go alphabetically from low to high, or maybe it's because music tends to start low and build higher, but it does seem rather strange that the lines and spaces of the musical staff are most often taught from the bottom to the top of the staff. … Continue reading Five Lines and Four Spaces–Which Way Does It Go?
Syncopation, Meter, and Beat: You Really Can’t Separate Them
Syncopation is an interesting subject for music teachers in many countries around the world. On the one hand, right from childhood, people hear syncopated rhythms in folk and popular music styles everyday. The sound of syncopation, and the frequently used rhythm patterns that constitute syncopated rhythms are familiar, and most can quickly learn to correctly … Continue reading Syncopation, Meter, and Beat: You Really Can’t Separate Them
A Strategy For Improving Student Engagement
When an entire class is singing or playing musical instruments, having everyone actively participating is a given. There is no waiting to be called on and no hoping not to get called on. Music ensembles involve everyone all the time. Every student is either singing, playing, or tracking measures of rest so they will make … Continue reading A Strategy For Improving Student Engagement
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