When asked to advocate for music education, one of the frequently given pieces of evidence is that music education develops creativity or creative thinking. While this sounds reasonable, at times it can be difficult to find much creative activity in the things that students are asked to do in both general music and music performance … Continue reading What Is Creativity and How Do Music Educators Develop It?
General Music
Social Media and the Worldwide Community of Music Lovers
Today I made what for many of you may be a bold decision, to say the least. I severed my ties with three popular social media providers. If you are a follower on one of those social media providers, I urge you to follow me here. You will receive an e-mail notification each time I … Continue reading Social Media and the Worldwide Community of Music Lovers
Eclectic Application of Major Music Education Methods
Elsewhere in this blog I have written about the strengths and weaknesses of Kodaly, Orff, and Gordon approaches to music education. Those articles assumed that it is beneficial to grab strengths from each approach, mixing and matching them into a teaching method that is better than strictly adhering to any one of them. In this … Continue reading Eclectic Application of Major Music Education Methods
What Do We Want Children To Be Able To Do In Order To Sing Well?
Good teaching is largely about stating clear objectives, and then instructing students in how to achieve those objectives. When it comes to singing, often times music educators frame the task in terms of singing on pitch, using a head voice, and maintaining a steady beat. Clearly these items are important to good singing, but as … Continue reading What Do We Want Children To Be Able To Do In Order To Sing Well?
Lesson Planning and Marzano’s Nine Strategies
Context is everything. There's a saying, "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing." Too often in education, we take a little morsel of knowledge, perhaps acquired at a conference or hastily gleaned from an article or book, and then force it into a position of exclusivity and prominence that assures success will not prevail. I … Continue reading Lesson Planning and Marzano’s Nine Strategies
When Performance Requests and Developmental Appropriateness Collide
A music teacher recently asked for suggestions on how to teach The Star Spangled Banner to her kindergarten and first grade classes. She didn't say why she wanted to do this. Perhaps she was asked to have her youngest children sing it for a program, or perhaps she just felt it could never be too … Continue reading When Performance Requests and Developmental Appropriateness Collide
Child Development and Music Education
Dr. James Comer of Yale University has found six pathways along which children develop. These pathways are described as physical, cognitive, language, social, ethical, and psychological. While music education clearly has ties to all six pathways, I would like to focus in on two of them: cognitive and psychological. The Cognitive Pathway and Music The … Continue reading Child Development and Music Education
Why Do We Teach Music Reading?
To my surprise, I recently read a discussion thread by music educators on Facebook in which most of the participants found teaching music reading unnecessary. The argument for this position has been around for quite some time. Most of the world's musicians, excellent musicians, do not read music, most of the world's cultures do not … Continue reading Why Do We Teach Music Reading?
Learning Objectives and Essential Questions
If you are a pubic school music educator, then you are accustomed to writing and posting instructional objectives for your students. In my district, student learning objectives must be posted on the front board at all times so that anyone observing the class can easily see what you are expecting the students to know and … Continue reading Learning Objectives and Essential Questions
What Are Ways Students Can Respond to Music?
With the National Core Arts Standards now in their third year, music educators have grown accustomed to thinking of music education in terms of four artistic processes: creating, performing, responding, and connecting. One could argue that responding and connecting are present in creating and performing, so that responding permeates everything a person does with music. … Continue reading What Are Ways Students Can Respond to Music?
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