Let me begin today by asking you a question. If you direct a large music ensemble such as a choir, orchestra, or band, how do you assign report card grades to your students? I've been teaching music for over thirty years. "Back in the day" it was perfectly acceptable to give any student that warmed … Continue reading What You Evaluate Says A Lot About What’s of Value in Your Program
Instrumental Music
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
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
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
When Planning Music Lessons, Watch Your Language
Experienced teachers know that words matter, and that when writing out a lesson plan, the more specific our language is, the better for us and our students. For example, a teacher might write that students will be able to discuss the use of dynamics in Mozart's overture from The Marriage of Figaro. This objective specifies exactly … Continue reading When Planning Music Lessons, Watch Your Language
More on Learning Objectives
No matter what we do, having a target in mind is essential. If we don't know what we are trying to accomplish, nothing but sheer luck can bring our endeavor to a successful conclusion. In fact, without a target, we can't even know what success is or how to recognize we have succeeded. This goes … Continue reading More on Learning Objectives
Why Do Instrumental Music Students Have So Much Trouble With Rhythm?
When I was a band director, I often wondered why it was that drum students so often had so much trouble with rhythm. For the most part, they didn't have to learn how to read pitches, they had no fingerings to learn, no embouchure to form. All they had to do was hold a stick … Continue reading Why Do Instrumental Music Students Have So Much Trouble With Rhythm?
Conquering Stage Fright
Anyone who is a performing musician, and in fact anyone who has given a speech or presented anything in front of an audience, has probably experienced what is commonly referred to as "stage fright." At its core, stage fright is the fear of making mistakes or failing publicly. I for one have accepted a certain … Continue reading Conquering Stage Fright
Music Is To Be Seen and Heard
Amid a generation of music listeners who have rarely or never experienced live music, the sonically perfect recorded version, the product of many takes and extensive engineering, is the only kind of music they know. Recordings are so perfect that even if one hears performing artists live, they are either incapable of matching their studio … Continue reading Music Is To Be Seen and Heard
mister a music place 
You must be logged in to post a comment.