One of the more popular composing projects in music classrooms is taking a video clip and assigning the students to compose music to accompany what they see on the screen. Such projects must be preceded by instruction on how to use musical elements and structure to convey, express, and represent emotions, images and even stories. … Continue reading Creating Music and Audiences
Instrumental Music
Rhythmic Structure of Music: It’s More Than Syllable and Counting Systems
I have observed among students and colleagues alike that there is a good deal of confusion when it comes to rhythm in music. Students are frequently confused about what rhythm is, and teachers are often confused about how to teach it. From the teacher's point of view, much of the confusion seems to come from … Continue reading Rhythmic Structure of Music: It’s More Than Syllable and Counting Systems
Developing Goals and Objectives for the Music Curriculum
With this post, I continue my series in music curriculum writing. From the title, you may notice the phrase "goals and objectives" indicating that there is a difference between the two. Goals are open-ended, long-range general statements that provide direction for the entire music education program, PK-12. Goals indicate the broad areas of learning the students … Continue reading Developing Goals and Objectives for the Music Curriculum
Developing A Philosophy Statement for the Music Curriculum Guide
In my post on the steps of developing a curriculum guide, I explained that the second step, after evaluating the current program, is to develop a philosophy statement. This statement includes why music education is important and how music education fits into the overall educational plan. In that post, I promised to explain in more … Continue reading Developing A Philosophy Statement for the Music Curriculum Guide
Double-Lip Embouchure and the Clarinet
Oboists use it, bassoonists use it, brass players use it. Using both lips to form the embouchure for playing these instruments is rarely if ever given a second thought. Not so with the clarinet. Because of the type of mouthpiece used on a clarinet, double-lip embouchure can seem difficult to learn at first, but when … Continue reading Double-Lip Embouchure and the Clarinet
A Closer Look At The Four Artistic Processes: Connecting
In the conceptual framework for the national core arts standards, the artistic process of connecting is defined as "relating artistic ideas and work with personal meaning and external context." This definition delineates the process of connecting to do entities: one's personal life, and the lives of others. The others may be contemporaries or historical, a … Continue reading A Closer Look At The Four Artistic Processes: Connecting
A Closer Look At The Four Artistic Processes: Responding
This summer, I'm looking for funding to purchase music keyboards for my classroom. Many of my students want to learn how to play piano, but cannot afford or find transportation to a piano teacher. My kids love it when I give them time on the piano, but one piano for classes of twenty or more … Continue reading A Closer Look At The Four Artistic Processes: Responding
A Closer Look At The Four Artistic Processes: Performing
On July 9, I wrote about the artistic process of creating as it is presented in the Core Arts Standards (A Closer Look At the Four Artistic Processes: Creating). Today, I will write about the artistic process of performing. As far as the standards are concerned, creating is one side of the coin and performing is … Continue reading A Closer Look At The Four Artistic Processes: Performing
How “Market Driven” Should Music Education Be?
Some years ago, the district music coordinator I worked for had one guiding principle that she seemed to bring up more often than any other. It was the idea that we, the music teachers, should not be spending our precious class time teaching our students music they were already familiar with, but instead music that … Continue reading How “Market Driven” Should Music Education Be?
A Closer Look At The Four Artistic Processes: Creating
The National Core Arts Standards are written around four artistic processes. For music, these processes are creating, performing, responding, and connecting. How do these four artistic processes translate into what music teachers and students are to do in a classroom? I will take each process and, using the framework (see my post from July 8) … Continue reading A Closer Look At The Four Artistic Processes: Creating
mister a music place 
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