Over the last three years, watching NBC produce "live" musical theater, first with The Sound of Music, then Peter Pan, and most recently with The Wiz, it seemed there was something missing from the live aspect of the broadcasts. Live performances of any kind are preferable to recorded ones largely due to the energy an audience brings, and to … Continue reading The Audience is Part of the Performance Experience
Music Advocacy
Strong Beat and Driving Rhythm Found in Top Classical Pieces
The popularity of classical music is of interest to those who teach music, and to those who run symphony orchestras. One of the things that attracts audiences to concert halls is favorite repertoire being on the program. Contemporary composers of classical music have at times been at odds with audiences, because their music was not … Continue reading Strong Beat and Driving Rhythm Found in Top Classical Pieces
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?
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
My Lifelong Love of Music: I Wonder Where It Started
Amid the frequent pronouncements of doom over classical music, and the unenthusiastic attitude of many of my general music students toward it, I sometimes ask myself what drew me to classical music. I never became a great musician, yet my love for music has always been great. That's important because when a child is raised … Continue reading My Lifelong Love of Music: I Wonder Where It Started
The Power of Music X 2: What Happens When Music and Video Join Forces?
Though music is always a product of the cultural context in which it is created, American popular music is perhaps more than others genres placed in a position of sociological prominence. Both from its characteristic rebelliousness and its bent toward social commentary, American popular music, unlike other musical genres including jazz and Western classical art … Continue reading The Power of Music X 2: What Happens When Music and Video Join Forces?
Musical Intelligence, Three Systems, and the Creative Processes
Among the nine intelligences identified by Howard Gardner in his Multiple Intelligences Theory, is musical intelligence. An intelligence is a way of knowing, and different people have different ways of knowing and learning. Someone who has a prevalent musical intelligence is able to use rhythms and patterns to assist learning. Such a person will learn well … Continue reading Musical Intelligence, Three Systems, and the Creative Processes
Some Musing (Maybe Ranting) on the Unhealthy State of Classical Music
Some would say that music is a reflection of the past. While this may be true, music must be more than that, or become irrelevant in spite of scholars insisting that certain music is great and worth hearing. Indeed, if any music were only a reflection of the past, it would be astounding that it lasts at all. Surely an … Continue reading Some Musing (Maybe Ranting) on the Unhealthy State of Classical Music
Creating Music and Audiences
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
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
mister a music place 
You must be logged in to post a comment.