One of the most frequently made searches I see on this site is teaching dotted rhythms. Most music teachers run into difficulty teaching them, and many of us can remember a time when dotted rhythms presented a particular challenge to us as music students. Overall, notes lasting longer than a beat, which are called elongations … Continue reading Why Are Dotted Rhythms Such A Problem?
Music Education
A practical guide to planning, teaching, and assessing music instruction.
A Variety of Music Speed Types
It seems simple enough; when music gets faster, we call it an accelerando. Orchestral musicians know they have to watch the conductor, and conductors know they have to give an increasingly faster beat to create the accelerando. As far as it goes, this is all correct. But increasing the beat is not the only way … Continue reading A Variety of Music Speed Types
The Power of the Exit Ticket
Exit tickets are a helpful and efficient tool for assessing student learning. While you (should) have communicated your objective and expectations for students at the beginning of the lesson, and while students may have completed all work that you assigned for them to do during the lesson, none of this gives is a reliable indicator … Continue reading The Power of the Exit Ticket
A Tie To The Past: Cantus Firmus and Improvisatory Drumming
If you remember your music history, you will recall that beginning around the 10th century, an existing melody, often a Gregorian chant, was written into one voice of a contrapuntal vocal composition, and then the other voices were composed around it. This chant or anchoring melody was eventually called the cactus firms. The technique was … Continue reading A Tie To The Past: Cantus Firmus and Improvisatory Drumming
Thoughts on Practicing
I have spent a lot of years practicing when I didn't feel like it. I practiced my first year of playing the clarinet because my mother made me. She went to great lengths to make it fun, but I was all too glad when the required practice time was over. When I reached middle school, … Continue reading Thoughts on Practicing
The Difference Between Visual Meter and Aural Meter in Music
Of all the structures and elements of music, meter is arguably one the most confusing. This is due at least in part to the fact that unlike rhythm and pitch, and to a lesser extent unlike dynamics and tempo, our Western system of music notation is often vague or imprecise when it comes to representing … Continue reading The Difference Between Visual Meter and Aural Meter in Music
Music Education and Self-Directed Learning
Many of us music educators have, over the years, spent a good deal of time advocating for music education. It can seem to us that at every turn, our programs are in danger of being scaled back or eliminated in the name of raising academic achievement--a strategy we know is ill-advised and contrary to an … Continue reading Music Education and Self-Directed Learning
March Madness in Education
In many ways, teaching from March to June is the most challenging time of the year. It is the period in which students are overwhelmed with state mandated testing in the wake of NCLB, the period in which students and teachers tend to be burdened with colds and flu, and the period in which teachers … Continue reading March Madness in Education
Artistic Choices
How do musicians make artistic choices? This is an essential question that should be at the center of our music lessons. Too often, the answer to this question is a secret kept by music teachers from their students. The music director makes all the choices, and then instructs the students to play or sing this way … Continue reading Artistic Choices
Practicing Improvisation
This week, a colleague was reading a unit plan I was working on, and noticed the phrase "practice improvisation." She immediately pointed out to me that improvisation can't be practiced, and to put those two words together makes an oxymoron. I was not convinced and still am not convinced that this is so. What is … Continue reading Practicing Improvisation
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