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
Vocal Music
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
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
Highlights from the National Arts Standards Framework for Use in Music Curriculum Writing
Any curriculum writing that music educators do going forward need to be grounded in the core arts standards for music. These standards were intentionally written to be highly compatible with the common core standards while maintaining crucial distinctive for arts education. The major emphasis is on the four artistic processes of performing, creating, responding and … Continue reading Highlights from the National Arts Standards Framework for Use in Music Curriculum Writing
What Is The Difference Between Standards and Curriculum: A Primer for Music Curriculum Writers
Some of you who are music educators will be doing curriculum writing work over the summer, while others will be planning for the coming school year. In either case, it is important to understand the distinction between standards and curriculum. With the presence of common core in many states, standards have taken on a renewed importance in planning … Continue reading What Is The Difference Between Standards and Curriculum: A Primer for Music Curriculum Writers
Can Encouraging Creativity Include Correcting Errors?
Today, as I attended the fifth biennial Symposium on Music in Schools at Yale University, I became occupied with a question that came to mind as I listened to Sebastian Ruth talk about helping students find their voice through music education. His talk and the discussion that followed included points on developing relationships with students … Continue reading Can Encouraging Creativity Include Correcting Errors?
The Benefits of Doing a Yearly Musical Theater Production
Last night, my students had their opening night for "Shrek The Musical Jr." If you're not familiar with the Broadway Jr. series of musicals published by MTI, then I highly recommend you look into these shows. The songs are transposed and edited into ranges friendly to young voices, and the scripts are edited down to … Continue reading The Benefits of Doing a Yearly Musical Theater Production
The Other Singing Voice
Music teachers of young, primary grade children know it is important to teach children to find and use their singing voice for singing. Left on their own, most children will try to sing with the same voice they use for speaking, which is very limited in range, and usually too low to sing accurately or … Continue reading The Other Singing Voice
Why Do We Make Music?
One of the pitfalls of doing anything over a long period of time, is that we can wake up one day and realize we've forgotten why we do what we do. We've been doing it for so long, it has become a habit, a lifestyle, a part of who we are. Chances are those of … Continue reading Why Do We Make Music?
Describing Music and Teaching Music
If you are a music reader, want you to pretend you know nothing about music notation. If you don't read music, you're all set. Now take what I'm about to write absolutely literally. "A quarter note gets one beat, and a half note gets two beats." Just from that description, do you know that the … Continue reading Describing Music and Teaching Music
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