Blog April 21 2014 At times I have to remind students, particularly the older ones, to stop talking to each other in class. Students are highly social people, and they have to practice resisting the urge to to use their words to socialize. But it is also true that there are times when I talk … Continue reading Music Teacher Talk
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Why Music is More Than Fun
Amidst the process of teaching and practicing musical works and concepts, it is worthwhile from time to time to remember why music is important to our lives. We who are music teachers enjoy teaching music, and our students have fun in our classes and ensembles, but it is important that music classes and rehearsals be more … Continue reading Why Music is More Than Fun
Update on my Switch to Fixed Do
Last month, I wrote about using fixed do solfege in my music classes (Another Try At Fixed Do). At that time, I reported early success with fifth and second grade students sight singing using the fixed do system. Since then, I have continued to be pleased with the results, and do not at this point … Continue reading Update on my Switch to Fixed Do
The Basics of Lesson Planning
Lesson planning is one of the most important things teachers do. Many methods and formats for lesson planning have circulated within teacher preparation programs and professional development seminars. Today, I’d like to reduce them down to the most essential points, and show you how I go about planning my music lessons. The best place to … Continue reading The Basics of Lesson Planning
Early Childhood and Learning How To Sing
Two years ago, a music education major in his senior year spent two weeks observing me teach, and trial teaching my students. Over the course of those two weeks, he expressed his surprise at how well my first graders could hold pitch and sing in tune. According to what he had been taught, they shouldn’t … Continue reading Early Childhood and Learning How To Sing
What Does Music Mean–Revisiting Bernstein’s Lecture
In 1958, Leonard Bernstein gave a Young Peoples Concert entitled “What Does Music Mean?” In it, he said that music doesn’t mean anything in the ways language does, but instead means what it is. Today, I will take up the matter of musical meaning, restricting myself to developing Bernstein’s points, and avoiding deeper aesthetic and … Continue reading What Does Music Mean–Revisiting Bernstein’s Lecture
Music and Literacy–The Backbone of Musicianship
In my last post, I discussed the meaning of musicianship. Certainly, part of what goes into musicianship is the part of music literacy that is the generating of musical ideas. Literacy of any kind does not only include reading and writing, but also creating ideas and communicating them to others. In music, improvisers do this … Continue reading Music and Literacy–The Backbone of Musicianship
What is Musicianship?
Musicianship is one of those words that is used frequently but thought about rarely. As music teachers, we want our students to acquire musicianship, but we don’t necessarily spend much time specifically teaching it. Much of the time we are teaching skills, and then assuming musicianship will automatically follow. But it is often the case … Continue reading What is Musicianship?
Solving the Problem of Students who Don’t Practice
For those of who play orchestral instruments and guitar, recorder, keyboard, accordion, harmonica, ukulele or whatever, disciplined practice is still necessary for advancing and achieving success. At the same time, we all have students who are less than willing to bother practicing. It also happens fairly often that a student will claim to be practicing, but … Continue reading Solving the Problem of Students who Don’t Practice
Your Attention Please: Teaching Your Music Students to Correctly Focus
Everything has a starting point; an order of doing things that must be followed if the undertaking is going to succeed. When building a house, one must start with the foundation. In teaching, the starting point is having your students’ attention. Nothing else matters in the classroom if the students are not putting their attention … Continue reading Your Attention Please: Teaching Your Music Students to Correctly Focus
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