Today’s students need more than just a reminder to practice—they need structure, inspiration, and tools that meet them where they are. In this session, discover how MakeMusic Cloud can transform practice from a chore into a motivating and measurable part of your students’ musical journey. Learn how to use built-in features like assignments, real-time feedback, and goal-based challenges to promote consistent, effective practice habits. We’ll also explore ways to spark intrinsic motivation, encourage accountability, and make practice feel personal, purposeful, and possible for every learner.

Tone production, bow technique, and ensembleship. These and many other prominent areas of concern give even the most seasoned directors cause for frustration and distress. In this session, attendees will be shown real-world video examples of common pedagogical mistakes made in student orchestras and then provided with video examples of both individual and group exercises that can correct these errors, leading to an improved group sound through better individual technique.

Orchestra teachers everywhere have at one time or another lamented their
ensembles’ seeming inability to count and stay together. No matter how loud we
crank the metronome, how many after-school rehearsals or sectionals we schedule, or
how many playing tests we assign, there’s always that one line, or section, or piece
that inevitably falls apart. This presentation aims to reevaluate these struggles from
the perspective of the approach to bow technique and articulation in the orchestral
ensemble. Though there is no replacement for addressing tempo discrepancies and
their clear ill effect on performance, this presentation hopes to illuminate how many
tempo problems in the orchestral ensemble are really a bowing issue at their core.
Attendees will be shown common bowing/articulation mistakes, their effects on
ensemble tempi, and offered a wide array of tools for addressing these concerns.

A common frustration among music educators is students who seem oblivious to errors in their own playing and how they impact the ensemble’s overall sound. This presentation tackles the challenge of students’ lack of error detection by exploring the root causes and offering practical strategies for cultivating active listening and aural awareness. It will cover techniques for developing critical listening skills, empowering self-correction, and integrating error detection into daily rehearsals. Ultimately, audience members will leave with new methods for improving ensemble sound quality and developing more engaged, self-reliant student musicians.

As Music Performance Assessment season approaches, sight-reading can strike fear and dread into the hearts of teachers and students in classrooms everywhere. Fear not! This session will provide tried-and-true techniques that empower your students to take ownership of the sight-reading process with
outstanding results.