Are we playing today? What are we going to do for the rest of the year? Why do we still have class?
Improve Your Large Ensemble with Chamber Ensembles
Imagine a perfect world. Imagine a world where your students bring greatly improved attitude, sound, rhythm, confidence, and listening skills to your rehearsal.
Fluency and Music
Music performance, at its best, must be fluent. Listeners expect to hear uninterrupted lines that include clear communicative information. Listeners desire accuracy and true competency from performers.
3 Science-Backed Tips to Keep Your Students Motivated
As a music educator, the way in which you manage your classroom can have a major impact on students’ success.
National Core Arts Standards: Meeting “Creating” Requirements in Rehearsal
I have always felt that introducing students to composition can dramatically improve their ensemble experience. NAfME agrees. The following is from the NAfME website pertaining to the National Core Arts Standards on the “Opportunity-to-Learn Standards as Needs Assessment for Ensembles at the Elementary and Secondary Grades” page:
The curriculum emphasizes the Performing process but also provides experiences in Responding and Creating to enable students to understand these two processes and their components, allowing them to transfer what they have learned in the area of Performing.
The Dallas Brass: Helping Students Switch to Tuba
Change happens. Students move, graduate, or are abducted by aliens. Whatever the reason, at some point you’re going to need some students to switch to tuba.
Building Community with Your Holiday Concert
We wanted to do something special for last year’s December concert. Among our goals was to increase attendance by attracting some new audience members.
When Classroom Management Goes to the Dogs
Nobody lands in a career teaching music on accident. At least nobody I know. You don’t sign on to wrangle a squawking flock of beginner clarinetists without a deeply held desire to help them learn and grow.
Music Performance Tips from a Dog: Stage Fright
If you’ve ever taught middle school students, you know what a truly unique challenge they can be. Opinionated, smelly, a little wild in the eyes .
Summertime Band Instrument Repair and Storage
School’s out and it’s time to look at which instruments need repair. Some of the key things that need to happen with instruments over the summer are:
Instrument cleaning (I recommend ultrasonic cleaning whenever possible) Cases vacuumed and cleaned Mouthpieces washed and inspected for damageToday I’d like to offer some tips, from my perspective at the repair bench, to help you both correctly store instruments over the summer and be ready for the back-to-school season which sneaks up on us so fast.