As the school year begins we all have plans of grandeur. Who among us hasn’t thought, “This is the year my ensemble will get superior ratings,” or perhaps, “This year, everything will come together just in time for the musical!” Imagine taking all these goals – and your students – on a metaphorical school bus ride.
Beginning improvisers need our support. We can give them a blues, mixolydian, or dorian scale, but a scale is not a strategy.
Rhythm is fundamental to creating the feeling for any genre of music. It is therefore vital that the rhythm section create the appropriate rhythmic feel and style of swing.
Sometimes you reach a place in your ensemble rehearsal where woodshedding a few difficult measures is no longer fun – or effective.
A teacher’s moral disposition and personal bias often dictate the degree of inclusion demonstrated in the classroom. Unfortunately, at an institutional level, the term diversity is almost exclusively measured by race, cultural identity, and socio-economic status (SES).
Sometimes I am amazed at where I ended up in music considering that I almost quit band after my eighth-grade year.
Emerging research in the identity development of our students – and its impact on motivation and engagement – suggests the importance of using a culturally responsive pedagogy.
Over the years I have taught in many different places and in many different types of situations, both at the high school and university levels.
While MakeMusic Cloud includes an unrivaled online repertoire library, there may be times when you wish to augment this library with music you’ve created.
Finding ways to motivate the students in our large ensembles is among our most important challenges. To provide you with strategies to do so, this post draws from material originally presented at the 2017 Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic.