Hello everyone and welcome to the February 2009 Music Education Blog Carnival. Below are links to a wide variety of articles from over two dozen bloggers on various subjects related to the field of music education. There's a huge variety of material here, so if you can't get through all 25 articles in one sitting, feel free to bookmark this page and make a return trip.
By Way of Introduction...
Join the discourse about contemporary issues in education and check out Kelly Sonora's list of the Top 50 Educational Policy Blogs at Online University Lowdown.
Can anything be done to save music in the public schools? Evan Tobias of Catalysts & Connections points us towards a Fascinating Arts Education Dialogue on ArtsJournal.
Music Pedagogy
So your students are doing well in classroom situations. But what do you do to transfer what students have learned into a regular practice routine? Thomas J. West looks at strategies for helping students become self-sufficient musicians with Technique Targeting: Becoming Your Own Music Teacher.
Adult students need to learn how to become independent musicians too, just in different ways. Leah Coutts talks about Self-Direction in Adult Students in the Music Teachers Helper Blog (hey--I write for that blog too!)
And a big welcome to everyone from the DePauw University Collegiate Chapter of MENC (MENC is the National Association of Music Education, whose home page can found here).
Being a singer requires a fair amount of keyboard proficiency, whether you're practicing, learning a role, or teaching a voice lesson. Elizabeth McDonald at From the voice of... writes about ways to quickly and painlessly acquire these skills in Keyboard Skills for Singers.
"Drill that section until it's easy to play" - Natalie Wickham at Music Matters Blog discusses how she leads her students toward mastery, step by step in Easy Phrases for Students.
Scott Ashby's Expectations looks at ways that parents can support their children's musical endeavors with an understanding of practicing, performing, and studio policy.
Music Pedagogy
So your students are doing well in classroom situations. But what do you do to transfer what students have learned into a regular practice routine? Thomas J. West looks at strategies for helping students become self-sufficient musicians with Technique Targeting: Becoming Your Own Music Teacher.
Adult students need to learn how to become independent musicians too, just in different ways. Leah Coutts talks about Self-Direction in Adult Students in the Music Teachers Helper Blog (hey--I write for that blog too!)
And a big welcome to everyone from the DePauw University Collegiate Chapter of MENC (MENC is the National Association of Music Education, whose home page can found here).
Being a singer requires a fair amount of keyboard proficiency, whether you're practicing, learning a role, or teaching a voice lesson. Elizabeth McDonald at From the voice of... writes about ways to quickly and painlessly acquire these skills in Keyboard Skills for Singers.
"Drill that section until it's easy to play" - Natalie Wickham at Music Matters Blog discusses how she leads her students toward mastery, step by step in Easy Phrases for Students.
Scott Ashby's Expectations looks at ways that parents can support their children's musical endeavors with an understanding of practicing, performing, and studio policy.
Music Performance
Doing a recital anytime soon? Get those programs sent in now. And I mean now. The bio too. Liz Parker of The Megaphone talks about the importance of early submission of concert materials as an integral part of the PR process in House Programmes: What Every Performer Needs To Know About Deadlines. And did I mention that you also need to send in the high-rez vertical head shot for the "outer"?
Brian Jay Stanley in Aphorisms and Paradoxes talks about the wonder and discovery of the concert life in Music Moves the Young and Old.
Sometimes it's important to just show up, to be the last person left standing when in pursuit of a goal. Broderick Allen discusses Persistence.
Cary Stewart, author of Third-Stream Music Education, tackles the question of Timbre vs. Style? - Is There a Tradeoff? in a discussion on what priorities to establish when working with beginning bands.
...Okay, it's time for another song: Rachel Rambach's What Do You Do? is a useful song to teach physicalized actions and responses to kids for use in common social situations.
Music Technology
Microsoft Songsmith? Is it the real thing? Kyle Gardner asks the question of what kind of impact Songsmith might have on music educators (be sure to spot the cameo appearance in the comments from Microsoft's Dan Morris).
Is that Yamaha on sale really the best keyboard in its category? One Family looks at a feature-by-feature price comparison of Yamaha, Casio, Roland, Kawai, and Korg digital pianos.
Ever heard music for Dual-Resonant Solid State Tesla Coils? Sheila Scarborough at Perceptive Travel has, and she writes about her experience watching DRSSTC music in Austin, Texas.
Should you give away free downloads of your music? Yes, says Dan-O. Here's why.
If your musical activities lead you to create a working product, it might be a good idea to get ISO certification. In case you're confused about what this comprises, the ISO9001 Compliance Blog has an informative article about quality control, electrical, and environmental standards in ISO certification.
More Stuff
In the market for an online college program? Check out the Nancy Miller's 2009 version of the Online Education Database's Online College Rankings.
Takeshi Koike of DPUtv writes about the joys of hearing music from other cultures in Music From Another World.
If you're looking for an interesting variety of education-related links, have a gander at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day for inspiration.
Looking for a cheap way to turbocharge your teaching materials? Joseph Pisano leads us to Places to Find Free Music, Graphics, and Photo Art.
Same tune, but in a funky new context. Doruk Somunkiran gives a primer on Reharmonization Simplified at HarmonyCat.com.
Finally, I would like to offer a huge hand of thanks to Joseph Pisano for pioneering the ME100 project, which recently reached its goal of recruiting 100 blogs on the subject of music education. Thanks to all the bloggers for such a great bunch of submissions, and exactly one month from now be sure to go to Tanbur Music Education for the March 2009 Blog Carnival.
Still wondering what music for Tesla Coils sounds like? Here's ArcAttack at Austin Maker Faire 2008:
Hi, thanks for hosting this carnival (I know it's a lot of work) and for including my post - isn't ArcAttack the neatest thing?!
ReplyDeletereally like the site. i also enjoyed the video.
ReplyDeletewww.recordapedia.com