Skip to content

Contemporary Issues

Sound Explorations Music Learning Playlists – Digital Media and Learning Competition 6

I am currently leading a project to develop connected learning playlists focused on music. The Sound Explorations: Creating, Expressing, Improving Communities project is an awardee of the 6th Digital and Media Learning Competition, with support from the MacArthur Foundation. Sound Explorations: Creating, Expressing, and Improving Communities, connects pre-service and in-service music educators, teaching artists, community youth organizations, and youth to create a set of six interconnected learning playlists with multiple learning pathways around the following themes: Building instruments and interfaces Coding… Read More »Sound Explorations Music Learning Playlists – Digital Media and Learning Competition 6

Journal of Popular Music Education and Popular Music in Music Education

The first volume and issue of the new Journal of Popular Music Education is available for free online. Congrats to editors Bryan Powell and Gareth Dylan Smith, who were a driving force in the journal coming into existence.

Some Context on Popular Music in Music Education

People sometimes have the misperception that engaging with popular music in music programs is new. It is not. You can find examples of music educators in the US discussing aspects of popular music in music education for over half a century – whether in letters to the editor of MEJ, articles on approaches to teaching popular music, and (more recently) numerous research studies that address aspects of popular music in music learning and teaching ranging from approaches to learning by ear to socio-cultural issues around gender, identity, and power dynamics. You can get a sense of the long histories of popular music in US music programs by reading Dan Isbell’s article Popular Music and the Public School Music Curriculum and Robert Woody’s article Popular Music in School: Remixing the Issues.

Photo by Scott W. Vincent

Read More »Journal of Popular Music Education and Popular Music in Music Education

Popular Music and Music Education Resources

Resources for Popular Music and Music Learning and Teaching These popular music and music education resources can be useful for those engaged in the practice of facilitating engagement and learning with popular music and those engaged in researching aspects of popular music in relation to music learning and teaching. This curated set of resources will always be incomplete, in-process, and ever-growing. Send a message with additional suggestions. Related Posts on this Website Posts & project ideas related to popular music and… Read More »Popular Music and Music Education Resources

Expanding ensemble repertoire for diversity and inclusion

Phrases such as “the repertoire is the curriculum” have a sense of truth (though I think this is an extremely limited way of conceputalizing curriculum). Here I’m talking about the hidden curriculum, that which students learn through their engagement in school but that educators or schools do not make explicit in written or spoken form. A quick scan through an ensemble program’s repertoire can reveal much about the hidden curriculum that students experience. One way of thinking about the hidden curriculum… Read More »Expanding ensemble repertoire for diversity and inclusion

A Call for inclusion of Media Arts in the California Arts Standards

This post was updated on 8/27/16 with positive information about media arts being considered for inclusion in the California Arts Standards. The earlier post about media arts being excluded is no longer accurate. Update 8/27/16 I received the following information from my colleague Dain Olsen, who was the writing chair of the National Core Arts Standards: Media Arts Standards. Dain is currently Lead Teacher/Coordinator of Multimedia Academy, Belmont HS, LAUSD and Faculty member of Vermont College of Fine Arts, Master of Arts… Read More »A Call for inclusion of Media Arts in the California Arts Standards