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Instrumental

Religious Music and December Concerts….

With many school concerts taking place around this time of year the issue of what music should or should not be played is a concern of many music teachers, students, parents, administrators and community members. A recent article in the Boston Globe about holiday music at school concerts takes a neutral look at some of the issues without delving too deep into them. MENC, the National Association for Music Education is currently conducting a survey of music educators regarding concerts… Read More »Religious Music and December Concerts….

Catalysts & Connections – A Music Education Web Mixtape

Track 1: An interesting perspective to reference the next time you’re having a discussion about jazz and hip hop music in your classroom Track 2: A post on being able to download free performances of Bach by the BBC Track 3: The free open source recording and audio editing software, Audacity, was recently upgraded and has many new features! Track 4: A new blog will be monitoring the aftermath of the SONY DRM fiasco Track 5: The MENC open Band… Read More »Catalysts & Connections – A Music Education Web Mixtape

Marching band and music selections….

People familiar with the culture of marching band and drum and bugle corps are used to lengthy discussions (and debates) entailing what music should and should not be played on the field. Some marching band directors have to worry about the music they are planning on playing being banned by their district, but it’s not very often that a piece being played by a marching band evokes such great passion and controversy! (At least the students were provided with an… Read More »Marching band and music selections….

Playing the Laptop

Does anyone have any students playing the laptop in school music ensembles? It would be interesting to find out how many programs include the use of the laptop as instrument. With more and more musicians such as Ikue Mori using the laptop as their primary instrument it only makes sense to start thinking about how to include it in our music programs. Just as any other instrument, performing the laptop live, requires skills and knowledge that can be developed over… Read More »Playing the Laptop