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Reflections on using American Idol in the Music Classroom

As many readers know – ABC world news tonight broadcasted a story on the use of American Idol in the music Classroom recently that included me and many of my 5th-7th grade general music students. In this post I want to provide some background information on why I chose to use the show in my classroom, how I use it, why I participated in the news story and my reflections on the entire experience. I also just found out about… Read More »Reflections on using American Idol in the Music Classroom

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

Remix Culture, Philosophy & Music….

DJ Spooky (also known as Paul D. Miller )sent an interesting email out today (also archived on nettime) that contains an interview in which he discusses issues of music as a metaphor, remix culture , collage and the relationship between his perspectives of music and the philosophies of Deleuze and Guattari. It’s definitely an interesting read and might even get you motivated to crack open some philosophy texts or at least look up some info on the web. I find… Read More »Remix Culture, Philosophy & Music….

DRM, Payola, and the music industry

Here’s a label that would be interesting to see on CDs in your favorite music store. In case you missed all the news on SONY’s DRM disaster read up here or here. Speaking of the music industry, in NY last year many public school music programs received a box of CDs from the state attorney Elliot Spitzer’s office as a result of a settlement with various music labels for collusion to overcharge for CDs. That’s not the only case of… Read More »DRM, Payola, and the music industry

Music Education and Classical Music

Scottish composer James MacMillan recently wrote a scathing article about what he called the “dumbing down” of a new music syllabus in Scotland. In his discussion of “serious music” ,and “popular culture” he calls for a renewal of challenging the notion that “there is no meaningful difference between high art and low art”. An article written in response reiterated some of MacMillan’s ideas and offered other opinions on the syllabus. The discussion of what is or is not “serious music,… Read More »Music Education and Classical Music