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Welcome back to school!  I wish everyone an excellent school year full of refreshing ideas and successful projects and endeavors.

The potential for collaborating with others is one of the most exciting and powerful aspects of the internet. Initiatives such as collective music education blogs, the Vermont Midi Project, The Mayday discussion forums are some different ways of collaborating online. Recently Owen Bradley over at The Digital Music Educator posted about the potential to have students mentored online through distance learning via the internet. The Music Educators Network could easily support an initiative such as this if people are interested.… Read More »Online instrumental mentors?

I recently returned from the Mayday Group Conference held this past weekend. There were many excellent papers presented that have interesting implications for music education. I’ll be posting sporadically throughout the summer since I will be travelling around for much of it and will start posting regularly again in September. Enjoy your summer!

Whether in a car on a long trip or a surgery room, the conversation of what music should be listened to is a common one. Whether you are an anesthesiologist or a driver, deciding on music that works for the majority of people present can be a tricky task.  These conversations might spark some debate in our classrooms. Besides discussing taste, it might be interesting to have a discussion with students about what music best fits certain situations and why.… Read More »What music does the doctor order?

I’ve always enjoyed having my students compare various arrangements of the same piece, discussing style and various musical elements that are similar and different. Over at the riddimmethod, wayneandwax gives an interesting example of tracking the development of different versions of a piece of music. Focusing on the various versions of “Solomon linda’s “mbube