The influence of African music and musicians on music education and music in America could certainly be explored more than it probably is in music classrooms. While some music programs incorporate African drumming into the music curriculum there is a lot more to the music of Africa and the influence it has had on contemporary music.Read More »African Musicians and Musicians playing African Music
Do we have a responsibility to address racism on radio stations that many of our students listen to? Many of our students probably heard the racist Tsunami Song that was created and broadcast by HOT 97 (a station of the Emmis Corporation) employees that dealt with the horrible Tsunami in southeast Asia earlier in 2005. More recently our students may have heard the way HOT 97 employee Miss Jones made fun of immigrants in reference to the transit worker strike… Read More »Radio Stations and Racism – HOT 97 and our students….
While some of our students may already own an MP3 player, many more (who come from families that have enough money to buy them) will have one at the start of the new year. It might be a good time to discuss the importance of listening to music at a healthy volume level. Our students should know that listening to music through headphones at loud volumes may irreversibly damage their hearing. Take a look at some resources at the NIDCD… Read More »MP3 Players & Hearing Loss…
The company eschool recently featured an article on some ways technology is being used in music classrooms. The article mostly focuses on several software titles that are commonly used in music classrooms that make use of computers and software. In my own classroom my 6th and 7th graders are just starting to make use of FLstudio to create music. One great thing about the software is how it works so well with the way I teach my students how to… Read More »Technology in music education in the eschool news
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….