Blog: Catalysts & Connections

I posted earlier about African popular music and popular music influenced by African Muscians. This past Saturday night at Miller Theater I went to the “focus on Africa African Exchanges” concert. The program performed by William Chapman Nyaho on piano and So Percussion on various percussion instruments was phenomenal. The program focused on music written by African and African-American composers as well as composers influenced by traditional African Music. I wish there were more concerts that had programs like this!… Read More »African Art Music and Art Music Influenced by Traditional African Music

Here is my response, with additions, to a question about the effect the show American Idol has had on music education. “I have addressed the show American Idol in my 5th grade general music classroom in relation to the idea of assessing performances. After my fifth grade students create original compositions and perform them for each other we speak about what criteria we would use to assess the compositions and performances. We use American Idol as a reference for discussing… Read More »American Idol and Music Education

Track 1 – Has anyone had their music students contribute material related to music for the wikipedia? Track 2 – Your students may be interested in the world’s longest concert. The “as slow as possible” project could lead into some interesting discussion in your class. Track 3 – My first thought when I found the link to this online test ( via musical perceptions) to determine if someone can hear incorrect pitches in excerpts of familiar songs was that it… Read More »Catalysts & Connections – A Music Education Mixtape v2