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curriculum

Orchestral hybridity and convergence: FUSE@PSO & potential for music education

Here’s another example of how professional orchestras are engaging in some of the ideas expressed in my article Toward convergence: Adapting music education to contemporary society and participatory culture: The FUSE@PSO (Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra) initiative currently involves Steve Hackman’s arrangement of music by Brahms, Radiohead, and others in the form of mashups (as discussed in this article by Elizabeth Bloom in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). While in this case Hackman is creating mashups for an orchestra to perform, I suggest that in music education… Read More »Orchestral hybridity and convergence: FUSE@PSO & potential for music education

Participatory and digital cultures in practice: Perspectives and possibilities in a graduate music course

Tobias, E. S. (2015). Participatory and digital cultures in practice: Perspectives and possibilities in a graduate music course. International Journal of Community Music, 8(1), 7-26. doi: 10.1386/ijcm.8.1.7_1 My article Participatory and digital cultures in practice: Perspectives and possibilities in a graduate music course is now available in International Journal of Community Music. Thanks to guest editor Janice Waldron, this issue of IJCM was a special issue on participatory culture. The abstract is below: Music educators seeking to address contemporary society… Read More »Participatory and digital cultures in practice: Perspectives and possibilities in a graduate music course

From musical detectives to DJs: Expanding aural skills and analysis through engaging popular music and culture

Tobias, E. S. (2015). From musical detectives to DJs: Expanding aural skills and analysis through engaging popular music and culture. General Music Today, 28(3), 23-27. doi: 10.1177/1048371314558293 My article From musical detectives to DJs: Expanding aural skills and analysis through engaging popular music and culture is now published. Here is the abstract: Many music educators address aural skills and analysis by drawing on strategies designed for the realm of Western classical music. Focusing solely on aural skills and analysis within… Read More »From musical detectives to DJs: Expanding aural skills and analysis through engaging popular music and culture

Hybridity and Convergence: Popular and “Classical” music and musicianship can live together

I often write and speak about music education curriculum and teaching/learning contexts in terms of hybridity and convergence. I differentiate these paradigms of curriculum to those that are more compartmentalized or specific to particular ways of knowing or doing music such as “strands” and classes that focus on a form of musicianship or type of music (particularly in relation to secondary K-12 music education). John Covach’s recent piece, Rock Me, Maestro, in the Chronicle of Higher Education is a great… Read More »Hybridity and Convergence: Popular and “Classical” music and musicianship can live together

The ASU Music Education Department

A few years ago the ASU Music Education Department revised our curriculum to address the contemporary state of music education and help students adapt for a rapidly changing society. Along with providing more choices for undergraduate students we reorganized our curriculum around the following core principles: Flexible musicianship Innovative practices Inquisitive minds Community leadership Here’s a sense of what takes place throughout the ASU Music Education program: Music Education from ASU School of Music on Vimeo. Interested in a dynamic… Read More »The ASU Music Education Department