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Perspectives on Approaches to Music Theory…..

The Texas Tech Music Theory Department blog has some recent posts with interesting perspectives of ways to approach approaches music theory classes. They are definitely worth reading, especially for those of you who teach High School level music theory classes. The first post discusses two main philosophical approaches being discussed in their department. The second post includes some great questions to consider. I found the end of the post particularly exciting. Three philosophical orientations are presented as alternatives to traditional… Read More »Perspectives on Approaches to Music Theory…..

Web 2.0 Listening: Interesting Interview…..

For a while now I’ve been keeping track of Web-based listening/music discovery/remixing etc. applications that I believe have positive implications for and uses in music classrooms. I alluded to some possible uses in a presentation I gave at the New Directions in General Music Conference at MSU earlier this year. Today the Listening Post featured an interview with the creator of Muxtape one of the applications included in my del.icio.us collection (click on the link in the first paragraph to… Read More »Web 2.0 Listening: Interesting Interview…..

Meaningful Music Theory

I was interested to read about Roger Bourland’s approaches to teaching music theory and making it more meaningful to his students. One of the approaches that stood out as a great idea was having the students bring music they are working on to his class to analyze. This makes so much sense! What types of approaches do you use to make theory meaningful to your students? Is there collaboration in your department between the theory and ensemble aspects of the… Read More »Meaningful Music Theory

Iconic notation music videos

I have written before about the use of iconic notation in composing with computer software. In having students listen to and analyze music it can be very helpful for them to use iconic notation to help them focus on various details in the music. This online video of Bach’s’ Toccata and Fugue in D Minor is completely in iconic notation. This is just one of many videos created by the music animation machine. By importing a MIDI file into a… Read More »Iconic notation music videos

MP3 Players & Hearing Loss…

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…