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music education

Religious Music and December Concerts….

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….

Classical, Contemporary, 20th Century or "New" Music?

Reading Frank Oteri’s recent piece “No Longer New” Music and Judith Lang Zaimont’s “Living American Woman” on newmusicbox reminded me not only of the many conversations I have had with colleagues about the need to include music being composed by living and recently living composers in our programs, but of the difficulty in finding a word to call that music. While some might say it is purely semantics to decide whether or not to call it classical music, contemporary music,… Read More »Classical, Contemporary, 20th Century or "New" Music?

A musical signature….

Have you ever wondered what your musical signature is? What about the musical signatures of your students? Why not pose that question to some students and see what they come up with? After trying out Jason Freeman’s itunes signature maker software you can have discussions leading in many different directions. What do the different musical signatures of your students sound like compared to one another? Why do they sound so similar or different? Does the musical signature reflect the identity… Read More »A musical signature….

"To clap or not to clap….. "(the conversation continues)

Before my students perform their compositions in class we always have a conversation about clapping and how the etiquette for clapping is different depending on the musical and social situation. (We also have many conversations on audience etiquette in general including the importance of turning off cell phones when going to concerts — well at least in most situations other than this or more commonly this.) We talk about, for example, how a rock concert has a different set of… Read More »"To clap or not to clap….. "(the conversation continues)

Copyright in (and out) of the classroom……

The issue of copyright came up in class today as it does very often. While I was explaining to a 7th grade general music class how we could apply what we have been learning about pitch, tone color, harmony, melody and rhythm by creating music in FLstudio, a student who had already downloaded the demo version at his house told me he ” inserted the voice of the Southpark character Mr. Garrison into the music” he made at home. I… Read More »Copyright in (and out) of the classroom……