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Project Ideas

Multimedia, Intermedia, Music, Media Arts, and evolving curricula: Robert Black’s Possessed Project

Throughout the years I’ve found Bang on A Can to be an inspiration for music education. Whether their flexible ensemble structures, their hyphenated musicianship in terms of many members being both composers and performers, their people’s commissioning fund and a broad range of other initiatives, music educators could learn a lot from Bang on a Can’s forward thinking. Most recently the Bang on a Can All-Stars founding member and bassist Robert Black is launching a project entitled Possessed that combines… Read More »Multimedia, Intermedia, Music, Media Arts, and evolving curricula: Robert Black’s Possessed Project

Toward Convergence: Adapting Music Education to Contemporary Society and Participatory Culture

Tobias, E. S. (2013). Toward convergence: Adapting music education to contemporary society and participatory culture. Music Educators Journal, 99(4), 29–36. doi:10.1177/0027432113483318 The digital supplement providing examples of the varied musical practices I discuss in the article. (Also available on the NAfME Bonus Content website). Also included in the same issue of the MEJ is: A thoughtful and nuanced response written by Thomas Regelski. My condensed response to Regelski’s response as published in the MEJ. A complete response is available on… Read More »Toward Convergence: Adapting Music Education to Contemporary Society and Participatory Culture

Project Based Learning & Music Education: Resources

The lastest version of Edutopia focuses on best practices for Project Based Learning, highlighting a school that incorporates this approach to teaching and learning. Project based learning is an approach that works naturally in music education settings and can assist music educators in providing students with deep and rich engagement and learning that can be applied beyond the school setting. With the assistance of my students and local educators I keep an evolving curated list of resources for designing and… Read More »Project Based Learning & Music Education: Resources

Musical Expression & Perception in the New York Times

The New York Times article To Tug Hearts, Music First Must Tickle the Neurons by Pam Belluck is a fantastic look at issues of musical expression and perception that could lead to engaging discussions and projects in a variety of music class and ensemble settings. In addition to having students read and discuss the article it might be worth modifying some of the included experiments in contexts ranging from composition to performance. The article could also serve as a springboard… Read More »Musical Expression & Perception in the New York Times

Creating, Producing, Analyzing, & Critiquing Music in the Cloud: IndabaMusic & Music Education

Music educators can benefit from the increasing sophistication and ease of use of music web-based technologies allowing for a wide range of musical engagement. IndabaMusic is one such technology with great potential for music educators looking to have their students create, record, produce, listen to, analyze, and critique music. This web-based platform makes it easy for students to collaborate on projects in ways similar to that of professional musicians working together across the globe. In addition to serving as a… Read More »Creating, Producing, Analyzing, & Critiquing Music in the Cloud: IndabaMusic & Music Education