The feelings and perspectives that surround “general music” in music education range from the excitement of those who teach or experience it to curiosity or puzzlement from those who do not. Many people frame general music as an elementary school…
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…
Music plays numerous important functions in society and as part of the human experience. Merriam (1964), for instance, outlines 10 functions of music. Several functions of music apply to the role that music can play in responding to current events,…
The Core Arts Standards are now available for public review. A video orientation helps in providing some background information but you will probably want to take a look at the conceptual framework of the core arts standards as well. It…
Grant Wiggins (of Wiggins & McTighe’s Understanding by Design) recently highlighted the issue of breaking things into little bits in education. He focuses on the following excerpt from the High School Publishers’ Criteria for the Common Core State Standards…