February 2012
1 post
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Educating the New Musician (With bonus Soundwalk...
I am VERY pleased to announce that the new issue of Leading Notes is out now!
Seriously, the collection of articles - focusing on encouraging creativity and musical independence within the classroom - is amazing. That has nothing to do with me, obviously! The teachers who contributed their ideas are doing incredible things in their classrooms and they’ve been kind enough to share their...
January 2012
2 posts
2012 TI:ME National Conference
If you saw my presentation at the 2012 TI:ME National Conference (“A Classroom Without Walls: Connecting Students to Their Community Through Music Technology”), then this is the place to read more about what I discussed. Thanks to everybody for showing up, TI:ME for having me, and Louisville for having multiple pronunciations.
Here are some useful links:
Click HERE to see a post...
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Roll Call: What secondary general courses do you...
Dearest Music Teachers of the Interwebs,
I’m giving a presentation at the end of January titled, “Expanding the Musical Offerings in Our Schools: Energizing Our Students and Saving Our Jobs”. This will be the second of two talks I’ll be giving on Thursday (1/27), but I must say I need some help.
The session is designed to provide suggestions and materials for ensemble...
October 2011
3 posts
3 tags
Kids are Awesome.
Last weekend, I had the opportunity to work with high school students for the first time in over a year. I was just providing some guidance for a marching band pit (or the more politically correct, front ensemble) for one day. I must say that I had an AMAZING day with AMAZING kids - the perfect antidote for some of my grad school blues.
Two days later, I watched Caitlin McGovern, a good friend...
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Dear People of Michigan
I had the great fortune to spend three days up at Michigan State University attending a conference titled New Directions in Music Education: Revitalizing Middle and High School Music. It was great to be surrounded by people who (by and large) share similar values about a need for change in our profession. Thanks to the lovely people at Michigan State and to the people who come out to my session,...
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"Change is Bad." (Or, "Hey! I was quoted in USA...
During my first year of teaching, I found myself frustrated after a number of rehearsals with my Freshman Band. One day, my mentor at the school, Jan, looked at me and said:
“Remember: Change is Bad.”
Right away, I knew what she meant.
Jan was pointing out that, often times, no matter how “good” or “bad” you are, the very fact that you represent...
September 2011
2 posts
4 tags
Snap! The NYT gets it right.
Go read this article. Do it.
Literally, my first thought after reading it was, “Well, looks like I don’t need to blog anymore!” The author, David Bornstein, make an EXCELLENT case for why the inclusion of popular music in our schools is a great resource and not the downfall of our country.
He makes a lot of excellent points including (but not limited to):
Popular music...
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Celine & Me: My 6:40 appeal to music educators
The video above is footage from my July 22nd presentation at the seventh PeckaKucha evening in Champaign-Urbana (organized by CUDO - the Champaign-Urbana Design Organization). My topic was a favorite one of mine: musical tastes, Celine Dion, and the future of music education.
If you like this blog (or my other online venture, Leading Notes), then I hope I can convince you to spend 6:40 with...
August 2011
5 posts
4 tags
Seeing is Hearing: Visualizations, Music...
This is just a quick note to recommend that my fellow music teachers take 15 minutes and watch the video above -in fact, I’d watch it directly on YouTube where you can watch in HD. It’s a video made by Matthew Thibeault concerning the ways in which visualizations can be VERY useful in the classroom (and in our own musicianship). This video is a condensed version of a longer...
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A Friendly PSA Concerning Our Job Titles (or "It's...
The following blog post is brought to you courtesy of Nick Jaworski, Director of Blogging Operations for moving forward with music.
For more helpful announcements from MFWM, click here, here, and here. Want updates? Follow on Facebook, Twitter, or subscribe through your RSS feed.
And, if you feel that somebody you know could benefit from this important PSA, please share what you’ve...
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Of podcasts and requests
You can stream the podcast new Leading Notes podcast (where I interview James Jordan) directly from this site.
***
I’m going to use this space to share my first endeavor into podcasting!
As part of the book club for the June edition of Leading Notes, I was able to interview the author of The Musician’s Soul, James Jordan. We spoke for over an hour and, I must say, I thoroughly...
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Sousa in 60 Seconds
I made the above video for an undergraduate class taught by Matthew Thibeault a few years ago (actually, the class that I now teach). It’s silly, but perhaps a good demonstration of how students can demonstrate knowledge in other ways besides writing a paper. Through researching this video, interacting with the Sousa Archives, and assembling everything, I learned a LOT about Sousa....
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Glee, Teaching Music Magazine, and Me (still a...
Real quick!
The August 2011 issue of Teaching Music Magazine is out and I have a handful of quotes in the cover story titled, “Can Glee Make a Splash in Music Class?”. In December, I posted my Glee/MENC post - “Where is MENC?: A Look at Glee, The Sing-Off, and The History of Music Education Broadcasting”. Since then, it has become my second most popular post (behind my...
July 2011
2 posts
3 tags
Equalizing Secondary General Music: Our Primary...
Note: The article below was published in the Spring 2011 edition of the Illinois Music Educator Journal. Dr. Joseph Manfredo, my adviser during my undergraduate years at the University of Illinois, asked me to contribute a piece that would fit within the issue’s larger theme of 21st century skills. Some of the ideas are ones you’ve heard from me before, but in a slightly different...
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Come see me LIVE! (It's just like a blog, but with...
I know, it’s hard to believe. But, it’s true. You can see me LIVE AND IN PERSON… talking about nerdy music education things. There might be some additions to this list, but I’ll update when I hear about those. If you have an idea for a place I should speak, then let me know!
PechaKucha Night - July 22 - 8:20 PM - Krannert Center, Urbana-Champaign, IL
If you look at the...
June 2011
4 posts
3 tags
What we get wrong: An illustrated guide to our...
Since I have a lot to do tonight, I want to get this post out quickly (while it’s on my mind). I’ve decided to try my hand at illustrating as many of these points as I can - they say that a picture is worth a thousand words, after all. (Note: This ended up taking a long time.) I’ll tackle this in a more “traditional” format sometime soon.
Disclaimer: This post is not...
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Fun times and laser beams (or "What I learned from...
On April 17, 2010, the performing artist known as Ke$ha (or “Ke-dollar sign-ha”) performed two songs on Saturday Night Live: “Tik Tok” and “Your Love is My Drug”. I watched the performances live and I clearly remember thinking, “What on Earth is this?!” I was a bit dumbfounded when Ke$ha came out with an American flag cape, a “band”...
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"Connections" is out!
Yeah, I’m more than a little behind on this. BUT, I’m VERY pleased to announce that the Summer 2011 issue of Leading Notes is out. We worked very hard to get this one together and, I must say, I’m VERY proud of how it turned out.
The issue covers five different areas:
Connecting Through Curriculum
Making Expressions Through Creative Teaching
Reflections on the...
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Adventures in Cyberspace (or "The Birthday Post")
*Note: Since this blog is probably the closest thing I’ve ever had to a journal (tracking my thoughts over a period of time), what follows is a post mainly for my own reflections. There won’t be much in the way of new music education ideas, just some thoughts on the last year of this blog. Between the next issue of Leading Notes (6/15/11) and some drafts I have cooking up, I promise...
April 2011
2 posts
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Whose Tradition?: The "non-traditional" music...
(Alternate title: Making the case for the “progressive ensemble”.)
The April 2011 MENC “Question of the Month” asks:
On average, what percentage of your total music curriculum incorporates the study and/or performance of music other than traditional Western classical music? (Emphasis added.)
Did you catch that? There is something very striking in the wording. The poll...
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Get involved - How do YOU connect?
While things have been busy on my end, I am excited to say that I’ve got a new blog post going up in the next few days. I think, in the long run, I need to not worry so much about what I write - it just slows me down.
Until then why don’t you take a second and consider how you could get involved with the Summer 2011 issue Leading Notes! Justine and I couldn’t be happier with...
February 2011
1 post
2 tags
Introducing: Leading Notes
I apologize for things being rather quiet over here in Tumblr-land. Things have been busy for me.
I DO have an announcement, however.
In collaboration with Justine Dolorfino, I am pleased to announce the launch of a new online music education magazine, Leading Notes! Please read below, visit the site, and share with anybody who is interested in music education (via email, Facebook,...
January 2011
2 posts
4 tags
Teaching Music Through Technology (And Not the...
Welcome IMEA peeps, make sure to look around while you’re here!
The Lessons page might be a good place to start.
Get the latest updates from this blog and me in a number of ways:
Add my site to your Google Reader account (or equivalent site). (Here is the RSS feed.)
Follow this site on Facebook. Click HERE to check it out.
Follow me on Twitter: @JaworskiMusic.
Also, please remember...
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Why is it that the music we prefer to listen to is...
Subtitle: And what does that mean for our profession? As far as I’m concerned, no discussion about the role of technology in our modern music classrooms can be complete without a discussion about the types of music that are worth our attention. Should we only be teaching traditional band, choir, and orchestra literature to our students or is there a place for rock, hip-hop, or techno? It shouldn’t...
December 2010
2 posts
6 tags
Where is MENC? A look at Glee, The Sing-Off, and...
Blog post “abstract”: (Is such a thing possible for a blog post?) This post discusses the role that MENC played in the development of music education programming in the 1930s and 1940s and compares it to how the organization is handling programs like Glee and The Sing-Off today. History suggests that the early leaders of MENC would be jumping to be involved with network programming and music...
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Music as Identity - for junior high and college,...
This is a quick post to provide some other examples of the Music as Identity project (as described in November’s Teaching Music Magazine). This project, along with my Golden Record project ideas and the Empty iPod experiment, has gotten the most attention here on the interwebs and I’m happy to be able to provide you with some new examples of how this assignment could be used in the...
November 2010
4 posts
2 tags
My first Rock Band 3 experience
This will be a short post (since it’s Thanksgiving and nobody will read it), but I wanted to share some initial thoughts I had on Rock Band 3, since I have blogged about it before (here and here).
As always, the game is fun.
In terms of gameplay, Rock Band 3 runs well. I’m particularly happy that you can add players during a song. Otherwise, Rock Band 3 is like any other Rock Band...
5 tags
Unintentional singing, intentional lessons
On Wednesday, July 28, at around 3 in the morning, a man broke into a house in the projects of Huntsville, Alabama, and attempted to rape a woman in her own bed. Luckily, her brother heard her scream and ran into the room where he found the man with his hands around his sister’s neck. After a struggle, the man jumped out the window and got away. It’s a traumatic situation with an...
Yes, I'm THAT Jaworski in Teaching Music Magazine....
I know you just couldn’t wait to ask.
I just want to take this opportunity to welcome anybody who found my little site here through the November issue of Teaching Music Magazine. For those who don’t know, there’s a story titled “Station Identification: Mock Radio Shows Link Music and Identity” on page 58. The author, Debbie Galante Block, was very nice. She...
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"How can a finished citizen be made in an artless...
The first quote in the title of this post is from a speech John Dewey read on the radio in 1940, titled Art as Our Heritage.
Here is a quote from a PSA from our national organization, MENC:
“Reading poetry or solving an equation is easier if kids know their sharps and flats.”
I STRONGLY encourage you to listen to the entire PSA here.
What’s my point?
The case that music...
October 2010
4 posts
2 tags
75 Years Later - Our Chance to Rename "Music...
As they say in journalistic circles, don’t bury the lead. So, let me say that this blog post ends with a plea for readers to suggest a better course name than the one we seem to be stuck with: music appreciation. Please leave your suggestions (or your general thoughts) in the comments! And, please share with other music educators. If it helps, I’ll figure out a prize for the...
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“I sense that in the long run there is a greater value for humanity in empowering...”
– -David Byrne
David Byrne, artist dude (Talking Heads for one), wrote an entry on his blog back in 2009 discussing a $14 million “bailout” of the $32 million production of The Ring Cycle. From the quote above, you can tell that he’s not a fan of spending that kind of money on...
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Empty iPod, Part 1 (or "iPod as destination")
One week ago today, I erased the contents of my iPod and filled it with the suggestions of other people. I’ve received over 130 suggestions - some bands, some specific songs, some entire albums. The complete list is after the “Read More”, along with some of my favorite new songs and bands so far.
My original hope was that this experience would broaden my musical horizons by...
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New blog layout (So Fresh and So Clean)
Welcome to the new set design of moving forward with music. I’m sure very few people actually care, but even though I loved my last theme, there were enough tiny issues with the it that the time had come for a change. I will miss my little Twitter guy the most. I must find a way to get him back. And, the graphic in the upper-right corner is temporary… so nobody worry.
What’s...
September 2010
5 posts
2 tags
"The Empty iPod Project" - I need your help.
Please help me as I try to broaden my musical tastes.
(Updated: Click HERE if you don’t see a place to leave comments down below - I’ve gotten more than a few complaints.)
I got a “free” 8 GB iPod Touch when I purchased my MacBook two years ago. It only served as a backup iPod since my original 30 GB was still rockin’ and rollin’. However, once...
2 tags
“1937:
“What I see as the value of fine arts in American culture is hard...”
– John W. Studebaker, former United States Commissioner of Education, (1937)
I ran across this quote while doing some research earlier and I must say that I’m torn on how useful it is. On one hand, it is entirely out of touch - people were struggling in 1937 and people are struggling now. This...
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The Whys and the Hows of Rap and Hip-Hop in Your...
“Digitally produced music, then, captures and embodies something of the way that we live our lives, something of the digital corporate landscape, in which we find ourselves immersed. Hip-hop offers opportunities to reconsider what it is to be alive right now, surrounded by repetition, and, mass production, and sampled soundbites.” - Prof. Matthew D. Thibeault
The above quote is...
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The Golden Record
“We cast this message into the cosmos… If one such civilization intercepts Voyager and can understand these recorded contents, here is our message: We are trying to survive our time so we may live into yours… This record represents our hope and our determination and our goodwill in a vast and awesome universe.” - President Jimmy Carter’s message on the Voyager...
August 2010
2 posts
1 tag
“There’s a perception that rock & roll can’t be a serious tool...”
– Mark Biondi, National Director of Operations for the School of Rock. From the article “A Whole Lotta Learnin’ Going On” from the August 2010 issue of Teaching Music from MENC.
While I write a lot about technology, this quote really captures my feelings about what the future of...
Planning for the School Year...
All apologies for not posting over the past couple of weeks. As I mentioned on my Twitter feed, I’ve been traveling and teaching and without Internet for a longer amount of time than I would’ve liked. I’m moving to Urbana, IL next week so I can prepare to start teaching two sections of “Introduction to Music Education Technology” and pursuing my Masters in Music...
July 2010
9 posts
3 tags
Look who is giving a clinic at the Illinois...
I found out this morning that my session titled “Teaching Music Using Technology (And Not The Other Way Around)” was accepted as a presentation at the 2011 Illinois Music Educators Association Conference in Peoria, IL. It’s my first professional conference presentation, so I feel like it might stress me out. I suppose it’s just like prepping for a class period, though.
...
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“For a musician, seeing the inclusion of real instruments being played the way...”
– Christian Ponte, Editor-in-Chief of The Tanooki on the topic of Rock Band 3.
Christian and I were in school together at the University of Illinois and he was lucky enough to have the opportunity to see and play Rock Band 3 at the E3 conference.
Check out the rest of his thoughts here!
(See my...
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Rock Band 3 Answers the Music Education Skeptics
Ok. I’ve heard it all before:
“I don’t like it when students spend so much time learning Rock Band/Guitar Hero and don’t like to practice their own instrument. They’re not learning music!”
And, yes… they’re not learning to play the clarinet, but I’ve always thought there was some value to the so-called “rhythm games”. I would go...
One Month of Visitor Tracking!
Okay. I had originally planned to post a little “Happy Anniversary” post for the blog - for one month of blogging happiness. Then, I realized that I actually started this blogging “thing” on June 5th, but didn’t start tracking visitors until the 16th.
SO… Happy Anniversary to my Google Analytics account!
A “lot” of people have started to return to...
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1-3-5-8: A Fun Way to Teach Scale Degrees (and...
What your students will learn/review:
Scale degrees in any major key (obviously)
A fun way to review their scale degrees through both live performance and recorded “performances”
This song/activity can be used at several points during the course as students learn more. What can start as a discussion of scale degrees can turn into a harmonic analysis.
This post should put a smile...
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What can we learn from "School of Rock"? A lot.
I was originally going to name this post,
“Why our music classrooms should look more like “School of Rock” and less like “Mr. Holland’s Opus”, but I decided against it (nothing wrong with Mr. Holland!).
I suppose that this is the second part of my justification for writing this blog. The first part focused on how I feel that music teachers tend to focus too...
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Collaborative Songwriting (with the help of baked...
Your students will learn how to:
Use simple chords to write a typical harmonic progression
Integrate lyrics & melody over harmony
Structure verses, choruses, and bridges
Have fun writing a song and recording a demo
Avoid over-thinking the process of writing a song
Produce a final track from a demo recording
(* Or anything else your class may want to talk about)
I’ve debated a...
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What should we teach in a music appreciation...
Note: The post below includes a little background story on how I got to some of the conclusions you will see on this blog. If you don’t care about the “how” (or don’t like stories), here are the main points that are outlined below:
It seems that most Music Appreciation classes are actually Music History classes.
Don’t call it Music Appreciation if you’re...
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Welcome new visitors!
I’ve had “a lot” of visitors in the last couple of days (we’ve been seen in 19 states and 7 countries - it’s a tidal wave!) and I just wanted to make sure I directed any other new visitors towards some highlights of this young blog.
This blog focuses on specific lessons and topics related to the 21st century music classroom. Please poke around.
Classroom Lessons:
...