moving forward with music.

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 and a fellow music teacher fighting the good fight, give a presentation to some older music education undergraduates. She spoke candidly and with extreme passion about her own journey as a music teacher - one that started as a “traditional” band “director” and ends with her focusing on the unique needs of individual children. It was a presentation that few in music education seem to give. By acknowledging weaknesses in her pedagogy and philosophy, Caitlin is able to gain strength as a teacher and as a person. And, in the end, this is wonderful news for both her and her students.

Since you probably weren’t there, I am pleased to share a new blog that Caitlin has started writing titled, “Kids are Awesome”. The subtitle is perfect:

“One music teacher’s search for what matters.”

It’s a journey that we should all take. We should wrestle with our declining enrollments, our varied musical tastes, our relevance in an political culture of assessments and national standards, our adherence to “tradition”, our director-centric attitudes, our approach to pedagogy, our responsibility within our communities, and anything else that will have a positive impact on those that we serve - our students.

So, I strongly encourage you to visit Caitlin’s blog! She’s not the only person I know who is taking this journey (hopefully, we all are), but I feel confident in her ability to be a good tour guide. Don’t we all need one?

“And on the left, you’ll see your students. No two are alike - each one has unique desires, talents, and needs. In order to survive, it’s important that we make a space in our classroom for them to explore, play, learn, take risks, and feel safe. It’s a big responsibility, but it’s definitely worth it. After all, kids are awesome!”

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, “A Classroom Without Walls: Connecting Students to Their Community Through Music Technology”.

This is just a quick post to provide resources for those who came to the clinic:

• Click HERE to see a post concerning a clinic I gave at the Illinois Music Education Conference back in January. This discusses both Music as Identity and Meet The Beatles - including lesson plans and examples.
• Click HERE for my initial Golden Record post.
• I’m not ready to post on Soundwalks yet, BUT… always check back. Click the icons on the side to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or through your RSS feed.

Also, don’t forget about Leading Notes! If you were there at the conference, you’re either already doing awesome things OR you’re about to do awesome things. Either way, let us know! Our submission information is HERE.

Please let me know if you try any of this stuff out and how it goes! You’re probably going to improve on them… so be sure to share with me!

Make sure to look around while you’re here!

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 “change” is seen as a bad thing. People often prefer the experiences they’ve had, flawed or not, than the ones that they haven’t - think about that old adage, “Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.”

Well, I was so appreciative of Jan’s comment that I wrote “Change is Bad” on a Post-It note and stuck it to my computer monitor. Every day after rehearsal, I would sit down at my desk and be reminded that things would get better. It was a great reminder to me that I should keep working as hard as I can to become a better teacher. As silly as it may sound, the mantra “Change is Bad” provided me with hope. I would often repeat it to myself throughout a particularly bad day.

About midway through the year, I came into my office and saw that someone had altered my Post-It note! As you can see in the picture above, this person had scratched out “BAD” and written “Good” with a little smiley face. 

It was a simple act - perpetrated by an unknown person - but it meant the world to me. And, it’s a great visual reminder that change, while scary, can be a good thing… it’s often just a combination of time and perspective. What is written in permanent marker is easily scratched out, after all. 

Today, my stick-figure cartoon titled, “What we get wrong: An illustrated guide to our music advocacy mistakes,” was quoted in a Letter to the Editor in USA Today. The article, written by David Sall from the Music Access Project of Portland, uses the principal’s quote (see below) to argue that we should be engaging with more students if we wish to make a coherent case for arts funding. Read the article HERE!

(Read below the break for the cartoon and my response to some of the USA Today readers.)

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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 instruction can provide students with early success on a musical instrument. This success pushes them forward to practice and experiment more.
• Most of the teachers in the Little Kids Rock program (which the original article was about) are classically-trained musicians and they find that teaching popular music creates a valuable level of focused excitement.
• Popular music should be a “fifth” stream to music education (presumably alongside band, choir, orchestra, and general music).

Two great quotes:

When you teach music through reading, the learner becomes a code breaker and the teacher can become a code enforcer,” notes Wish. That’s a different relationship than a performer and, say, a band leader. And the code the children are struggling to break may yield a song they don’t even like. Approaching music education this way can take years to produce a satisfying payoff for the child. And, indeed, many children lose patience; they quit music lessons, then as adults regret the decision. Only the most dedicated, disciplined or talented stick with it (or the ones with parents who make them).

And, this awesome one:

The assumption that music education should prepare children for a musical career sets music apart from other subjects in school. We don’t teach kids math so they will become mathematicians. We teach kids math so they will be able to use math in whatever they need it for. We teach math and reading as life skills, not professional skills. If we think of music as a professional skill, then it’s fortuitous that many kids quit young. That’s part of the winnowing process, which helps us identify the ones who have the talent to attend Julliard. But if we think of the ability to play music as a skill that can enrich anyone’s life, then what we see now is more like a hemorrhage of musical potential.

Anyway, go read the article now and then come back and leave your thoughts here!

Rest assured, despite how wonderful this article is,  I will continue to blog. There’s still plenty to discuss!

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 me. I promise that it’s not super boring. There were definitely some laughs!

For those who don’t know what PechaKucha is, I stole this from the CUDO PeckaKucha page:

PechaKucha Night was devised in Tokyo in February 2003 as an event for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public. It has turned into a massive celebration, with events happening in hundreds of cities around the world, inspiring creatives worldwide. Drawing its name from the Japanese term for the sound of conversation (“chit chat”), it rests on a presentation format that is based on a simple idea: 20 images x 20 seconds each. It’s a format that makes presentations concise, and keeps things moving at a rapid pace.

Basically, it forces the presenters to make their points quickly and move on. I think most PeckaKucha nights have entertainment before and after, too (we had a DJ). It was a really fun evening and I would encourage you to find one near you! Go HERE to find one.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy. As always, leave our comments and share with others. This new blog layout is a bit funky (I’m working on it), but to tweet or post to Facebook, you have to click the “Share” button up top. I would be appreciative if you helped spread the word.

(Click “Read More” to leave your comment.)

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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 lecture he gives, but I think it’s fantastic. I used it today with my undergrads and they loved it (I did stop if more than a few times to ask them questions before the video answered them). 

The video covers a wide range of visualizations - spectrograms, MIDI displays, amplitude displays and traditional staff notation - and how they are useful in the classroom. He even includes some wonderful drawings from some of his former second graders (the Adagio for Strings illustration is beautiful).

If this video interests you, Matt’s got a video that explains how to access the spectrum in Audacity and another video on “Exploring Audacity’s Spectrogram View”.

Also, his most recent column for General Music Today discusses the various ways in which you can use the spectrogram. If you’re a NAfME member (that’s MENC’s new name) or on a college campus, it’s available here. 

For more on what Matt is up to, visit his site: www.matthewthibeault.com.

(This pic below is for my Facebook and Google+ postings. it’s also beautiful!)

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. 
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And, if you feel that somebody you know could benefit from this important PSA, please share what you’ve read.

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Alright, fellow music educators. It’s time for us to have a little talk.

You know how you like to reference yourself as a “Band Director”, “Orchestra Director”, or “Choir Director”?

Or, better yet, I know how much some of us love that title, “Director of Bands”? (Or even “Assistant Director of Bands”?)

Well, with all due respect to my peers who use these titles - and, most of us have at some point or another…

It’s time for a change. 

We are music teachers. By placing us in schools, working with children during the school day, our communities expect us to teach students about music… not simply direct them.

Think about it.

Do we have “Directors of Math Operations”, ”History Directors”, or “English Maestros”?

No, that would be silly. We have math teachers, English teachers, history teachers, science teachers, and industrial arts teachers. The focus of their jobs is on teaching students about their respective subject areas. Yes, there is a gym coach, but a “coach” is still somebody who assists others in the actual “doing” of a given activity - on the sidelines. You’ve never heard of a “gym director” in a public school.

Go ahead. Look up the definitions for teacher and director and then tell me which makes the most sense for our profession. (I’ll wait.)

Yeah, the teacher definition is where I want to align myself, too.

(Read below the break to let me finish my case.)

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You can stream the podcast new Leading Notes podcast (where I interview James Jordan) directly from this site.

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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 enjoyed it! We talked about his books, his experiences, his outlook on music education. Through no effort or skill of my own, I think that the podcast is an engaging 50 minutes. If you’re reading my blog, then you should definitely check it out. If not for the words of James Jordan, then for my sweet theme song (kidding!).

There are a variety of ways to listen:

1. If you’ve got an Apple computer…

You should be able to click THIS LINK to download the podcast into iTunes. This will allow you to receive future podcasts without thinking about it. This might work for PC users, I’m just not sure.

2. You can stream the podcast directly from this site. 

Unfortunately, Tumblr seems to want to keep me from being able to stream directly from here (grrr). So, you’ll have to go to the other site and stream directly. It’s simple, I promise.

3. You can download the podcast by right-clicking here.

Of course, you always visit www.leadingnotes.org for the latest information regarding podcasts and all sorts of fun things!

In other Leading Notes news…

We’ve announced the themes for the next TWO issues of Leading Notes! AND, I need your help!

Our overall theme is “Educating the New Musician”.

• Our first issue, titled “Rethinking the Concert”, will focus on new ways to consider performance as an important part of music education offerings. 
• Our second issue, titled “Encouraging Creativity”, will focus on creating more opportunities for composition, improvisation, and individual artistic expression within music programs.

The deadlines are always fast approaching so PLEASE let me know if you’ve got an idea to contribute. We’d love to hear from more public school teachers who are engaging with these ideas in their day-to-day teaching. Click HERE to more about submission requirements. 

So, enjoy the podcast and please consider becoming a contributor for Leading Notes.

Until next time…

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. Additionally, I have used this video in classes that I have taught when introducing the man, the machine - J. P. Sousa.

If you or any of your students make another “____ in 60 Seconds” video, please let me know!

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 stick figure advocacy post). I was excited to be asked to comment on Glee, MENC’s role (or non-role) in supporting it, and how the profession should think think about/utilize the program.

The article starts on page 32. MENC members can access it online by going HERE.

I must say, however, that I am STILL a music teacher. I teach two sections of introduction to music education technology at the University of Illinois. I’m just not working full-time at the moment (but, I’ll be on the job market in less than a year!).

If you’re new to the site,

Check out the rest of my blog! There’s all kinds of fun stuff. If you’re not sure where to start, go to my Lessons page.

Here are some of my most popular articles/lessons:

• My illustrated advocacy adventure: What We Get Wrong: An Illustrated Guide to Out Music Advocacy Mistakes
•  My Music as Identity project: You students learn to understand why/how they like certain musical styles. This project was featured in the October 2011 Teaching Music Magazine.
• The Golden Record: NASA sent a golden record into space. It has music on it. What can you and your students learn from it?
• Fun Times and Laser Beams (or “What I Learned from Ke$ha”): What I learned from a “terrible” performance on SNL and how it might help your students.
• Whose Tradition?: The “non-traditional” music student and the power of words

Feel free to “Like”, tweet, or share what you find with other music teachers!

Of course, don’t leave here without checking out Leading Notes - the online music education magazine that I co-edit. We’re always looking for contributions from music teachers, if you’re doing something cool… let me know!

Our current issue is Connections! Click the image to see what’s going on! (Do it.)

Want updates from me? (Of course you do!)

• Follow me on Facebook.
• Follow me on Twitter.
• Click HERE for my RSS feed. 

Don’t leave here without making sure you know how to get back!