This column offers the personal reflections of the author on being a member of the band Touch, an iPad performing ensemble composed of music education faculty members and doctoral students at the University of South Florida. The ensemble primarily performed its own arrangements of popular music selections from a number of genres including, but not…

Composition pedagogy is explored from the perspective of a composer and a music teacher educator in this article. The primary goal is to help practicing music teachers develop strategies that will encourage students to create original music. The authors provide reflection about the process of helping students compose on the basis of personal…

For the Tower-Tannerts of Texas, music education runs in the family, and that's been the case for more than 100 years. Matriarch Mollie Gregory Tower is a lecturer at Texas State University and a former elementary school teacher, textbook writer, music supervisor, and president of the Texas Music Educators Conference (TMEC). Her daughter Debbie…

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was the ultimate child prodigy. It is said that Mozart, after attending a service at the Vatican, wrote down an entire sacred piece of music after one hearing. There are countless examples of the amazing feats that Mozart accomplished through his childhood, not to mention his huge compositional output through…

In the past few decades, the steel band art form has experienced consistent growth and development in several key respects. For example, in the United States, the sheer number of steel band programs has steadily increased, and it appears that this trend will continue in the future. Additionally, pan builders and tuners have made great strides in…

This paper focuses on the category of electronic musical instruments described as "gestural controllers"--motion sensor technology and specially adapted switches--which are widely used in special education. The therapeutic benefits of this technology in emancipating children from their cognitive or physical limitations are increasingly…

In this article, a professional composer shares his experiences writing music for a middle school band. Michael Colgrass was commissioned, along with fourteen other composers, by the American Composers Forum BandQuest project to write a short piece for eighth-grade band. They were asked to pay a couple of visits to a nearby school to work with…