Students with disabilities may require specific assistive technology to use their strengths to compensate for a weakness or need caused by the disability, including both "devices" and "services." As a result, teachers need to be able to use and support students while using assistive technology during instruction. Teachers also…

Improvisation-based exercises may be the key to unlocking students' innate musical creativities. This article focuses on two exercises--drone improvisation and circle stringing--that can be easily integrated into the orchestra curriculum and adapted to the learning needs of the individual student, small-ensemble, and large-ensemble settings. Of…

This article describes a sequential approach to improvisation teaching that can be used with students at various age and ability levels by any educator, regardless of improvisation experience. The 2014 National Core Music Standards include improvisation as a central component in musical learning and promote instructional approaches that are…

Before our current notation system was widely adopted by musicians, improvisation was a key component of music throughout the Western world. One of the fundamental elements of the baroque style, namely, using improvised embellishment, offered musicians great artist liberty. During the baroque period, improvisation spread across Europe and beyond.…

In the "Divertimento" section of "Teaching Music," teachers share stories, strategies, and quesitons with their colleagues. This "Divertimento" covers the following topics: (1) one teacher's surprise at a student's novel take on the tambourine; (2) a question about teaching bowing symbols to beginning students; and (3) a question about breaking…

This article describes middle school mathematics activities that relate measurement, ratios, and geometric sequences to finger positions or the placement of frets on stringed musical instruments. (Contains 2 figures and 2 tables.)

Presented is a step-by-step method of preventing and correcting corrosion of pivot rods, springs, pads, and keys in a flute. (KC)

The author presents a simple maintenance program for woodwind instruments which includes the care of tendon corks, the need for oiling keys, and methods of preventing cracks in woodwind instruments. (KC)

Written by a team of creative and highly qualified music therapists, this publication provides content training for the use of group percussion strategies with mature adults. In fact, the book promotes senior peers as group facilitators and/or coleaders. The grace of this approach is that no previous musical training is necessary in order to…

Suggestions are made for using the brainstorming approach in improvisational music with students. Examples of approaches used with primary students as well as with beginning instrumentalists are cited. (CL)

Explains how to use the equation for frequency of vibration of a transversely oscillating bar or pipe with both ends free to vibrate to build a simple and inexpensive xylophone from a 3-meter section of copper pipe. The instrument produces a full major scale and can be used to investigate various musical intervals. (Author/NB)

Instructions are presented for making and using several musical instruments for primary- and intermediate-grade students. (CB)

Presented are methods of preventive maintenance for brass band instruments. (KC)

This article describes science activities which introduce students to the mechanics of sound while encouraging class musicians to share their expertise. A reproducible activity sheet is included. (IAH)

This book is the first comprehensive resource devoted to steel band pedagogy, it is a must-have for anyone involved in the steel band idiom today. Written primarily for educators, the book addresses a wide variety of topics, including instrumentation, personnel, basic pan technique, repertoire, and rehearsal strategies. This informative text…