These excerpts present some of the views of noted musician and music educator, Howard Hanson, on the purposes and goals of public school music education. (SJL)

Presents a rationale for using handbells and discusses their application to elementary, junior high, high school, special education, and college music programs. (SJL)

Seven educators express their opinions on the types of research and evaluation efforts currently needed in music education. (SJL)

Describes the elements of high quality summer music programs for students. Points out considerations for selection of a summer music camp, including setting daily schedule, amount of performance and private lessons, cost, faculty, and program scope. (LS)

Offers advice to school music directors for improving their conducting techniques. Suggests a number of aural, gestural, and technical preparation methods that educators can use in preparing for conducting. Describes application of the principles. Provides a list of suggested readings. (SG)

Discusses how music educators can work to convince others of the importance of music in the curriculum. Includes suggestions for using objective data in stating a case to fellow teachers, administrators, parents, and others. (GEA)

Discusses the problems afflicting school music programs which contain too many performances and after-school rehearsals. Provides recommendations for determining the number and nature of school music performances based on excerpts taken from GUIDELINES FOR PERFORMANCES OF SCHOOL MUSIC GROUPS, a 1986 publication of the Music Educators National…

Halloween can be celebrated quite well with classical music. Music that relates, directly or indirectly, to fantasy, the supernatural, or the macabre is described. (RM)

The Music Performance Trust Funds (MPTF) is a national agency that sponsors live musical performances in schools, hospitals, clinics, senior citizen centers, penal institutions, and the like. In this interview a trustee for MPTF talks about the group's history and its commitment to quality performances in the schools. (RM)

Care of musical instruments should be a part of every student's music education. What students should know about caring for pianos is discussed. The main parts of the piano--the cabinet, the mechanical part, the musical part, and the structure--are discussed. Tuning and pitch raise are also discussed. (RM)

A group called Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) has captured the media spotlight with a proposal to have warning labels placed on music albums containing sexually explicit or violent lyrics. Major record companies have agreed to a version of the PMRC's demands for a one-year trial period, beginning in 1986. (RM)

The marching band can become an effective avenue for providing students with a valid music and aesthetic education. By careful selection of and concern for the music and meticulous attention to drill design, the marching band experience can be a vital part in the student's musical growth. (RM)

It is the position of the Music Educators National Conference that the study of religious music is a vital and appropriate part of the total music experience. To omit sacred music from education would present an incorrect and incomplete concept of the comprehensive nature of the art. (RM)

Music teachers can use folk dance to teach rhythm and meter. One of the richest collections of folk dances in the world comes from the Balkan region of southeastern Europe. A musical approach to folk dance is discussed, and four Balkan dances are described. (RM)

Because objectives can easily become ends in themselves, rather than the foundation of a total program, the objectives of a music program must be under constant evaluation. Social, cognitive, and aesthetic objectives of music education are discussed, and a model to integrate the objectives is presented. (RM)