In secondary ensembles, teachers navigate the demanding balance of developing music literacy skills while preparing for concerts. This challenge intensifies in online learning environments due to limited opportunities for instant feedback, ensemble synchronization, and fostering a sense of community. The problem was the lack of understanding of…

In this article, I document a series of pedagogical responses in my high school instrumental music classroom following the events of Eric Garner's murder in New York City. Foregrounding traditions of black radical politics and aesthetics originating with the Black Power Movement in the 1960s, I explore their implications for classroom practice in…

This article describes a collaborative and emergent approach utilizing Tupac Shakur's "Brenda's Got a Baby" to leverage theory education. This song/video uses a fictionalized account of a pregnant 12-year-old African American girl to chronicle the ecological realities of life in the inner city (e.g., teen pregnancy, drug addiction and…

German Romantic Art Songs or German "Lieder" constitute a consistent part of every aspiring classical singer's repertoire around the world. This study investigates a contemporary Australian audiences' appreciation of the genre; it asks further what role the various Romantic characteristics play in German "Lieder" genre, gauges…

This article provides general music teachers with resources they can use in their class to: (1) introduce the instrument to their students; (2) energize and reshape their students' attitudes toward the instrument; (3) show older students who are very musical recorder and low flute players who share their love of the instruments through podcasts…

Over the last forty years, popular music in America has consistently shown great variety, originality, and evolution. While American music has clearly flourished and evolved over the last several decades, it is difficult to say the same for American music education. Although there are important reasons to preserve long-standing traditions of…

This study tested the following hypothesis: that the study of original music composition confers benefits on the college music student which he would not ordinarily receive from the undergraduate music program, and that such study would therefore be a valuable addition to a music curriculum. Seven participants at a 3-week workshop in composition…

This 9-week, Quinmester program is a survey of music in the jazz idion, particularly major musicians and their music of the last two decades. No musical prerequisites are necessary. Objectives include the ability to distinguish major performers, the blues form, instruments, major compositions and to become aware of jazz as an American art form,…

The three approaches of Carl Orff, Zoltan Kodaly, and Shinichi Suzuki to early childhood education can be successfully fused to provide a foundation for a total music curriculum from the nursery to secondary school. Basically, Orff suggests that rhythmic patterns should be experienced in children's natural language as they improvise melodies and…

A year-long music instruction unit introduces students to information about the lives of nine great composers of the classics and to their works. Each month a different composer is featured. No special training for teachers is necessary. (PP)

To enhance school children's understanding of and appreciation for the performing arts, an ESEA Title III project presented live performances by professional brass, woodwind, and string ensembles to children of the 275 public and parochial elementary schools of Bergen County, New Jersey. As part of the program, children read a book especially…