We all know that teaching improvisation is important. Nevertheless, it is often set aside in favor of preparing notes and rests for upcoming concerts or festivals. However, if we fail to introduce improvisation as an integral part of jazz ensemble, then the jazz ensemble is not much more than a concert band with “swung” 8th notes.
The goal of the SmartMusic blog is to share actionable advice that music educators can put to use in the classroom. While we all have our personal favorites, these are the top five SmartMusic blog posts of 2017 according to you:
5. Considering the Hidden Curriculum in Music Classrooms
Hidden curriculum refers to the unwritten, unofficial, and often unintended lessons, values, and perspectives that students learn in school.
Making New Year’s resolutions is easy. Keeping them is hard. One key is to choose resolutions that make a tangible difference in your life. Resolutions are about more than “setting goals,” they’re about becoming a better person.
As regular listeners know, I’m a little obsessed with helping music educators have the best lifestyle they can.
You teach because you love music. Not because you love keeping detailed budgets, organizing your repertoire library, or monitoring instrument rentals. As tedious as that work can be, it’s vital to the success of your program. Fortunately, with the right knowledge, you don’t have to spend all your time on it.
Fundraising is a necessary “evil,” required for most of our programs to survive and flourish. Unfortunately, few music educators were also trained as accountants. Because sloppy accounting often looks very similar to mismanagement of funds, we all need to add careful data collection to the skills we use in the classroom each year.
I have heard the following comment many times, from many judges’ recordings, from many festivals:
“I hope my comments were helpful.”
In this context, this comment has always made me wonder. Why would anyone ever attend a festival without making changes that benefit their students?
Whether you’re just getting started in music education or are thinking about a new position, you likely have questions about getting a job. Depending on your situation, you may not even know how to get started on your job search.
In this episode, I speak with five educators with experience in the field.
Why are some ensembles more musical, proficient, or engaged than others? Why do some continually achieve at the highest levels while others struggle to keep their programs alive?
It’s all about the content you teach and the context in which you teach it.
In this archived webinar, Dr.
Being a school music director involves so much more than teaching, assessing, and managing students. The tasks required to run a music program of any size can be daunting, and often, our preservice training doesn’t provide sufficient administrative background needed to navigate some of the biggest challenges of the job.
Many music educators can point to a specific mentor (or mentors) who made the idea of becoming a music educator seem like a real possibility to them. Encouraging students interested in music education, and providing them with related experiences, can be extremely rewarding. Not only can this encouragement produce very real long-term benefits to your program, it can play a significant role in shaping the future of a young person’s life.