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Session Recap: Empowering Students for Productive Practice

12/17/09 By 3 Comments

This is a recap of a session that was presented at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, IL on December 17, 2009. The session was live-blogged on MusicEdMajor.net, and you can view a replay of the live-blog by visiting the Midwest landing page.

As music education students, we spend a large number of hours of our life practicing our instruments. However, we also recognize that this will likely not be the case for our future students, may of whom will not be planning on pursuing music as a career. This, however, does not mean that their practice habits should be ignored; these students are just as capable of performing great music as those who want to pursue music as a career. This presentation focused on strategies for increasing the productivity of student practice time. [Read more...]

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REMINDER: Updates From Midwest

12/16/09 By Leave a Comment

Hey all, don’t forget that I’ll be updating from the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic tomorrow and Friday as often as I can! Unfortunately, Midwest doesn’t offer wireless internet in all areas of McCormick Place, so I may not be able to update as often as I want, but I’ll do my best.

You can find the live-stream at the special Midwest landing page that I created here on the site. If you have any comments/questions, feel free to post them, as well; I’ll do my best to bring you answers!

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Guide to Networking: Part 1-Social Networking

12/14/09 By 4 Comments

As Music Education Majors, one way we can help prepare for the teaching world during our studies is by networking. Meeting the people who will eventually be our colleagues and administrators will help prepare us for the job search, increase our knowledge in the field, and leave us better-equipped to find the job we’re looking for. This 3-part series looks at three different ways we can use networking to our advantage.

Before diving into this very broad topic, think about these questions:

  • How many hours do you spend on the computer?
  • Of those hours, how many of them are on Facebook?
  • When you’re on the computer, how would you rank the ways in which you use it? (think: schoolwork, talking to friends, listening to music)

The term social networking is one that tends to scare a lot of people. In reality, many of us already engage in social networking on a daily basis! We just network with our firends and family, instead of professionals in our field. Regardless of how we go about it (this post will outline just a few of your many options), any means of meeting current music educators online can be considered social networking, and will help you create relationships that will help you as you prepare for your job search. [Read more...]

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Conference Season

12/01/09 By Leave a Comment

It’s been quiet here at MusicEdMajor.net since the school year got into full-swing! I have a good amount of posts that I would love to write, and am just struggling to find the time to get them up! However, that does not mean that this website is going to turn out to be a flop; there’s plenty left to talk about, and what better a time/place to start than in everyone’s favorite season, conference season!

That’s right, with a few major Music Educator’s conferences coming up in the next month or so, I am back to bring you all the information I possibly can (which may not be much, depending on my ability to get a wireless signal in the conference centers!). I will be attending the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic from December 17th through the 19th in Chicago, and the Florida Music Educators’ Association (FMEA) conference from January 6th-9th in Tampa. Both of these events look to be great experiences, and I look forward to sharing the wealth of information I come across with all of you!

I have created special landing pages here on the website for Midwest and FMEA, where I will have a live-blog going. For now, the live-blogs are both open and live, and are pulling in data from the Twitter hashtags associated with the events. Comments are moderated, but I’ll check back frequently to publish anything you have to add, and I will be checking by the minute once the events begin!

Additinally, stay tuned for updates on the collegiate component of MENC’s Anaheim Conference in March; more details on this should be available in the near future!

It’s an exciting time of year! Will you be attending Midwest or FMEA? Leave a comment in this post or in the appropriate live-blog, and we can organize a meet-up!

Front Page Photo Credit: JoshC

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America’s Giving Challenge-Help Win $50,000 for Music Education

10/19/09 By Leave a Comment

Anybody who has been around the arts (and especially those who have or will have a carreer in them) knows that arts education needs as much support as possible nowadays. One organization that has done a fantastic job of supporting the arts (specifically music) education is MENC: The National Association for Music Education. MENC stives constantly to increase support for music in our schools, and I am proud to be a collegiate member of such an organization.

Another group that is doing wonders for causes around the globe is the Case Foundation. This month, the Case Foundation is organizing an event called “America’s Giving Challenge.” This challenge encourages people to use their online networks to build support over a specific cause or nonprofit. The challenge also congratulates the cause receiving the most donations over the 30-day period with a $50,000 reward. In addition, each day of the challenge comes with it’s own 24-hour challenge; the cause to receive the most donations over 24 hours (3 pm to 3 pm EST) receives an additional $1,000 prize!

MENC has taken charge in the need for music education advocacy, and has created a few causes to which people can donate for this challenge. Furthermore, MENC is making a push to win the daily award for today (October 19-20).

How Can I Help?

The cause that MENC is pushing for the next 24 hours is called “Advance Music Education.” You can donate through their Facebook page (note: you do NOT need a Facebook account in order to donate!). Any amount that you can contribute-even just $10-will not only help the cause, but will also help MENC try to win more reward money to go towards the cause!

Outside of this 24 hours, the other cause you can donate to on behalf of MENC is “Save School Music.”

If you have any other questions about this challenge, or would like more information on how you can help, check out the “Donate” page of MENC’s website!

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New Music Ed Major Facebook Community

10/18/09 By Leave a Comment

This website was started in an effort to create a community of Music Education Majors (and current teachers) to discuss important topics in the field. While commenting on formal “posts” here on the site is one way to do this, I have come to realize that a better avenue for more frequent conversation is a website that is much more frequently visited than this, and that already has a large number of Music Education Majors as registered users. That website, of course, is Facebook. I came to this realization after coming across a Facebook community for Band Directors, thanks to a tweet from Thomas J. West (@thomasjwest). The page has over 3,700 “fans,” and discussions occur frequently and on a wide variety of topics.

Because most college students (myself included) practically live on Facebook, and as a result of the success of the Band Director page, I have decided to start a Music Education Major page on Facebook! On this page, you can meet other Music Education Majors, as well as discuss topics  that are pertinent to the field, but may not be worth a full-length post here on this site.

Don’t get me wrong, I still plan on posting here frequently (at least more frequently than I have already). The Facebook page will be more for connecting with other students, and discussing more specific questions. If you have any suggestions for topics you’d like to see discussed on the page, please feel free to contact me at any time!

If you’re a Music Education Major, or already have your degree in Music Ed, I would encourage you to “become a fan” of the page, and to suggest the page to any other possibly-interested friends you may have!

Music Education Major | Promote Your Page Too

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Music Technology Presentation

09/29/09 By Leave a Comment

I had the opportunity on Friday, September 25th to see a presentation on the use of Music Technology in the Classroom. The presentation was given by Radio Cremata, the music technology teacher at LaSalle High School here in Miami, FL. Cremata is also a Doctoral Candidate in Music Education at Boston University, and is pursuing his degree through a case study based on music technology. I did live updates to my Twitter stream during the presentation, which I have pasted below in chronological order. You can also see the original “tweets” by viewing the tag #musictech, which I included in all my posts. Below, find the pasted updates, as well as some major ideas that Cremata discussed:

Twitter Stream – The Updates

  • Morning, everyone! This morning I’ll be live-tweeting a presentation on #musictech from our weekly #umiami Music Ed forum! Stay tuned!
  • Today’s #musictech presentation: Radio Cremata-”Maximizing Your Student’s Musical Potential: Strategies for Teaching Music With Technology”
  • Radio Cremata just started his presentation off right-saying he’s hoping for a ‘Canes win tomorrow!
  • “Music is Evolving, but Music Education tends to be behind the Evolution of Music”
  • Reason: Electronic Music Creation Program -Allows students without musical training to create music
  • Technology Program:”Reason” helps teach how a Mixing Board works (visual mixing board, front and back, on the screen).. way cool!
  • This guy can beat-box, too! He’s an a-capella aficionado
  • Cremata is showing an example of how he teaches students to create drum patterns, when they have no musical experience!
  • “My goal is to make them un-afraid, so they can love music”
  • In “Reason,” you can look at the back of the mixing board, and drag/drop cables on your screen to re-wire!
  • The class that Cremata uses “Reason” in is entitled “Sound Engineering”
  • Cremata moves on to a demo of “Music Ace Maestro” to teach students with no experience how to read music!
  • EarMaster Pro – Ear Training software
  • Uh oh! We’re getting tested… the last level of the “Extended Harmony” lesson in EarMaster Pro!
  • Another software demo: eMedia Piano & Keyboard Method
  • Jazz Piano MasterClass with Miles Black helps teach Jazz Piano… not very interesting interface, but it teaches well!
  • Cremata gives every child he teaches in his classroom high-back leather chairs, so they “feel special” and are more motivated
  • Programs that Cremata calls “creative software”- GarageBand, Logic, Reason, ACID Pro
  • Cremata is modeling how he teaches the blues using ACID Pro
  • “Music is supposed to be FUN!”
  • Cremata has a project to remix the #umiami fight song in ACID Pro! WAY cool!
  • “Our goal is to maximize students’ opportunities to grow” – Radio Cremata
  • GREAT presentation from Radio Cremata on using Music Technology to enrich students’ music education! Thanks for coming, Radio!

The Software

The following is a list of software programs that Cremata mentioned during his presentation, with links to the websites of the programs.

Quotes

Quotes from Mr. Cremata’s presentation:

  • Music is Evolving, but Music Education tends to be behind the Evolution of Music
  • My goal is to make them un-afraid, so they can love music
  • Music is supposed to be FUN!
  • Our goal is to maximize students’ opportunities to grow

The Study

As part of his doctoral work, Mr. Cremata is doing case studies on collegiate music students and their experiences with music technology instruction. If you are interested in participating in this study, which will take no more than 15-20 minutes of your time, please email him at rcremata@yahoo.com. Any offers to participate would be greatly appreciated, I’m sure.

What do you think of some of the things Mr. Cremata is doing in his classroom? Do you have other ideas for integrating technology into the music classroom? Share them below in the comments, so we can continue to advocate for music technology!

Front Page Image – Flickr Photo
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