05/24/13

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About Andrew Ritenour

Andrew Ritenour is a senior Music Education major at Grove City College in Grove City, PA. He is actively involved in many performing ensembles including brass quintets, concert bands, marching bands, and choirs. Andy plays Tuba and is the Percussion Instructor for the Somerset Area HS Marching Band. You can find him on twitter at @andrewritenour or at AndrewRitenour.Com!

New Editor-In-Chief, Matt Ercolani

08/13/12 By Leave a Comment

I am very excited to announce that Matt Ercolani will be the new Editor-In-Chief of MusicEdMajor.Net!

Matt comes to us from New Jersey and will be a senior in Music Education at Rowan University. At Rowan, Matt is a tuba major, the vice-president of the Collegiate NAfME chapter and helped to form a collegiate chapter of TI:ME (Technology Institute for Music Educators). Matt was also invited to participate in the first ever TI:ME National Conference Leadership Academy in Louisville, KY. In addition, he has written multiple guest posts for MusicEdMajor.Net!

I had the chance to meet Matt in Kentucky and we got the opportunity to talk a lot about music, education and technology. Matt has some phenomenal thoughts and ideas that I look forward to seeing here in the coming months. Find out more about Matt here!

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The Ultimate Music Education Student Sweepstakes

06/18/12 By 2 Comments

I am very excited to announce a sweepstakes brought to you by MusicEdMajor.Net and Alfred Music Publishing. The Ultimate Music Education Student Sweepstakes offers 3 great prizes designed to help you in your journey to becoming a music educator. It’s as easy as signing up! Enter for a chance to win a free webinar with Peter Boonshaft and a Music Major Survival Pack! Prizes include:

2nd Prize

The second place prize is comprised of a sampler of various music method books for you to review and a score study kit to help you hone your score-reading skills

1st Prize

The first place prize is made up of a music method sampler kit, a student workbook, and a music dictionary – all tools to help you in your studies.

Grand Prize

The grand prize of this sweepstakes is a music method sampler kit, score study kit including scores to practice score study and Alfred’s Band or String method sampler, and a 1-hour webinar with Peter Boonshaft!

How Do I Sign Up?

The best part of this sweepstakes is that it’s totally free to enter! Just head over to The Ultimate Music Education Student Sweepstakespage at Alfred.com to sign up and read the official rules! Also, be sure to give @MusicEdMajor and @AlfredBandOrch both a follow on Twitter to stay up to date with this sweepstakes and other music education information! Sign up NOW – This sweepstakes ends June 30,2012!

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Private Lessons

02/21/12 By 1 Comment

I started teaching private music lessons when I was in high school, so I’ve been doing it for about four years now.  This by no means makes me an expert (or anything resembling an expert), but I’d like to think that I’ve learned a few things about teaching since I started.

As an undergraduate music ed major, I approach teaching probably a little different than some other people.  I teach my students facility on their instrument, but I believe it is just as important (if not more important) that they develop overall independent musicianship.  In other words, I try to teach my students to be good, independent musicians by using/playing their particular instrument.  I choose this approach for a few reasons.  Most importantly, I believe that it is my duty as a music educator to create good musical citizens.  It is critical that people are able to listen to music, evaluate and analyze music, sing melodies in tune, and keep a beat in their bodies.  These skills transcend the playing of any particular instrument, and having them makes for a more fulfilling life.

I try to teach independent musicianship to my private students so that they can carry their musical knowledge into the rest of their musical lives.  When I was in fourth grade, my first instrument was the clarinet.  I played it in school for five years.  I am now in my third year as a tuba major in music school.  If I had only learned the technical aspects of pushing the correct buttons on the clarinet, and nothing else, I would have been out of luck when the time came to learn the tuba. Instead, because I knew scales, reading, theory, how to sing in tune, and how to audiate, I had a much easier time transferring my musical knowledge in a relevant and applicable way.

Another reason I try to ‘make good musical citizens’ out of my students is very related to the previous reasons.  Basically, I want my students to be able to appreciate and enjoy music to the best of their ability.  Too often do we see people experiencing truly beautiful musical moments, but they find those moments incredibly boring or unlistenable because they have not been taught how to appreciate them.  That does not mean I try to brainwash all of my students to enjoy classical music; I don’t.  Instead, I try to work with the student to help them ‘open their ears’, and learn how to listen to more than just the surface of whatever particular piece of music they are listening to.  I don’t care if it’s Mozart, Duke Ellington, or Lady Gaga, I want my students to be able to experience, appreciate, and enjoy the music that they play and listen to.

When you get right down to it, I think that is what it is all about, that is why we do what we do: to teach students how to have a genuine and enjoyable musical experience by using their independent musicianship.  This is what I try to accomplish with my students.

 

Matt Ercolani is in his third year as an undergraduate music education major at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey.  At Rowan University, he is the Vice-President of the Rowan chapter of Collegiate NAfME (National Association for Music Education), and helps lead the most active collegiate chapter in the state.  Mr. Ercolani has taught at music camps across the country, including as a member of the all-volunteer SWAG Team at the 2010 Music-For-All Summer Symposium in Normal, Illinois. Most recently, he was selected for participation in the first-ever TI:ME Leadership Academy at the 2012 TI:ME National Conference in Louisville, Kentucky.  Mr. Ercolani is an active freelance private teacher and musician in the South Jersey area.  His research and teaching interests include early childhood music education and utilizing technology to teach non-traditional music students. You can find more about him at http://mattercolani.wordpress.com.

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MakeMusic Offers Finale Notepad for FREE!

02/15/12 By 3 Comments

Today, the people at MakeMusic announced the release of Finale Notepad for FREE. If you have never tried the Finale notation software, now is your shot to try it!

This software gives you the ability to notate, play back and print music. As stated by Karen van Lith, MakeMusic CEO, “MakeMusic shares our customers’ devotion for creating music, and we are pleased to offer our entry-level app as a free download. Hobbyists, students, educators and musicians will find NotePad fun and easy to use.”

This is an awesome service provided by MakeMusic, and gives students, teachers and people in all aspects and levels of music an opportunity to express their musical ideas for FREE! Check out the links below to download Finale NotePad and read more about it!

For you MusicEdMajors out there, this is a great piece of software to take advantage of! Finale does a great job of offering a platform that can help you get the job done and is fairly user-friendly. As Music Ed Majors, this is just a really handy to have if you like to compose, or to have on hand in case you would ever need it. And what do you have to lose? – It’s FREE!

Download

 

Read more about this in MakeMusic’s offical Press Release!

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2012 TI:ME Leadership Academy Reflection

01/24/12 By 2 Comments

Matt Ercolani:

Prior to participating in the 2012 TI:ME Leadership Academy, I was skeptical about technology’s applications in music education.  I thought it was a gimmick.  I thought it was overcomplicating education, and made teachers teach their students about technology, not music.  After attending the Academy, I am a believer.  I believe that it is truly possible to do as Barb Freedman says: “Teach music.  The technology will follow.”   I now realize that technology is the future of music education.  We as educators can use it as a tool to make music accessible to more students than ever before.  Non-traditional music students have so many musical outlets and tools available to them on the computer, and educators have a responsibility to learn about them in order to reach as many students as possible.  If music is important to study, it’s important for everyone to learn about, not just those in band, orchestra, and choir!  We are on the forefront of a movement.  I can’t wait to help shape it!

 

Matt Ercolani is in his third year as an undergraduate music education major at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey.  At Rowan University, he is the Vice-President of the Rowan chapter of Collegiate NAfME (National Association for Music Education), and helps lead the most active collegiate chapter in the state.  He is also in the process of starting a collegiate chapter of TI:ME (Technology Institute for Music Educators) at Rowan.  Mr. Ercolani has taught at music camps across the country, including as a member of the all-volunteer SWAG Team at the 2010 Music-For-All Summer Symposium in Normal, Illinois.  He has attended numerous regional and national music education conferences.  Most recently, he was selected for participation in the first-ever TI:ME Leadership Academy at the 2012 TI:ME National Conference in Louisville, Kentucky.  Mr. Ercolani is an active freelance private teacher and musician in the South Jersey area.  His research and teaching interests include early childhood music education and utilizing technology to teach non-traditional music students. You can find more about him at http://mattercolani.wordpress.com.

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2012 TI:ME Leadership Academy

01/12/12 By 1 Comment

Special thanks to Dr. David Williams for the Leadership Academy photos! See more at the bottom of the page!

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend the TI:ME National Conference in Louisville, Kentucky as a part of the first-ever TI:ME Leadership Academy. I was chosen as one of eight music education students to participate in this academy, and was blown away by the incredible ideas and conversations generated by participants and instructors alike.

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Filed Under: Conference, TI:ME, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , ,

2012 TI:ME/JEN Annual National Conference

01/04/12 By 2 Comments

After a 6.5 hour drive with Dr. Joseph Pisano, I am finally here! This year, the TI:ME (Technology Institute for Music Educators) Conference, held in conjunction with JEN (Jazz Education Network) is taking place in Louisville, Kentucky.

TI:ME Leadership Academy

I have the privilege to attend the conference as a part of the  TI:ME Leadership Academy. I am very excited to be participating in this way, and look forward to collaborating and working with the other participants of this academy. The participants all look to be very qualified, which should make for some really interesting discussion. Stay tuned, as I will be sharing my thoughts and lessons right here on MusicEdMajor.Net!

Follow Along!

To find out more about TI:ME and the conference, visit the TI:ME homepage. To follow along with my experiences, follow the hashtag #timejen12!

If you are attending this conference, I would love to meet up with you! Send me a Tweet @andrewritenour, or email andrewritenour@gmail.com!

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