05/22/13

SoundTree to Sponsor LiveBlog From Music Ed Week

Music Education WeekI am pleased to announce that, for the second year in a row, MusicEdMajor.net will be live-blogging from MENC’s Music Education Week in Washington D.C. from June 25-29. This event will be the 4th live-blog here at MusicEdMajor.net, and for this event, we are pulling out all the stops. We have created a live-blogging team of four people, and are extremely excited to announce sponsorship from SoundTree to help provide you with live updates throughout the event with wireless broadband access.

Check Out the Live-Blog Here [Read more...]

MusicForAll Summer Symposium

I’m excited to announce that starting today, Ohio CMENC President Kelsey Kordella will be live-blogging from the 2010 MusicForAll Summer Symposium on behalf of MusicEdMajor.net! Kelsey is entering her senior year at the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinatti, and will be attending the conference all week long. Stay tuned to the MusicForAll Summer Symposium Landing Page here at MusicEdmajor.net for the live-blog, and be sure to follow Kelsey on Twitter at @KelseyK89. She’ll be updating using the hash-tag #mfacamp during the event, as well.

Collegiate Leadership Academy at MENC’s Music Ed Week

MENC has been planning for it’s 2010 Music Education Week in Washington, D.C. since last year’s event concluded. Music Ed Week is a week of advocacy, networknig, and professional development in the heart of the nation’s capital. I had the opportunity to attend last year, and was extremely pleased with my experience. The professional development portion of the week was done through “academies” in different concentrations (music technology, performance, jazz, research). The specialized academies were a wonderful way to separate the fantastic sessions that were presented.

The preparations for Music Ed Week 2010 (June 24-29, 2010) have begun in earnest over the past few weeks. MENC recently announced that housing and registration for the conference is open, and on Tuesday, they sent information out regarding a new academy for this year’s event, the “Collegiate Leadership Academy.” This academy is geared specifically towards collegiate members of MENC, and has sessions geared specifically towards future music educators. The (tentative) list of sessions includes:

  • “Hero Training: How to Harness Your Super Powers” with Milt Allen, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston
  • “Policy and Practice: What Does this Mean and Why Should I Care?” with Lynn Brinckmeyer, Texas State University, San Marcos
  • “Nine Liberating Habits of Change” with Scott Shuler (president, MENC), Connecticut Department of Education, Hartford
  • “Using Technology to Keep Sane” with Jim Frankel, SoundTree, Melville, NY
  • “Can I Do This for Thirty Years?” with Jack Elgin, Oscar Smith High School, Chesapeake, VA

Additionally, registration for Music Ed Week grants you admission to many other fantastic concerts and advocacy events over the course of the week. The other academies that are being offered this year are:

  • Choral
  • General Music K-12 Technology (keynote by Amy Burns)
  • Instrumental, “IN-Ovations” (Teaching techniques and opportunities for teachers of non-traditional curricula)
  • Jazz
  • Marching Music (registration includes ticket to DCI Show)
  • NACWPI (National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors)
  • New Teachers

Attendance at this conference last year was a very enjoyable experience for me, and one that I would strongly suggest you try to gain. If at all possible, try to find a way to get to Washington, D.C. between June 24 and 29 for this wonderful event! Hopefully, I will also be “live-blogging” the event this year, just as I did last year! Stay tuned for more information regarding this.

Are you already going to Music Ed Week? Let me know in a comment, and we can try to find a time to meet up!

REMINDER: Updates From Midwest

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!

Conference Season

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

“Live Blog” of Technology Session

I had the chance, again, to attend an Opening Plenary session as a part of  MENC’s National Music Education Week in Washington, D.C. entitled “Software for Music Creation.” The panel was moderated by Peter Jutras, and included Amy Burns, Barbara Freedman, and Estelle Roth. In continuing with my frustrations from yesterday, I was unable to live-blog the session as I had hoped. I did, however, take notes on the session in live-blog fashion, and have posted them here for you! If you have any thoughts or questions, please feel free to leave a comment! Here is my live-blog feed from this morning’s presentation, in bulleted list format:

  • Beginning “live-blog” of presentation titled “Software for Music Education”
  • Panel is: Moderator Pete Jutras, Amy Burns(@awillis2 on Twitter), Barbara Freedman(@MusicEdTech), Estelle Roth
  • Teaching is trying to make connections between different worlds-our world as a teacher, their worlds as a student
  • It is difficult making connections when the worlds are from different times and with different resources
  • We need to get over the concept of using technology as a “reward” and use it as a TOOL<
  • Amy Burns presenting now-TI:ME President-Elect and elementary teacher in NJ
  • Sibelius Groovy: Shapes, Jungle, City
  • Groovy Shapes: Create mode is like a loop-based program; interface is like creating a jungle-trees, butterflies represent rhythm/melody loops!
  • Groovy Shapes “Create” mode allows you to click and drag these aspects of the jungle into the screen to create loops!
  • Combine science with music; students create a composition based on their knowledge of the rainforest in Groovy Shapes!
  • New program demo: “World of Music” let’s you DRAW music and then replay the exact steps that were taken
  • 3rd Grade Social Studies-Music combination with Social Studies; recorder compositions using G, A, B and import into GarageBand to create their own “State Song”
  • http://Trakax.com is a free GarageBand alternative for PC
  • Amy can be found at http://amymburns.com
  • Now time for Barbara Freedman to present-HS teacher in CT
  • Barbara can be found at http://www.MusicEdTech.wordpress.com
  • Courses titled “Electronic Music” at the HS level—4 levels
  • Students have entered “Electronic Music” with no musical experience and gone to college for degrees in Electronic Music
  • Barbara starts with GarageBand in early levels, and moves to Logic Pro for advanced level  classes
  • You used to have to buy 3 different programs: MIDI Sequencing, Notation, Audio—now, Logic Pro (or GarageBand) does all 3!
  • Great thought: Barbara’s view of notation: a means by which to re­-create music (creation of music does not HAVE to be linked to notation
  • Estelle Roth presenting—she teaches Elementary Instrumental Music in VA
  • She uses the playback feature in Sibelius that allows you to select which voices to play back (student’s part can be used to aid them or taken away for a challenge)

Thank you to Peter, Amy, Barbara, and Estelle for their wonderful presentation this morning! It was extremely informative and very passionately delivered!

Jazz Session “Live” Blog

Greetings from Washington, D.C.! I am currently at the Mariott Crystal Gateway just outside of the Capital, the location for MENC‘s National Music Education Week. As you may know, I’ve been live-blogging this event, and one of the aspects of this venture I was most excited about was the opportunity to actually live-blog DURING the academy sessions. My excitement, at least for today, was squelched when I opened up my laptop in a Jazz session this afternoon to find no wireless internet (oh no!)!! No worries, however; I am more resourceful than that! I decided that since I couldn’t live-blog the session, I would take short notes as if I were posting a live-blog, and just post them all at the end! So here you have it, my “live” blog from the session entitled “Jazz Ensemble Rehearsal Techniques: How Do I Get Started?” presented by Dr. Willie L. Hill, Jr.

  • First priority: build a solid foundation!
  • Make the music (all aspects, including technique, style, form, time, etc.) come alive!
  • Remember: Hear it, Sing it, Internalize it, PLAY IT!
  • Create a jazz toolbox (materials, reference books, CD collection, etc.)
  • Part 1: Hear it-guided listening-students need guidance on what to listen to!
  • Students must build a CD collection!
  • Have each student invest in one album and do listening assignment, then swap albums within sections, and then BETWEEN sections!
  • Set realistic and attainable listening goals for you and your students
  • Teach the language of jazz through articulation: doo, dit, da, dah, dot
  • Be aware of the environment your band is playing in currently, and the environment they will be playing in at the concert! Make adjustments if needed!
  • The Metronome: It’s for EVERYONE!
  • Listen, Listen, Listen!

Don’t forget, you can follow along with my live-blog of the entire Music Ed Week event and post your own thoughts. Also, please feel free to leave comments on this post if you found something intriguing! Stay tuned for more updates from Washington!

Photo credit: Flickr photo by Old Shoe Woman


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