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MENC’s Biennial Conference Approaching

03/17/10 By Leave a Comment

MENC: The National Association for Music Education, has had it’s Biennial Conference in the works for a year, now, and the event is almost upon us! Are you going?

The conference will take place from March 25-27 in Anaheim, CA, and will include many sessions geared specifically towards Collegiate members. Some of these sessions include:

  • Classroom Management: More Than Just Keeping the Lid On
  • Job Search and Interviewing
  • Making More of Your Student Teaching and Collegiate Experience
  • What is the First Year on the Job REALLY Like?

The Biennial Conference is a result of MENC’s creation of their annual Music Education Week-a week full of advocacy and development that takes place every summer in Washington D.C. The Biennial Conference, however, is more like a traditional conference, and is an extension of the national conferences MENC held before the establishment of Music Ed Week. The conference will have a special focus on research and music teacher education, and will also provide opportunities for brainstorming, discussion, and networking. For more information, be sure to visit the Biennial Conference page at MENC’s website.

This event is sure to be an extremely beneficial experience for any music educator, current or future. While I won’t be able to attend, I strongly encourage that you try to make it to Anahaim next weekend, if at all possible. If you are going to be attending, please consider contacting us-we would love to have some updates from the conference here at MusicEdMajor.net! Don’t fret if you won’t be able to make the trek to California, however, Music Ed Week is only a few months away! It will take place  June 24-29 in Washington, and I will definitely be there!

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“Live Blog” of Technology Session

06/21/09 By 3 Comments

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!

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Interview With Army Field Band

06/19/09 By 4 Comments

I had the opportunity, while at MENC’s National Music Education Week, to do a brief interview with SFC Jason Stephens, the Educational Activities Coordinator for The United States Army Field Band. Our interview discussed topics ranging from opportunities for performance in the service bands to the educational services that the Army Field Band provides. You can find more information about the Army Field Band at their website, linked above, and you can find more information on their educational services at their website’s education page.

Enjoy the interview, and if you have any other questions, please feel free to post them in the comments; I will be in contact with SFC Stephens at the conference until Sunday!

Original audio source (ArmyBandInterview.mp3)
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Jazz Session “Live” Blog

06/18/09 By 4 Comments

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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Music Ed Week LiveBlog

06/17/09 By Leave a Comment

MENC’s Music Education Week begins today in Washington, D.C. and I will be attending from Thursday until Sunday. Below, you can find a live-blog of the event that I will be contributing to, as well as anyone else who wants to! If you are at the event or have questions from the event, you can use this interface to post to the live-blog, or you can use Twitter to update your status with #musicedweek and your post will be included in the live-blog! I will also be updating in more than 140 characters over the course of the weekend, with posts here on MusicEdMajor.net! Enjoy the live-blog, and feel free to contribute if you have any thoughts to add! Just click “Watch Now!” to begin!

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MENC’s Music Education Week

06/15/09 By 8 Comments

This weekend, MENC, The National Association for Music Education, will be hosting the first annual “Music Education Week” in Washington, D.C.! I will have the privilege of attending, and am looking forward to it immensely.

What IS Music Ed Week?

Music Ed Week is an event in the nation’s capital during which thousands of music educators will be gathering for a week of advocacy and professional development. The event has now replaced MENC’s national conference; MENC decided that this week-long event would be a better avenue for gathering music educators of all ages together in a productive way. Some of the advocacy events will include a rally on the steps of the Department of Education and a march to the Capitol Building, where MENC will present Secretary of Education Arne Duncan with their Petition for Equal Access to Music Education. The week will also include a set of concerts, ranging in genres from jazz to concert band to drum and bugle corps, and everything in between! They are sure to be incredible performances.

In addition to these advocacy events and musical performances, Music Ed Week will include five two-day “academies,” which will operate as a normal conference would, with sessions and panels on specific topics within a subject area. The five “academies” include General Music, Jazz, Music Technology, Performance, and a Research Symposium. Registrants can participate in as many academies as they wish, as well as being able to choose which concerts they attend. This ability to completely customize your event is one of the greatest features of the week!

So who can attend?

Registration for Music Ed Week is open to anyone at all, with discounts being offered to MENC members. This includes, of course, collegiate members. Registration costs ranged anywhere from free (for just concert tickets) to hundreds of dollars (for multiple academy registrations). However, MENC announced in late May that registration to Music Ed Week for Collegiate members of MENC will be completely FREE! That’s right, all collegiate members of MENC will pay absolutely nothing to attend the event, no matter how many concerts, events, or academies they wish to register for! I am attending all the concerts, as well as the Music Technology Academy, and am looking forward to the opportunity to not only help advocate for music education, but to learn more about integrating technology into the music curriculum!

What can I do now?

If you’re interested in Music Education Week, there are a few ways you can get involved:

  1. Attend the event! It is not too late to register for Music Education Week! Collegiate members can use the collegiate registration form (note that the fees have all been waived-all they need is the record of what events you will attend). If you can make it to Washington this weekend, please leave a comment to this post, and let me know you’ll be there! I would love to meet up with you!
  2. Sign the petition. The cornerstone advocacy event of MENC’s week is the presentation of their Petition for Equal Access to Music Education to the Secretary of Education. This petition calls for the inclusion of music education into the core curriculum in America’s public schools. If you haven’t gotten involved yet, signing the online version of this petition is a great way to start getting involved in spreading the word about the need for music in every child’s education. Hurry, though, there are only a few days before the rally!
  3. Stay updated! If you aren’t able to attend the event, there are a few ways you can stay updated about what is going on in Washington this weekend. First, MENC’s website will be updated over the course of the weekend with information from the week. Second, attendees are sure to be active on Twitter (a microblogging service I explain in more detail in a personal blog post) throughout the event. You can follow my own Twitter feed, or follow the search page for the “#musicedweek” hash tag, which will be used on posts related to the event. Finally, keep an eye out on MusicEdMajor.net for posts throughout the weekend; I will be making posts over the course of the event recapping significant sessions or activities that I take part in.

You can view more information about this incredible event at MENC’s Music Ed Week page. Don’t forget to leave a comment if you’ll be attending, or if you have any other thoughts or ideas about the event!

Photo credit: Flickr photo by Ehpien

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