9/28

Ely, Mark, and Amy Rashkin. "Warm-Ups That Work: An Overview of the Latest Publications." The Instrumentalist (1999): 12-16. Print.

This article discusses various warm-up books for the band that were recently published when it came out in 1999. The authors summarize eight books that they recommend for use and discuss their unique strengths and differences from each other. The intent of the article is to simplify the task of finding appropriate warm-ups for band. The article should be used as a resource by any band director.

I'm glad that a resource like this exists for band directors.  I wonder if there is an updated version of this list and if so, how often the list gets updated. I greatly appreciate the amount of detail included in each summary. It is easy to pick out a book that works well for the classroom just by reading the summary.

1. Do updated versions of this list exist?
2. How relevant are these books today?
3. Can warm-up techniques become outdated in only fifteen years? Shouldn't most techniques be constant?


Phillips, Joseph. "Intonation Exercises for Middle School Bands." The Instrumentalist (1999): 15-17. Print.

Phillips suggests many common ways of teaching intonation and blend in a band setting. He includes methods for several specific instruments as well as techniques that could be applicable to the entire ensemble. Some of these methods allow the teacher to employ peer teaching and collaborative learning within an ensemble setting. The latter half of the article is used to show how the teacher can address intonation and blend in specific pieces.

I really enjoyed reading this article! It was very helpful to me as a percussionist who understands blend and intonation but does not have to consciously utilize it most of the time (intonation, that is). I learned several techniques that can be applied to both younger and more experienced bands, as well as individual students and small groups.

1. How early should I be teaching the harmonic series to assist with intonation?
2. Should knowledge of the harmonic series be more extensively explained to brass players outside of rehearsal or should the entirety of the instruction take place in front of the whole group?
3. How can one find a balance between rehearsing music and focusing on other aspects of music making like intonation?


Hopkins, Michael. "The Six Stages of Tuning Stringed Instruments." American String Teacher (2002): 64-69. Print.

Hopkins describes his six stages of tuning string instruments in this article and includes short blurbs about the usefulness of following these steps with beginning string players. Stage 1 involves the teacher tuning the students' instruments while also teaching the cellos and basses to tune using harmonics. Stage 2 is called Tuning Individually, One String at a Time. This implies the creation of a process used to assist students in tuning on their own. Stage 3 is similar, but this time the orchestra tunes in their own sections. Stage 4 introduces the utilization of double stops and harmonics while still tuning in sections. In stage 5 the students begin tuning cellos and basses before violins and violas. Finally in stage 6 the entire orchestra tunes at once.

I have played in orchestras fairly consistently since my sophomore year of high school, but I have never been closely involved in the process of rehearsing the ensemble. This article is extremely helpful for me in this regard. I have one criticism that may be false, but I do not understand why the low strings are not tuned before the high strings until stage 5.

1. Should all strings listen to basses whenever tuning?
2. Why do cellos and basses learn about harmonic tones before violins and violas?
3. How much of this tuning process can relate to a band setting?


Fonder, Mark. "Defining and Realizing Your Band's Ideal Tone." Music Educators Journal 85.3 (1998): 22. Web.

Fonder states that your band's ideal tone must be a combination of personal preference and convention, but must begin with personal preference. Achieving a consistent sound from the ensemble requires establishing goals, teaching the principles of tone, listening to examples, consistently practicing good tone, controlling instrumentation, evaluating seating arrangements, and choosing music to optimize tone quality. It is important to communicate your concept of tone to the ensemble.

This article grabbed me very quickly as something that I wholeheartedly agree with. The genesis of great tone begins with personal preference. Personally, I believe that picking repertoire is one of the most important aspects of developing great tone. A diverse selection of music with varying harmonic concepts will assist greatly in developing tone.

1. What kind of time frame can a teacher expect to establish to work on developing great time? Can a timeline even exist?
2. Does great tone need to begin on an individual level? This article doesn't seem to discuss that much.
3. Can great tone be taught in a way similar to the Hopkins article about string tuning?

9/23

How to Escape Education's Death Valley. Perf. Sir Ken Robinson. Ted Talk. Web. Apr. 2013.

Sir Ken Robinson discusses the state of education in America. He describes it as a mechanized system, when it should be a humanistic system. Often times, schools stifle creativity and expression in both the students and the teachers. The teachers are forced to use a standardized curriculum that leaves no space for student exploration or curiosity. He compares the problems with America's education system to Death Valley in California. Death Valley is not dead, it is dormant. Under the proper conditions, life can flourish.

Sir Ken Robinson is an incredible human being that I have admired for a few years now. He truly understands how to fix our educational system. Towards the end of the Ted Talk, he talks about Finland's educational system, which is consistently ranked one of the best in the world. They have their problems as well, but overall the system is excellent. I believe that can and should be used as a model for each state.

1. He briefly mentions that change should occur in each school and not from a district or government standpoint. How can this happen? What would it look like? How would it be different than it is now?
2. Would the American people be open to the idea of adapting an education model like Finland?
3. Hypothetically, if our system were to stay the same but the teachers were to change, how can we work around the rigid standardized curriculums?



The Key to Success? Grit. Perf. Angela Lee Duckworth. Ted Talk. Apr. 2013. Web.

Angela Lee Duckworth reveals the single element that she believes would allow any student to succeed in school regardless of IQ or GPA. After teaching for several years, she left to become a psychologist. She studied learners in a variety of settings and set out to answer the question "who is successful here and why?" She found that grit was the determining factor in all different settings that she studied. In Chicago schools, students with more grit and desire to learn were more likely to graduate. Interestingly, she found that grit is often unrelated, or even inversely related to "talent."

I absolutely agree with what Angela Duckworth says in this video, however it seems rather obvious. I wish she had presented evidence or data that showed her "grit survey" or any form of the information that she gathered while studying grit in the field. I was intrigued by a question that she asked the audience; how do we get our kids grittier? What inspires a student to push themselves and persevere through difficult times? This is where more data would be extremely beneficial.

1. How did the results about grit differ in different settings?
2. Did the results differ for different age groups?
3. Did Duckworth discover how different age groups were inspired to persevere and have grit?

9/21

Teach Teachers How to Create Magic. Perf. Christopher Emdin. Ted Talk. Oct. 2013. Web. 

Christopher Emdin talks about the magic that some teachers seem to have. This quality is often regarded as an indescribable factor that some people are just born with. Emdin denies this claim and says that the "magic" is in fact a very achievable quality and is also necessary for engaging students. He compares engaging teachers to preachers at black churches because of their ability to reel in their audience.

I really enjoy what Emdin is saying in this video. I strongly believe that anybody can be a teacher with the proper training. He says that the best way to learn this quality is to be around accomplished teachers who are skilled at engaging students in the classroom. If we can place more aspiring teachers in these classrooms, we will see an increased number of influential teachers. 

1. How can we ensure education students get placed with the proper teachers?

2. What happens if there are no truly engaging teachers near universities? (Unlikely, but worth entertaining)

3. What other professions require people to be genuinely engaging?

3 Rules to Spark Learning. Perf. Ramsey Musallam. Ted Talk. N.p., Apr. 2013. Web. 

Ramsey Musallam is a high school chemistry teacher whose teaching style and philosophy changed after recovering from a life threatening aneurism. He realized that student questions should guide the lesson, not a pre-scripted plan. He created three rules based on the confidence displayed by his surgeon; curiosity comes first, embrace the mess, and practice reflection. 

Before getting the aneurism, Musallam called his teaching style "pseudo-teaching." I think this is a great way to describe how many people teach. Everything in the classroom must be derived from the students in terms of what they need and how the class will changed their lived experience.

1. With this philosophy, how much planning should really be done for each class period?

2. Should it be more curricular or daily?

3. Can this approach affect classroom management and student behavior in a negative fashion? A positive fashion?

9/16

Hickey, Maud. "Teaching Ensembles to Compose and Improvise." Music Educators Journal 83.6 (1997): 17. Web. 

Hickey discusses the utilization of composition and improvisation in a large ensemble setting and how successful it can be. He provides the reader with several different methods that can be used to incorporate composition and improv into the classroom. Using short songs written by the students as warm ups for the rest of the ensemble is very beneficial for both the group and the individual who wrote the piece. Pieces can be written to reinforce new concepts (rhythmic, melodic, etc.). Hickey emphasizes that improvisation is not limited to jazz band. Students can even improv on a piece written by another student while the teacher accompanies on piano. 

This article is a great resource for creating new comp and improv activities for the classroom. I believe that these two concepts have a very important role in the development of musicians and should be encouraged whenever possible. I would like to expand on Hickey's ideas and have the students come up with their own composition or improvisation activities.

1. How is this received by administrators who walk in to your class and see this process occurring?

2. Will students open up to this idea or be reserved because they are afraid of writing something "bad?"

3. How can we include improvisation in our performances (excluding jazz band)?

Johnson, E. "Developing Listening Skills through Peer Interaction." Music Educators Journal 98.2 (2011): 49-54. Web. 

This article focuses on the roles that are played in the classroom by the teacher and students. Often times, feedback is one-sided; initiated by the teacher for the benefit of the students. Dr. Johnson's article asserts that feedback is often more effective when initiated by the students. It promotes critical thinking that may not occur in a "typical" classroom scenario. Student-led discussions can initiate use of the Zone of Proximal Development.

The article outlines an important, but often overlooked, aspect of teaching music. The teacher is not responsible for every single thing that happens in the ensemble. Student input is extremely valuable and even necessary to ensure that students are constantly engaged and enjoying what they are doing. 

1. Is it possible to have an entirely student led rehearsal that is still collaborative and not taken over by individuals or the conductor?

2. How can this strategy be introduced in a way that will make the "quiet" students want to participate?

3. How much monitoring needs to be done by the teacher? 

9/14

Duke, Robert A. "Feedback." Intelligent Music Teaching: Essays on the Core Principles of Effective Instruction. Austin: Learning and Behavior Resources, 2005. 121-37. Print.

This chapter from Duke's book discusses the use of feedback in the classroom with a specific emphasis on music. Duke discusses the nature and purpose of feedback, emphasizing how it is often misinterpreted by the student. Even teachers tend to think of feedback incorrectly. The perception of positive vs. negative feedback is incorrect. All feedback is intended to help the student grow, so even "negative" feedback is done out of care. Near the end, Duke writes about how feedback is given and how it could be done more efficiently. Too much time is spent sugarcoating feedback to cater to the student's feelings. When both teacher and student understand that there is nothing wrong with being "incorrect," feedback may be given in a much more truthful and genuine manner.

I thoroughly enjoyed everything that Duke had to say in this chapter of his book. In particular, the part at the end about genuine feedback resonated with me strongly. Additionally, reminding the reader that it is not an inherently bad thing to be wrong is extremely helpful from both a student and educators standpoint.
1. How can a teacher establish a relationship with the students in which genuine feedback becomes understood and not misinterpreted as mean?
2. In a large ensemble, is it possible to give feedback many times every minute like the author suggests?  
3. How can this be achieved without making the lesson seem disjunct?



Wiggins, Jackie. "Learning." Teaching for Musical Understanding. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2001. 2-13. Print.

This excerpt from Wiggins' book provides in depth detail regarding how people learn and make connections. "Schema, Metaphor, Image, and Embodied" were the four categories of understanding discussed in the chapter. Schema describes a mental construct used to organize information. It's similar to a web or a network. Metaphor states that each individual places new information into a previously existing context that they are personally familiar with as a way to connect with the information more effectively. The two sub-categories of Image are perceptual image (based on sensory information) and recalled images (that allow us to bring back past images and build on them). Embodied understanding is the actual process that happens in the brain to make information make sense.

This relatively dense chapter of reading was informative and useful but often difficult to follow. I don't believe that it reiterated as often as I understood it do so, meaning that I am not sure I interpreted it correctly all the time. Nevertheless, I particularly enjoyed reading about understanding through metaphor. I feel that this is a method used by the brain from a very early age that never ceases to be useful, making it an ideal way to promote a higher rate of understanding in students.
1. Are there more texts on this specific topic (Schema, Metaphor, Image, Embodied)? I would like to try to learn more about all of them, but particularly Embodied.
2. How can these concepts be integrated into a lesson plan effectively?
3. Is one of these methods more prevalent than the others? If so, which?

9/9

Jensen, Eric, and Eric Jensen. "11." Brain-based Learning: The New Paradigm of Teaching. Thousand Oaks, CA.: Corwin, 2008.

This article by Eric Jensen discusses a method of learning that is not based on philosophy or pedagogical research, but on the brain. Jensen guides the reader through a complete teaching cycle, comprised of five different stages: Engagement, Framing, Acquisition, Elaboration, and Memory Strengthening. Additionally, he discusses how to prepare before the class begins and how to ensure students remember the content after class.

At first glance, a teaching cycle seems like an effective way to disprove David Williams' views on the large ensemble. When I imagine going through a teaching cycle in a large ensemble setting, it is tough for me to come up with new ideas during the 'acquisition' and 'elaboration' sections that would not simply involving playing the music over and over again until the information is concrete. I know that this is not the best way, but what are some strategies to go about creating an interesting and diverse 'acquisition' and 'elaboration?'
The more I think about 'engagement' and 'framing,' the more important it seems to me. I think about when I come to class and am not in the proper mindset; how does that affect my ability to learn? Certain teachers are able to change my mindset when I walk in the room without me even knowing it. How can I engage my students in unique ways that won't become stale over time?

Waitzkin, Joshua. "Two Approaches to Learning." The Art of Learning. N.p.: Simon & Schuster, 2007. N. pag. Print. 

This chapter from Waitzkin's book discusses two different types of learners, entity theorists and learning theorists, and the outcomes of those two learning styles. While his experience is in chess, he relates this content to education in general, discussing how students gain a false sense of what they are good and bad at. 

How do we encourage students to become learning theorists instead of entity theorists? It's a difficult task because students are exposed to so many different teaching styles in their lives. At least one teacher is bound to make them feel like they have a particular affinity, or lack thereof, for a certain subject. Being music teachers may give us a leg up. Students often separate music from other subjects in school, meaning they have an entirely different mindset when they walk in to the room. 

9/2

Shuler, Scott, Martin Norgaard, and Michael J. Blakeslee. "The New National Standards for Music Educators." Music Educators Journal (2014): n. pag. Web. 1 Sept. 2015.

The New National Standards for Music Educators

This article compares and contrasts the standards from 1994 to 2014 while simultaneously explaining aspects of today's standards. There are a couple short blurbs included by the authors that discuss important aspects of music education that contribute to the creation and overall importance of our standards.

Seeing some of the 1994 standards makes me wonder how those standards were perceived by educators at the time. Were they well liked or did they seem outdated even at the present time?
Would this article from the Music Educators Journal be an effective one to share with administration if asked why music is important in our schools?
How are standards formed? Who contributes and how long does it take to finalize?