In my last post I wrote about the practice habits I am trying to develop with my students. The idea is that each week my students are going to plan a practice routine that consists of four areas of their…
Recently I have been thinking a lot about practicing. These thoughts jump between analyzing my own personal practice habits and the practice habits of my students. I have been thinking about what it means to practice effectively, to make tangible…
In my last post we discussed the benefits of creating opportunities for students to experiment with improvisation. We also explored some simple concepts to use with students to begin to encourage them to improvise. In this post, I will present…
The goal of the National Standards for Music Education, as outlined by NAfME, is to “cultivate a students ability to carry out the three Artistic Processes of creating, performing, and responding.” At the beginning level of the “Creating” standard, students…
I really enjoy incorporating student composition projects into my orchestra classroom for a number of reasons. Composition demonstrates mastery. If a student can create using a concept studied in class, they are demonstrating a higher level of thinking and application…
As we discussed in an earlier post, assessment is very helpful and informative and should help to guide our teaching. Assessment of our students can help us as educators determine students strengths and weaknesses and can hopefully lead us to…
I would venture to say that all teachers assess their students in some way or another. As music educators, I feel as if assessment comes hand in hand with what we do. We teach students a concept, skill, scale, fingering,…
In a previous post I wrote about some ways to effectively prepare for an audition. In this post, I will share some thoughts on how to be comfortable and confident on audition day. Rest The night prior to an audition…
Many ensembles and colleges require a performance audition in order to be admitted into their programs or groups. I have worked with many students in my school and through private study to help them prepare for auditions for youth orchestras,…