10 Awesome Winter Concert Pieces for Intermediate – Middle School Orchestra
For many music directors, the winter concert season has come to a close. While concert season may be done for some, it’s good to reflect on selections that went well and were enjoyed by students and audiences alike. In light…
Celebrating and Fostering Orchestra Leadership Skills
As music educators we are all striving to help our students grow into confident learners. We are trying to sow into them a spirit of discipline, motivation, and build them up to be leaders in our ensembles and in their…
A Quick and Effective Method for Tuning Your Orchestra – Cross Tuning
Time is precious in our classrooms.A common lament among many music educators is that there is never enough time in a period to cover all that we want or need to cover during class.In order to maximize time in our…
Incorporating Finger Patterns In Orchestra
For the past several years I have been incorporating the teaching of finger patterns in my string orchestra. This method of building the fundamentals for playing a string instrument was developed by the string educator, Dr. George Bornoff.Working on finger patterns…
Be A Part Of The Orchestra – Helpful Tips for Recruiting For Your Orchestra
The goal for any music educator at the end of the year is celebrating our students and their many successes. We are also thinking about building our program for the following year and making sure students continue or feed into…
Tips for Effective Classroom Management
Music educators know the importance of classroom management. We often have ensembles and classrooms filled with students. There are a lot of moving parts to running an ensemble and everyone has to work as a team to make the music happen. However,…
For Teachers: Fostering Student Leadership
Each year we have an award ceremony at my school where we nominate students who have demonstrated leadership qualities. I have to say that every year this award causes me to stop, think, and ask some questions. What does leadership look like? How…
Martin Luther King Jr. and Music of the Civil Rights Movement
We recently celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday. In delving into his legacy and the history of the Civil Rights Movement, the impact and role of music is undeniable. Music was integral to the Civil Rights Movement and Dr. King…
Orchestra Baseball
There’s no doubt kids love to learn through games. There are so many resources now that provide teachers with valuable feedback while making the learning experience engaging for students. Tools like Kahoot, Nearpod, Gimkit, Socrative, and so many more combine formative…
6 Practice Tips for Students Part II
In last week’s post, we explored 6 simple tips for effective practice. In this week’s post, we will continue to talk about practice and share some helpful practice tips. These are in no particular order, but are some thoughts on…