A Music Education Blog Collective

A couple of posts ago Joe discussed a project he does with his students where they use a looping pedal to layer improvised loops on top of a pre-existing piece. Here’s a cellist who layered 37 cello parts , all performed by himself, using a cello and computer technology! My first thought when comparing the […]

Please listen to this powerful segment on NPR’s Morning edition on Music and the Holocaust.  From the NPR site: “During World War II, hundreds of prisoners in the Terezin concentration camp in Czechoslovakia performed Verdi’s requiem as a way to passively defy their Nazi captors. On Sunday, American musicians performed the same requiem in the former […]

The American Idol and music education story didn’t make it on air tonight but did make it online.
You can see some of my students responding to questions about the contestents’ performances and what the judges were saying. You can also see how 2nd graders in a school in PA use American Idol in their classroom […]

Radio Lab, a public radio show, tries to answer this question on its show entitled Musical Language.
One of the issues brought up on the Musical Language show is the notion that the artist has a duty to present people with work that is not easily assimilated into their prior experiences, such as when Igor Stravinsky’s […]

With music sharing, sampling and mashing being a big part of students musical culture, issues of copyright and music sharing have made their way into my classroom.  If you haven’t heard of Brad Sucks, check out Garage Spin’s interview.  Brad is a one man band who that writes, records, mixes, masters, and sells his own music.  […]

Greg Sandow, on his blog talks about the lack of talking at contemporary music concerts. Performers, composers and conductors very rarely connect to their audience. With the complexity often associated with contemporary music, many lay-listeners feel confused and alienated. He also has a link to a music festival that links pop music […]

Thanks again to Alex Ross for directing me to an exceptional student musician–this time 13-year-old composer Jeremiah R. Klarman. It is relatively common to encounter prodigy performers, but until now, the last prodigy composer I had heard of was Mozart. How many more young composers, extraordinary or not, would there be if music […]

In recent months I have been using a looping pedal to have students explore the inner workings of music.  In my case I have been using a Line 6 Pedal, but others will do as good or a better job.  Artists like Tyondai Braxton use this technique in performance.
This is how it has worked for […]

Belinda Reynolds recently wrote about young performers playing music by living composers. A look through a catalog for music being composed for school ensembles will result in many names of living composers. These composers, for the most part, write specifically for school ensembles. Do our students realize that there are living composers who write […]

Belinda Reynolds, a composer who I have referenced in previous posts, now has a column on newmusicbox focusing on issues facing composers writing music for young people. I think this is a great initiative to encourage some dialogue between educators, composers, performers, critics etc. We can certainly learn from each other. Her most recent post […]