Music Ice-Breakers for the Beginning of the School Year
It is mid-August right now and the beginning of the school year is quickly approaching. We as music educators know how important it is to cultivate a positive community at the start of the year. This includes setting a positive and…
Celebrate Jazz Appreciation Month In Your Orchestra
In 2001 the Smithsonian Museum of American History created Jazz Appreciation month to celebrate the deep history of jazz during the month of April. While many of the most influential jazz musicians were woodwind and brass players, pianists, or rhythm section…
Get Your Students To Learn Pentatonic Scales!
Pentatonic scales are fun and can unlock so much creativity and expression for students. The sounds of pentatonic scales are so familiar and accessible to our ears. Every note sounds good!My goal is for my students to learn nine major…
Help Your Students Grow With The Music Performance Reflection Guide
The process of music making requires continued personal reflection in order to keep growing. As music teachers, we understand this process and so we work to help our students understand it too. Several years ago I began creating resources for my students…
Help Your Students Practice Effectively With This Practice Tracker and Practice Strategies Guide
Practice. It’s the only path to improving in music and really anything in life. The challenge is learning how to do it well so that we are making progress rather than spinning our wheels. We as teachers spend countless hours helping our…
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…