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…
Favorite Christmas and Holiday Collections for Orchestra
I’m sure most school orchestras and music directors are in the midst of preparing music for a winter concert. Undoubtedly, we push and put so much energy and work into that winter performance. Following the performance, we might have a…
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…
Simple Improv Ideas For Orchestra
This past summer I pursued an idea I have been ruminating about for a long time – a jazz string camp. I called it the String Improv Workshop. You can read more about it here. I had a small, but…
How To Start A Jazz Or Improv Based String Orchestra
For the past two years I’ve led an after school string ensemble at my school focused on jazz and improvisation. I called it the Jazz String Orchestra. Unfortunately, this year I was not able to hold that ensemble, but I…
Tips For Creating Clear Performance Assessment Rubrics
Musicians are masters at assessment. We assess our personal music making and those of our students constantly and make real time adjustments and observations. Live performance is an “in the moment” creation. During a performance, musicians are called to listen,…