Welcome to the January 2011 edition of the Music Education Blog Carnival.
A Blog Carnival is when a host (that’s me this month) pulls together a bunch of related blogs posts/articles and makes them available in a central location (the host blog). The creator of the Music Education Blog Carnival, Dr. Joe Pisano (http://mustech.net/), states, “This carnival hopes to provide a “sounding board” and venue for publication for the Music Education Related Bloggers. Anyone who is writing about topics that are directly related to musicians, music performance, music education, or music technology are welcome to be part of this carnival”. For more information about the Music Education Blog Carnival and how to submit posts for future Carnivals, please visit (NOT NOW! Read this month’s Carnival posts first!): http://blogcarnival.com/bc/cprof_4443.html
How to read this Blog Carnival
Once you start reading the articles, you may find yourself wandering through the author’s website and clicking on links that bring you to many a far away yet useful place. That’s a good thing and it is encouraged! There are dozens of articles and links for information and I do hope you spend many wonderful hours learning from each other. It will be easy to get a bit lost in the web and forget that you were going through the Blog Carnival so I suggest that you book mark this page to easily return to this Blog Carnival. OK, I also want you back to this website, so please book mark me anyway! 😉
And now, (insert drum roll) the first Blog Carnival of 2011…
Music Advocacy
David Ahrens writes a wonderful article of his personal and professional reflections. This article, Music Life Lessons #3, is his third in what will be a twelve part series (wow!) on the life lessons we learn through music.
Nick Jaworski puts it plainly in his article Where is MENC? A Look at Glee, The Sing-Off, and the History of Music Education Broadcasting. Kudos to Nick for a scholarly approach to presenting his case, “The absence of MENC on popular programs like Glee and The Sing-Off is a failure of our national organization. Learn about the history of music education on the major networks and the role that MENC played in shaping it”.
Music Education
Samuel Wright shares his presentation on integrating music technology in the classroom. His article, A Technology Integrated Classroom, is packed with information, links and ideas for computer assisted instruction and use with and interactive whiteboard.
In yet another great article on his experiences as an educator and band director, Rehearsal Mapping For Concert Repertoire Accountability, Tom West focuses on new ideas for rehearsal techniques and student accountability in band. As Tom puts it, “To put it plainly, the majority of my students have average or slightly above average aptitude in musical intelligence and nearly all of them have never experienced the benefits of a prolonged work ethic. My students, at whatever level of music aptitude they possess, need to learn the value of completing enough successful repetitions to actually master a piece of music”.
David Taubs presents Learning to Play a Guitar – Where to Start | Learning to Play a Guitar saying, “An article about where to start in your guitar learning journey.”
Justine Dolorfino brings a scholarly approach to her paper Multiculturalism in the General Music Classroom. It is “…an abridgement of the midterm and final that I wrote for a class titled Multicultural Approaches to Teaching Young Children”.
Elizabeth Heist gives us wonderful insight and solid advice I wish I had when I was an undergrad in her article, I Don’t Sing, I am a Band Director.
Music Pedagogy
Andy Zweibel reviews the new Alfred method for band and string orchestra publication in his article Review: Sound Innovations Method. Andy supplements his review with video interviews at the bottom of the article.
Wendy Stevens shares her experiences with a teaching technique and how she and her students are Making Music Come to Life: The Bear. This delightful article highlights outstanding teacher/student interaction and solid teaching techniques.
Music Software/Hardware
Jennifer Saksa shares her use of technology for use in ear training and tuning as it relates to her experience as a string player. She found a wonderful piece of software that is now her “go to” tuner in the article Solving A Musician’s Tuning Stress.
Andy Zweibel’s Review: Zoom Q3HD Digital Video Camera. What makes this camera so exciting for music educators is its ability to record high quality audio. Read on for great information and get your credit card ready because you’re going want to buy one!
Music Technology
I think this is our first article submitted in a language other than English! From Italy, we have a great article on a technical aspect of working with MIDI. It has outstanding information and it’s a great way to brush up on your Italian. OK, I’ll confess, I used Google Translate. A warm welcome to our Italian speaking colleagues and thank you Pietro Contenti of Artisti Musicisti for this article How To Separate Instrumental Parts of a MIDI File.
Joseph Pisano gives us a present for the Holidays! A Free Twitter Music Education Widget for your Website saying “A better, free, Music Education Widget for your Website –aggregate the most common Music Education Tweets using this widget and have the most up-to-date music education information coming to your site”.
Other
Andy Zweibel shares his experience and thoughts on the Midwest Band & Orchestra Clinic 2010.
Jennifer Lynch provides a list of bloggers who write on that old round black thing they used to put music on in 20 Soulful Blogs for Vinyl Fans and Collectors.
Yoon Soo Lim describes her efforts coordinating and collaborating with teachers in her school and thousands of miles away to produce Holiday concerts in So Do Tell What You Have in Mind: Start of a Collaborative Project.
Ok, that’s 16 posts! I am very proud that three of our posts are from PRE-service educators. Thanks to all our authors for your efforts to provide us with your insight and expertise. That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of music education blog carnival using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Barb