Today marked the second day without a student teacher for the first time since Mid-January. Over the past eight weeks, I had the pleasure of working with Nick Samson (from YSU), and in a couple of weeks Krista Schmidt (from GCC) will join me. I enjoy the opportunity to have student teachers come in to the program, and watch them […]
I need to keep evolving. That means staying current, and that means staying up with what these youngsters are listening to. So it requires some time on my part and sometimes painfully enduring the contrived chord progressions and hollow lyrics of any number of artists that students feel compelled to ask me to listen to. So I decided I would […]
What a great day of teaching! MS Band played through the setting of the Jupiter Chorale, HS Band worked Flourish for Band by Vaughan Williams, and the Wind Ensemble really dug into 1st Suite by Holst (After all, The British are coming…). But that wasn’t even the best part. Thanks to the encouragement and assistance of Dr. Joseph Pisano, I […]
If you care about music education and our future as a profession, make a quick journey over to Owen Bradley’s blog (The Digital Music Educator). He has written a great blog in reaction to the movie “August Rush”. He poses a great question regarding if an individual is considered a great musician despite not having the ability to read and write music. Joe […]
I revisited a favorite story of mine from several years ago after talking with a couple of dejected students following chair auditions at Mercer. I had written this story down as part of my portfolio that I presented at Duquesne University. As much of our actual time is building students up, what happens when they get knocked down? And how […]
