Musicing

It’s been an eventful summer with family trips to the desert, the beach, the mountains, and back to the beautiful (and I really mean it) rolling hills of Northwest Missouri. Towards the beginning of the summer I took a flight out to Boston for the twentieth Mayday Colloquium (my third). We had some great presentations […]

Happy MayDay! I was just thinking of the MayDay Group today. For anyone reading this, it’s a group of/for critical theorists in music education. I learned about the group from my mentor, the late Steve Paul, during my doctoral studies at the University of Arizona. I have since chatted with a number of the group […]

We need an elementary and middle school music method that reflects the rich and complex American musical heritage without making it subordinate to elite European classical traditions. I am envisioning a method with American Roots Musicing and American Popular Musicing at the heart of instruction. Students might choose to explore elite European classical music, but […]

In his comment on a previous post, Joe wondered how to define “country” music. As I understand it, country music never has been clearly separated from other popular musics and it has always been evolving. Rather than a presentation of country music’s history, country music education might involve more of an “exploration” and “discovery.” In […]

We had a meeting of the GRIME (Gender Research in Music Education) SRIG (Special Research Interest Group) here at MENC in Milwaukee today. Patti O’Toole, the first chair of the SRIG, spoke a little bit about its history. I enjoyed her discussion very much and felt that it alone was worth the $225 conference fee […]

I grew up listening to country music–Hank Williams, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Jim Reeves, etc. Of course, we also had a good dose of American folk music. Mom played the guitar and sang; Dad played the accordion. My brothers and sisters all learned guitar and I, being the rebellious one, learned […]

Barb wrote a comment on a previous post, Kids and Microphones (thanks, Barb!) and mentioned that some colleagues disapprove of Karaoke in the music classroom. The aversion some feel towards karaoke in North American–that it isn’t considered ’serious’ music–may be related to class bias. Consider the following research article abstract:
Drew, R. (2005). ‘Once more, with […]

I came across this blog today (http://kidsmusicthatrocks.blogspot.com/) while searching for quality music for kids. There is some great stuff there. “Music for kids that doesn’t make adults want to rip their hair out.” Excellent!

In MENC’s February edition of Teaching Music, there’s an article about a Harris Poll “making the case” for music in the schools. I have tried to keep the posts very positive on this blog, but this article is hard to spin in that direction. Of course, the tenor of the article is that the Harris […]

I read some old news (50 days ago) in USA today (http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2007-11-11-van-zandt_N.htm) about Steven van Zandt’s rock curriculum that he is promoting (in partnership with MENC) for schools. Here’s a blog link to his description of the curriculum: http://blog.thehill.com/2007/11/14/bringing-rock-n-roll-to-the-classroom/
I have to admit that I have mixed feelings. I like the idea of children exploring their […]