For those to whom the trombone is not a principal instrument, the question of slide positions can be a challenge when teaching beginner students. This website provides a helpful listing of slide position charts for a wide range of the trombone family.
Although this is not a specific music site, I think it is still valuable for music education. Classrooms should always have positive and inspirational posters in their rooms. I print many of her printable to hang around my classroom.
ClassDojo is a classroom management website that allows the teacher to create a profile for each student to give them positive and negative feedback on behavior. Parents can log in at any time to see how their students are doing in class!
Excellent tool to use, especially when classroom teachers are already using it. It is like a FaceBook page for your class. You can easily message parents, post videos and updates, and keep track of behavior (positive and negative).
I think it is commonly understood that it's important to do your research on the district/school/job for which you're applying before you go into the interview at all. The question time at the end is where your preparation, or lack thereof, can become most apparent! You don't want to ask a question that can easily be answered through an internet search.
This is a great opportunity to showcase your knowledge about different teaching methodologies (like Orff, Kodaly, MLT etc) even if the interviewers don't know what you're asking!
I like this question better than "what will my schedule be like?" because it suggests that you're wanting to know how much time you'll have with each class to cover everything, rather than wondering what your workload will be like.
It would also help to know what your students are capable of bringing to the table. My students now can't stay after school, so everything is during prep time.
The purpose of this blog is to collaborate with other musicians about issues dealing with performance, creativity, developing ones career, and (most importantly) technology. There are blogs that allow readers to interact with each with the objective being to gain perspective on other musicians point of views.
The blogs includes monthly newsletters, different tags for information such as performance anxiety and music career guidance, benefits on recording music, how to practice with a positive mental attitude, and how to talk to audiences as well as how to not talk to them. This information is for the public to view and gain insight on their goal towards becoming a better musician and educator.
This website gives the user practice in note names,key signatures, intervals, and major and minor triads in root and inverted position. The website also gives you practice on note identification on the guitar.
This website is a source of information for the Alexander Techinique, which has to do with body positioning and the habits people fall into. There are resources specifially for musicians on this site. I am interested in learning more so that I can apply some of these techniques in my choral and general music classrooms.
SingWise teacher, Karyn O'Connor addresses many current issues in vocal music education. She presents both sides of an argument, and backs her position with evidence.
IHSMA is the hub for music education in the state of Iowa. IHSMA runs state functioned events such as Large group festivals (marching band, concert band and choir, jazz band and choir, show choir), solo and ensemble contest, and the All-State Music Festival. IHSMA provides guidelines and rules directors should follow regarding all of these events. IHSMA also provides professional development for all music educators across the state, regardless of position.
The American String Teachers Association is filled with helpful resources for string teachers specifically. The "teaching resources" page includes tips for working on string specific content such as bowing technique and left and right hand position.
This site includes scale sheets, rhythm charts and bowing examples for orchestra students and teachers. I have used this site with my school students and private students.
Useful and mostly free teaching materials and other resources for:
school orchestra directors, private studio teachers, future string teachers and college methods classes, string players of all ages for self-study.
Gabriel Villasurda offers a number of free resources for string education. His finger patterns are invaluable for improving intonation in a variety of keys.
StringSkills.com is a place for teachers to be able to look up different finger patterns for all four instruments. There are sheets for shifting to help the student to become fluent and relaxed while shifting and playing in different positions. There are also rhythm, one to two octave scales and sight reading. Each of these have a free download of work sheets that teacher and students can access online to work on in class or practice at home.
StringSkills.com is a place for teachers to be able to look up different finger patterns for all four instruments. There are sheets for shifting to help the student to become fluent and relaxed while shifting and playing in different positions. There are also rhythm, one to two octave scales and sight reading. Each of these have a free download of work sheets that teacher and students can access online to work on in class or practice at home.
This site provides several pieces that focus on certain musical performance skills. The resources are in the form of downloadable sheetmusic. This is a great site for honing in on one specific skill being taght at a time. Most teachers use method books in lesson, which are of course very beneficial but may not put enough emphasis on a specific musical concept. This site has music in several categoires including finger patterns, shifting, and rhythm to name a few. Some of the categories have downloadable curricula as well, making it a great guide for novice teacher or even experienced teachers looking for new materials to work with.
StringSkills.com is an excellent free resource for string teaching materials. Compiled by Gabriel Villasurda, this site contains fingering charts/suggestions, rhythmic practices (and crazy tunes to help reinforce the learning) as well as bowing techniques, scales and shifting. There are even challenge pieces to be played on one string. Definitely worthwhile for string teachers.
This website has free, downloadable exercises that address many string techniques. There are exercises for bowings, finger patterns, scales of varying difficulties, shifting, rhythm, and key signatures. This could be a great resource to push students from a beginner/intermediate level to being able to play advanced repertoire that involve complex rhythms, articulations and key areas. I would like to use this for upper middle school students to prepare them for high school instrumental programs.
This site contains a variety of teaching materials for violin, viola, cello, and bass. Topics include finger patterns, scales, shifting, bowings, and rhythm.
This website is a resource full of exercises and sheet music for string instruments. There are scales, shifting exercise, and simple songs for students to download and play. There are also piano accompaniments for students to play along with for many of the pieces.
This website is a resource full of exercises and sheet music for string instruments. There are scales, shifting exercise, and simple songs for students to download and play. There are also piano accompaniments for students to play along with for many of the pieces.
This string specific website has lots of great resources for working on different skill-sets. I particularly like this for the finger pattern exercises and rhythmic reading tunes. This helps to work on rhythm, intonation, sight-reading, and scale work.
This website is a comprehensive resource for string teachers which includes etudes, scale sheets, bowing resources, and more. Many resources are available for printing and sharing directly with students.
A meta-analysis of 400 music studies found that listening to music has the ability to reduce anxiety, fight depression and boost the immune system.
Participants were also evaluated on something known as the Music in Mood Regulation scale, or MMR. According to the MMR, the way individuals regulate their mood with music can be divided into seven categories: Entertainment, Revival, Strong Sensation, Mental Work, Solace, Diversion and Discharge.
The latter three categories (Solace, Diversion and Discharge) are all ways in which individuals can use music to regulate negative emotions.
This article discusses the positive and negative impact music can have on a person's emotional state. The article mentions and describes three of the seven categories that individuals use to regulate their mood. It also discusses how music can impact the brain and its functioning abilities.
This is a podcast designed to help band directors who are not clarinet players, or clarinet players looking for resources. It dives in the solving clarinet problems including tone, hand position, tonguing, and much, much more.
Educator David Pope aims to provide his audience with effective strategies for selecting repertoire that compliments their ensembles. His list includes but is not limited to setting realistic expectations, knowing the demographics of your ensemble, determining the curricular goals or outcomes to be achieved through the repertoire, and connecting with each student; additional information pertaining to each of these four strategies, especially their impact on the repertoire selection process, has been summarized in the article as well.
Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: Auditions is a blog article by Marie Grass Amenta about a man who began his career as a demanding and emotionless choir director. His interpersonal skills were non-existant with his choir. After self-reflection he soon discovers this is not really who he is. A young girl who auditioned for his choir was seen crying afterwards and he decided he can't pretend to be someone he isn't. That experience was a life-changing moment after which he left his current position and went to a community chorus and is now in a more relaxed, enjoyable environment for all.
String Pedagogy Notebook is a website created by Michael Hopkins. It contains resources for teachers to help students learn basic and extended string techniques, how to program a concert, and games to help prepare students to start playing. He also has a companion Youtube channel for this website. It is an excellent resource.
This website is a guide to string technique for students. Students and parents can find help with technique for each stringed instrument. Some of the categories addressed on the website include: posture, bow hold, left hand position, bow strokes, and vibrato.