Every time I teach a voice class, I teach posture and breathing. Why? I know my students have been taught how in chorus class! But, somehow they don’t remember. What is a vocal teacher to do?

BNC Education is coming to the rescue. We are in the process of putting together our own video series on instrument and voice care. We’ll cover putting instruments together, cleaning them, basic posture and breathing techniques and more! Watch this space for videos to be coming soon. Do you have a particular issue you’d like us to address? Let us know, and we’ll add it to our production schedule.

Coming Soon: BNC Video Series! is a post from: BNC Education

Assigning mentors at the high school level to elementary students is a great way to make this connection. Just like our article about playing up last week, the high school kids gain a feeling of ownership over the process. Perhaps you have a few budding music teachers in your program? If so, then this is a great way for them to get their feet wet and teach a few things!

For the elementary kids, they get a chance to spend time with the cool kids – the ones in high school. They can make music with them, talk with them, make a friend. Most importantly, they get the opportunity to see that with study and work, they too can be musicians. This lends credence to everything the music teacher is working on at the elementary level.

In many ways, the elementary teachers’ job is the most difficult one in the chain. Everyone takes music whether they want to or not. At the middle and high school levels, it’s an elective…kids are presumably there because they want to be there. If the elementary teacher is lucky, she sees her students once per week. In that short time, she has to reteach what they’ve forgotten from the last week and introduce new material, AND get the kids excited about electives they are going to take in middle school. And by the way, make sure all the kids can read music too. I’m tired just writing about it.

The music buddy program acknowledges this and lends the elementary teacher a hand, one that gets kids excited about music and keeps the program going. And when those elementary kids get into high school ensembles, they will look forward to giving back what they received. The beat goes on.

HS to Elementary Connection: Music Buddies is a post from: BNC Education

For a little Friday Fun, check out  this video from Nick Pitera:

He’s always wanted to voice a Disney character, and in this video he pays homage to his favorites. And before you say it, yes that really is his voice! I didn’t think so at first, but after seeing a few of this guy’s other videos, I’m convinced. Enjoy, and have a great weekend!

Friday Fun: A One Man Disney Show is a post from: BNC Education

One of the things that attracted me to her blog was her section on the wiimote whiteboard. I’ve heard about these but was not sure how to really make one. I think it would be great for BNC’s training center, and I know that there are lots of music teachers who would love to have an interactive whiteboard but are firmly at the bottom of the priority list for getting one at their school. Sarah’s got an entire section on this on her site, with links and troubleshooting instructions.

For those of you who have never heard of the wiimote whiteboard, let me explain. This concept uses a simple wiimote, an LED pen and a bluetooth connection to your computer. There is an open source program you download, and once you’ve connected via bluetooth you use that software to calibrate the pen to the computer. Once done, you have turned your screen into an interactive whiteboard. The cost? About $65 at the most, and that would be assuming you have to buy all the materials. I was impressed with Sarah’s description and plans, and will be putting one of these together for our training center very soon.

Sarah shares with us the trials and tribulations of teaching music, including finding good resources and lesson plans as well as budget concerns and other things. It has often been said that music education is a lonely business – particularly in the elementary world where you are often the only music teacher in your building. Sarah’s blog brings collegiality to the Internet. I hope you check out her blog. We’ll be linking to it here.

What music education blogs do you like? Let us know and we’ll check them out!

Website Review: Urban Music Education is a post from: BNC Education

If you see the dancer spinning counter-clockwise, you are using your left brain. Left brain thinking is more analytical, concrete. If you see her spinning clockwise, you are using your right brain. Right brain thinking is more creative, intuitive, abstract. Can you make her change direction? People who use both sides of her brain can make her change direction. For some, this is a very difficult task, for others, it’s simple.

I personally tend to use one side at a time. Depending on the task I’m completing, I will use the right or left side at will. If I’m shown the dancer in the middle of a task, I have tougher time making her change direction. I can, however, make her switch if I think hard enough. Steve, on the other hand, can make her change at will. At one point, he had her flipping back and forth, not even changing direction.

Imagine if you gave your students this test. Think about all things you could learn about how they are processing information. When we ignore one side of the brain, we are potentially ignoring half the room. We are also ignoring that which might make a struggling student understand. Teaching to the whole brain makes the most sense.

Which Part of Your Brain do YOU Use? is a post from: BNC Education

Another great way to get younger students involved in your program is to let them “play up,” much like athletic programs do. Every middle school program has kids that above and beyond the capabilities of their peers. Why not let them come up and play in your marching band? Maybe you have a choral student that sings like Charlotte Church. Contact the high school director and see if she can head up to the high school for a few special rehearsals and a performance.

There are benefits for both programs. If students know they can play up early and do really cool things, it provides a motivator for practice and hard work. Bringing these younger kids up gives the older, more experienced students a chance to play mentor for the younger kids. This is powerful for the high school student. It gives them a feeling of ownership over their program, as well as the feeling that they are leaving behind a legacy of excellence. Everyone wants to be remembered. This is a great way to do it.

How do you involve middle school students in your high school program?

Playing Up is a post from: BNC Education

Amazing, isn’t it? Five little notes, and one musician transformed an entire audience of scientists into an ensemble. What is it about the pentatonic scale? Are there really certain elements of music that are part of the human condition? Look around you, and see if you can find the answer.

In elementary music classes, teachers sing to their students, starting with sol-mi patterns. It sounds very sing-song, overly simple. But everyone can do it, right? We quickly add la to the mix and before long we have five notes. Think about beginning instrumental methods. The notes of the pentatonic scale are among the first to be learned. The notes of the pentatonic scale form the harmonies that we hear every day. Ancient music traditions in Africa and the Far East are to this day based on the notes of this scale. It’s part of who we are.

Five Little Notes is a post from: BNC Education

The recorder is a great pre-middle school wind instrument. It is easy to make a sound, in fact if you aren’t careful and blow too hard, the sound is not pleasing. The fingerings for recorder are similar to those of woodwind instruments, so for perspective band students, recorder is a great tool. The music study and note work are a boon for any beginning director.  The challenge for elementary music teachers is how to get students motivated beyond Hot Cross Buns.

Recorder Karate to the rescue! Conceived by Barb Philipak and published in book form by Plank Road Publishing, recorder karate makes learning each song fun. Starting with Hot Cross Buns and progressing to Ode to Joy, each song must be played for a “belt.” When I taught recorder karate, I made little belts out of yarn that the kids tied to their instruments. I had more kids get to the end of the unit successfully with recorder karate than I did with any other method.

The next challenge – figuring out how to make this karate process work for beginning band!

Connecting Elementary to Middle School: Recorder Karate is a post from: BNC Education

We love this idea – these are the kinds of connections we’ve been making in our classrooms for years. We currently have a couple of workshops on this very subject on the schedule for this summer – check out our Professional Development Page for details. In this space on Fridays we’ll give you some great Arts Infused ideas for the different subjects. We’ll post links to websites for resources you can share with your colleagues, or if you know a particular standard is coming up, you can find a way to introduce it into your own program.

As a middle school teacher, I know that the seventh graders in my school always got to the Harlem Renaissance in February. Whether this was a coincidence or they planned it to make Black History Month plans easy, I don’t know. But I took advantage of this opportunity to spark interest and help my students learn more about this time. The Biography Channel has a great article on the Harlem Renaissance, with links and other information.

Of course for music teachers, the most important part of the Harlem Renaissance is beginning of the Jazz Age. There are so many great artists to hear and talk about! Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, Cab Calloway…the list could go on and on. The most important point to make is that the Harlem Renaissance transcended race, because you could find Cole Porter and Bing Crosby on the same stage with the artists mentioned above. That didn’t happen anywhere else.

I always culminated my Harlem Renaissance unit with an introduction to Swing Dancing. It’s a great day, the kids are on their feet, moving around and stepping on each others toes. The music is infectious and there’s lots of laughter. When possible, I got the PE classes and the 7th grade history classes involved, and we made a great event out of it. Granted, this took time away from Choral Assessment preparation, but it was a powerful connection and one that the kids didn’t soon forget.

Whether the history teachers use you as a resource or you just mention it in passing in class one day, the connection between music and historical events is too powerful to ignore. Why try?

Soundtracks: The Harlem Renaissance is a post from: BNC Education

“He’s only good for you…”

How many times have you heard or said those statements? I know I’ve said them before. Somehow, students who misbehave everywhere else in the building are great in a music class. To illustrate my point, I want to tell you a story.

I had a student once who was incredibly tough. She swaggered into my class on the first day like she owned the place. She informed me, “I’m not singing. I’m only here because no one else will take me.” I held out my hand to her and said, “I’m Mrs. F, nice to meet you. Please have a seat. We’ll decide if you’re going to sing later.” She scowled at me, swaggered over to a chair in the back, and sat down.

It took a few weeks, but by our first concert, I had her. She was singing! She was trouble everywhere. I attended more parent/teacher conferences for that child than I ever had. Every time, the parents and teachers both would ask me, “how are you managing her? She only behaves for you.” I didn’t have an answer back then.  By the end of the year, this girl was no longer getting in trouble anywhere, because getting in trouble meant missing music class. This was HUGE! I considered her to be a real success.

In retrospect, I don’t think I was the catalyst for this situation, although lots of people wanted to give me credit for it. I think it was the music. I could be talking about dozens of kids I’ve had over the years. I’m sure you all have similar stories. There’s something about music class. I truly believe that music is inherent in the human condition. We need music, much like we need the air we breathe. Give children a chance to be creative, to enjoy melody and make harmony, to build rhythm, and they get a chance to release pressure. For some people the music room is the only place they can truly be themselves. That’s everything.

As a postscript, I got an email from this student a few years after she left my program. She moved to another school district, and was still singing. In fact, she was emailing to ask my opinion on her college choices. She wanted a good music school. She wrote then, “I know I have a great director here, but you started it for me. You helped me find my true voice. Thanks for that.”

In every program in every school there are kids just like the one I describe above, kids who wouldn’t be in school if it weren’t for the music program. What a powerful advocacy story.

Music and Discipline is a post from: BNC Education