Teaching the "Wire Choir" » blogs

Negligent Blogging

dlewis — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 18:56:43 +0000

Unfortunately and very obviously, I’ve been very negligent with my blog this fall. As is the case for music teachers (and teachers in general), things have been very busy. This fall, we have had Solo and Ensemble for orchestra students, All-County auditions for chorus and orchestra, All-State auditions for chorus and orchestra and preparing for our Winter Concert. Next up is our annual state music conference (a chance to recharge), All-County rehearsals and performance, followed by Festival for both chorus and orchestra. Oh, and after Christmas vacation, we start our beginning groups.

I’m not in any way complaining about the schedule. After all, I signed up for this. When I can’t do everything I want to do, it helps to remember why that is so. I am hoping that after a week of R&R for Christmas, I can write down a couple of thoughts for your consideration and input.

To all who labor hard in the field of teaching, whatever your subject area, I hope you take a few moments (better take at least a couple of days) to rest and recharge if at all possible. Your work may not be praised or even recognized by many right now, but in the years to come your students will remember your efforts and the impact you had on their lives.

Merry Christmas!

Music Education Blogs Reaching a Milestone

dlewis — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 01:49:45 +0000

Almost a year ago, at our state Music Education convention, I attended a seminar at which Dr. Joseph Pisano was the presenter. His topic was Web 2.0 and its use in Music Education. He also talked about his goal of seeing 100 Music Ed blogs by the end of 2008. Well, that goal is rapidly becoming a reality. According to Dr. Pisano, the number of music ed bloggers has reached 95. Joel, at soyouwanttoteach.com, has also put together a partial timeline of these 90+ blogs. Check both of these posts out!

If you are a music educator, consider joining the group. For more information, go to mustech.net.

A New Host

dlewis — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 19:37:19 +0000

I’ve added a new experience to my list of computer/internet related ventures, I have successfully moved my blog to a new host. A couple of hours last night and an hour or so this morning took care of it without any major hassles. Admittedly, moving Wordpress isn’t too difficult, especially when you’re keeping the same domain name. Nonetheless, I had to redirect my domain name to new nameservers and transfer the files and the databases for two blogs.

Why the move? The main reason is that with my new host I have more space and bandwidth at a lower price. My former hosting company was prompt with service requests, etc. However, dollars do count, especially when I hope to add more sound and video files as time goes on. Also, my former hosting service servers were slow and it often took a while for my pages to appear. With as light-weight as my blog is, that shouldn’t be the case.

Who is my new host? I’m now using BlueHost.com. I’ll let you know how they work out.

El Sistema: Why not in America?

dlewis — Mon, 12 May 2008 23:22:11 +0000

During a time when music in American public education is an oft endagered component, Jason Heath’s Double Bass Blog April entry highlighting the 60 Minutes segment on El Sistema and the Venezuelan National Youth Orchestra was very refreshing. I cannot imagine anyone not being very glad for the positive impact this music program is having on the impoverished young people of Venezuela. This orchestra program enables the Venezuelan young people see that there is an alternative to poverty through hard work and discipline. It shows them that there are constructive ways to express the many kinds of human emotions. In addition, the imagination, creative thinking music engenders can enable these young people to excel in a variety of fields outside of music. (See Sir Ken Robinson’s talk, entitled “Do schools kill creativity?” He refers specifically to music and arts relationship to the needs of the 21st century and future job opportunities.)

Why do we have such a hard time convincing school administrators, legislators, et. al. of the powerful impact music can have on a child’s life? What do you think?

(Related BBC Article: Venezuela youths transformed by music (2005)

Scala: A Rockin’ String Quartet

dlewis — Thu, 08 May 2008 01:35:03 +0000

I came across a video of Scala on John P.’s One Man’s Blog. Scala is a string quartet recently featured on Britain’s Got Talent. You will certainly recognize the faces on the panel if you watch any of the American talent shows. This may be something to show your string students and let them see some of the possibilities for string instruments. They are not as limited as some might have you believe.

Is it time for TI:ME?

dlewis — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 13:17:34 +0000

A couple of years ago, TI:ME was featured at the FMEA Convention. The focus of the convention was technology in music education. During one of the seminars I learned about TI:ME certification. I have given some thought to taking some of the TI:ME classes. However, while I use various types of technology in my orchestra and chorus rehearsals, my middle school does not offer any music technology classes. Nor do I think we will offer any such classes in the near future. In a time of shrinking resources, I don’t know how equipment and teacher time would be funded. I know that a number of people have taken a TI:ME course or two. What were the benefits you (and your students) gained from the course(s)? Would you take the classes even if you weren’t teaching any music technology classes? Thanks in advance for sharing your experiences and thoughts.

YouTube and Expanding Musical Horizons

dlewis — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:24:46 +0000

At the beginning of this school year, I instituted something called “Music Monday.” Every Monday, I would play a recording of a piece of music for my students. They, in turn, would respond to the selection by writing a description the piece using musical terms. We would also briefly discuss the piece, including whether or not they enjoyed it and why.

After a couple of month hiatus, I resumed the practice this past week, but with a twist. Instead of just using a CD recording, I used a clip from YouTube. Using the YouTube download tool at Tech Crunch, I saved the clip to my portable drive and projected it on screen using my LCD projector.

This idea hit me when I was visiting Evan Tobias’s blog, “Catalysts and Connnections.” The funny thing is that his post really didn’t have anything with using YouTube in the classroom. His post (inspired by another music blogger, James Frankel) was focusing on music notation software. But at the end of his post, he had a clip of Anne-Sophie Mutter playing a portion of Vivaldi’s Spring, with Herbert Von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic.

As I watched that clip, the idea hit me to give my students the opportunity to see the music being made as well as hearing the music. One of my goals is to give students the opportunity to develop a sound concept for their instrument and the orchestra as a whole. I also want to expose them to string instruments playing a variety of genres. CD’s can certainly do this. But video allows the students to go one step further and observe the musician’s concentration, his/her instrumental technique and their very personal involvement with the music.

It was a huge hit! My students really enjoyed what they saw and heard. As we discussed the clip and Ms. Mutter’s playing, they talked about technique, intonation (one of my frequent rehearsal rants), balance in the ensemble, how the music portrayed or did not portray for them the idea of spring.

Where do we go from here? I plan to play YouTube clips for each of the orchestral instruments in a variety of genres. If you have some YouTube favorites that you think would benefit my students, I would appreciate it if you would leave a link in your comments.

New List of Music Ed Bloggers

dlewis — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 16:33:41 +0000

Dr. Joseph Pisano has updated his list of Music Ed bloggers. There are 30 on the list now, about a third of the way to the 100 bloggers by Dec. 31, 2008 goal. Some of those on the list have been blogging for a while and some (like me) have recently joined in. If you have a few minutes to spare, follow the links on the list below and check out these blogs.

http://www.mustech.net
Dr. Joseph M. Pisano- MusTech.net
http://digitalmusiceducator.wordpress.com
Owen Bradley -The Digital Music Educator
http://etobiasblog.musiced.net
Evan Tobias- Catalysts & Connections
http://musiced.about.com/
Espie Estrella -About Music Education
http://jamesfrankel.musiced.net/
Dr. James Frankel- Music Technology in Education
http://weblog.siba.fi/msalavuo
Dr. Miikka Salavuo- Music Education, Technology & Social Media
http://pwhitfield.edublogs.org
Pete Whitfield- e-Learning for Music
http://www.musicedmagic.com
Chad Criswell- Music Ed. Magic
http://81.179.47.224/jon/
Dr. Jonathan Savage- Jonathan Savage
http://musictechforme.com/
V. Keith Mason- Music Tech. for Me.
http://tjweller.wordpress.com
Travis J. Weller- Composing Like Mad
http://mystro2b.edublogs.org/
Ken Pendergrass- Music is Not for Insects
http://www.soyouwanttoteach.com/
Joel- So You Want to Teach
http://stengel99.wordpress.com/
Steve Engel- Music Ed. Lounge
http://fsharpbflat.wordpress.com/
Linda Granite- Bb, F#
http://musicisfree.ning.com/
Robert Brannan- The Music is Free
http://dvzmix.wordpress.com/
Deborah Valdivia-Zwolinski- DVZ’s Mix
http://choirteachers.blogspot.com/
Kyle Gardner- Choir Teachers
http://www.pauldraper.org
Paul Draper- Draper’s Blogspot
http://johnwilborn.wordpress.com
John Wilborn- John Wilborn’s Weblog
http://iknowithink.blogspot.com
Leo Park- I Know…I Think
http://gluedtothestring.blogspot.com
Stan Haskins- Glued to the String
http://edgroves.wordpress.com
Edgar Groves- Edgar Groves’ Weblog
http://musicedtech.wordpress.com
Barbara Freedman- Music Ed. Tech.
http://tomrudolph.berkleemusicblogs.com
Dr. Tom Rudolph- Make the Most of Notation Software
http://wirechoir.dlewisweb.com
Dale Lewis- Teaching the “Wire Choir”
http://docandry.edublogs.org
Dr. Kevin Andry-Dr. Andry’s Band Blog
http://sperham.wordpress.com
Steffany Perham- Perham’s Prattlings
http://alexruthmann.com
Alex Ruthmann- Alex Ruthmann’s Blog
http://www.beatechie.edublogs.org
Carol Broos- Be A Techie:)

If you’re visiting “Teaching the Wire Choir” for the first time, leave a comment!

Not on the Test!

dlewis — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 23:42:02 +0000

My school has just finished a week of annual testing with one more day to go on Monday. It couldn’t have been more timely for me to find a piece by Tom Chapin highlighted on Debbie Cavalier’s Music, Education, and Technology Blog. Tom Chapin’s piece, Not on the Test, draws attention to the importance music and the arts plays in education. It also points out what many music educators know first hand, the diminishing support music education is getting in these days of NCLB. You can download the video or pass on the link to your booster groups, parents, and fellow educators. Please take the time to peruse Tom’s Chapin’s web site, as you will find some excellent information that supports keeping arts education as a vital part of education.

Updated List of ME Bloggers!!

dlewis — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 00:23:16 +0000

Fresh from Dr. Joseph Pisano’s Music, Education and Tech web site, mustech.net, is the latest list of ME (music education) bloggers. I’ve had a great time visiting some of these blogs and have learned a few things in the process. In my view, one of the great things about these ME Blogs, is the mutual mentoring that can take place as we learn from each other’s experiences and expertise.

Visit the blogs and enjoy!!