Missa Solemnis – Beethoven
As part of my Conducting Style and Analysis class this semester, we are required to keep a listening journal for a required listening list of about 35 choral pieces. I thought these would be perfect to share as Noteworthy Pieces, as well as give me another medium in which I can develop my writing about music. The piece on the list is Beethoven’s “Missa Solemnis.” I found a great recording of Leonard Bernstein conducting the Concertgebouw Orchestra performance of this piece. I love the dynamics in this piece, because I feel they are both appropriate and unexpected at the...
Read More#MusEdChat Reflection – Getting Students to Connect to Repertoire
I had a lot of fun moderating the #MusEdChat Monday night, mostly because the topic chosen was one I forgot I submitted! (Ah…she comes clean!) The topic was: What are some ways to make personal connections between students and their repertoire? How can we help everyone relate? This subject highly interests me because I live for rehearsals that focus on getting the entire ensemble on the same page regarding motivation and emotion. In my experiences from student directing, I always strived to get the group communicating the same story or feeling on each piece. My philosophy is that if the...
Read MoreReview – Music Teaching Resources
The timing of this review is quite ironic! For the last few weeks I have been coming home from teaching guitar lessons thinking, “I should really write out a general curriculum, or print out chord sheets.” I don’t know about you, but I always start off my lesson “seasons” very organized and on top of things, and then after a few months I’m a little busier and on the disorganized side of the spectrum. And suddenly, I find a Twitter message from Robert Hylton who provides resources for music teachers on his website: MusicTeachingResources.com. He was asking...
Read MoreBass Fever
While I was wandering around YouTube over the weekend I came across this INCREDIBLE double bass quartet, Ace of Bass, and had to share the video. The piece is by a Polish bassist by the name of Boguslaw Furtok, who I was previously unfamiliar with prior to hearing this video (seeing this video?) but am now highly interested in reading further! Double bass is just one of those instruments that has to be played so well in a group in order to avoid sounding like angry elephants. I’ve heard great solo playing…but this really takes the win. I’ve been using YouTube as a stereo repeating their...
Read More“The Ocean” – by the John Butler Trio
Prepare to have your mind blown. Seriously. The first time I saw this video I was convinced he was the only person in the world that could actually say they play the guitar. I’ve never heard a guitar SPEAK like this before. At first, probably to make myself feel better, I thought, “He is using an opening tuning…that’s cheating!” I’ve never been a fan of Drop D tuning because I feel like it’s the “easy” way out to playing power chords, which I’m also not entirely a fan of either. However, I learned that John Butler’s tuning was a bit more creative; it’s a C Major...
Read More#MusEdChat Reflection – Nurturing Gifted and Talented Students in Music Ed.
Interesting #MusEdChat this week! Topic: What strategies work best for nurturing and extending Gifted & Talented students in our Music Education? This is a subject that I’m not too familiar with, and I can’t say it ever crossed my mind that there were different approaches to teaching gifted and talented students. I can best relate this to my orchestra days. I remember some pretty talented kids in high school that were incredible at their instruments. Thinking about it now, by playing and learning in the same environment, those players got to utilize their talents while other students...
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