Nate and Helen's new book cover If you are looking to decolonize your music room or provide a richer musical experience for your learners, “Listen & Celebrate: Activities to Enrich and Diversify Primary Music” by Nathan Holder and Helen MacGregor is a must-have. The days where learners study the “great classical composers” as the default … Continue reading Book Review – “Listen & Celebrate” by Nate Holder and Helen MacGregor
Tag: Composing
This blog post is the second in a series of posts on a song writing unit I delivered for Grade 9 English Language Arts. It is also very appropriate for a music class of any type. Please check out Part 1. 4. Quizizz As mentioned, Quizizz is an online platform with educational trivia games designed … Continue reading Figurative Language Through Song for Language Arts and Music Teachers (pt. 2)
8 Technology and Online Learning Resources from Steve's Music Room. To help with your tech or remote learning needs, I've compiled a list of blog posts from the website to help you in your endeavors. 3 Awesome Online Drum Machines 9 Ways to Use Google's Blob Opera MIDI for Music Teachers: Using MIDI in the … Continue reading 8 Technology and Online Learning Resources from Steve’s Music Room
Here are some simple actions you can take or phrases you can say or think to foster a safe place to explore and experiment with music in your general music classroom, band, orchestra, or choir classes: Things to Do If a learner has a song to play that they created and are enthusiastic about showing … Continue reading How to Create a Safe Place for Improvising and Composing
I began thinking about the concept of a “Continuum of Creativity” after watching Adam Neely’s video “Why No Rap Covers?” In the video, Adam Neely, and Ethan Hein examine the idea of why rap covers are so rare. It comes down to an unwritten rule throughout hip-hop culture that dictates, lyrically and sonically speaking, that covering (biting) other rappers is disrespectful and should not be done. Of course “covering” is common in jazz and in rock music culture, as well as a number of other Western musical traditions. As Adam points out in the video, there is a book of songs that every jazz musician needs to know how to play. In rock music, there are tribute bands devoted to copying entire recordings note-for-note.
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