Jazz band directors tend to face a lot of time constraints in readying their ensembles for performance. Sometimes the race to the stage can result in suboptimal playing, a rhythm section that does not quite gel, or soloists who "blow and hope"--that is, fail to put in the appropriate amount of thought before and during their…

Improvisation--the act of spontaneously creating music, as opposed to playing music that is strictly pre-composed--is a practice that has most often been taught only in the context of jazz in the classroom. But it has actually been part of many more musical traditions, cultures, and periods. Classical icons like Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven,…

Jamey Aebersold is an internationally known saxophonist and authority on jazz education and improvisation. His series of jazz play-along book and CD sets are valuable tools for music teachers, and his weeklong summer jazz workshops--now in their thirty-third year at the University of Louisville in Kentucky and thirty-seventh year overall--have had…

Orff-Schulwerk, or simply Orff, is an approach for teaching music to children that was developed in the early 1920s by the German composer Carl Orff (1895 1982) and his fellow composer Gunild Keetman. The Orff approach encompasses music and movement and is based on activities that come naturally to children: singing, clapping, and dancing. Orff…

Fiddling is a style of bowed string playing often associated with folk musicians in the Western world. Many styles have arisen in various parts of the planet, including, among others, Scandinavia, the British Isles, and the United States. String teachers can include fiddling in their classes or lessons in a way that benefits both the student and…

Standards 3 and 9 of the National Standards for Music Education charge teachers to teach improvisation as well as music of diverse cultures. Jazz is a musical style that is perfect to cover both content areas. Until now, however, jazz repertoire and improvisation have not played a major role in the education of string students. One reason is that…

Recommends elementary school projects where children design and make their own musical instruments. Maintains that this familiarizes students with the family of instruments and how they produce sound. The built instruments can be as simple as a washtub bass or as complex as an electronic synthesizer. (MJP)