Suggests methods for music teachers to use in helping at-risk students gain confidence in electronic music composition class. Recommends that at-risk students be given leadership roles and worked with on an individual basis. Emphasizes maintaining a supportive, nonthreatening, and creative classroom environment where students can feel positive and…

Many orchestra teachers have experienced feelings of panic when they first read the National Standards and realize that the coalition standard is for performance ensembles as well as general music classes. Teachers who are responsible for starting beginners or who teach intermediate players may wonder about the feasibility of teaching composition…

Facing the ambiguous status of in-school music literacy, this follow-up eight-year study aims to touch on the effects of traditional staff notation (SN) learning on student's intuitive symbolizing behavior and musical perception. Subjects were 47 second-graders attending a religious Jewish school in Israel. One "pre-literate" meeting, in…

This paper builds on the concept that fusion--the blending of styles and traditions resulting in new or hybridised genres--takes place in social interaction in the "transformative zone" (Bresler, 2003). First I explore the issues surrounding the tension that can occur between the need, or desire, to maintain cherished traditions and the…

This article shows how to make poetry relevant to high school students. The technique involved is one in which the student is shown just those meanings which he can spontaneously relate to his emotions and interests. This synthesis can be made by using the lyrics of popular songs. The student can see the images, mood and dramatic situation of the…

General music teachers at all levels--elementary, middle school, and high school--will find ideas, suggestions, and lesson plans for teaching to the National Standards in this new addition to the popular Spotlight series. It includes sections on teaching each of the nine standards, as well as chapters about secondary general music, assessment, and…

Discusses mastery testing as a method for evaluating music education. (RK)

The author believes the goal of composing and improvising music is to become involved in the creative selection and arrangement of music, and to develop skills in self-evaluation and constructive self-criticism. He describes approaches to teaching composition through improvisation with "found" instruments. Selected readings and…

Activities are suggested to teach the basic concepts of twelve tone serial technique. Students need no prior background in contemporary music. At least two sets of resonator bars are necessary. (This article is part of a theme issue on aspects of contemporary music.) (Author/SJL)

Offers ideas for teaching musicians to be improvisors. Suggests that structure, organization, and continuity are problems that can be solved by learning to improvise. Recommends exercises in building phrases to help students acquire a sense of the developing whole. Concludes that improvisation can be taught by showing students how to teach…

"Sound2Picture" (www.sound2picture.net) is the latest stage in a series of research and development projects being conducted at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU). It documents the work of one sound designer who demonstrated a host of new skills and imaginative practices with hardware and software. The article shares aspects of…

The image of the composer as a lone seeker of creative inspiration is embedded in popular views of the creative artist. This isolationist view ignores the "thought communities" on which composers draw in their development as musicians, composers and teachers, the relationships that hold between composer-teacher and student-composer, and the role…

Although music was established as a compulsory subject in Spain by the 1990 constructivist reform, the 2002 counter-reform restricted it to lists of concepts, in a renewed encyclopaedist model for secondary schools that ignored authentic musical procedures, such as performing or composing. Contemporary adolescents, accustomed to the transmission…

A guide for teaching the essential musical elements of opera to undergraduate students is provided. The course centers around "The Marriage of Figaro" by Mozart. It is presented in four sections. In section I, students investigate type casting of opera singers in terms of the ranges of their voices. Students learn to differentiate coloratura,…

Presents activities for language arts, differentiating between a variable name and its value, creating music using PILOT, and playing LOGO games. Includes the article "Take the Turtle to School: A Child's View of Programming" by Jack McLeod. (JN)