Many musicians love using the word “collaboration,” a scenario that so often results in one party becoming an unpaid subcontractor experiencing minuscule gains for their sole-proprietorship for the sake of another party’s scalability and benefit. Musicians: Be wary of the words, “Let’s collaborate!” Musicians-to-musician interactions: Take time to [...]
The truth about the business So many people in the music business will want to "use" you. They will use you for your talents, understanding, and skills to bring them more "prestige" and "clout" rather than for the genuine pursuit of artistic, professional, and human excellence that culminates [...]
As the 2020-2021 school year draws to a close, many of us feel burnout, exhausted, and suffering from a lack of inspiration when it comes to lesson planning. Coupled with the inability for many of us to have "normal" performances, it can feel daunting to find a [...]
I remember playing an original song at my first open mic night. I was 17 years old and a senior in high school. Until that point, I had written some original songs that I would play around with but never felt confident with my voice or playing to [...]
Welcome to The Asterisk*, a new regular column where we’ll chat about diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in music education. An asterisk's function is to quickly give readers a baseline of knowledge so the reader can dive into content. This column aims to introduce or refresh deia concepts [...]
I am passionate about music education, specifically Popular Music Education, Creativity, and Informal Learning. So passionate, in fact, that I have written two books under my own publishing company, Steve's Music Room Publishing, and have been commissioned for a third through the Oxford University Press--yes, that Oxford University [...]
For this installment of Growing Young Professionals, we will discuss contracts with none other than Dr. Jenny Neff, Associate Professor of Music Education and Director of the MM in Music Education & Summer Music Studies Program at the University of the Arts. So, what are contracts? Most people [...]
I love gift guides. There's nothing better than someone on the internet telling me what I should buy for the people in my life! What is so great about gift guides? If you're someone like me (who does not enjoy shopping), it's nice to have a perfectly curated [...]
Like most, if not all, music institutions around the world, the lockdown resulting from COVID-19 necessitated a swift move of all of our teaching to online, and a consequent steep learning curve especially for instrumental and ensemble teachers who had never had to operate in that kind of [...]
The potential for growth when teachers listen to each of their students, help them develop their own musicality, and engage an entire group of them in active listening is just…well, the possibilities are endless. [...]