The F-flat Books Blog is a community-run blog exploring a variety of topics in music teaching and learning.
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Popular Music Education in India
Indian Popular Music: Defined In India, popular music is Bollywood music! New Bollywood songs are #1 in the list of favorite genres in India, followed by old Bollywood songs and other regional music, while international Pop music is at #5 (ifpi 2019, p. 25). Contemporary Bollywood music producers have been combining western popular music with Indian traditional music to evoke cultural connections that shape this unique genre of music. For this very reason, popular music education in India, though available in limited forms, strives to create versatile music [...]
Music Service Learning Update: Week 6
Crescendo Orchestra Senior Project - Written by Nicole Faiola Madeleine Robinson started working with Music Service Learning in conjunction with her senior honors capstone project at West Chester University of PA. Honors college members at WCU must work on a 150-hour personal project that fulfills a community need and includes a means of sustainability once the student graduates. Maddie, a music education major with a keyboard focus and love for orchestra, created her project to work with the Crescendo Orchestra. The Crescendo Orchestra, located in Phoenixville, PA, provides [...]
Shifting Focus: What I learned during distance learning
“Okay, that’s it! Anyone who has questions can stay on the call; otherwise, you are free to go. I miss you all! Have a wonderful summer!” (double waves and beams) This was how I ended my last 7th-grade choir class of the year. It took place on Zoom, there was almost no singing involved, and a handful of students never turned on their cameras. I wasn’t feeling like my most effective teacher-self. A few of the regulars stayed on the call to chit chat, as did another student, [...]
Music Service Learning Update: Week 5
Creating an Online Resource Database - written by Julia McBride Since mid-March, Julia has been fortunate enough to work as an MSL Helper. It has been an amazing source of volunteering opportunities and connection building in the midst of online learning. Before COVID-19, Julia was in the midst of student teaching where she was enjoying several weeks of working in a middle school music placement. Soon after quarantine began, she learned about MSL and knew that she needed to get involved. One of the first projects Julia had [...]
Integrating Entrepreneurial Technology into the Music Curriculum
Integrating Entrepreneurial Technology into the Music Curriculum The term “music technology” is a vague identifier for a subject that tends to be lumped into the “other” department of study in collegiate and high school-level music programs. Common lesson plans in a music technology course include composing electronic music, recording music, and arranging music on a notation software program. I would like to augment this approach and put music technology into a larger scope. Music technology should include not only the technology to create music but additionally, the technology [...]
Music Beyond the Classroom: Interview with producer and entrepreneur, Louric Oshay
For the next installment of our Music Beyond the Classroom series, we caught up with Louric Oshay, owner of The Oshay Music Group, LLC and accomplished producer, engineer, beatmaker, and educator. Louric and I connected over of our education (we both attended Temple University at the same time) and I love reading about how he moved from educator to entrepreneur, using one to inform the other. Want to know more about how you can take a workshop with Oshay or purchase his beats? Click here. Tell us about [...]
Why we tell the story
Last night, our music department premiered a virtual concert on YouTube. It consisted of virtual performances, testimonials from students, and individual performances. When the show ended, I received an email from one of my administrators. He shared his gratitude for our students and their work and reminded us that this is why we do what we do: to connect and to celebrate. What was shared last night was not new or surprising to us as music teachers. We know that our students are composing, writing songs, and practicing challenging [...]
Music Service Learning Update: Week 4
YouTube Clean-Up - written by Lea Wehnau This week, we are highlighting the work of Lea Wehnau and Mae Prasch. Together, they took on a project request from Kelly Rocchi, the choral director at Nazareth Area High School. Lea, Mae, and their project mentor, Dr. Craig Denison, met via Zoom with Kelly to discuss the details of her project request. Kelly had been uploading “The Mrs. Rocchi Show” to her YouTube account, but she also wanted to be able to upload projects from her students. In addition, she [...]
The sum of the parts: My experience creating a virtual ensemble
I've never had a "traditional" view of my orchestra classroom. Perhaps this is due in part to the fact that I am a non-traditional orchestral director. While that may be a story for another time, it's important to note that I have always strived to make my music classroom a music laboratory. Sometimes, this is successful. Other times, it isn't. (You can read more about my approach to orchestra in the book, The Learner-Centered Music Classroom: Models and Possibilities) When our school shut down due to COVID-19, so many [...]
Music Service Learning Update: Week 3
Kindergarten Home-School Help - written by Lea Wehnau This week, we are featuring a project for the younger students! This project called “Kindergarten Home-School Help” was requested by a mother named Ms. Rippley. Ms. Rippley reached out to MSL because she has a kindergarten-aged son at home and she wanted to continue his arts education until the school could supply lessons and activities. She didn’t know what music lessons fit in the kindergartener’s curriculum and needed help developing music lessons that were practical for her to implement at [...]
May we remember
We texted, we called, we made jokes, we became angry and defiant, and then we paused and realized it wasn’t a game. It was real. The classroom and traditional education as we knew it, was stopping - at least in person. We were stepping into a pandemic and this was no snow day. We were angry, in denial, and ran forward and backwards through the stages of grief. In the panic of it all, some jumped in and blindly grabbed at the onslaught of free online technology to [...]
Music Service Learning Update: Week 2
Elementary Honors Choir Alternative - written by Theresa Sharp Like so many of us, Aubree Windish, a student teaching supervisor at West Chester University, had to face events being cancelled this past month. She was supposed to guest conduct the PMEA District 4 Fifth Grade Chorus Fest. This is an event that students had been preparing for and looking forward to for a while. Before it was officially cancelled, Aubree sought out ideas to provide students with an experience that would still be valuable to them through music-making. [...]