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 [...]
Like many other music teachers, I am in the strange position of being a (sudden) virtual teacher. On March 12th, 2020, the governor for our state of Pennsylvania held a press conference in which he announced the immediate shutdown of all schools in Montgomery County, the county in [...]
Are you a songwriter? Do you want to be a songwriter? I've thought a lot about songwriting this past year. Last spring, I taught a course at Temple University for undergraduate music education majors called collaboration and creativity. One of the assignments was to write a song. For [...]
I still remember the day that my graduate advisor casually mentioned that Britt Daniel was her step brother. My jaw must have dropped on the floor as she responded, "What? Do you know him?" DO I KNOW BRITT DANIEL? If there was a soundtrack to our home, it [...]
When my husband and I decided to stay in Philadelphia after graduating from college, we always got the same questions: "Are you going to stay in the city long term?" "What will you do when you have children?" "Where will you send your kids to school?" In our [...]
Have you taken the enneagram test? It’s basically a personality test. The idea underpinning the test is that each person has certain personality traits that are inborn, and can be boiled down to 9 specific types of personalities. I took the enneagram a few months ago thinking it [...]
While we are in the business of selling eBooks, it doesn't mean that we don't love our physical books! During my 12 month teaching sabbatical last year, I had more time to read, discover, and write. I've taken some of my favorite books and placed them on [...]
There was a subtle but noticeable change when I received my PhD. I was not treated the same. I noticed parent emails were slightly more forgiving, and my opinion seemed to be more valuable than before those three letters followed my name. I noticed a similar change with [...]
A few weeks ago, I was on a Facebook forum for music teachers. Someone posed a question about popular music education—the essence of the post was prodding at the philosophy of music educators and whether or not they view popular music as a valid area of study. And, [...]
The other day, I was talking to my students about creativity. I find it interesting that many of them think that musical creativity is synonymous with the ability to play an instrument. "No!" I said. "If you asked me to create on the trumpet, I might struggle because [...]