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After quite a long period of inactivity, the Music Education Blog Carnival is back!  Please spread the word about this endeavour by re-tweeting, subscribing to, and/or promoting this effort in anyway possible.  I, for one, am glad its back!

It’s my hope that we can continue this carnival into the future and provide an online avenue to bring together bloggersthat write great and informative posts about music, education, and technology.  This digest is part of that effort and conversation. 

This month, after a slow start, there were a number of great submissions for inclusion into this online Music Education Digest.  I hope that you all will find something interesting, new, and useful in every single one of the accepted posts.   Please remember that not all submissions are accepted for inclusion into the each Blog Carnival.  Details about the Music Education Blog Carnival may be found at the end of the post and at MusTech.Net. 

Please continue to promote this carnival by posting link to the carnival on your site or tweeting/buzzing about it!  If you missed the opportunity to be in this carnival, please consider submitting a post for the next edition (details at the end of this carnival post).

The 2010 March Music Education
Blog Carnival: 

Music Technology:

Cary Stewart presents Industrial Counter-Revolution posted at Third Stream Music Education.

Great post by Cary Stewart about the current implementation of technology in the classroom and how people still perceive, advertise, and even think about it. “Music and movement are to the software of the mind what oxygen and glucose are to the hardware of the brain. Onward, pioneers”

Brian Wis presents 25 Things About Music Teaching and Education posted at Teaching Music in the 21st Century.

Brian Wis presents a well-thought (and lengthy) about his thoughts on Teaching and music education.  Teachers, new and old, will glean something out of this fantastic post.

Doug Butchy presents Fostering Musicality and Creativity in Rehearsal posted at Confessions of a Band Director.

Doug Butchy, long time band director and musician, writes about playing expressively and exciting his students to play well.  In this article he writes about stepping back and allowing his students to make “appropriate” musical choices.

Mark T. Burke, CEO presents eLearning Will Save The Band posted at viaAcademies, Music Education News and Information.

Mark writes about the shift to e-learning as it relates to music students. “Will eLearning save the band rather than hurt it?  It’s up to each and every teacher, band director, parent and student.  We must innovate together, share ideas, discuss solutions and move forward.”

Bonnie Brown presents Dr. Robert Marzano, ICE Conference 2010 posted at Music, Teaching, Learning, and Life.

Bonnie writes, “This post outlines the keynote address of Dr. Robert Marzano at the Illinois Computing Educator’s Conference on 2-26-10.” This post contains a lot of useful “gems” with regard using technology in the classroom.

Barbara Freedman presents Hearing Loss, EQ and The Mix posted at MusicEdTech: Teach music. The technology will follow.

Barbara writes, ”How has volume impacted hearing loss the quality of the mix in today’s music.” A quick post about her thoughts on listening to how her students “listen” to music.

Theresa White presents The Week Before Break posted at Education in Music.

Theresa writes about her music class creating a BINGO-type game where she incorporated using MP3s and GarageBand.

Dr. Joseph Pisano presents Two-Track Recording Session From NJMEA-TI-ME Conference -The Definitive Collection posted atMusTech.Net

Joseph posts about one of his recent sessions at NJMEA and TI-ME during the 2010 conferences.  This post includes links to the session hand-outs, podcast, and PowerPoint of the clinic.

Music Tips:

Andy Zweibel presents Organization Tips for Music Education Majors posted at MusicEdMajor.net,

Andy writes, “These are some tips on how to manage your life as a “juggler” while getting your degree. All tips also are valid for current educators!” Andy is doing great things with music technology as an undergraduate!

Matt Fonda presents Why Does My Drumset Sound Like Foo-Joo Burgers? posted at Matt Fonda Personal Development.

Matt writes a post about Drumhead Selection, Properly Seating New Drumheads, Tuning Your Drumset with Existing or New Heads and Recording Your Drums.

Katie Wardrobe presents 11 of the Best Free Sheet Music Sites posted at musictechtips.

Kaite posts links and descriptions to the top Best Free Sheet Music Sites. -The best thing… its current!

Music Pedagogy:

Natalie Wickham presents Re-igniting Enthusiasm! posted at Music Matters Blog.

Natalie writes, “It’s easy to let the mid-winter blues set in this time of year. In the first of this 5-post series on Re-igniting Enthusiasm”.  Natalie shares how she finds hope, creativity, energy, and enthusiasm in the face of busyness and discontentment.”

Wendy Stevens presents Teaching Form to Composition Students posted at ComposeCreate.com. 

Wendy writes,  ”This is just one in a series of questions asked by music teachers about how to teach composition to music students.” Included in the article are links to other questions and answers about teaching composition.

Travis J. Weller presents Small Ensembles and the Chamber of Doom? posted at Composing Like Mad.

Travis presents a compelling article about non-traditional ensembles existing with traditional ensembles.  “I definitely think the educational climate has changed, and the impact upon our scheduling and ability to retain students in our programs is a challenge – it is constant work with our administration and guidance councilors, a lot of advocacy to parents, and good, sensible PR with the students.  That being said, I think educators are starting to look at their large ensembles differently, with an eye and ear (appropriately) towards how they can continue to make their elective ensemble a viable and interesting offering among the school curriculum.”

Janice Tuck presents Neuroscientist Urges Us To Keep Music in Schools. posted at The Music Teachers Blog.

Janice writes about a video where the director of the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern states: “Music training is not only beneficial for processing music stimuli. We’ve found that years of music training may also improve how sounds are processed for language and emotion.” Included in the post is the embedded video.

Jon Meredith presents Free interactive Voice/Theory podcast posted at Mr. Meredith’s Music Blog.

Jon writes,”These skills help the choral singer read music by identifying patterns visually and aurally.” Included is a lesson plan complete with graphics, audio, and assessment.

Photoblog presents Lessons Archive: Free Classical Guitar Lessons, Tips, and Advice | Classical Guitar Canada posted at Classical Guitar Canada, saying, “Classical Guitar Canada’s free lesson archive.”

Brandt Schneider presents Curriculum posted at Things To Come.

Brandt writes a quick post about his thought on what a typical high-school graduate should be able to do with regard to music.

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That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of Music Education Blog Carnival using our carnival submission form. 

The next edition of the Music Education Blog Carnival will be hosted by Carol Broos on April 1, 2010 – Carol Broos @ http://beatechie.com

The final issue of this school-year edition of the blog carnival will be on May 1, 2010.  If you are interested in being a host for this edition please contact me using the Contact Tab above. 

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE MUSIC EDUCATION BLOG CARNIVAL HERE

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~The new Music Education Blog Carnivalwas created and is maintained by Dr. Joseph Pisano of MusTech.netand in order to promote the great works being done by Music Education Bloggers across the Internet.  The carnival seeks to provide a free online avenue to provide useful Music Education materials and information to the, ever-increasing, Internet community.

The Music Education Blog Carnival is published on the 1st of every month and is a recognized member of the communities of blogs as indexed by BlogCarnival.com.  All writings submitted to the Music Education Blog Carnival are examined to ensure that they are valid, interesting, and related to our discussion topic(s).

Monday’s Music Quote, Joseph Pisano: “Talent is not something that an individual is born with- it’s something that is painstakingly developed over time”

The Morning Music News Follows Directly, Standby:

“Feeling” Interpreters: Well-thought post by Travis J. Weller: “This week I began researching interpretation and feeling as part of my work at Kent State.  At first glance, they seemed unrelated. However, the more I began reading perspectives of different composers and conductors, my conclusion is that great interpretation does not just recreate the composer’s intent but rather conveys feelings that the composer intended.”

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Read the rest of The Monday Morning Music Mix -Music Education News Weekly ~3-1-2010 (423 words)

Yesterday was one of the longest work days I’ve had in a long time.  I started at 6:30 a.m. and returned home at 11:45 p.m. I learned a lot about the true hearts of many young women in that time. Yesterday… I judged royalty.

While a veteran adjudicator of over 15 years, I’ve judged thousands and thousands  of art students -particularly in music.  Until yesterday, I was never a pageant judge.  In the course of one day, I judged five pageants: The 2010  Miss Moraine State,  2010 Miss Mercer County,  2010 Miss Butler County, 2010 Miss Mercer County Outstanding Teen, and 2010 Miss Butler County Outstanding teen.  I am glad I had that opportunity as it informed, enlightened, and encouraged me in many ways…

The process of judging is quite is similar, in some aspects, to most of the judging that I’ve done, the main difference in judging the Miss America pageants is that each individual is judged against themselves.  In other words, they are compared to their own ideal of what they could be/are -not the ideal of someone elses’.  It’s a little confusing before the judges training, but it works very well in this type of instance and I’m now convinced of the validity of using it for this type of pageant.

While I could write a book of what future pageant hopefuls could/should do in their interview from this experience, I wanted to write about how I was personally affected by the over-all candor and souls of these fine young women.  The women (and teens) that were competing last night were truly beautiful with regard to every aspect of their being… and that is the heart of the TRUE Miss America contestant.

During the interview process of each “Miss” candidate, from the very onset, it became apparent that the young women we were interviewing had their “acts together” and were thinking and speaking well beyond their years.   The contestants were literally asked any question that the five judge panel created and posed.  These questions came in the form of current events that happened as early as that morning to historical and philosophical beliefs that have had roots for thousands of years.   There were relevant questions about why they chose to wear something to the interview, why they picked their platform, and questions about their lifestyles and the lifestyles of others.  In all of the questioning, the overwhelming majority of these young women interviewed remarkably well and with a demeanour well beyond the “average” women of their age.

Many of the contestants remarked that no matter how the pageant turned out, that the experience itself was worth the time, energy, and journey.  Many commented about how the interview process of the pageant would help them obtain future jobs by preparing them for conversations with their future employers.  Others, when answering questions, answered with such authority and poise that, for a brief moment, it was like watching a press conference.  Even the “outstanding teens” interviewed like seasoned and veteran professionals.  It was wonderful to behold.

In a society that seems to be filled with many self-serving agendas, it is refreshing to see these young women talk about their lives and hearts as servants: this is particularly evident in their service platforms.  On more than one occasion, a contestant would talk about the deep and personal connection to their platform choice.  Without going in to much detail, some of these connections were so personal to them that they teared up while talking about them.  It was easy to see why many of them choose the platforms that they did -they were deeply connected to them and honestly wanted have some impact on their ability to do something about them.   How many young people to today take the time to research these type of pursuits?  The amazing thing about these contestants and their platform choices -most of them had been actively working for the betterment of their “cause” for years by raising money and awareness about them.  Their “platforms” were not something that they have just invented or claimed for their entry into the pageant -they believed and valued their platform as evidenced by the incredible amount of work that they had already put into them.

Because of the importance that society places on physical beauty and attractiveness, many think that all pageants are simply about physical beauty.  The Miss America pageant is different in that regard, physical beauty is just a part of the overall judging process and certainly not the only determining factor -nor the highest with regard to judging point value. 

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Read the rest of Judging Royalty -The True Heartbeat Of The Local Miss America Contestants (392 words)

Amazing YouTube Music Video Series #10: Julian Smith, Techno Jeep

Original YouTube Title:
JULIAN SMITH – Techno Jeep (Original)

Original Date Posted on YouTube:
December 13, 2009

Original Poster’s Comments:
“The sounds in this video are ACTUAL sounds from the Jeep. Everyone began rehearsing their parts 2 weeks before we shot the video. It took us 7 hours of filming to get a solid take. Enjoy!”

Number of YouTube Views of this Video at the Time of its Posting on MusTech.Net:
1,823,491

YouTube Snapshot of Video:

(Image Only, Scroll Down To Access The YouTube Video)

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Read the rest of Amazing YouTube Music Video Series #10 -Julian Smith, Techno Jeep (543 words)