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This article describes a project in which contemporary music is studied and created in primary-school classrooms in the presence of a composer. Listening to and analyzing a composer’s works fosters musical creation processes in students, who subsequently present and discuss their works in a meeting with the composer. Finally, the students’ works are performed in public in a concert for children from various participating schools. We describe the project design and offer reflections based on the perspective of one of the participating teachers, as well as enumerate some of the benefits/implications of projects like this.

This article presents an approach to music listening that creates spaces for critical literacy, inviting music educators to consider critical literacy practices when listening and responding to music. We begin with a discussion of critical literacy pedagogy in the context of music education followed by a sample flexible lesson plan that uses critical literacy as a framework to guide a music-listening experience. We then outline research-based critical literacy strategies used to frame the design of the learning experience. Through critical literacy listening, students can learn to recognize explicit and implicit messages presented in musical selections and construct new understandings that allow them to enter into a dialogue with the musical text.

This article explores a strategy for engaging ensemble members in critical listening analysis of performances and presents opportunities for improving ensemble sound through rigorous dialogue, reflection, and attentive rehearsing. Critical listening asks ensemble members to draw on individual playing experience and knowledge to describe what they hear. Focused discussion revolves around key issues that music directors consider during daily rehearsals: tonal quality, balance, blend, articulation, accuracy of performance, interpretation, musicality, and much more. An important component of critical listening is teacher monitoring of repeated listening exercises: A short listening is immediately followed by discussion and then another short listening. Questions guide the discussion, which becomes richer and more focused as students compare/apply their musical understandings with their aural perceptions and then demonstrate with performance. Though written from the standpoint of a typical public school music ensemble rehearsal, the critical listening concepts can transfer to any musical tradition where listening skills and collective performance are emphasized.

Interpersonal relationships are fundamental to learning and human development. To develop a positive and safe classroom environment with student motivation and learning, music educators need to learn to relate and connect effectively with others. This article looks at the importance of the interpersonal relationships in the classroom environment and provides tips for active teachers to improve these relationships and for preservice teachers to observe and reflect on during preparation. As music teachers, the manner in which we connect and relate to our students will teach them much about the art of music but also the art of being a compassionate and caring human being.

Active music listening is a creative activity in that the listener constructs a uniquely personal musical experience. Most approaches to teaching music listening emphasize a conceptual approach in which students learn to identify various characteristics of musical sound. Unfortunately, this type of listening is rarely done outside of schools. This article establishes a framework for teaching music listening as creative by maximizing students’ individual and diverse ways of listening.

Research conducted on the development of expressive performance capabilities suggests that children can learn to demonstrate expressiveness in their music-making. Expressivity includes musical interpretation, performance technique, and musical and personal creativity. This article examines creativity as an important component of musical expressivity in relation to (1) musical structures, (2) the emotions and sensations evoked by music, and (3) communication with ensemble members and the audience. Included are practical examples and ideas for teachers to help their students learn about performance expressivity on instruments and with voice, along with exercises to help them become creatively expressive performers.

The value of joy in music education through composing (interrelated with performing, improvising, and listening) is proposed. Two types of joy experienced by the composer are discussed: cognitive emotion, or emotion in response to thought; and emotional cognition, or thought centered on emotion. While the Western classical tradition can effectively bridge to other musical traditions when approached joyously and ecumenically in whatever musical traditions teachers and students are immersed, composing constitutes a powerful means of knowing joy and a metaphor for music education.

In an increasingly connected world, our students are listening to and making music outside the school context. As music educators, we need to better understand the media they use and incorporate this technology in our daily teaching to enhance music literacy in our classrooms.

This article provides guidance for music teachers who want to introduce Korean folk music to their students. It introduces Arirang—both a specific folk song and a category—and describes three different versions: the “Miryang Arirang,” the “Jindo Arirang,” and the “Gyeonggi Arirang.” The “Arirang” tune appears in many social contexts that can be shared with students; these examples show how well known the form has become worldwide. In addition, Arirang songs have rhythms and lyrics that lend themselves to being taught through a rich variety of listening and performing activities; they can also provide opportunities for student composition and improvisation. The article includes suggestions for presenting “Arirang” in the music classroom.

Tablet computers, engaging and dynamic teaching and learning tools, are increasingly prevalent in K–12 schools and university settings. To help music educators make informed technology choices for their classrooms, this article contains preservice teachers’ reflections on how they used iPads to enhance their musicianship, teacher preparation, and/or work with students in their practicum or student teaching placements. Categories of use include rehearsal/performance assistance, creating music, teaching instruments, providing virtual instruments, audio/video recording, listening resources, and organizational support. Teaching suggestions, lists of recommended apps, and potential sources of funding for the purchase of tablet computers are included.

Among the elements required to develop a comprehensive understanding of music is students’ ability to perceive, recognize, and label the harmonies they hear. Harmonic dictation is among the strategies that teachers have traditionally chosen to help students develop harmonic awareness. However, the highly idiosyncratic ways that students approach harmonic dictation have often left music teachers at a loss for well-developed strategies to make this task transparent for students. To help students develop harmonic awareness, this article presents (a) a system of singing arpeggiated chords to guide and increase student accuracy through harmonic dictation exercises, (b) a set of part-writing procedures to help students organize common part-writing strategies, (c) a review of research supporting these strategies, and (d) potential applications of this model in large-ensemble instruction. The ultimate goal of this article is to help teachers demystify the process of teaching harmonic dictation while increasing their ability to use singing and dictation as tools to improve students’ musicianship.

The Aural Learning Project (ALP) was developed to incorporate jazz method components into the author’s classical practice and her applied woodwind lesson curriculum. The primary objective was to place a more focused pedagogical emphasis on listening and hearing than is traditionally used in the classical applied curriculum. The components of the ALP for the applied studio are (1) listening to at least two professional recordings of the works currently being studied and analyzing the performances, (2) recording projects with a written evaluation of the performance, (3) SmartMusic practice, (4) memorization and transcription projects, (5) assigned readings and research on works studied, and (6) composed and improvised warm-up and technique exercises. This article is a report on the project and a description of its implementation and assessment.

Teaching musical vocabulary in a middle school general music class can often be challenging to the performance-based teacher. This article provides several teaching strategies for approaching words from both a theoretical and a practical standpoint. Based on a dialectical “this-with-that” approach by Estelle Jorgensen, this article argues that general music vocabulary is best learned when vocabulary lessons focusing on word meanings and relationships are presented alongside listening activities focusing on vocabulary application. Three sections include general acquisition strategies for vocabulary, an examination of Standard 6 in the National Standards as an indicator for suitable middle school music vocabulary, and techniques that integrate vocabulary into listening assignments.

One challenge for music educators is to find techniques to help students “listen across time” to the examples they are assigned to study and to stay focused on a piece as they listen. Measurement tools to assess music listening have a long history, ranging from very simple to very complex, and very dated to very recent. This article traces the development of the Continuous Response Digital Interface (CRDI) device and reviews its use in music education research, with suggestions for how general music teachers can apply this research in their classrooms.

Teachers who conduct ensembles of any ability level know that many skills are required for students to successfully participate. Often neglected or overlooked are the skills that students must have to interact musically with their peers. This article focuses on listening as a way to help make successful ensemble collaboration a reality. The method comprises three levels of listening that provide structure for student interaction in an ensemble rehearsal. Interaction is divided into three levels driven by what students hear, giving students the ability to organize an overwhelming number of possibilities into manageable segments. Based on peer teaching research as well as real-life application, this article addresses the ability of teachers to shape a participant structure where all students are given the chance to have a voice and develop individual ownership. By giving individual students and peers the opportunity to solve musical problems, the traditional teacher-centered power structure of the typical ensemble rehearsal is redefined. The benefit of raised awareness based on listening and musical interaction in a rehearsal can also fuel creative development in other areas of the music curriculum, such as composition and evaluating music and performance.

B rrring! The sound of the end-of-the period bell pierces through the band's playing, creating a startling, jarring dis sonance with the notes of the piece. By condi tioned reflex, the students cease playing at the sound of the bell, and all quickly rise to pack up and leave the band room before the next bell. The director raises her voice over the de parture din to remind the players to practice the movement they had just been rehearsing and that their field trip permission slips are due tomorrow. Few students hear these final words as they stampede out to avoid being late for the next period. Sound familiar? How about this one? Brrring! Same school, same music depart ment, same bell signaling the beginning of the next period. In the adjacent rehearsal room, the choir teacher opened the classroom door at the bell, stepped to the doorway, and stands awaiting the arrival of his students. Music is playing on the classroom sound system, fill ing the room with a recording of a work by the composer of one of the incoming choir's repertoire pieces. Chairs are arranged in an organized manner. The choral folder cabinet is near the door for easy pickup and return of folders. Posted on the board is a written rehearsal agenda containing the order of the pieces to be rehearsed and that day's target objective for each piece. Next to the posted agenda are the words DO THIS NOW fol lowed by the cue "Be ready to discuss how this recording illustrates the dynamic con trast we are seeking in our own piece by this composer." As the students enter and retrieve their folders, the teacher greets each by name with eye contact and a smile and reminds each to attend to the "DO THIS NOW" cue on the board. When the start-of-the-period bell rings, all choir students are seated and provi sioned, as well as aurally, visually, and men tally focused. During the first minutes of the period, the teacher asks students to respond to the listening focus question, getting many to speak about what they heard and how it connects to the upcoming rehearsal. These two anecdotes are identified as

Saren, a veteran elementary general music teacher, recently looked at her school district curriculum guide and thought about an engaging way to teach the concept of program music-the idea that music can represent other things-to her third graders. She remembered examples of program music that they had already experienced that she could relate to the current topic. She jotted down Peter and the Wolf by Prokofiev as a work to mention to the students to remind them that they had already encountered an example of program music. She looked at her old plan books and noticed that her third graders had covered Peter and the Wolf in the first two weeks of October in the first grade. Unless something unusual happened, her students always experienced Peter and the Wolf during those first two October weeks of their first-grade year. When the day came to introduce program music, she mentioned Peter and the Wolf and asked the students what they remembered about it. Only one student remembered it. That particular student owned the recording and enjoyed listening to it with her younger brother at home. None of the other students could remember the story or any of the characters with their corresponding instruments. At the time, Karen moved on with her lesson without giving it much thought. Her lesson on program music included many engaging recorded examples, and she was thrilled that the students could guess the animal, story, or event behind many of the pieces they heard. Later, as she was reflecting on the success of the lesson, she thought again about Peter and the Wolf This lesson had been equally effective when she had taught it to the students as first graders. Why had none of the students remembered it? Would they remember anything about her current lesson when they were in fifth grade?

www.mej.sagepub.com With the evening engulfed in the Texas heat, the arena was filled with the scents of fajitas and tortillas. It was enveloped by the sounds of the dancer's feet shuffling side to side; the musicians playing accordion, guitars, and drums; and with singing, laughter, applause, and gritos (loud shouts and hollers) made by the audience, which included family and friends visiting and reconnecting. Near the stage, a crowd of Tejanos' stood singing, moving, and listening to the conjunto group housed in an outdoor arena. In the arena, an expansive dance floor contained couples of all ages shuffling and gliding side to side to the music. They were spinning and twirling each other to the music as they all flowed seamlessly in a community circle that was propelled by the musical performance. Juan Tejeda and Avelardo Valdez described a similar conjunto event:2

Learning by Doing Student-centered instruction is a form of active learning where students are engaged and involved in what they are studying. In the United States, this concept was first described around 1900 in the context of con structivism. As a teaching method, construc tivism goes back to at least the work of edu cation reformer John Dewey and Russian developmental psychologist Lev Vygotsky. According to one definition, constructivism states that students learn more by doing and experiencing rather than by observing.1 If, for example, one wants to learn about the saxophone, he or she will learn more by play ing the saxophone than by listening to and reading about the saxophone. Educators Jacqueline Grennon Brooks and Martin G. Brooks describe the value of allowing student responses to steer lessons and create instruc tional strategies. They recommend asking questions and leading students to solutions rather than simply giving answers, with the goal of nurturing students' natural curiosity.2 Put simply, student-centered instruction is when the planning, teaching, and assessment revolve around the needs and abilities of the students. The teacher shares control of the classroom, and students are allowed to explore, experiment, and discover on their own. This does not mean that the students are in control of the classroom, but rather that they have some influence in the deci

Plato said in his Republic, "Music is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul."1 As musicians, we know this to be true. As music educators interested in music from traditions other than our own, we see this music as a window into the soul's expression in another culture. Performing music of another culture can give us a direct, visceral experience that listening alone cannot. If music is to function as a bridge between cultures, as performers we must be ready to move out of our comfort zones and experience music in a completely new way. The root of the word "culture" is the Greek word kultus, meaning "belief." The musical expressions of a culture come from the shared beliefs of that culture. Therefore, "multiculturalism" involves multiple beliefs, some of which will be different from those we hold in our native culture. In a musical context, these beliefs influence things such as what makes good singing technique, the proper time and place to perform a certain piece, who should sing a certain piece, what constitutes a good musical arrangement, and other issues of performance practice, language, and even religious beliefs.

istening to music is a daily event for most young people. Many adolescents devote hours to their personal music libraries. Yet when asked to describe the music they listen to and collect, they are hard-pressed to say more than "I like it" or "It's got a great beat." For them, musical listening is an intuitive experience, one that reflects moods and memories, fashion and fun. Some philosophers consider music a mostly "felt experience," which means that musical thinking does not require verbal thinking. Bennett Reimer, for example, has written that language "need not be and typically is not applied to the sounds we are engaged with in musical experience."' But Reimer also tells us that discussion in the music classroom that helps us to "know why, [is] probably the most neglected aspect of music education."2 We need language to pursue this sort of discussion. Equipping students with the skills and language to discuss, describe, and defend music they know and like, as well as music that is new and different, is an essential aspect of music teaching. The music classroom is the perfect setting for investigative and imaginative inquiry-for teaching students how to talk about music. Because dialogue that is done well is too dynamic (dare we say

As many children as possible should be exposed to jazz. Nearly all public school students have music education in the elementary grades. Therefore, elementary general music classes would seem to be the most likely place for all students to be exposed to jazz styles and to come to understand the genre. However, as a teacher of elementary general music, you already face a daunting task: "Music for every child, and every child for music," regardless of time, resources, ability, or training. How can you feasibly be expected to do one more thing? Anything added to the curriculum is done so at the expense of something else. What can you get rid of from the curricular shelf to make space for jazz? Can you really justify not emphasizing singing mastery, or reading skills, or playing recordings, or providing instrument experience, or listening to time-tested works? How can you give students a

M a yany teachers have a tremendous natural passion for jazz, which holds a respected place in any comprehensive general music curriculum. Active student listening experiences can involve authentic jazz sources that are accurately set within their historical and cultural contexts.1 When pursuing these music-teaching goals, teachers should consider important questions: Why is jazz exciting? Is it the unique combinations of musical sounds or the improvisations that are more intriguing? More importantly, what is the best way to share with students this excitement about a uniquely American musical genre? What teaching methodologies encourage them to learn more about the rich historical context and artistic milieu in which jazz has been and continues to be created by a diverse array of unique personalities? The following observations by a veteran general music teacher may sound familiar: children's literature

How can music educators best help youngsters learn to listen? Wendy Sims offers some guidelines for effective teaching.

The instrumental rehearsal makes learning listening skills not only possible but necessary. Using specific examples, James Byo shows how to promote active, thoughtful listening in your students.

An understanding of how students develop listening skills also requires an understanding of the sense of hearing. Alice-Ann Darrow explains how the ear and the brain work together to make music listening possible.

In this overview of recent research on music listening, Steve Hedden presents some ideas that may help teachers improve listening instruction in their classrooms.

How comprehensive should responsible arts education be? Paul Haack explains why, in addition to teaching about the objective properties of music, music educators should openly address the subjective, “feelingful” side of music listening.

The task of fostering better listening skills and a deeper understanding of music becomes easier with an understanding of how students describe the music. Patricia J. Flowers introduces the subject of listening with a discussion of how teachers can encourage meaningful music description.

Many high schools in the U.S. offer Advanced Placement (AP) courses in music theory for students wishing to study music at the college level.' Others devote part of the music curriculum to theory and aural-skills instruction, but do not offer AP courses. In either case, high school theory and aural-skills courses typically strive to cover all, or part, of the material presented in first-semester college theory and aural-skills courses. Music dictation is a mainstay in most college aural-skills classes, and the College Board advocates including dictation in AP music theory courses. This raises an important question: is giving prospective college music majors a head start with dictation in high school the best way to help them develop the listening skills necessary to succeed in college and beyond? At first glance, the answer would seem to be a resounding yes. However, dictation's effectiveness as a tool for developing listening skills varies considerably, depending on how dictation exercises are constructed and implemented. This article will examine some traditional dictation practices, identify perceptual skills required to listen to music critically, and offer strategies for acquiring and integrating broader listening skills that will more directly develop students' critical listening and musicianship.