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Congratulations!

Congrats

HT: Flikr - Eduardo

Congratulations to the following students who achieved recognition this past Sunday (February 28th) by being listed on the Hamilton-Halton ORMTA Honour Roll.

Alon Coret Toshe Zlatanoski Yujiang Zhang

The list consists of all those who achieved 80% or above in a conse…

Basic Rudiments

As part of an ongoing series of posts on the 2009 RCM Theory Syllabus, I’m examining the changes in the Basic Rudiments requirements in comparison to the 2002 syllabus. There are actually very few changes, so you may sense that I’ve having to dig deep to find them.

The biggest change, I su…

Crossover Period for RCM Theory Syllabi

Theory SyllabusWith the release of the new 2009 theory syllabus, we have entered a transition period. I am currently teaching my online classes to align with the new syllabus. The following information is from Music Matters, the official newsletter of RCM Examinations, and explains the transition:

As with all…

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Research Questions

Posted June 29, 2009
A few months ago, one of my readers emailed the following questions for research purposes.  I thought they would make for good discussion here:
1.  Which of these topics is the most difficult for you to teach elementary age music students?

Introducing Instruments ______

Music Theory ______  If so, please choose specifically:  Chords ____ Scales ____ Musical Form ____ Intervals ____ Rhythms ____ Notation ____

Composers lives and works ______

Music Appreciation ______

Songs ______

Ensembles (including quartets, barbershop quartets, the orchestra, choirs) ______

2.  What if there was a teaching curriculum that covered off on a wide range of basic music theory to more obtuse composers all delivered on DVD.  How interested would you be in using that type of resources?
Unlikely ______
Likely ______
Somewhat Likely ______
Very Likely ______
Have you attended MENC's national conference? if so, is it mostly performance based?  or resource heavy?

Comments

As a traveling elementary music teacher where each kid gets two 30-minute classes, anything I spend time on has to have a pretty direct impact on the students' playing. I'm a big believer in teaching music theory, but only to the extent that it enables them to play more music. I very rarely play DVDs in class... like never. Perhaps if concepts were presented in a 5 minute format, I would consider it.

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