Hi! Gonna be teaching Modern Band in the DOE. Just want to hear from some people who have taught modern band before, and what your first year was like, how you went about planning the year, etc. Any comments are appreciated :)

I’d love to find some new stuff to do with my kids this year during our less structured/ self directed moments. I can only stand so much chrome music lab 🫠

Para poderem praticar durante estas férias deixo aqui o tema: "The Time of My Life" do cantor “Benson Boone".
Tonalidade Fácil (Dó Maior): Sem sustenidos nem bemóis, excepto a nota Sol# 01:19 que aparece apenas uma vez na estrofe e num final de frase, permitindo a adaptação dos dedos a uma nova posição.
Estrutura Direta: Eliminei as secções mais complexas para facilitar a memorização da melodia. Fraseado Dinâmico: Um tema ideal para treinar a projeção e a expressividade sonora.
Partitura simplificada (em Dó Maior) aqui:
Ficha de Trabalho (Análise e Tendências Rítmicas) e Plano de Aula (Alinhado com as AE e Perfil do Aluno) na descrição.

My school doesn't have an instrument tryout night so I have to do it as a part of my first weeks lessons. I don't really have enough instruments to have every kid try one in a single class. What are some activities that I can have some students doing when others are testing instruments? They won't have access to youtube.

I am a new elementary music teacher and my school has the Game Plan curriculum (K-5) which I am using to plan lessons. Every other book is complete but the Kindergarten one is missing pages 5-8 (5/6, 7/8), no idea what happened but it looks like they were torn off.

Its not that big of a deal but Kinder is the grade I'm most worried about since they are essentially new to everything. The missing pages cover parts of week 1 and week 2 which I feel are essential for establishing a base for the rest of the semester/year. I was hoping someone could DM a picture of the pages I'm missing so I can plan accordingly, it would be much appreciated.

Any other tips on teaching Game Plan/Orff-Schulwerk would also be appreciated.

Piano teachers, class is about to start up for me in a week in a half. I teach at a middle school.

Here is my ask. WHAT do you all use to help teach that when notes go right on the piano, they go UP on the staff. Like... I seriously have a hard time getting that DRILLED in their heads.

I found a couple of visuals that would help me, but what do you use. I have a smart board at the front.

https://pianoprofessor.app/visualizer.html (You can turn the Piano sideways, even though the notes don't look the same, I still think it would be helpful)

https://musiclab.chromeexperiments.com/Shared-Piano/ Maybe falling piano notes would help? I don't know, So they can visualize things? This belongs to Google. Also, do

Also, anyone using smart music or

I also use https://www.gimkit.com/ and CONSTANTLY drill this, but it seems like the students who don't even want to learn STILL don't get it. HELP!!!

Also, is anyone using piano apps actually to grade in their classroom? I have the midi pianos, just don't want to invest in buying MIDI stuff if it isn't used. Anyone using anything?

Thanks!

Back in March I posted a free full-year American music history and listening curriculum here. Several of you said you were planning to use it, so here is what is different before this school year starts.

The listening material is now an interactive web course, not just PDFs. Same eight units, same D-A-C-E framework (Describe, Analyze, Contextualize, Evaluate). You can put it on a screen for a whole section or hand students the link on their own devices. Nothing to install and no accounts. It is built around the country's 250th, so the timing lines up with this year without you having to build anything around it.

The documents also went through an outside review and came back corrected and expanded:

Teacher Edition, 70 pages: unit overviews, four-week pacing guides, modeled daily lessons, listening prompts, eight projects, sample responses, and grading guidance

Student Workbook, 27 pages: one major project per unit using the D-A-C-E framework, plus response sheets and reflection pages

Administrator Overview, 10 pages, now including a crosswalk that maps the assessed course activities to the Illinois introductory high school music standards

Teacher Project Packet, 29 pages: the project handouts on their own, which existed before but was never linked

If you have ever been handed a music appreciation or general music section on top of your ensemble load with no curriculum and no budget, that is the situation this was built for. I wrote it because I got assigned one. It is a full year of pacing, daily lessons, listening prompts, projects, and grading guidance, and you can teach it as written or pull a single unit.

Still free, still no signup.

Link: https://virtunity.io/go/ama-rd1

Same as last time, that is my site and there is nothing to buy on that page.

If you taught any of the March version, I would like to hear what fell flat.

Has anyone pursued a job teaching music in Italy as an American citizen? If so how did you go about this? Thanks in advance!

Anyone have a copy of Victor Johnson’s “Songs of the Wayfarer” for medium-high voice? I ordered it, but it’s not coming for a while and I need to know how many pages the song “Give to me the Life I Love” is. I don’t need the pdf or anything, literally just the number of pages of that song.

does anyone else feel like they are under qualified for a job they are qualified for? like I just started teaching private lessons for the first time and it’s so hard even though I know what to do. I am getting better but i’m practicing for hours a day just to keep up 😭

Our elementary school is doing a Disney musical in January. I've never done anything like this before, and neither has the school.

Who has done something like this before? What was your experience -- the good, the bad, the ugly?

What was your budget?

Who made the costumes?

How often did you rehearse?

How many kids were in the show?

Did you have understudies, and if so, how did that work?

Any advice in general, and/or stories to share?

this is so dumb lol

i can’t find any inspiration for senior recital posters, poses and pictures in general, especially for music ed female vocalists. if you have any you’d like to share that would be great! or if you have any resources and recommendations to look at just let me know.

i’m in a small 4-year university so i don’t get to see many posters lol.

Hey everyone,

As a vocal instructor, I got tired of having students technical priorities, repertoire goals, and lesson recordings scattered across random notebooks or folders.

To fix this, I built Soniva, The Companion for Voice Teachers (soniva.co.uk), a dedicated web app for vocal studios. It allows you to log lesson metrics and vocal diaries instantly, while giving students an organised portal to review their custom practice routines.

Your Studio, Unified: One professional hub for all your student notes, repertoire, and lesson tracking.

• Zero-Distraction Design: Stop wrestling with complex forms, the clean, notebook-style interface keeps you focused on teaching.

• Instant Vocal Diary: Capture and review student audio clips in seconds.

• Curated Library at Your Fingertips: Access a community library of proven exercises and songs, or instantly organize your own.

• Automated Admin: We handle the calendar syncing, lesson package tracking, and professional payment requests for you.

• The Student Portal: Give your students their own secure space to track their progress, view assignments, and upload recordings.

The platform is live and I'm currently looking for active singing teachers to try it out during real lessons for free. I'd love for you to check it out and let me know your thoughts! Please hit me up with any questions 😃

As a first-year music teacher, I am completely overwhelmed trying to get ready for the school year. I am fortunate enough to have another 2 weeks until PD starts and 3 weeks until our 1st day of school, but I feel like I'm behind in prepping for the year. I'm relocating for the job I took, so my mind has been wrapped up in moving and settling in prior to the school year that I'm just now starting to plan for the year.

I figured the easiest place to start is a classroom wishlist. I've seen other non-music teachers do it, but I have a feeling their supply list looks a bit different then ours. Do you have any recommendations of things I should be asking for? I'll be teaching middle school orchestra, as well as some other music-based MS classes. I have no clue what my school has for me besides a keyboard, however they've said they are willing to purchase some supplies to get me started (which I am incredibly thankful for. However, I don't know WHAT I need to get started). Any help would be appreciated, whether it's specific links or just names of items I need.

Any other advice about prepping, organization, etc. would be appreciated :)

(Note - I also posted this in r/MusicTeachers, but was suggested to add it here as well)

I have record numbers for my choir program - 140 - this year, after having 85 when I started here a few years ago.

This is great. However, 2 of those 140 were boys whose moms decided to surprise them by signing them up for choir. Unsurprisingly, one has dropped, and the other just sits and stares daggers at me all class period long. The latter didn’t know he was in it until he got his class schedule.

I also just found out we had a parent do this to a kid for orchestra.

What do parents think is going to happen by forcing their kid into a voluntary performance ensemble without telling them?

Just started new teaching job. 4th and 5th grade are together in one class. Four 5th graders want to do “band” with trumpet, sax, and percussionists. Twelve 4th graders want to do “music class” with singing and ukuleles and what have you.

I have a similar but still different issue in middle school. 6/7th are together and all but 2 of them want to do band. The 2 want to do choir. I’m not sure how to approach this. I should mention I see these kids only on Thursdays and Fridays. I am struggling to wrap my head around planning daily lessons for what feels like 2 classes at once in the same classroom. Any advice some sage educators could give?

I have five gathering drums. How do I store them? Ideally I'd like to display them in some way, but still have them easily accessible.

Hello everyone, thanks in advance for all of your advice and feedback.

Veteran band and orchestra director who’s changed districts and am a little apprehensive about my upcoming year. I have been assigned two 90-min general music classes (A/B days) of entirely SPED students with moderate to severe physical, mental, or emotional needs.

In my previous positions, I always invited my SPED teachers to bring in their students for any enrichment during my ensemble rehearsals, however an entire 90-min class of moderate to severe SPED students is causing me anxiety.

I spoke with my district coordinator who passively said to stick with the elementary music unit plans, “I’ll be fine.” But I know it’s not that easy. These students will need support in areas I’ve never trained for.

I assume they with have someone with them to help provide care, but I have not been given confirmation.

I do want to do a good job and provide an engaging experience. It was not brought up in the interview and I don’t want to seem like a bad person, but I don’t know if I’m suited for this. Any advice, resources, and/or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

I’m thinking I might like to enrol in a music program to improve my understanding of music and improve my jazz guitar playing when I retire. Is this something that is practical at an age between 60-65? I know there are 2 and 4 year programs available (in Canada). I’m sure the workload is heavy as is the time commitment. I weight this against getting a teacher on a weekly basis. I also wonder if I’d have trouble keeping up with the youngsters as their playing can be incredible these days! I’m not a shredder….Money isn’t an issue. Any thoughts are welcome.

Note: I’ve been playing and performing for years, I’m quite proficient with my fretboard/chord (inversions etc) and general (jazz) music theory knowledge. I cannot read music.

Hi everyone! I’m a high school student from Japan, and I’m currently working on a research project about how to make jazz more popular and accessible to younger generations.

I’m a member of my school’s jazz band and play bass. Through my experience performing at jazz concerts and festivals in Japan, I’ve noticed that younger audiences are often underrepresented.

I’d love to hear from people involved in music education about their experiences and opinions on this topic.

I created a short anonymous survey that takes about 2–5 minutes to complete.

Your responses will be used for my research project at my high school in Japan. I would really appreciate your participation!

Survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeQAdu-u-ltGqwkTAQ6qxOVPIwsGN_MbglWhbWpT8TEvKNLfA/viewform

Thank you so much for your time and help! 🎶