This article suggests pathways for supporting habits of creativity and the development of creative mindsets in performance-ensemble learning spaces. The Wallas model of creative thought is used to frame the concept of creative musical mindsets. The author reflects on the assumptions and principles outlined in the stages of this influential model…

Music teachers may be tasked with documenting ways in which broader literacy skills have been embedded in music teaching. As a result, musical goals might seem to take a secondary role in support of broader language-literacy skills. Enhancing music literacy should be the goal of well-designed integration. The suggestions here provide music…

Challenges are a constant across all kinds of musical contexts, and teachers are always looking for ways to help students overcome them. While there are many technical and pedagogical approaches to helping students achieve in music, psychology also plays a significant role in the struggles that students face. Counteractive optimism, the act of…

Although it is not their intent, conventional curricula may place some students at a disadvantage in school music classrooms. This article offers a practical planning strategy that music educators can use to confront and resist some of these curricular tendencies in subtle yet important ways. By reimagining long-standing norms related to content,…

Early in my teaching career, my goals were to teach students to play their instruments beautifully and to help them correctly and independently interpret music notation. However, many of my students were missing the internal musicianship skills that enable high-level music-making. As we teach instrument technique and notation, we sometimes…

Reading music notation with fluency is a complex skill requiring well-founded instruction by the music teacher and diligent practice on the part of the learner. The task is complicated by the fact that there are multiple ways to notate a given rhythm. Beginning music students typically have their first encounter with enrhythmic notation when they…

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills lists among its top priorities for students the development of "learning and innovation skills," of which the first are "creativity and innovation." The third National Standard from the National Association for Music Education is "Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments." These guiding…

Many music educators teach students who are both gifted and possess a learning disability--what is commonly referred to as "twice exceptionality." This article describes some characteristics of twice-exceptional students, the challenges these students often face in school, and some strategies music educators can use to properly…

Practice is a major element in cultivating musical skill. Some psychologists have proposed that deliberate practice, a specific framework for structuring practice activities, creates the kind of practice necessary to increase skill and develop expertise. While psychologists have been observing behavior, neurologists have studied how the brain…

Ensemble directors have a special interest in helping students learn to practice effectively. Practice is also an essential component of musical development. Music educators need to both teach effective practice strategies and guide students toward meaningful, thoughtful practice. Metacognition strategies are one way to accomplish this. Current…

There is so much to learn about each branch of music education that most teachers continue on a narrow path throughout their careers. Since Henry Ford started the first mass-production assembly line in the early 1900s, there has been a tendency for people in American society to specialize, and some educational leaders strongly recommend that…

In this article, the author discusses a rehearsal technique that would teach the content outlined in the National Standards for Arts Education and improve performance at the same time. A major component of this rehearsal technique needs to be increasing students' listening and analytical skills, and one way to do that is to ask questions…

Over the last forty years, popular music in America has consistently shown great variety, originality, and evolution. While American music has clearly flourished and evolved over the last several decades, it is difficult to say the same for American music education. Although there are important reasons to preserve long-standing traditions of…

Trying to implement the National Standards for Music Education the author has led her to the important conclusion that improvisation is a valuable teaching tool. Rather than thinking about it as yet another thing to teach in the already too-short music lesson, she has started using improvisation activities to reinforce music learning. By doing…

How secondary students can be taught to think critically about the music they are performing is described. Classes must be structured to involve the student in analysis of performance options, experimentation, and conducting, as well as critical analysis of the teacher's interpretative decisions. (RM)