In the Fall of 2018, I began Boston University's  Online Doctor of Musical Arts in Music Education . We moved to Charlottesville in 2018 for my wife's position at the University of Virginia, and ...

The other day, I finished Noa Kageyama’s (performance psychologist, Bulletproof Musician)  podcast  with  Robert Duke  (Head of Music and Human Learning at The University of Texas ...

At the end of March, I recorded  an episode  with my good friend,  Nick Covington , for his podcast with the  Human Restoration Project . Nick and I were students together at Anken...

Throughout my  masters  and  doctoral  programs, I had a need for (1) software to organize all of the scholarly literature I was reading, and (2) a method for taking and organizing...

Continuing in my series of unpacking scholarly articles around making, I read Clapp and Jimenez’s ( 2016 ) “Implementing STEAM in Maker-Centered Learning.” The researchers analyzed making activities f...

The primary catalysts to my interest in makerspaces were twofold: First, a discussion about how Albemarle County Public Schools have approached implementing makerspaces in  Timeless Learning &n...

In this “Spring Break” between my  Psychology & Sociology  and Music Theory courses, I decided to read a book recommended to me by my friend,  Nick Covington , Frank Smith’s  ...

Over the break between my Fall II 2018 and Spring I 2019 terms in my  BU Doctor of Musical Arts , I have been reading Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner’s  Teaching as a Subversive Activi...

In my week off between courses in my DMA program, I began reading Timeless Learning: How Imagination, Observation, and Zero-Based Thinking Change Schools by Ira Socol , Pam Mor an , and Cha d R...

My time teaching in Iowa was marked by political interference in education. We saw the loss of collective bargaining, a change in the school start date to support the State Fair and local businesses, consistent underfunding of education, and rhetoric demonizing public schools. While I have not been

The VanderCook Master of Music Education program changed quite a bit about how I teach. It made a huge impact on how I approached improvisation and filled in the pedagogical gaps I should have paid attention to in my undergraduate program. I highly recommend the program, faculty, and experience at V

In the Fall of 2014, I took an online MECA course ( Music Education Center of America) through VanderCook College of M usic as an elective for my Mast ers of Music Education degree. The course was en titled Teaching Music in a Common Core World taught by Bill Koch , a forme r Illino is band d

Both takadimi and solfège are tools we used to teach music literacy, but our success arose from consistency: every music teacher in our district taught rhythm using takadimi and pitch using solfège. Because students received consistent instruction on rhythmic and tonal literacy, they were better at

From 2013–2018, I taught instrumental music in the Ankeny Community Schools as part of a vertical professional learning community. Our PLC of six teachers pushed into 6–12th grade band rehearsals to provide instrument-specific individual and small-group lessons. We built a standards-referenced curri

Welcome back! In 2014, I began a website to document our professional learning community's vertical teaching and standards-based approach to teaching instrumental music in Ankeny, Iowa. Since then , I continued to share my thoughts and reflections on instrumental music education, education polic

A 2006 study compares three different approaches to teaching expressiveness, and identifies some pros and cons of each.

A 2021 study of pianists highlights some key differences between effective and less-effective practicers.

The slightly-cranky voice navigating the world of educational "reform" while trying to still pursue the mission of providing quality education.