Music Education

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36 Ways to Use Rhythm Pattern Cards in Your Teaching

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36 Ways to Use Rhythm Pattern Cards in Your Teaching

Rhythm pattern cards are a great way to teach new rhythmic concepts, reinforce familiar patterns, and build that all-important music vocabulary (the ability to understand and create your own musical patterns and sequences).

There are lots of different types of rhythm pattern cards out there - some you can buy, some you can download and print for free (like the set I'm sharing below!), and ideas for making some of your own.

They don’t have to be fancy! The ones I'm sharing today can be printed at home on white cardstock and cut into quarters (postcard-size).

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4 Strategies to Help Your Adult Choir Improve Their Sight-Reading Skills

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4 Strategies to Help Your Adult Choir Improve Their Sight-Reading Skills

It's one the greatest musical skills you can help your choir develop: singing and reading music for themselves with musical understanding.

Just like learning to read language, music-reading comes after listening and interacting with music aurally and developing a musical vocabulary of tonal and rhythm patterns (these are like words in language).

Think of how you learned to read: You probably spent a lot of time following along in a book as you listened to someone else read to you. Eventually, you started finishing the sentences and pointing to the words as you went along.

You learned simple words like, go and dog and identified them in other books.

Learning to read music is no different. We learn to recognize tonal and rhythm patterns like familiar words in books.

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Books You Can Sing & Chant with Your Elementary Music Students

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Books You Can Sing & Chant with Your Elementary Music Students

Are you looking for books you can sing or chant in your elementary music classes, group classes in your studio, or children’s choir rehearsals?

You know the ones: books that either have lyrics to a familiar children’s song or hymn, or stories with text that can be sung to a familiar tune, like “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”

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The Secrets of Motivation: My 3 Biggest Takeaways from Daniel H. Pink's "Drive"

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The Secrets of Motivation: My 3 Biggest Takeaways from Daniel H. Pink's "Drive"

As music teachers, it’s important to think about what motivates us as musicians and what motivates our students, choir members, and ensemble members to play and learn music.

I remember studying the theory of motivation as a grad student and was fascinated by the science behind it. For this reason, I really enjoyed reading Daniel H. Pink’s book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.

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Songs of the Season: A Celebration of Winter Holidays

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Songs of the Season: A Celebration of Winter Holidays

Fall is here, which means the return of Georgia football (Go Dawgs!), puffer vests, and apple everything (sorry, PSL).

It also means lots of repertoire planning and rehearsing for Christmas programs, musicals, and holiday concerts.

I recognize that some of you are in positions where you may be programming a holiday concert or program, whether that's a school or community setting or an interfaith musical celebration with area churches. If you're looking for choral music that touches on various Winter holidays and celebrations, I hope the list of anthems below is helpful to you.

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How to Teach Your Children's Choir to Sing in Parts

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How to Teach Your Children's Choir to Sing in Parts

Part-singing is one of the great joys of choral singing.

The challenge of singing an independent line and that satisfying feeling of creating harmony and musical interest is both fun and motivating for singers (of all ages!).

But how do you teach that?

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6 Singable Collections for Preschool Choirs

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6 Singable Collections for Preschool Choirs

Do you teach a preschool choir?

If so, you know that preschoolers are musical explorers. They love to sing, dance, play, move, and experience music with their whole selves.

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Fixed and Growth Mindsets (What I Learned from Carol Dweck's Book)

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Fixed and Growth Mindsets (What I Learned from Carol Dweck's Book)

I first heard about this book from one of my grad school professors.

We were sitting around a long table one snowy January evening at our annual dinner for current and prospective doctoral students. I asked my professor about books he was reading lately and he named several including Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers and Carol Dweck's Mindset.

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A Holiday Wishlist for Music Teachers

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A Holiday Wishlist for Music Teachers

What would you ask for if you were making a holiday wishlist for yourself as a teacher? New music? Curriculum resources? Piano-teaching games?

Today, I’m sharing a few ideas (and a few things that are on my teacher wishlist!) to help get you started. Enjoy!

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How to Use Milanote as a Music Educator

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How to Use Milanote as a Music Educator

I’m always looking for tools that are simple and easy to use. That’s why today, I’m excited to tell you about a (free!) web-based tool I’ve discovered to help me organize ideas, plan lessons, track assessments, and write curriculum content.

Follow along with my creative work and daily adventures: @ashleydanyew

In honor of #smallbusinesssaturday2024, here are my ✨2025 predictions✨ for musicians and creative entrepreneurs: 1️⃣ Pivoting will still be essential: Flexibility and adaptability will define success—embrace change and be willing to evolve.
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