Music in Our Schools

Question and answer songs utilize this point. If we give our students the opportunity to develop their improvisational skills and eartraining, then this "critical reading strategy" could also be met via the music class.

Once again, this is covered in the music class through the comparison of musical phrasing and pattern recognition.

Instructional Materials - The introduction at this site says it best. "Apro Ear Training grew out of my desire to provide materials to train students' listening skills in the areas of rhythmic dictation, melodic dictation, theory and ear training. I wanted their first experiences to be positive, so I made the first lessons easy enough to be done by students with little experience in this area." For more information and to see the software offered, please visit the site.

Instrumental Techniques - For memorization techniques, this site says that it's a skill that improves with practice. One of the techniques this site manager has used when memorizing piano solos is to recognize harmonic patterns. In other words, to break the piece down to "bite sizes." A warning is offered in the use of tactile or sense memory approach. This type of memorization is easily lost during performance when "everything" feels different. This site is a good reference site for flute players, but there are some general techniques that cross over that can be applied to learning music in general.

Vocal Ease is a newsletter for choral directors, that sends you eight issues a year for $29.95 (US). If you are interested in seeing one of their back issue on improving intonation among other things relevant to choral singing, then Sharp Shooters is an excellent place to start.

The 12 universal values encompassed in the CEC (Character Education Institute) are: