By Julia Reeves Reeves.Julia@MacPhail.org
1. In order to be an effective teacher and survive my first year, I need to be flexible and resilient. I think this has become my mantra for working in partnerships. The concept of control is one I struggled with a great deal when I first walked into a c…
by Shannon McGuire McGuire.Shannon@MacPhail.org
Singing is extremely personal. It is important for the educator to have an open mind to provide encouragement in a gentle and kind manner, which will encourage the human voice to match pitch. It is definitely OK to be honest when the student does not …
by David Birrow Birrow.David@MacPhail.org
When I was a kid, I always dreaded the last few weeks and days of summer vacation before school started. That dread was most likely linked to the transition and change involved in switching from the autonomy of summer vacation to the school year, where you …
by Josh Osborne Osborne.Josh@MacPhail.org
I've been using the HMDX Jam Box for my daily speaker needs for the past month now. 
I teach in community partnerships, Music For Life, and individual music therapy sessions, so I have often been confronted with the need for a portable solution to amplific…
by David Birrow Birrow.David@MacPhail.org
This year at MacPhail's New City School partnership, students in grades 6-8 
composed music for solo instruments such as the saxophone, trumpet, and piano. Students composed the pieces using MuseScore and sent them to professional and student musicians, who…
by David Birrow Birrow.David@MacPhail.org
It is May 13th. For K-12 general music teachers, the light at the end of the tunnel is now visible. Spring concerts will be finished in a few weeks, then a couple weeks of teaching, then summer break. Those teaching weeks that are sandwiched between conce…
by Josh Osborne Osborne.Josh@MacPhail.org
Now, I love my job. I enjoy that each day is different, the variety of clientele and students I see, the traveling, the successes, and the fact my job revolves around music—one of my greatest passions. Although, if you spend enough time around me, I will t…
by David Birrow Birrow.David@MacPhail.org
Learning Sequences in Music by Edwin E. Gordon is a great summer reading book. Not a "sit on t
he beach and feverishly turn pages" book or the new Grisham, but more like "I finally have time to seriously devote to this huge book." Gordon is a music ed res…
by Emily Greenleaf Greenleaf.Emily@MacPhail.org
Are you thinking of requesting an iPad for using in your MacPhail teaching? Here’s a list of ideas:
A is for Amplification. Suppose it’s April Fool’s day, and you want to play Haydn’s Surprise Symphony for your students. With nothing …
by David Birrow Birrow.David@MacPhail.org
The Tropical Recorder is a book of recorder tunes with Orff instrument (hand drum, xylophones, shakers et. al) accompaniments by Jim Solomon and Mary Helen Solomon. This book is available in the Community Partnership Resource Library on the 3rd floor and i…
by David Birrow Birrow.David@MacPhail.org
One of the great books in the Community Partnerships Resource Library is Jump Right In: The Music Curriculum Level 4 by Cynthia Taggart, Beth Bolton, Alison Reynolds, Wendy Valerio, and Edwin Gordon. MacPhail owns the Teacher's Guide along with the four CDs…
by David Birrow Birrow.David@MacPhail.org
I'm often surprised by my student's musical interests. A couple of years ago, all my middle school students in partnerships would talk about was dub step. When I finally got around to checking out this style of music, I discovered it was simply a type of
by Sharon Mazion - Breck School
Note from David Birrow: Sharon sent me this excellent reply to last week's posts about the pentatonic
scale's use in general music settings. I thought it was convincing and warranted it's own post.
I tend to approach my teaching more from an Orf…
by David Birrow Birrow.David@MacPhail.org
The second in a series showing HOW exactly technology has improved the quality of teaching or music therapy.i.e. Problems and solutions. No how-to's, just what impact is seen with students and clients
I'll only use technology for two reasons:
By David Birrow Birrow.David@MacPhail.org
I accidentally figured out how to export a ton of tracks all at once and it has completely made my week. 8 groups of students at New City School were recorded playing recorder trios. I was able to export their recordings to individual mp3 files all at once!…
by David Birrow Birrow.David@MacPhail.org
The pentatonic scale is certainly common in music from around the world. As a percussionist, I've been in African and Javanese percussion ensembles that have used the scale almost exclusively and of course I think that students should experience music from …
by Sarah Hruska-Olson Olson.Sarah@MacPhail.org
Many years ago, I took my son to an ECFE parent/infant class. The instructor gave us a sheet entitled, “The 10 Super Sun
ny Joys of Peek-a-Boo.” Peek-a-boo is such a natural and universal game to play with babies, but there are so many great underl…