Achieving Musical Success in the String Classroom describes a fully pragmatic pedagogical approach toward developing complete musicianship in beginning through advanced level string players by incorporating the ideas of Mimi Zweig, Paul Rolland, and Shinichi Suzuki. Author Karel Butz's philosophical assumptions are explained regarding the structure and purpose of string teaching contributing to a high level of musical artistry among students. Introductory through advanced string concepts relating to instrument set-up, posture, left and right hand development, music theory, aural skills, assessment procedures, imagery in playing, the development individual practice and ensemble skills, and effective rehearsal strategies are explained in a sequential approach that benefit the classroom teacher and student. In addition, several score examples, sample lesson plans, grading rubrics as well as videos of Butz demonstrating his pedagogical ideas and techniques with musicians are included.

In The Beat Stops Here: Lessons on and off the Podium for Today's Conductor, master conductor Mark Gibson addresses the technique of conducting as an extension of intimate knowledge of the score to the hands and arms. He employs a variety of everyday activities and motions (brushing the dog, Tinkerbelle, the "door knob") to describe the physical aspects of the role. He advocates a comprehensive, detailed approach to score study, addressing major works bar-by-bar in terms of both musical analysis and conducting method. Finally, Gibson explores the various roles a conductor plays, as a teacher, a scholar and a member of the musical community. His writing is highly focused, with an occasionally tongue-in-cheek, discussing everything from motivic development in Brahms to how to hold a knife and fork in public. In short, The Beat Stops Here is a compendium of style and substance in the real world of today's conductor.

Now in its fourth edition, The Art of Music Production has established itself as the definitive guide to the art and business of music production and a primary teaching tool for college programs. It is the first book to comprehensively analyze and describe the non-technical role of the music producer. Author Richard James Burgess lays out the complex field of music production by defining the several distinct roles that fall under the rubric of music producer. In this completely updated and revised fourth edition of a book already lauded as "the most comprehensive guide to record production ever published," Burgess has expanded and refined the types of producers, bringing them fully up to date. The first part of the book outlines the underlying theory of the art of music production. The second part focuses on the practical aspects of the job including training, getting into the business, day-to-day responsibilities, potential earnings, managers, lawyers, and - most importantly - the musical, financial, and interpersonal relationships producers have with artists and their labels. The book is packed with insights from the most successful music producers ranging from today's chart-toppers to the beginnings of recorded sound, including mainstream and many niche genres. The book also features many revealing anecdotes about the business, including the stars and the challenges (from daily to career-related) a producer faces. Burgess addresses the changes in the nature of music production that have been brought about by technology and, in particular, the paradigmatic millennial shift that has occurred with digital recording and distribution. Burgess's lifelong experience in the recording industry as a studio musician, artist, producer, manager, and marketer combined with his extensive academic research in the field brings a unique breadth and depth of understanding to the topic.

Discoveries from the Fortepiano meets the demand for a manual on authentic Classical piano performance practice that is at once accessible to the performer and accurate to the scholarship. Uncovering a wide range of eighteenth-century primary sources, noted keyboard pedagogue Donna Gunn examines contemporary philosophical beliefs and principles surrounding Classical Era performance practices. Gunn introduces the reader to the Viennese fortepiano and compares its sonic and technical capabilities to the modern piano. In doing so, she demonstrates how understanding Classical fortepiano performance aesthetics can influence contemporary pianists, paying particular focus to technique, dynamics, articulation, rhythm, ornamentation, and pedaling. The book is complete with over 100 music examples that illustrate concepts, as well as sample model lessons that demonstrate the application of Gunn's historically informed style on the modern piano. Each example is available on the book's companion website and is given three recordings: the first, a modern interpretation of the passage on a modern piano; the second, a fortepiano interpretation; and the third, a historically informed performance on a modern piano. With its in-depth yet succinct explanations and examples of the Viennese five-octave fortepiano and the nuances of Classical interpretation and ornamentation, Discoveries from the Fortepiano is an indispensable educational aid to any pianist who seeks an academically and artistically sound approach to the performance of Classical works.

The Oxford Handbook of Children's Musical Cultures is a compendium of perspectives on children and their musical engagements as singers, dancers, players, and avid listeners. Over the course of 35 chapters, contributors from around the world provide an interdisciplinary enquiry into the musical lives of children in a variety of cultures, and their role as both preservers and innovators of music. Drawing on a wide array of fields from ethnomusicology and folklore to education and developmental psychology, the chapters presented in this handbook provide windows into the musical enculturation, education, and training of children, and the ways in which they learn, express, invent, and preserve music. Offering an understanding of the nature, structures, and styles of music preferred and used by children from toddlerhood through childhood and into adolescence, The Oxford Handbook of Children's Musical Cultures is an important step forward in the study of children and music.

Young pianists pursuing a professional career face a barrage of questions, choices, and challenges. In this book, experienced teacher and performer Stewart Gordon offers a new and practical way to approach them by helping readers to plan strategically and build a secure and successful career from the ground up. For decades, Gordon has guided young pianists through the details of how to prepare musically, navigate their college years, and forge a career that will provide a livelihood. In this guide to beginning that musical career, Gordon has assembled the wisdom of decades of teaching: a fundamental body of information emerging pianists will rely on as they work toward their goals. His advice, focused on both mental and practical work, will enhance both motivation and security. Carefully balancing aspiration with reality and inspiration with organization, Gordon creates a blueprint for transforming dreams into achievement, and illustrates his points with examples drawn from the lives of famous musicians. The book also addresses many practical matters, such as developing keyboard technique, acquiring reading and memorizing skills, building repertoire, and balancing the demands of being a musician with living a full life. This volume is a valuable resource for both young pianists and their parents.

Claudio Arrau (1903-1991) was a Chilean pianist who devoted his life to an international performing and teaching career. As a child prodigy, he gained national recognition from government officials in Chile, including President Pedro Montt, who later funded Arrau's education in Germany. He completed his studies in Berlin with Martin Krause, a pupil of Franz Liszt, and later immigrated to New York City, where he began his teaching career and mentored a sizeable group of pupils. His unique and magnetic style impassioned his pupils and motivated them to teach his principles to the next generation of students, including author Victoria von Arx. Piano Lessons with Claudio Arrau highlights interviews with Arrau's surviving pupils (from his class in New York City, which he taught from 1945 to the early 1970s) that give readers an in-depth description of Arrau's principles of technique and performance. Quotations and lesson transcripts make Arrau's voice - and those of his former pupils - audible, and detailed references to over one hundred examples from filmed recordings make his famed technique visible. The bulk of the book features edited and previously-unpublished transcriptions of lessons Arrau gave his pupils, lavishly illustrated with musical examples. The author, herself a teacher and performer, draws information from numerous interviews with Arrau's pupils, from her experience studying with two of them, from videos of Arrau's performances, and from the recorded lessons. By culling these disparate sources of information and presenting them systematically in a single book, von Arx provides an insider's view of the art of piano playing as exemplified by one of the great artists of the twentieth century and offers the reader a virtual piano lesson with Claudio Arrau.

While qualitative research has become increasingly popular in music education over the last decade, there is no source that explains the terms, approaches and issues associated with this method. In The Oxford Handbook of Qualitative Research in American Music Education, editor Colleen Conway and the contributing music educators will provide that clarification, as well as models of qualitative studies within various music education disciplines. The handbook outlines the history of qualitative research in music education and explores the contemporary use of qualitative approaches in examining issues related to music teaching and learning. It includes 32 chapters and is divided into five parts. Part I defines qualitative research and examines historical, philosophical and ethical issues associated with its use in music education. Part II discusses ways of approaching qualitative research including: case study, ethnography, phenomenology, narrative inquiry, practitioner inquiry, and mixed methods. Ways of collecting and analyzing data are examined in the third part of the text (observations, interviews, document analysis, music as data and technology). Part IV examines various music teaching and learning contexts that have been studied using qualitative approaches including: early childhood, general, instrumental-band, instrumental-string, choral, preservice and inservice teacher education, adult and community settings, student with exceptionalities, underserved populations, and world music. The final section of the book tackles permission to conduct research, teacher qualitative research, publishing qualitative research and direction for the future. An ambitious and much-needed volume, this handbook will stand as a key resource for drawing meaning from the experiences of students and teachers in music classrooms and communities.

With Computational Thinking in Sound, veteran educators Gena R. Greher and Jesse M. Heines provide the first book ever written for music fundamentals educators which is devoted specifically to music, sound, and technology. The authors demonstrate how the range of mental tools in computer science - for example, analytical thought, system design, and problem design and solution - can be fruitfully applied to music education, including examples of successful student work. While technology instruction in music education has traditionally focused on teaching how computers and software work to produce music, Greher and Heines offer context: a clear understanding of how music technology can be structured around a set of learning challenges and tasks of the type common in computer science classrooms. Using a learner-centered approach that emphasizes project-based experiences, the book provides music educators with multiple strategies to explore, create, and solve problems with music and technology in equal parts. It also provides examples of hands-on activities which encourage students, alone and in interdisciplinary groups, to explore the basic principles that underlie today's music technology and which expose them to current multimedia development tools.

Across the US, school budgets are tightening and music programs, often the first asked to compromise in the name of a balanced budget, face a seemingly grim future. Monetary restrictions combined with an increasing focus on test scores have led to heavy cuts in school music programs. In many cases, communities and teachers untrained in advocacy are helpless in the face of the school board, with no one willing and comfortable to speak up on their behalf. In Advocate for Music!: A Guide to User-Friendly Strategies, Lynn M. Brinckmeyer, respected educator and past president for the National Association for Music Education, provides a manual for music teachers motivated to advocate but lacking the experience, resources, or time to acquire the skills to do so effectively. It will serve as a toolkit for advocating, and also for sharing resources, strategies and ideas useful for educating everyone - from community members to political representatives - about the immediate and long-term benefits of music education. In Advocate for Music!, Brinckmeyer draws on a lifetime of arts advocacy to provide answers to the questions so many teachers have but are afraid - or simply too busy - to ask. A simple, hands-on guidebook for becoming an effective advocate for the arts, Advocate for Music! is structured around six key questions: what is advocacy? Why focus on it? Who should do it? How does one do it? Where should we advocate? And when should we advocate? Readers will have access to step-by-step guidelines and strategies on how to engage others, and themselves, in a variety of levels of advocacy activities. In addition to granting access to compelling research projects, the book will provide models of letters, webinars, research findings, printed documents, websites and contact information useful for communicating with local, state and national decision makers. Working in an informal, hands-on manner, Brinckmeyer lays out advice on who to work with and what to do: providing concrete examples of advocacy tactics from ideas on how to cooperate with the gym teacher to a sample speech for the holiday concert. As she walks the reader through the a myriad of real-life examples and practical answers to her central questions, Brinckmeyer shows that every educator, parent, family member, and administrator can and should be engaged in advocating to maintain, and support, the right for today's children and adolescents to have access to high quality music education. Advocate for Music! is an important book not only for all pre-service and inservice music teachers, but aso for state MEA leaders and staff, administrators, parents, community members, and all those involved with arts or education associations.

This book of parent-to-parent advice aims to encourage, support, and bolster the morale of one of music's most important back-up sections: music parents. Within these pages, more than 150 veteran music parents contribute their experiences, reflections, warnings, and helpful suggestions for how to walk the music-parenting tightrope: how to be supportive but not overbearing, and how to encourage excellence without becoming bogged down in frustration. Among those offering advice are the parents of several top musicians, including the mother of violinist Joshua Bell, the father of trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, the parents of cellist Alisa Weilerstein, and those of violinist Anne Akiko Meyers. The book also features advice from music educators and more than forty professional musicians, including Paula Robison, Sarah Chang, Anthony McGill, Jennifer Koh, Jonathan Biss, Toyin Spellman-Diaz, Marin Alsop, Christian McBride, Miguel Zenon, Stephanie Blythe, Lawrence Brownlee, and Kelli O'Hara. The topics they discuss span a wide range of issues faced by the parents of both instrumentalists and singers, from how to get started to encouraging effective practice habits, to how to weather the rough spots, cope with the cost of music training, deal with college and career concerns, and help young musicians discover the role that music can play in their lives. The parents who speak here reach a unanimous and overwhelming conclusion that music parenting is well worth the effort, and the experiences that come with it - everything from flying to New York on the weekends to searching a flute convention for the perfect instrument - enrich family life with a unique joy in music.

(Essential Elements for Strings). (Essential Elements for Strings and Essential Elements Interactive are fully compatible with Essential Elements 2000 for Strings) Essential Elements for Strings offers beginning students sound pedagogy and engaging music, all carefully paced to successfully start young players on their musical journey. EE features both familiar songs and specially designed exercises, created and arranged for the classroom in a unison-learning environment, as well as instrument-specific exercises to focus each student on the unique characteristics of their own instrument. EE provides both teachers and students with a wealth of materials to develop total musicianship, even at the beginning stages. Books 1 and 2 also include access to Essential Elements Interactive (EEi), the ultimate online music education resource - anywhere, anytime, and on any device. Go to www.essentialelementsinteractive.com to learn more Method features: * Enhanced Starting System * Optimum Reinforced Learning * Pacing * Theory, History, Cross-Curriculum & Creativity * Performance Spotlights Book also includes My EE Library * (www.myeelibrary.com) - Instant Stream/Download/CD-ROM* * Start-up video Learn the basics * Play-along mp3 tracks for all exercises Features a professional orchestra * Duets and trios Print and play parts with friends * Music listening library Hear great pieces for orchestra * Internet access required for My EE Library (book includes instructions to order free opt. CD-ROM)

In The Musician's Way, veteran performer and educator Gerald Klickstein combines the latest research with his 30 years of professional experience to provide aspiring musicians with a roadmap to artistic excellence. Part I, Artful Practice, describes strategies to interpret and memorize compositions, fuel motivation, collaborate, and more. Part II, Fearless Performance, lifts the lid on the hidden causes of nervousness and shows how musicians can become confident performers. Part III, Lifelong Creativity, surveys tactics to prevent music-related injuries and equips musicians to tap their own innate creativity. Written in a conversational style, The Musician's Way presents an inclusive system for all instrumentalists and vocalists to advance their musical abilities and succeed as performing artists.

Designed for use with the Guitar Cards Chord Starter Pack, this pack of 55 cards gives you over 50 moveable chord shapes. Small enough to fit into your back pocket or guitar case, they are an easy way to learn new chords - suitable for beginners, songwriters and teachers.

Alfred's Basic Prep Course, Levels A through F, was written to answer a demand for a course of piano study designed specifically for students who are five years old and up. This course offers a careful introduction of fundamentals, music that fits comfortably under the young student's normal hand span, plus constant reinforcement--all leading to results beyond those generated by other piano methods. After Lesson Book B, the student may progress to Prep Course, Lesson Book C or choose to go directly into the faster paced Level 1B of Alfred's Basic Piano Library. The complete Prep Course consists of six books (Levels A through F).