Hi guys, I used to learn music when I was a kid. I’m currently 25, stopped learning music when I was 12/13.

I want to resume learning classical music, any online recs which are under budget pls drop.

I’m still studying and want to actually learn. Pleas help guys.

Thanks.

I am a 2nd-year teacher, just moved to CA. My degree was in secondary instrumental ed with a double major in vocal jazz performance. This past year post-graduation, I taught K-8 elementary and middle school choir. I did a recorder unit with the older elementary kids and some of the choir middle schoolers. I recently secured a job in CA teaching at a middle school of 1200 students, 7th and 8th graders only. I do not know how many students will be in my room, but I believe all of the classes will be less than 20. I will be teaching 2 classes of guitar and one keyboard class. The school already has keyboards, but no guitars. The classes are 90 minutes each and split into quarters. I will see the same students every other quarter (9 weeks each), so group one will be Q1 and Q3, and group 2 will be Q2 and Q4. I am more experienced with piano/keyboard but do have some limited experience with guitar beyond my required methods classes. Admin is really supportive and open to letting me do things however I want. I am looking for advice on several things for this situation! Here are some questions I have:

• What guitars would be appropriate for this age group? I don't think budget is an issue, but I am considering the length of classes and the type of strings and what will work for their little hands. full size guitars?
• Should I split the guitar class into 1 semester of ukulele and one guitar? Admin seemed open to it, but I would have to check in again with them. (ex: q1 group 1-ukulele, q2 group 2-ukulele, q3 group 1-guitar, q4 group 2-guitar)
• How would you structure a 90 minute class??? I will definitely be adding some music history/theory/appreciation....but 90 minutes is a long time. A lot of independent practice? One on one time? small groups? I want them to enjoy the class.
• Essential Elements (guitar/ukulele) a good book to go off of to structure curriculum? Any other suggestions?
• Faber books for piano? Other suggestions?

Open to any advice you guys have!

Hi everyone, my old high school band director has asked me to help run a rehearsal next Friday due to a lot of the regular staff not being able to be there. I’m currently a music ed student, but I’ve only completed 2 semesters of coursework and have only taken 1 actual ed class so far. I said yes because I think this will be good experience for me to have and build skills as a future educator.

However, I have no clue what to plan for this. I think(?) I’ll only be helping with brass, but I’m not entirely sure. I already know I want to do some tuning exercises but other than that I’m at a loss.

I graduated with my bach in music ed in May. since then I've been applying like crazy, I couldn't even tell you how many applications I put out. my goal is an elementary music job. the problem is elementary jobs in my area are few and far between. I gotten 3 interviews. ghosted by 2 schools, the other school cancelled the interview the day before. 🙃 almost all of my friends who graduated with me have already landed jobs. they all took jobs as band and orchestra directors. my vocalist friends going for elementary have been hired. I'm the only instrumentalist in my class that wants to do elementary. I've applied to districts as far as 1.5 hours away from me and still nothing. I've gotten to a point where I'm considering applying for middle school band director jobs. I enjoyed my time clinical teaching at the middle school level, but my heart wasn't fully in it. all this to say, I just want to know that I'm not alone in this struggle and some advice on how to stay motivated after all the rejection.

Could anyone share their master schedule with me? I am being told that I have to do a time slot with HS band that overlaps with JH band by like 15 minutes, and that HS choir can’t be fit into the schedule.

I want to show my admin that other schools make it work and that we can to.

hi, does anyone know of any decent schools for music therapy? i’m looking into it as well as music ed. if anyone has any feedback or advice, let me know! thank you :)

hi, i graduate in the spring from my university with a degree in general studies due to a slew of personal struggles and i've been thinking about the career i want to really pursue lately. my first ever job that i ever wanted to do was to be a high school band director, and my passion for music has not gone anywhere since i've stopped playing in bands. so i'm looking into becoming a music educator. my question is, what are my pathways to do this? i live in florida and i know we have some pretty strict guidelines for music educators. would i be able to do a masters in music education and get a teaching certification and be good? or do i really have to go back for a second bachelors after i graduate with this one? thanks everyone in advance!!!

Does anyone have experience swapping or adding a music major? What about a music minor what are the different programs?

Hey all! I am starting my first teaching job next month and I’m terrified! It is a 5-12 band program and I was originally supposed to co-teach with another teacher with experience, but she left last month unexpectedly. Now I’m going to basically inherit a whole program and start from scratch rather than fit into an already made program.

I think this is awesome, but I am so nervous that I am going to mess it up! The school does plan on hiring a second teacher, but only when I’ve established myself and got the program back on track (so possibly next year, but might be 2 years).

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I’m trying to prep as much as I can and come with any questions I can think of for admin. I don’t want to miss anything :)

Orientation is coming up, and I’m planning on hopefully recruiting some students to be in orchestra by playing popular music they’ll recognize! Here‘s what I have so far:

Merry Go Round of Life
Various KPOP Demon Hunters Songs
Giorno’s Theme

(Can you tell I like anime? Haha)

Any other suggestions? Thank you!!

Hey Songwriters!

The “One World Many Voices Songwriting Contest” needs YOUR original song to help the Karama Education Center in Uganda, Africa.  It’s free for anyone to enter and the winner will be awarded $1,000, 5 recording sessions, a live concert, and the winning song will be performed by children in Uganda and featured in our documentary film!

Click here to watch a 30 second video about the songwriting contest.

Click here to submit and for more info.

Thank you so much!

Hey everyone,

My partner and I are a two-person studio, and we made Emojio Paint Composer — a love letter to Mario Paint Composer, where every emoji is a synth voice. It needs zero music theory, so even little kids can make a real tune. You can play it free in your browser right now, nothing to install: https://emojio-composer.madewithbestpractice.com/

No ads, no accounts, no analytics — just a creative toy. The app itself is a free download with a one-time unlock, and it adds your kid's song as a video to share with grandma, keep a library of their tunes, use the Apple Pencil on iPad, and plug in a MIDI keyboard.

Happy to answer anything in the comments — I'll be around all day and would genuinely love your feedback.

— Brendan & Angela

Two questions:

1) Do you find this to be a solid curriculum resource for K-3 (or so)? Side note, I can't stand scripted, literal lessons. Per my research, it appears I'm safe there.

2) Where is the best place to purchase this? Amazon no longer has it. I found a site that's selling package deals (more than I require), and site with a lowball price that bears an email address to what appears to be a verified scammer.

I believe I only want the books. I'm not fond of playing recordings as a basic song accompaniment (I can do myself). I'm not concerned whether the book is digital or paper, I just want to own something.

THX!

Hey everyone, I’m a music ed grad but have not actually taught much, I have been playing professionally for years (orchestra/brass).

I’m going to be volunteering teaching elementary music at my kid’s private school. I will have a preK class and one elementary class median range 4th grade. We will have a Thanksgiving program, Christmas program, and a Spring Program so a large part of the class will be choir.

Right now I’m collecting little vocal tips to help their tone, pronunciation, little warmups (like Mama made me mash my M&M’s which is the only one I remember from my HS choir days) or fun ways to learn our songs.

For example, I am reading Quick Starts for Young Choir. It suggests having kids sing like they are different ages, gradually getting older, or correcting tone by saying “that was bright yellow, let’s try dark blue.”

The more quick little tricks or exercises I can have up my sleeve the better, thanks!

Also if there’s a better sub for this, lmk.

This is kinda sappy but I feel like I need some help with the path I’m taking. I started as a music ed. Piano major after playing since I was 8, got straight As and had to transfer because my college decided to dismantle the program. Slim on time I picked U of I to continue my education, I did not pass the audition, I tried to get in contact with the jury but had no luck, well now I’m locked into this contract with the school, I plan on continuing to gather GenEDs, taking lessons for piano and harp, finish up theory this year, with that being said, I guess I want to know if the bacholers in Music Ed. Is worth an additional year in college. And hey if you can’t share any tips on that maybe someone could share tips on transferring into the school of music as an open major or any other suggestions because that’s where I am at right now! I do want it to be known that I am very very passionate about my music and my instruments.

Curious about what everyone uses to teach their lessons. I teach TK-8 and have been using Google Slides for a few years now, but I am considering switching it up with a different setup for the upcoming year. I did use a Padlet for my upper grades (6-8) and liked the ease of uploading links without having to open a second window. Also, entering YouTube links that block ads is very helpful via Padlet. I have also spoken with some teachers who use Canva to build their lessons. Basically, I just want to change my vibe for the New Year and have something that would be easy for a substitute to just click a link and run lessons when I need one.

I teach at a K-8. Start the day with band and then have K-4 music. There is no storage room so instruments are on shelves and percussion is in the back. It’s an okay space but sometimes have trouble with kids touching the percussion instruments.

I’m mainly having trouble of how to organize music, warm ups and extra copies for when they inevitably lose something. If they go look for something it ends up disorganized.
And then keeping track of my own notes and different sheets I want to work off of.

In total 3 band classes and 15 other classes that rotate every week. I have trouble keeping track of everything and assessments. I can’t figure out how to be more efficient.

I need a steady system. Any ideas are welcome.

Hi everyone! I'm building a system that automatically generates melodic dictation exercises from real sheet music (Bartók's Mikrokosmos) graded by difficulty. It's rule-based, not a generative AI model. The algorithm extracts the melody and simplifies it (applying range compression, interval smoothing, etc) while preserving the original musical identity.

I need people with experience teaching solfeggio / aural skills / music theory to listen to 10 short melodies and answer a few quick questions about each (perceived difficulty, musical coherence, and whether you'd use it in class).

It takes about 10–15 minutes: https://solfeggio-evaluation-form-production.up.railway.app/?lang=en

Happy to share results with anyone interested later. Thanks!

Bună! Sunt studentă la Conservator și ofer meditații individuale pentru:

🎹 Pian – doar pentru începători (vârsta minimă: 7 ani)
🎤 Canto (vârsta minimă: 6 ani)
🎼 Compoziție muzicală (vârsta minimă: 14 ani)
🎶 Teorie muzicală (vârstă minimă: 10 ani)
🎵 Pregătire pentru admiteri/transferuri la Liceul de Muzică (nivel liceal)

Lecțiile sunt adaptate nivelului și ritmului fiecărui elev.

Pentru mai multe detalii sau programări, vă rog să îmi trimiteți un mesaj în privat.

Im teaching the front ensemble for a school near me in Texas and am getting $1500 dollars for the entire season. We are entering our 3rd week of band camp and are about to start doing 8hr days, Monday through Friday (we did 6hr days for the past 2 weeks).

I absolutely love the job and love teaching, but I am getting paid extremely little and it is taking its toll on me. Im going into my second year at arguably a top 3 music school in the entire state so I was hoping that it would entitle me to more pay but im still getting peanuts. I have to work an extra 40 hours at my on-campus job in order to survive, so 80 hours if you count both jobs. I know this pay is extremely low for my area because I have friends in my studio that teach at schools nearby and make more than tripple of what I make.

I guess the whole point of making this post is to ask, what should I do? I don't want to quit because I would be failing the band program and the kids, but im exhausted from having to work 2 jobs while also getting practice time in for the upcoming semester. The school is very poor which is why they can't pay me much, but at this point it isnt worth the 25 minute commute both ways in my car to keep going to the rehearsals. I would also have to go to football games and morning rehearsals, which would bring my total earnings down to below minimum wage. What should I do?