Week 7: Laughter and Music Lower Blood Pressure?

I have heard and been witness to the amazing healing power of music, but anecdotal evidence only carries so much weight. Click here to read about a study that suggests that laughter and music can lower blood pressure.

Week 7: Some usable research on music education

A new article to this blog references a study that shows that music lessons earlier in life aid in memory later in life. The link to the actual study appears to be dead, but I did a little searching and found more information here. I would rather we as music educators made the argument that music is important for musical reasons, but this kind of stuff always helps!

Week 6: Review of new music technology

If you are anything like me, you like to stick with what you know as much as you can. Why take on something new when what you are doing is working just fine? On the other hand, sometimes there are simply better ways. The new software reviewed in the blog below may be just one of those "better ways."

Amazing New Music Education and Technology Software Now in Beta

Week 6: Thougths on Arts Advocacy

Here are a series of short videos from a panel discussion on the importance of advocacy from the arts that came across my reader this week. I hear a lot of teachers who comment about wanting to "stay out of the politics," but I strongly believe that if politics can impact us, I want to do everything I can to impact politics, and these videos discuss some things that can be done to advocate for the arts in the political arena.

Week 5: Introducing students to instruments

If you introduce young students to the instruments of the orchestra, you might find these printable resources handy. They include information about how each instrument is made, how it produces sound and so on.

Meet the Orchestra Printable Pages

Week 5: Education Reform

This is an interesting take on education reform efforts that has a special emphasis on their impact on the arts. It comes with a fascinating animation. Enjoy!

Everyone's Reforming Education...or NOT!

Week 4: MuseScore and Open-Source Goldberg Variations

I ran across this post about a project using MuseScore to create an open source version of Bach's Goldberg Variations. Interesting and timely!

Week 4: Help with budget and program cuts

This is a good to-the-point description of steps to take when a program or budget cut to a music program is announced. It was posted to the new MENC Advocacy Groundswell website.

Crisis Intervention 101