Afternoon Ti

 Season Six Episode 129 Rhythm Systems: Ways to Speak and Count This school year I am unable to sing with my students as a result of Covid so I’ve been spending a lot of time on rhythmic concepts.  There are so many ways to count rhythms in music and reasons you might choose to use one system over another.  It is not helpful for your students if you use multiple ways to count using several systems because they will get confused.  That said, you may decide to use one system over several years with students from grades K-4 and then bridge your 5th or 6th graders into using the counting system that you know they will be using in middle school band, orchestra, or choir.  This can be helpful if students are used to one counting system in elementary, but your middle school music directors use another system.  Older students who are familiar with your system could benefit from having an introduction into the system they’ll be using in coming years in middle school.  Or your middle school d

 Season Six Episode 128 Can We Just Say It's Hard I have started and restarted creating this episode multiple times and nothing I could think of to say felt like it had any bearing on what you might be feeling at this point in the year.  A dose of encouragement to tell you it’s going to get better or that’s it’s only for a season?  Not sure I can promise either of those things.  Yes, at some point our teaching scenarios will pivot and yes, it could be more difficult or easier, but there’s no sign of when that is going to happen.  As far as everything feeling hard in this season, it feels like this season has become several seasons - in fact in three months it will have been a full year.  And it feels like there’s no end.  And that there’s no light at the end of the tunnel.  It’s hard.  So let’s just be honest about that: It’s hard.  All of it. It’s messy.  A lot of it. It’s tiring.  All of it. It’s wearing us out.  All of it. It’s sad.  And challenging.  And unrelenting.  And se

 Season 6 Episode 127 Mini Soundtrap Project In the last few episodes I’ve shared some Soundtrap lesson ideas that I created and used with students.  Podcasts, Fictional Character Themes, Found Sounds, and Poem with Loops.  Check out the resources provided for each of these lessons in the show notes or on the blog. Today’s episode is about a simple Soundtrap project that could be done as a collaboration by several students or by an individual in whatever time frame you provide.  The benefit of this lesson is that it’s incredibly flexible.  It could be done in as little as 20 minutes or as much as 45 minutes or more.  The idea is to allow students to create a piece containing a specific amount of loops that includes an introduction and ending.  Like I said super simple.  This might be a great way to introduce students to loops and even form structure depending on how you set up your rubric.   This was a lesson I used while I was out this past week and needed something that a substitu