The 21st Century Music Program

I've written about it already: Music Education must shift (as most of what we do in Education must shift now). But I haven't given a prescription for the shift. I'll focus on music education first since it's where I've spent most of my career.

Once upon a time, as the world was changing and going digital, music was right out front as one of the game changers. Since people love music, they wanted music. As digital formats and broadband increased so did the possibility that music could be made available for next to free. A huge demand ensued. Enterprising individuals with some coding know-how made it possible for people to find music online. That's the beginning of the story and how P2P networking changed the world. The rest is known to us. Napster and other websites that allowed free sharing of music and other copyrighted material were targeted by the RIAA and the copyright wars began.

Now, new modes of distribution and consumption are in place, money is paid to the artists and the world is changed. Of course, the illegal stuff still happens and will continue to-until we radically redfine and de-criminalize file sharing. But it was larely a demand for MUSIC that inspired the whole digital-everything movement. And As Chris Anderson will tell you, once things are digitized, distribution costs are almost nill for a gizzillion copies of the same file (mp3, mp4, .mov, .avi etc..).

So where does secondary Music Education fit into this? Prominently, I think. Center Stage, if you will. Teens and music go hand in hand. They "do" music all the time. In these times, students are downloading, manipulating, re-mixing and listening to music daily. What happens when they come to music "class". What is happening in "General" Music Classrooms today? Do students ever hear "their" music? In a 21st Century Music Program, they should. Do they use technology, loop-based composition software to make their OWN music? In a 21st Century Music Program, they should. Do they get to create and remix music the way they do in the real world? Do they get to download and keep their music as Mp3 files? In a 21st Century Music Program, they should. Is You Tube ever used in music class? i-Tunes? In a 21st Century Music Program, they should be.

It's an important shift because in a 21st century Music Program, there is potential for many more students to be part of the program--shifting it from the old Band/Chorus paradigm and justifying it solidly to School Boards. When you turn all students into Artists, it's difficult to cut a program. That's possible in a 21st Century Music Program.

Looking for Blues Resources?

7th grade students and I research the Blues each year. You Tube is part of that research. Many good resources (primary source material!) can be found there. This year we decided to make a list of You Tube users who have significant (and quality) blues resources in their playlists.
We imagine this list could serve as a short-cut for many teachers/students looking for more information about the Blues. Enjoy.

Here is a list 10 of those users.

• jemf999
• leoncalquin
• swinginglance
• tcblues
• paracite187
• truerhymer
• ashleyspencermusic
• 000nuetron000
• osir1s
• xakyxak

photo credit

Music Education Professional Learning Network Launches

Watch Out, Here We Come! The Music Education Professional Learning Network launches today, July 19th, 2010. The site is a "freely available public site specifically designed for Music Teachers, Educators interested in Music topics, and pre-service Music Teachers."

Users must register for an account, otherwise the site is free. The MPLN contains Forums, Groups and News/Info. links about aspects of Music Education. Pre-launch, the site had 68 members who Beta-tested the network. These members are among the top music education professionals with an online presence (music ed. teachers, conductors, clinicians, presenters, bloggers, etc..). One of the greatest attributes of the site is that is it is social media rich meaning that there are multiple ways to share information outside the network on different platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo and MySpace. I believe this attribute will insure the site's success. Interestingly, it is also possible to connect IN to the network. For example, by using the hastag #mpln on Twitter, the update will post inside the MPLN network. Nifty!

The launch comes at a time when social networks are becoming increasingly accepted as valid places, forums for learning. There have been a few attempts at creating social networks for music educators but none have achieved a wide membership/following. MENC has had a Mentoring Forum for years (of which I was once a Mentor) but it never quite evolved from the limited 'thread'.

I am convinced that the time is ripe for the Music Education Professional Learning Network. I believe that it will be widely used by Music Education Professionals to connect, discuss, debate, elucidate, elaborate, learn, grow and educate. Is the world ready for Music Education to finally, finally be transformed?