Journal of General Music Education

In secondary general music classes, adolescent musicianship can be stifled by poor self-efficacy. Although adolescents typically lead lives rich with music, they may believe that these interests and experiences do not apply within school settings, may become preoccupied with images of seeming musical perfection, and may even perceive themselves to be unmusical. Societal messaging and school music programs themselves may unfortunately enhance these views. Four sources of self-knowledge that inform self-efficacy provide considerations and approaches for secondary general music teachers.

Secondary general music is hard to define. For some, this denotes an accelerated version of elementary general music or a decelerated version of a college music appreciation course. Others view this as any nontraditional ensemble geared for middle or high school students, such as guitar, keyboard, or steel pans. Still, for others, secondary general music is not so much a stand-alone course as it is any time devoted to teaching fundamental skills to students in band, orchestra, and choir so they may more successfully perform the repertoire. The authors acknowledge each of the above-listed views as valid; thus, rather than debate what is secondary general music, we will highlight each viewpoint in a three-part series. The first of this series will focus on a class structure where students experience various activities all while learning music fundamentals, studying music history, and developing music literacy skills.

Different teachers can have widely varying classroom management results with the same set of students. There are some explanations for this occurrence, but one explanation that most people could agree on is the teachers’ language they use with their students. This column, the second in a series about classroom management issues, is about which approaches and prompts are effective for preventing and quelling undesirable behavior. Specific topics include the intersection of culturally responsive teaching and classroom management, fostering respect among students, and using more assertive but still respectful prompts with students.

Since the passing of what we now call the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, students who were previously educated in separate facilities or campuses are now educated in their neighborhood schools. Even though students with severe disabilities are now in their neighborhood schools, many spend the majority of their day in separate classrooms. When they are not in separate classrooms, it is possible students with severe disabilities are participating in art, physical education, and music classes alongside their same-aged peers.

In this column, we encourage early childhood music teachers to include music listening lessons in their teaching. We suggest five guiding principles for music listening lessons: selecting varied repertoire, using high-quality recordings and playback, communicating with families and teachers, incorporating movement, and considering the broader importance of repertoire selections. We conclude by sharing four listening lesson ideas. Detailed information is provided on considerations for speakers to use in the classroom.

This article gives a brief overview of Flipgrid and Seesaw, two free platforms that allow for video responses to prompts provided by the teacher. Flipgrid allows students to see other students’ submissions and allows students to provide feedback to their classmates. Seesaw defaults to private submission of assigned activities in a variety of formats. Potential assessment implications are also discussed.

Folkloric music and dance in Bulgaria are performed as has been for generations, but also present are innovative hybrids in text, form, and instrumentation. Historically, traditional musical activities were divided by gender with singing a priority for women and playing instruments for men. This has been rapidly changing as in so many countries, and gender is no longer a hard and fast rule regarding specific means of music participation. This article will offer a brief description of particular musical traits from the different regions of the country, and it will then feature the score and teaching suggestions for a popular folk song and dance “Trâgnala Rumjana” that can be implemented in elementary and secondary general music classes.

Music and visual art share many common elements, principles, and processes. The numerous commonalities shared between music and visual arts afford for natural, meaningful integration opportunities that create natural synergies. Synergy or syntegration is achieved when the learning outcomes accomplished through the integration of subjects are greater than the outcomes achieved by teaching each subject individually. This article examines some of the natural commonalities between music and visual art through the music of Bach and the art of the Baroque Period that provide for syntegrated learning opportunities in the general music classroom. The authors provide ideas for integrated lesson plans for music and visual art.