Field Notes on Music Teaching & Learning

I did a poll on Instagram recently to see if any of my music teacher friends had ever hosted a musical informance. A few said "yes," a few said "no," but a surprising number of respondents chose the third option: "What's an informance?"

An informance is basically an informal performance or as Eastman professor Dave Headlam describes, "A performance for the information age." (source: Oxford Handbook of Public Music Theory)

There's a teaching component and a performing component, and depending on how you structure it, a conversational or interactive component.

In Ep. 068, I showed you in real time how I was researching, planning, and organizing my first musical informance for my students.

Today, I'm sharing more details about our upcoming musical informance—my repertoire list, the questions I'm posing to my students as they learn and prepare, opportunities for student creativity and input, and how I'm organizing it with parents and families.

For show notes + a full transcript, click here.

Resources Mentioned

*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

D. Headlam (2021). "Musical Informance: Performance for the Information Age." The Oxford Handbook of Public Music Theory. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197551554.013.2

Ep. 068 - How to Plan a Musical Informance

Exploring Music with Bill McGlaughlin

Doodle Poll

Moonfinder (Dennis Alexander)

The Rising Sun (Nancy Telfer, RCM Prep B)

Dancing with My Shadow (Lisa Donovan Lukas)

Sailing in the Sun (Nancy Faber, 1)

Storms on Saturn (Nancy Faber, 2A)

Solar Eclipse (Piano Safari Repertoire Level 2)

Sunshine and Shadows (Martha Mier)

A Morning Sunbeam (Florence Price)

Speedy Comet (Alison Mathews, RCM 1)

Stellar (Chrissy Ricker)

Lunar Eclipse (Nancy Faber, 3A)

Sunny Day (Robert Vandall)

Dark to Light (Jennifer Eklund)

Sailing by Moonlight (Joan Last, RCM 2)

The Sunshiny Morning (Cornelius Gurlitt)

The Moons of Jupiter (Nancy Faber)

When the Sun Rises (Nancy Faber, 5)

When the Planets Are Aligned (Nancy Telfer, RCM 4)

Sailing on the Solar Wind (Martha Hill Duncan)

Bright Orange (Robert Starer, RCM 6)

Halley’s Comet (Nancy Telfer, RCM 7)

Sunshower (Martha Hill Duncan, RCM 8)

O Moon (Alexina Louie, RCM 8)

Total Eclipse of the Heart

Rhythm Pattern Cards

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Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew

This year, Rochester, NY is in the path of the total solar eclipse. There are lots of special events happening in town—the orchestra is performing a special concert, the science museum is hosting a festival, and the schools are giving everyone the day off to experience this historical event.

As I looked ahead at this year, I thought it might be fun to plan a special event of our own to mark this occasion in the studio. Maybe special repertoire? An incentive program?

Then I thought about the informances the performing ensembles at my school put on early in the year: an informal demonstration for parents of what they're learning and what they're working on.

What if we did something like this in the studio? I thought.

Today, I'm taking you behind the scenes in real-time as I research, plan, and organize my first informance for my students. I'll share a few historical examples of musicians who exemplified this model of education and engagement, talk about ways you could structure this, outline the necessary components that separate an informance from a performance, and share how my students and I are preparing for this event.

For show notes + a full transcript, click here.

Resources Mentioned

*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

Ep. 064 - How I Plan a Year of Student Repertoire

D. Headlam (2021). "Musical Informance: Performance for the Information Age." The Oxford Handbook of Public Music Theory. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197551554.013.2

C. Nowmos (2010). "Using Informance to Educate Parents and Demonstrate the Music Learning Process." General Music Today, 23(3): Special Focus Issue: The Informance as a Teaching Tool in General Music, 5-14. https://doi.org/10.1177/104837130936

"Watch me play... the audience!" (Bobby McFerrin)

Live Improvisation at the Kennedy Center (Bobby McFerrin)

Interactive performance at Cornell (Bobby McFerrin)

Curious, Collaborative, Creativity (CCC)

Curious, Collaborative Creativity: A Guide for Transforming Music Ensembles (Dr. Caron Collins & Dr. Danni Gilbert)

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>

Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew

"It feels almost like if we don't document it, did it happen? And I need proof that it did."

I was listening to an interview with Erin Napier of Home Town on Southern Living's Biscuits and Jam podcast recently and this statement stayed with me.

"A major part of my personality is documenting," she said, and I nodded to myself.

In this episode, I'm sharing what I've learned about the art and practice of documentation, six things I'm documenting in the studio lately, practical resources I use to track and organize this data, and suggestions for developing this practice in your music studio.

For show notes + a full transcript, click here.

Resources Mentioned

*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

Biscuits and Jam interview with Erin Napier, Season 4, Ep. 28

What Is Documentation? (Suzanne Briet)

Social Construction (Oxford Bibliographies)

Social Construction and Pedagogical Practice (Kenneth J. Gergen)

Rhythm Keeper, Vol. 1

Ep. 059 - 7 Ways to Practice Rhythm in Private Lessons

An Interview with Samantha Steitz of Musikal Husky (Musician & Co.)

Ep. 066 - A Winter Improvisation Prompt for Elementary Students

Ep. 018 - This is What an Elementary Piano Buddy Lesson Looks Like

Ep. 062 - A-ha Moments in Music Teaching

Musical Alphabet Cards

Ep. 056 - The Valentine Composition Project

Ep. 047 - An Inside Look Into My Lesson-Planning Process

Buckland, Michael. 2018. "Document Theory." Knowledge Organization 45(5): 425-436

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Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew

Do you improvise with your students?

If you have a classical background like I do, you may not consider yourself an improviser, but researchers and educators Christopher Azzara and Richard Grunow remind us that "we are [all] born improvisers, as evidenced by our behavior in early childhood." (source)

In their series, Developing Musicianship Through Improvisation, they define improvisation as "the spontaneous expression of meaningful musical ideas." It doesn't mean making things up in the moment; it means making meaningful choices, sequencing patterns, snippets, and ideas from a vast vocabulary of musical material, as I talked about in the last episode, Ep. 065.

In this episode, I'm sharing a simple Winter-themed improvisation prompt I use with my elementary students this time of year.

For show notes + a full transcript, click here.

Resources Mentioned

*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

Developing Musicianship Through Improvisation

Ep. 065 - How to Build a Musical Vocabulary Using Tonal Pattern Cards

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>

Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew

I received an email from a listener recently, a piano teacher in North Carolina. She had purchased a set of my tonal pattern cards and was looking for ideas and suggestions for how to incorporate them into her teaching this year.

This prompted me to sit down and think through the importance of building a musical vocabulary (rhythm and tonal), how we learn to read music, and creative ways to engage our students through listening, pattern recognition, matching, imitating, and improvising using a basic set of tonal pattern cards.

In this episode, you'll learn about the mental process behind how we read music, the importance of reading patterns vs. individual notes, a 5-step sequence for musical skill development, and seven creative ideas for using tonal pattern cards in your teaching on a regular basis.

For show notes, click here.

Resources Mentioned

Understanding Dyslexia and the Reading Brain in Kids (H. Korbey)

The Gordon Institute for Music Learning

Printable Tonal & Rhythm Pattern Card Set: Older Elementary

Printable Tonal & Rhythm Pattern Card Set: Younger Elementary

Last week, I posted a reel on Instagram of my annual planning process for my studio. At the end of the summer, I pull out all my books, curriculum charts, and other planning notes and spend several hours making repertoire plans for each of my students.

There are lots of ways to go about this—it takes time to try things and hone in on a process that makes sense to you, helps you feel organized and prepared, and works for your studio.

Today, I'll share a little more insight into my long-term planning process. I hope this inspires you and gives you a few new ideas or approaches to take back to your studio planning this year.

For show notes + a full transcript, click here.

Resources Mentioned

*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

My Instagram reel about repertoire planning

RCM Syllabi

Notability app

How to Use Notability for Assignment Sheets in Your Studio

Ep. 047 - An Inside Look at My Lesson-Planning Process

Ep. 039 - A Creative, Integrated Approach to Teaching Music Theory

Piano Safari, Repertoire Book 1

Piano Safari, Repertoire Book 2

Celebration Series, Preparatory A

Celebration Series, Preparatory B

Piano Teaching Music, Vol 1 (Florence Price)

Through the Windowpane (Chee-Hwa Tan)

Piano Safari, Repertoire Book 3

A Child’s Garden of Verses (Chee-Hwa Tan)

Let’s Quest 2 (Chrissy Ricker)

Perfect Patterns Plus (Chrissy Ricker)

Lyric Preludes (William Gillock)

Preludes in Patterns (Kevin Olson)

Sebastian Sessions (Andrea Dow)

Chopin Sessions (Andrea Dow)

Portraits in Jazz (Valerie Capers)

Disney Songs for Classical Piano (Phillip Keveren)

Melody’s Choice, Book 4 (Melody Bober)

Jazz, Rags, and Blues, Book 5 (Martha Mier)

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>

Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew

"I found this piece that I'd like to learn," one of my high school students said to me in a lesson earlier this summer. He carefully laid out the pages of the score of Alexander Scriabin's Prelude in C Major, Op. 11, No. 1 that he'd downloaded from IMSLP.

"I have a question about it, though," he said turning toward the score. "How do you count this?"

He pointed at the first line written in flowing quintuplets straddling the barlines. I leaned in to take a closer look. My student is very mathematically-minded, so we talked about how the beats are organized and divided into groups of 2+3. The way that it's notated in cut time creates tension—a feeling of pushing or transcending the boundaries to create something free and expressive.

Next, we studied the tonal structure, the repeated use of 4ths, moments of tension and resolution, the way the hands sweep in toward the center in contrary motion. We talked about the formal structure, the technical challenges inherent in the left-hand octave leaps and open arpeggios.

The more we analyzed the score together, the more intrigued I was to take it home and learn it myself. So I pulled up a copy of the same edition on my iPad that day and saved it to my forScore library for later.

Scott Price once said, "The teacher is always and forever the student and the student is the teacher.” What does this look like in practice? In this episode, I'm sharing a glimpse into a project I've been working on this summer and what it looks like to be a student again.

For show notes, click here.

Resources Mentioned

*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

Scriabin’s 24 Préludes, Op. 11

IMSLP

forScore

Schoenberg’s Drei Klavierstücke (1894)

Ep. 060 - How Do We Approach Mistakes in Music Teaching & Learning?

A Piano Teacher’s Legacy (Richard Chronister)

You know those moments when something just *clicks*? When something suddenly makes sense to you that was confusing before or you make a new connection or you realize you're able to do something you didn't know you could do.

Sometimes we call these a-ha moments or breakthroughs. These are some of my favorite things to observe in my studio: when a student recognizes a new musical concept, makes a new connection, or can do something independently that they couldn't do without help before.

I've been looking back through my journal notes for the 2022-23 school year and reflecting on the a-ha moments and the learning that took place.

In this episode, you'll hear five short stories from my students, 1st grade to 8th grade, taken straight from my teaching journal.

For show notes + a full transcript, click here.

Resources Mentioned

*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

Evernote

Piano Safari Level 1

Faber Piano Adventures Level 2B

Ep. 051 - The Pokémon Piano Lesson

Free Rhythm Pattern Cards

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>

Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew

Summer is a great time to rest, recharge, and work on professional development. This is often when we as music educators attend conferences and workshops, participate in training and certification programs, take summer classes at a local university, and catch up on all the reading we intended to do during the year.

If you've been listening for a while, you know I've shared several book and reading-related episodes in the past:

I talked about Daniel Pink's book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us back in Ep. 003, I shared insights from Keith Sawyer's book, Zig Zag: The Surprising Path to Greater Creativity in Ep. 009, and I unpacked Carol Dweck's book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success in Ep. 049.

I also shared a summer reading list for music teachers in Ep. 031 with a few novels and non-music or teaching books, if you're looking for other suggestions.

Today, I'm sharing a curated list of 11 pedagogy-related books for music teachers. Some explore the research on how the brain works, others outline the tenets of effective practicing; some touch on meditation and wellness practices in music teaching and performance, others teach foundational pedagogy principles. Some I've read, and some are on my reading list, but all offer a fresh perspective on the teaching and learning process that I hope will inspire and inform your teaching practice in the year to come.

For show notes + a full transcript, click here.

Resources Mentioned

*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

Ep. 003 - The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

Ep. 009 - Book review: Zig Zag: The Surprising Path to Greater Creativity

Ep. 049 - What Every Music Teacher Should Know About Mindsets: Insights from Carol Dweck's Book

Ep. 031 - A Summer Reading List for Music Teachers

The Musician's Toolbox: Thoughts on Teaching and Learning Music (Diane and Nick Petrella)

How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why It Happens (Benedict Carey)

Ep. 038 - The Secrets of Interleaved Practice

The Art of Practicing: A Guide to Making Music from the Heart (Madeline Bruser)

The Inner Game of Music (Barry Green & W. Timothy Gallwey)

The Perfect Wrong Note: Learning to Trust Your Musical Self (William Westney)

Ep. 060 - How Do We Approach Mistakes in Music Teaching & Learning?

Join the Musician & Co. Book Club (it’s free!)

The Musician's Way: A Guide to Practice, Performance, and Wellness (Gerald Klickstein)

Teaching Music with Purpose (Peter Loel Boonshaft)

The Music Lesson: A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music (Victor L. Wooten)

The Practice of Practice: How to Boost Your Music Skills (Jonathan Harnum)

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>

Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew

"What just happened?" I asked a 4th-grade student one Friday afternoon.

"I made a mistake," she said, looking down at her hands still resting on the keys.

We talked about that for a minute—how sometimes mistakes happen innocently. Sometimes, a mistake is a way of getting our attention, a way for the body to say to the brain, "Wait! I don't really know this yet."

We listened for mistakes and inherent learning opportunities for the rest of the lesson. We talked about insecure fingers, uncertain rhythms, and risky leaps. We talked about how to practice and prepare these things, develop confidence, and be an observer while practicing at home.

This is the work of actively reframing how we see and respond to mistakes.

Earlier this year, I read The Perfect Wrong Note: Learning to Trust Your Musical Self by prize-winning pianist and pedagogue William Westney. (I mentioned it back in Ep. 055 as I was reading it.)

As I read this book, I found myself bringing some of these concepts into my studio to study and evaluate them in practice.

In this episode, I want to share some of these practical takeaways: how I'm integrating some of the ideas from Westney's book into my teaching, the questions I'm asking my students these days, and a reflection on how we approach mistakes in the music teaching and learning process.

For show notes + a full transcript, click here.

Resources Mentioned

*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

The Perfect Wrong Note: Learning to Trust Your Musical Self (William Westney)

Ep. 055 - Begin Again: The Case for Experimentation in Your Music Teaching

Are We Learning From Our Mistakes? Insights From William Westney's, "The Perfect Wrong Note"

Piano Pedagogy Research Laboratory at The University of Ottawa

Join the Musician & Co. Book Club (it's free!)

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>

Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew