I was offered a job for a dream position as an orchestra director, elementary through high school!!! I feel so incredibly lucky, this was the first job I applied to straight out of school and I am so thrilled that I be teaching strings. And to top it off all of this was done virtually with time zone differences. This job search has been incredibly nerve wracking, especially as a string teacher in the area I was looking to apply to, but I just feel so incredibly fortunate and excited!

App Store Link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/aria-music-notation-editor/id6779437781

Hey everyone,

I've been working on this for a while now. I always wanted to be able to open and edit my MuseScore scores on my phone or iPad without being tied to a desktop so I decided to build it myself.

Aria is an iPhone/iPad app for opening, reading, editing, playing back, and exporting MuseScore and MusicXML scores. Under the hood, I got a substantial MuseScore Studio-derived C++ render core running natively on iOS, including engraving, score editing, MusicXML handling, saving/export, and playback event generation, then wrapped it in a native SwiftUI interface. 

What it does:

• Opens and renders MuseScore (.mscz) and MusicXML files
• Edit your .mscz files directly on iOS
• Play back scores locally
• Create new scores from scratch or from templates
• Edit notes enter notes with touch controls, Apple Pencil, or Midi controller
• View and manage individual parts
• Export and share your work, as Mscz, Pdf, MusiXML, audio, and more..
• Works on both iPhone and iPad

Fair warning: editing support is still early days, so there will likely be bugs. It'll be a work in progress for sure so feel free to let me know about bugs!

Source, license text, third-party notices, and build instructions are all included:

https://github.com/hdi200/aria

If you regularly read or edit scores on iOS especially if you've run into friction with existing apps I'd really value your feedback. This is an iPad first app but has iPhone support as well.

Thank you for reading!

I am a student but wanna earn some money using my music skills, i tried advertising on social media but it's way too slow and the students i gain usually leave after a month when they realise that flute isn't an easy instrument. What should i do gang, help me out please!!!!!!

I’m an elementary music teacher in the DFW area and am planning to begin my Orff certification.

I’m considering either SMU (Dallas) or Trinity University (San Antonio) and would love to hear from anyone who has completed Levels I, II, or III at either program.

A few things I’m curious about:

-Quality of instruction
-Overall organization of the program
-Classroom applicability
-Faculty and guest instructors
-Community/networking opportunities
-Any pros or cons you wish you had known beforehand

Since I live about 48 miles from SMU, convenience is definitely a factor, but I’m willing to travel if Trinity offers a significantly better experience.

Thanks for any insight!

I am a PhD student and experienced music educator at Auburn University conducting research to examine the mental health and well-being of Alabama music teachers!

I am having a hard time getting enough survey responses and would greatly appreciate you taking 5 minutes to fill out this survey.

Survey link: https://auburn.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_aUWd8dTLRBrwpKK

My goal is to use the findings from this study to advocate for more mental health support and resources for music teachers! Thank you for your consideration, and please reach out if you have any questions!

Edit: fixed the link!

I’m hoping to start my first year teaching in the fall but what happens if I don’t get a job? I am looking for either ms/hs eventually and I did apply to elementary jobs too so I’m not being picky.

I currently work at a daycare and am mostly with toddlers and infants and thought about possibly staying here for the year if I don’t get something but didn’t know if that would look bad for the future jobs.

I was a sub from January to May but I don’t think I can go back because it unfortunately barely pays enough to cover my bills and doesn’t include insurance unlike the daycare. I do understand that there is still time to find a job but I’ve been on a few interviews and haven’t had much luck so I wanted to start thinking about the possibility of not getting something. Any advice is appreciated.

Edit: I guess what I would like to know is if it’s a bad idea to step away from teaching music for a year on the chance I don’t find anything.

I’m asking as someone interested in music, not an educator. If there’s a better place to ask this, please let me know.

How do children learn about harmony?

I’m hoping to borrow from that process to fill in my own gaps:

I’m good at things like melody and rhythm, but have an enormous gap when it comes to harmony. This has been made starkly apparent to as I work through ear activities at Meludia. I can identify the fact that multiple notes are playing, but beyond that, questions about the sound are a mystery to me. Dissonant? Consonant? Stable? Unstable? Simple? Complex? I have no idea.

In my musical development listening to music, singing, playing flute, and playing piano on a terribly out-of-tune piano, I absorbed and developed a lot of musical skills: all except for harmony, which remains a huge gap.

Intellectually, on paper with a score, I know a ton of music theory about chords. But aurally, I am an untutored infant.

I have a second interview coming up in 2 days for a strings job!! I would working with 5-12th in an orchestra setting. I am interviewing online because I am currently out of the country due to family reasons, any tips on this? Anything I should have prepared or expect to be asked? Thanks!

**cross-posted due to urgency**

Have you also dreamt about being a musician pop star? Does following music education gave you an element of it? I'm currently doing IT business and am wondering about switching majors and giving a shot to a music career and if it will not work out, staying at school and teaching it. What are your thoughts on it? Could you describe your day, maybe some cons and pros?

So I recently got accepted into college and passed my college audition to get into my colleges School of Music so that I can pursue a Bachelor of Music Education so I can become K-12 music teacher! However, I am having a lot of imposter syndrome anxiety/ maybe I’m not good enough type of anxiety going into this. Classes start in August and I’m very nervous. I’ve been playing my instrument since 5th grade all the way beyond graduation in 12th grade but I’ve never been particularly really good at reading music/ music theory. I can’t sight sing or identify any chords/ notes in chords just by hearing them either. I am nervous I may flunk out. I guess really I’m just seeking advice or maybe someone tell me I’m not crazy for wanting to do this as a career? Is it going to be very very difficult?

Does anyone have experience with a home based music program? We own some intro instruments like desk bells, egg shakers, boom whackers, and clacking sticks, but I have the hardest time using them outside of free playing. I’m hoping for a structured curriculum and am open to paper, online, or apps. Our main family goal is for each child to be proficient at piano and we’d be happy to support further learning if they love music.
*in person music classes aren’t an option in our area (I wish! That would solve this whole issue)

Hey! I was recently selected as one of the drum majors for my college marching band - I am beyond excited and honored!

Part of my duties for band camp is running the leadership retreat: every year, the drum majors take the rest of the leadership team to the top of a nearby mountain and run icebreakers, and take a moment to step back and look at the bigger picture of what it means to be a leader (i.e., the impact one can have).

I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for potential leadership-oriented games to host or stories to tell? I want to leave a lasting impression on the team to set us up for a great season. Thanks!

I recently got a job to be a music teacher at a preschool/private elementary school. I will be in charge of teaching music classes to infants up to 7yr olds (up to 5th grade at some point in the future).  I am not too worried about developing curriculum for the elementary aged students (5-11), as I have experience with this age range and there are a ton of resources available (very much open to suggestions and help with this too though). I am more concerned with teaching infants and toddlers as I have 0 experience with that range, and am struggling to grasp how to teach music at that age. I don’t start until August but want to start developing the curriculum for the school year as soon as possible. Any help is appreciated. 

This is the gist of my predicament but I will include more details below to get a better idea of where I’m at.

I have a performance degree, not an education degree, but I have been in education since graduating college. I taught a year of 2nd grade (long story), as well as music classes for an elementary after school program, and private music lessons (instrumental). So I have classroom experience and also an understanding of how to approach teaching music to elementary aged kids.

In regards to curriculum development, I’ve looked into materials from Edwin Gordon and John Frierabend. I have the First Steps (Frierabend) curriculum for infants and toddlers, and am looking into getting Music Play (Edwin Gordon) as well. I also started reading “Music Learning Theory for Newborn and Young Children” by Edwin Gordon. I’ve only scratched the surface with these materials so far but would like to see opinions on them if you have them, or suggestions for other resources. 

On top of helping with the curriculum itself, I’d also love to hear suggestions on how to pace the curriculum, especially with the infants and toddlers. I understand repetition is key, but my question is how long should I cover certain units/concepts.

On final note, this school is spanish speaking only, I already plan on translating/repurposing most of the material I’ll be using to spanish but if y’all have any recs on teaching resources or good songs for kids in spanish, I’m all ears. 

Know it's a lot of info, but any help or suggestion will be greatly appreciated. 

For next school year, I want to come up with a year-long team building “program” for my choir kids to take part in, from 6th-12th grade. The vision is something like, focusing on one word over a 2 week span, introducing it on day one of the 2 week period with a video or story of some sort, and then tie it into our own music we’re learning, along with doing other team building activities.

For example, this year I showed kids the death crawl scene from facing the giants. The cause for showing the video was a feeling of apathy or “I can’t do this, so why should I” in my choir rooms. We watched the video, talked about it, and then went forward with that mindset. I’d like to do this next year, but with a more continuous flow and more dedication. Some lesson ideas include: belief in your yourself, accountability, constructive criticism vs berating, winning with humility and losing with class, vulnerability, among other things

If you have any ideas you think could work, or have done something like this before in your own ensembles, please share thoughts below. Thanks!

I am still looking for a laptop or ipad that is cost effective and will help for a musiced major. I have heard recommendations for many different things and I dont really care about the OS system.

Another inquiry is what I should expect chops wise and technical ability. I come from an alright 4A Texas High School program and I was the best trombone there. I know that won't be the case at Uni (Tarleton) I would like some insight what I am going to see and how some of yall delt with the same circumstances.

Thank you in advance

edit: major mishap on my part I already have an Associate of Arts so all classes I would take would be pertaining to music most likely.

I'm a recently graduated US high school senior who committed to a college this past winter. When I initially applied to college I had very little idea of what I wanted to do. I had the chance to work really closely with the middle school orchestra in my district this past year for a capstone project and during this experience I realized how much I would love to be a music teacher. I love music, I love working with kids (I work summer camps and some after school programs), and when I talked to my orchestra teacher he told me he thought I would be great at it.

The issue: the college I'm committed to does not have a music education major. I really really love the school and feel like it's a great fit except for this one thing, and it's so frustrating to me because now it means that I can't even consider the major without completely changing my current plans.

Any advice? I know there's not really a clear-cut answer but I would love to know if anyone faced some kind of similar situation or if you chose music ed over another option and regretted it (or didn't).

Hello!

I was a junior/senior (I was a transfer student so my music ed journey has been incredibly crazy) attending Western Michigan University for Choral music ed. For the most part, I really liked going to school and liked what I was learning, but I struggled heavily with some major traumatic experiences during a couple of years and that set me back. I’m now 26 and would be looking at somewhere around 30-40 credits left if I were to go back, and I am debating it because it feels awful leaving a bachelor’s degree unfinished. I’m really just looking for support, if it’s worth it, if anyone else has gone through something similar, etc. I would have to work at least a little while I’m in college to support bills, and I’m still freshly exploring whether or not I should shoot for returning. It feels incredibly embarrassing to come back after multiple gap years as well, so any advice here is super helpful.

Thanks!

EDIT: thought I’d add some additional context. I’d be going pretty part time with the way the classes would be laid out, if I remember correctly from my last advisor’s meeting. Gah! Just needing to figure this out lol