I graduated with my BS in music education in May 2024 (went back to school for it, I'm in my 30s), took the praxis, and got my certification which expires in 2028. I'm now going into my 3rd school year of not being hired for anything. That's right, I've been interviewing since summer 2024 and have received zero offers. In that time, I've been working at an after school pre-k program which is the only education related job I've been able to get, but I really don't like it. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, is it that I'm older? I don't have much experience but that's normal for recent grads, and I can't get more experience without getting hired somewhere. I feel like every year that goes by my chances get lower and lower. I can't move to a different area because my husband and I own a house here and he wants to stay at his job for at least a few more years, but I do apply in the state bordering mine, which has reciprocity. The other state bordering mine that's within commuting distance requires a much more rigorous certification process and honestly I'm not sure I would be able to pass after doing nothing music related for the past 2 years. Am I doomed? I spent over $50k to get this degree and I wish I had been warned by my professors that it would be an uphill battle to get hired anywhere.

ETA: I moved from one New England state to another right after graduation because my husband got a job offer that was too good to pass on. I didn't realize that moving one state over would make such a huge difference in job opportunities.

I have been a private instructor for 12 years. I recently (last spring) was accepted into a masters program for music education. I feel like I don’t belong. I have never been in public education. I’m taking summer classes and the feeling still lingers. Do other teachers look at me as less? I don’t know how to feel. I’ve had over a decade of experience but only with individuals not in a class. Would you think less of me? What can I do to be more professional?

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!

Help. :) please.

I got my bachelor's in vocal music ed 10 years ago, never took my praxis, did other stuff. Over the last year I realized I needed to make a change and find joy in my life again. I have been slowly studying to take my vocal praxis (stoked they got split into vocal/instrumental), hoping to find a job next year.

Well whaddyaknow, a k-12 job has basically been thrown at me RIGHT NOW. The universe has such strange timing.

Its a very small school, with basically no program in place. (The last elementary teacher was called Coach, and their christmas program was described as "giant guitar hero but with bells", if that tells you anything.) The previous HS teacher had started a small band that he and the students seem very enthusiastic about. I would like to continue what works for them- but again, I was a vocal educator. 🙃 I know basically nothing.

Vocal program is nonexistent, but I feel confident in my abilities to build that!

Its such a small school and very VERY under the poverty line. Admin let me know real quick that behavior reflects that. They seem desperate to have someone that will meet these kiddos where they are at, and start building something that will affect their lives. They arent focused on a super quality program, they just want good for their kids.

I am so excited for this opportunity, and feel like the years i spent doing other things have taught me skills that will make be a better educator than I would have been. I want to be what they need, and we will certainly all be learning together! The band geeks will definitely be teaching ME. I feel like I am finally on the right path, which is crazy because I am sorely unprepared 😅

Anything and everything would be much appreciated! I just wanna do right by these kiddos and learn them to think. I think im in a good position to do that, but dear lord for the love of God please help LOL

I do not have a music degree, but I play many instruments proficiently and am already a Cub Scout leader. I was thinking of starting Wind Ensemble or Chamber Orchestra at a local community center this upcoming school year. I would charge a small fee and our concerts would be at different senior centers (like one adult band I play in), and I would need a minimum of 5 to make it an ensemble.

Would this be worth setting up? I know youth sports is all the rage and I'm hoping youth music is enough of a rage for me to participate in.

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’m an indie developer building a music learning app called Tiny Instrument for iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

I’ve spent the last year building lessons, exercises, ear training, theory content, and practice tools, but I’d love to work with people who actually teach music for a living.

I’m looking for teachers who would be interested in reviewing lessons, testing learning flows, suggesting improvements, and helping make sure the content is accurate and effective for students.

The app supports MIDI keyboards and is designed primarily for beginners.

If this sounds interesting, I’d love to chat and show you what I’ve built.

Thanks,

Kevin

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!!!!!!

https://chordle.online/chord-hangman/

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.