Archive for the ‘College/University Teaching’ Category
What is Practice, Anyway?
Posted by: jdunnavant on: February 7, 2012
- In: Band | College/University Teaching | Flute | Oboe | Singing | Uncategorized
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I saw one of my favorite students today. She’s 15, and she is REALLY good at it. I think of her as my “little black raincloud,” because she has a comeback for every compliment. We start every lesson in pretty much the same way. She comes in, sits down, gets her flute out, and tells [...]
Don’t Keep Up With the Joneses
Posted by: bwalters on: January 24, 2012
Everyone’s “favorite” encyclopedia provides the following definition for “Keeping up with the Joneses” : ”an idiom in many parts of the English-speaking world referring to the comparison to one’s neighbor as a benchmark for social caste or the accumulation of material goods. To fail to ‘keep up with the Joneses’ is perceived as demonstrating socio-economic or cultural inferiority.” So what does [...]
Why We All Should Sing
Posted by: jdunnavant on: January 11, 2012
I am not a trained singer. I sing all the time, in the church choir, in the car, in the shower, sometimes in embarassingly public places like the grocery store…and I sing a lot when I’m teaching. I feel the need to add the disclaimer that I am NOT a trained singer because there’s so [...]
2011 in Review
Posted by: tyonce on: January 3, 2012
It’s been a busy, full year. Usually, I assess what I’ve done (and haven’t managed to get done) at the end of the academic year; as a college professor, my concept of a “year” goes from August to May. However, it probably isn’t a bad idea to perform a mid-year check-up. While it’s easy to [...]
Using the Holiday to Advance YOUR Career
Posted by: Paula Brusky on: December 22, 2011
What are the holidays great for? Cookies! Family! Football! NETWORKING!!!!! The holidays present one of the very easiest opportunities to network. Why bother networking? Your career in music depends on it. The music field is about who you know and more importantly who knows you. Often times the person that gets the job is the [...]
Attempt to Make Mistakes
Posted by: bwalters on: December 12, 2011
“Attempt to make mistakes…” and “I want you to push yourself to the point of falling off the beam.” While attending my daughter’s Thursday night gymnastics team practice, I repeatedly heard these statements (and others like them) from the coach and they immediately stuck in my head. Why would anyone want someone to make a [...]
Winning by Losing
Posted by: jdunnavant on: December 4, 2011
- In: Band | College/University Teaching | Flute | Oboe | Uncategorized
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This is the season in Tennessee for many high school and middle school flute players to try out for our regional bands and orchestras, and the results of those auditions establish a list of students from East, West and Middle Tennessee who are invited to the All-State Band and Orchestra. As anyone reading this post [...]
Recital Preparation
Posted by: tyonce on: December 2, 2011
Preparing for a recital can be a daunting process. If you’ve ever given a recital before, you’ve discovered that there’s more to the process than just learning the music. You often collaborate with a pianist or other chamber music partners. You perform in a space that might differ significantly from your usual practice room, acoustically [...]
Expression and Enjoyment
Posted by: jdunnavant on: November 10, 2011
- In: Band | College/University Teaching | Flute | Music Business | Oboe | Singing | Uncategorized
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Today was a gray, wet, windy, chilly day. It was miserable, and as someone who’s lived through lots of winters in Nashville, I know that it’s likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. The traffic was heavy and all the stoplights were red. And I was clumsy all day–I dropped 130 graded tests on [...]
Tuning
Posted by: bwalters on: November 4, 2011
Playing in tune is something that I am very passionate about. I am sure that most musicians feel the same way as who would want to play out of tune?! For many of us it is not a question wanting to improve, but rather a question of how to improve, and finding tools and techniques [...]
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Paula Brusky - Bassoonist, injury prevention expert, professor, founding director of BCMCC. |
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Jon Cotton - Middle school band director, music education expert. |
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Jessica Dunnavant - Flutist, professor, early music enthusiast. |
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Diane Haslam - Singer, professor, writer. |
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Stephanie Henke - Oboist, DMA student. |
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Bart Walters - Jazz and classical saxophonist, popular music expert, former Army musician. |
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Tammy Evans Yonce - Flutist, professor, chamber and orchestral musician, contemporary music fan. |