Catalysts & Connections - Evan Tobias

MENC has the results of an informal poll on music-focused television scripted and reality shows. It seems, based on the additional comments, that many people take the shows at face value when considering their use to (or problems for) music education. I was surprised that few responses discuss the use of these shows in the […]

I became intrigued with the new reality show “The Sing Off” after hearing about the A Capella focused show on NPR’s Here & Now. However you feel about the groups on the show or the contemporary A Capella scene in general, this show offers tremendous potential for creative music educators and our students.
In […]

Just as the NAEP provides a national assessment of 8th graders’ music and arts education, I think the commentary surrounding Ellen DeGeneres’s role as the newest judge on American Idol is also worth looking at in terms of assessing the state of music education in the US. In articles across the Internet such as this […]

The creation of a collaborative orchestra project by YouTube, Michael Tilson Thomas and others is one of the most exciting classical music initiatives I’ve seen in a while.
Harnessing the power of the internet, tapping into the notions of participatory culture, and drawing on the abilities of instrumentalists across the world, YouTube’s Symphony Orchestra project has […]

Today in my secondary general music methods class we discussed how one can use current events as a springboard for classroom discussion and lessons. In the spirit of that discussion I figured  I’d write about a recent set of issues relating to the discourse of copyright and the presidential election. I’ve written here about copyright […]

Creative Commons’s decision to sell CC mixter (an online remix community) might be cause for alarm, though it could also lead to a new and improved version of the site. The concept behind CC Mixter and resources it offers have important implications for music education. It provides both a space and means for legal remixing […]

For a while now I’ve been keeping track of Web-based listening/music discovery/remixing etc. applications that I believe have positive implications for and uses in music classrooms. I alluded to some possible uses in a presentation I gave at the New Directions in General Music Conference at MSU earlier this year.
Today the Listening Post featured […]

Prior to being a full time student, when I was teaching in a public school, I remember being very frustrated with my lack of access to various music research journals. There was no way I could afford subscriptions to the wide variety of journals I now read and downloading one article could cost up to […]

While watching Super Bowl XLII I was thinking about the role music played during commercials and the game. While it was interesting to think about the particular choices of music during commercials, I got the biggest kick from the “Mr. Oboe” commercial featuring Ephraim Salaam and Chester Pitts who, according to the commercial […]

I’ve been closely following recent dialogue over the legality of transferring music from a legally purchased CD to a computer. The web has been abuzz since Marc Fisher wrote in a recent article that the RIAA considers the practice of transferring music from a legally purchased CD, illegal. This information quickly spread around the […]