2017 National In-Service Conference

The NAfME National Conference is the only music education conference where you can connect and collaborate with music educators from all over the world. NAfME can offer tools and techniques to help your students learn and create in new and inspiring ways.

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FEATURES AND NEWS

Five Tips to Make Arranging Approachable: Teaching Students How to Create Their Own Music

Five Tips to Make Arranging Approachable Teaching Students How to Create Their Own Music By NAfME Member Taylor Morris I often find myself wondering why we spend so much time teaching students how to make music other people have written, but we rarely spend time teaching them how to make their own music. And, if music is a form of self-expression – which I suspect many would agree it can and should be – then teaching students how to create their own music is a highly valuable and radically…

Welcoming a Jehovah’s Witness into the Band Room

Welcoming a Jehovah’s Witness into the Band Room Questions to Ask and Practices to Implement By NAfME Member Brian Weidner Can we treat students who are Jehovah’s Witnesses like any other students by accommodating for their unique needs and ensuring a quality educational opportunity for all students within a performance music classroom? “Alice”* and I first met at her eighth-grade audition for the McHenry High School bands. As I sat down after the audition with the middle school band director to discuss individual students’ needs and concerns, the first…

Conducting is Good for Your Health! Expanding Your Conducting Vocabulary

Conducting is Good for Your Health! Expanding Your Conducting Vocabulary By NAfME Member Dr. Andrea Strauss Have you ever wanted to improve your conducting? Many of us would like to be more expressive to reveal the connection between the music and the players. Conducting is our unique way of interpreting the music and the composer’s intent, yet many times our physical motions limit our ability to best express what the music is trying to convey. Since any gesture over time loses effectiveness, ways to expand our conducting vocabulary are…