new teaching music magazine masthead

Teaching Music magazine is the NAfME publication for all members at all teaching levels and in all areas. Membership includes four issues per year, distributed both in print and digitally.

Questions or feedback? Contact Laura Reed

 

Teaching Music Magazine Guidelines for Contributors

Teaching Music magazine is a member benefit of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME). It is published quarterly, with three printed issues mailed to current members in October, January, and April, and four issues available online. The summer issue is published in a digital-only format.

NAfME's Teaching Music Advisory Committee guides content development and review for the magazine. Articles should be practical, easy-to-read, informative, and engaging. TM welcomes short submissions from NAfME members that describe effective and innovative instructional strategies and thoughtful solutions to problems faced by music educators at all levels, from PreK through college.

Authors should review NAfME's Strategic Plan, which includes NAfME's Mission, Vision, and Belief Statement. Also, make sure to read A Blueprint for Strengthening the Music Teacher Profession. A wide variety of article topics are possible, including:

  • Themes and implementation ideas from NAfME's Strategic Plan and Blueprint
  • Practical teaching ideas based on the National Standards
  • Innovative strategies related to one or more music education content areas, teaching levels, or teaching contexts (such as small schools, general music education, etc.)
  • Tips for teachers, techniques, case studies, lesson plans, and/or best practices
  • An advocacy idea that worked for you—how you implemented it and what the results were
  • Practical classroom application of the latest research in music education
  • Technology for music instruction or considerations and applications for use of AI in music education
  • Cross-curricular integration
  • Assessment

Issues are planned approximately five months in advance. To avoid duplicating a topic already slated for publication, send a query letter for the Teaching Music Advisory Committee containing the following information:

  • Draft title of your article
  • A brief overview of your topic, specific areas of focus in the article, and intended audiences
  • Approximate length of the article (word count)
  • A brief outline of the article contents
  • Your short bio (100–250 words), including your current position and title and work and academic background

All submissions are reviewed by the Teaching Music editorial staff and multiple members of the Teaching Music Advisory Committee or other experienced music educators and/or content-area specialists, with additional review by the NAfME Equity Committee as needed. Please allow 4–6 weeks for review.

Accepted works are between 500 and 2000 words long and are written in a direct, conversational style. Footnotes or endnotes are rarely used; any necessary references are incorporated into the text of the submission. See our Tips for TM Contributors for more information.

Teaching Music will not consider work that has been simultaneously submitted to another publisher and will not normally consider reprints, unless from an affiliated state association publication. Authors of articles accepted for publication will be asked to agree to the following:

  • Membership in NAfME is an expectation.
  • Acceptance of a manuscript for publication does not guarantee the publishing of the article in a particular issue of the magazine.
  • NAfME reserves the right to determine whether the article will be published in print, in digital-only format, or both print and digital formats.
  • Copyright for all submissions accepted for publication is assigned to NAfME. You will be asked to sign a Copyright Transfer Agreement.
  • Payment is not possible for contributions to the magazine. Any costs associated with illustrations or musical examples are the responsibility of the author.
  • Permission from the parents or guardians of minors whose photographs are submitted are required (Release Form).
  • Permissions to reprint already published material, such as illustrations or tables, must be obtained by the author.
  • NAfME's Use of Artificial Intelligence policy

Once a submission is accepted, authors are encouraged to send in high-resolution color photographs or other graphics that illustrate the main points of their work, as well as a headshot.

When submitting an article, an accompanying email should include a short bio (100–250 words for each author), including your current position, relevant experience, and credentials. In addition, please provide the author's address, daytime phone number, title or position, and name of school or institution. Attach to the email, as separate files:

  • A Word document using a clear font such as Times New Roman or Calibri, 12-point font
  • A high-resolution author photo, including photographer credits if necessary
  • Any photos (with photographer credits), illustrations, music examples, tables, or photos as high-resolution jpg or png files

NOTE: Artificial Intelligence tools are not used in the editing and production of articles that appear in Teaching Music. NAfME will not upload pre-published materials to the cloud or large-language modeling tools without express permission from the author.

Send submissions and query letters to Laura Reed.

 

Institutional Subscription to the Print Version of NAfME’s Teaching Music Magazine

Thank you for your interest in purchasing an institutional subscription to NAfME's membership magazine Teaching Music.

Four issues of the magazine are published each year. Please note that the four issues of Teaching Music magazine will now be published as follows each year volume year: the Summer issue will be digital only and available to all members online only; the October, January, and April issues of each volume year will be published/printed/mailed to all members and also institutional subscribers (an online version of these three issues is also available online for members only). Institutions can subscribe to the October, January, and April printed/mailed editions of the magazine for an annual fee of $185 (total for three issues). If an individual wants to access all of NAfME's digital content, including the digital issues of the magazine and all journals, he/she can become an individual Associate member of NAfME.

Institutional subscriptions can be purchased only during the period May 1 to August 15 each year. Please check back during that period to subscribe. This annual subscription will be for three printed issues only, the October, January, April issues only of each volume year of the magazine. An institutional subscriber may purchase more than 1 subscription if desired. There is no option to purchase individual issues. Institutional subscribers are responsible for maintaining an up-to-date mailing address. Please note that NAfME pulls the mailing list for each of the issues that are printed/mailed (October, January, and April issues) one full month prior to the first day of the month for that issue (one month prior to October 1, January 1, and April 1).

Purchase an institutional subscription during the May 1 to August 15 subscription window. Please have prepared a point of contact name and email and the institutional name and mailing address for the subscription. Questions? Contact Member Services at 800-336-3768 or MemberServices@nafme.org.