nafmeadmin.
nafmeadminWho teaches Holiday music? “Jingle Bell Rock” is a favorite of mine, The chord progression introduces some “new” chords for beginners. Enjoy the break and here’s to a super New Year.
nafmeadminCarol of the Bells appears in several publications and is also a pretty easy tune to teach by rote as well. The kids love it! Our seventh graders did it this year and we could not get them to stop! it combines an ostinato pattern with a descending scale as well as a challenging ascending scale pattern. if you have access to handbells, you can incorporate those as well for a very pretty arrangement. Be prepared for the kids to rush the ostinato, though!
John Truitt
nafmeadminWell, this may be a bit outdated…but maybe ideas for next year? I teach them Mele Kalikimaka. The first verse is in E-flat but then the rest of the song is in E…tends to hit right when we’re working on B7 so it fits great. And since ukulele is such a hit these days, I even give the kids the option to bring ukes that day and I’ll teach it to them on uke.
Another favorite is “I Won’t Be Home for Christmas” by Blink 182. FAIR WARNING: There’s a slightly dicey bit of suggestive lyrics in the last verse…but the high schoolers don’t mind 🙂 It’s just a fun straight ahead song, but the intro and outro solos are easy enough to teach in a day and the classes feel really accomplished being able to play a whole song, soup to nuts.
Brian
nafmeadminI’m a big fan of the Christmas Guitar Ensembles from the H.O.T. series and My Guitar My Band-Christmas by Nathalie Lachance and Luc Levesque.
The HOT book splits kids up into a melody line, harmony, Chords and Bass. All the parts a very attainable by a beginning level ensemble and the chord parts have added finger picking as well.
My Guitar My Band is great because they split the melody line up so each part gets a chance to shine. Students have to listen to each other to make sure they don’t cover the melody line especially when it’s in the bass.
Christopher M. Johnson, Professor of Music Education and Music Therapy, is currently the Chair of the Music Education and Music Therapy Department and Director of the Music Research Institute at the University of Kansas. Johnson earned his Ph.D. from the Florida State University.
Since his arrival at The University of Kansas, Johnson has taught courses in Instrumental Conducting, Teaching Instrumental Music, Managing Behaviors in the Music Environment, Psychology and Acoustics of Music, and Research Methods in Music Education and Music Therapy. Johnson served two terms as the editor of the International Journal of Music Education: Research, the research publication of the International Society for Music Education. He is currently serving his second term on the National Association for Music Educations Executive Committee of the Society for Research in Music Education. He also served on the editorial board of the Journal of Research in Music Education, and one earlier term as the Chair for the MENC Executive Committee of the Society for Research in Music Education. Johnson also served as the Chair for the Research Commission of the International Society for Music Education.
Johnson’s research interests include applied research in music education, and basic research in all aspects of the psychology of music. He has published articles in many journals including the Journal of Research in Music Education, the International Journal of Music Education, the Journal of Music Therapy, Journal of Band Research, Contributions to Music Education, and the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, among others. Johnson has also been an active member and contributor to the Research Seminar of the International Society for Music Education and World Alliance for Arts Education.
Johnson received a university teaching award – the Ned N. Fleming Award for Excellence in Teaching and received the recognition for Graduate Teaching Achievement from the Center for Teaching Excellence. Johnson was also awarded a lecturing & research award as a J. William Fulbright Scholar and recently received the Ella Scoble Opperman Citation for Distinguished Achievement from the Florida State University College of Music.
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