CMENC Clinic: Developing, Maintaining, and Enhancing Your Collegiate Chapter of MENC

In 2005, I was proud to serve at the President of the UMass Lowell Collegiate Chapter of MENC (National Association for Music Education) along with being President of the State Chapter of Collegiate MENC. Four years ago I was the only college student to present at the MENC All-Eastern Conference in Hartford, CT with the clinic titled in the this blog post. I was invited today to give this clinic again, making changes to cater to our Massachusetts audience.

Around 30 music education majors from Ana Maria College, Berklee College of Music, Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Gordon College, and UMass Lowell filled the UML Fisher Recital Hall for my presentation. Topics included chapter building, sustainability, fundraising, holding clinics, and advocacy. I was most impressed during the chapter sharing part of the meeting where each collegiate MENC chapter informed us what they were doing this year for activities. It sounds like this is a great year for MCMENC and I give props to all of those involved for making this a truly enriching experience that encourages both professional development and community. I never would have thought five years ago that I would be presenting to college students in the same room I used to sit in for music history class. This was a truly rewarding experience for me.

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Band Room: A New Design

Just in case we ever get a new or renovated high school (I might be dreaming), I wanted to be prepared for helping input the best design possible for a new band and chorus room. I ended up attending a clinic by the Wenger group. Wenger is the company that made the acoustic shells on our high school auditorium stage along with the two "soundproof" practice rooms that were installed back in the 1960's. The company is now the standard company used in the United States for music room design. I learned many things at this clinic. Firstly, I learned that most bands and choruses have their own rehearsal rooms, practice rooms, and offices. We spent a long time focusing on where sound goes after it leaves the instrument. Our music room has a ceiling that needs to be at least four feet higher. Additionally all the equipment in the room cuts down on reverberation. It is suggested that any closets or storage areas in a band room have open grilled doors so that air and sound c...

Learning Theory through Pop Music by Matthew F. Finnegan

Did you know that most pop music has a four beat pattern where the snare drum usually accents beats two and four? Example: "Get a Grip" by Aerosmith! At 8:00 am I attended what I consider my favorite clinic thus far at the MENC All-Eastern Music Educators Conference. Titled "From Simple to Complex: Leading the Listener to Learning," clinician Mathew F. Finnegan gave great examples of how popular music can be used in the classroom to teach music theory. The idea is this: teaching music theory through the old school fashion of notes on a page and through classical music does not work in today's classroom. In order to create the motivation for students to want to learn theory, we need to reach out and use the music which relates to them the most and connect it with the content we want to teach them. I found this clinic to be very inspiring. Here we just focused on the beat, but this clinician has already established how to incorporate pop music with the teach...

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