Monthly Coffee and Conversation with Colleagues
Coffee and Conversation with Colleagues – what’s it all about?
Greetings from the Voice Section!
Fellow Music Teachers – Join us on Zoom the second Tuesday of each month at 8:45 am. Expect coffee and conversation; experience personal and professional growth. Read on for past and upcoming topics and dates.
Voice Teachers Only? NCMTA members Only? Not at all!
Open to all music teachers of all instruments, members of NCMTA or not. Password required. Email Voice Section Chair for access: voice@ncmta.org.
Our Most Recent Conversation
March’s Coffee and Conversation (The young musician: how young is too young?) was the second installment on this topic. Wow, what a great meeting! We spent most of the hour discussing materials we use to teach young children (7-10), and there are so many resources out there! Whether you work strictly one-on-one or teach group classes, only voice or a combination of piano and voice, I know the list below will be helpful. Annette Stowe, NCMTA Voice Section Chair. voice@ncmta.org
- Singing Lessons for Little Singers (littlesingers.info)
- Sight singing Super Hero book (fullvoicemusic.com)
- Note Reading, Theory, Counting Made Fun by Kevin and Julia Olson (fjhmusic.com)
- Vocalize, Sing at First Sight by Andy Beck (alfred.com)
- Bastien New Traditions All in one (kjos.com)
- Sight Reading and Rhythm every day (fjhmusic.com)
- Royal Conservatory
- supersonicsplus.com
- Key Notes Music (keynotes-music.com)
- For ensembles/group classes: Piano Pyramid (missdorla.com)
Please note: The references above are not endorsed by NCMTA. They were brought into the conversation by those participating in our most recent conversation, and are presented here for your consideration.
Our Next Conversation
Join us April 11th at 8:45am. Next month we will continue this theme – our topic will be The Independent Studio – how and when to start it, grow it, and maintain it! Please join us on Tuesday, April 11th, for what is sure to be an informative discussion.
Join us on Zoom! Email voice@ncmta.org to introduce yourself and obtain the meeting information. All are welcome – we hope to see you there! Annette Stowe, Voice Section Chair.
Neat little summary of past topics
| Date | Conversation Topic |
|---|---|
| 11/09/2021 | We enjoyed our inaugural “Coffee and Conversation” with voice teacher colleagues on Tuesday, November 9th, 2021. We discussed how to generate solo opportunities for ourselves, so we can practice what we teach. |
| 12/14/2021 | Practicing. How to: inspire, teach and model effective practice; initiate clear, direct, kind conversations with parents about optimizing the home practice environment; build relationships with students and their families so everyone is supporting the students in their studies. |
| 01/11/2022 | Preparing students for music study in college: We had a lively discussion about the musical preparation college professors wish they saw more of with incoming freshman music majors. |
| 02/08/2022 | Beyond Songs – everything else we teach. Methods and skills, patterns in music, rhythm, sight reading, solfeggio, intervals, harmonizing, listening, practical keyboard for singers: everything to help students become self-sufficient musicians. Piano and voice teachers talked, shared, and developed a list of resources. |
| 03/08/2022 | Serving students with special needs. Know your student and what works each individual. Have a student teach a concept to you, get off the bench, get physical with rhythm, change up the lessons, work at the student’s pace – all good practices in general. |
| 04/19/2022 | Working with adult students! One challenge older students may face is that they doubt their ability to learn. We discussed the power of “yet” as a mindset change. A simple statement such as, “I don’t have that skill yet” is so freeing! |
| 05/10/2022 | Finding your voice through emotional blockage – Mental Voice and Mental Health. Working to help students “find their voice” can be the reason we teach, but it is also important to their development as humans and members of society . |
| 06/14/2022 | A Conversation with the President. NCMTA President Kent Lyman led the discussion, recounting interesting experiences he has had with NCMTA and MTNA, reflecting on how it has enriched his professional life. |
| 07/12/2022 | NCMTA Conference Topics. Sitting in for vacationing Annette Stowe, guest host and NCMTA Webmaster Cathy Pescevich Kreplin will lead the discussion. We had an open and lively conversation about topics members would like to see covered at conference! |
| 08/09/2022 | Current repertoire, and how to include (and whether we should make it a point to include) pop music, diversity in musical styles, and new composers in our teaching. |
| 09/13/2022 | Current repertoire, and how to include music from around the world in our teaching. |
| 10/11/2022 | Post-conference conversation. |
| 11/08/2022 | Conversation about NCMTA Voice Performance Festival changes. Activities to add value to the experience for teachers, students and parents alike were suggested: end-of-day honors recitals, masterclass and/or theory activities. To be continued next month. |
| 12/13/2022 | Continuing conversation about the NCMTA Voice Performance Festivals. |
| 01/10/2023 | Review of updates to the Coffee and Conversation format. |
| 02/14/2023 | The young musician: How young is too young? was so interesting! We have teachers who start as young as 15 months, and the consensus was that you’re always old enough to learn something, and that we as teachers can learn a lot from trying different techniques with younger students. Methods, apps and more were reviewed. |
| 03/14/2023 | The young musician: How young is too young, continued Methods, apps and more were reviewed. A list of materials covered can be found above. |
| 04/11/2023 | The Independent Studio – how and when to start it, grow it, and maintain it! |
From Annette Stowe, Voice Section Chair. voice@ncmta.org
Interested in joining us? Contact the Voice Section Chair.
