I am finishing my dissertation soon and am applying for full-time academic jobs. Here’s my research statement. Also see my teaching statement. I have three main areas of research interest: the teaching and learning of rhythm and groove; the challenges of hip-hop pedagogy; and expanding the teaching of harmony to include groove-based musics, particularly the …
Tag Archives: academia
Teaching statement
I am finishing my dissertation soon and am applying for full-time academic jobs. Here’s my teaching statement. It’s adapted from the first two chapters of Electronic Music School: a Contemporary Approach to Teaching Musical Creativity. Also see my research statement. I have taught as an adjunct at New York University’s Steinhardt School, The New School’s …
Writing advice from Hamilton
Lisa Stulberg started off Culture Of Learning class this morning with some Hamilton. She wants us to learn how to write, and Lin-Manuel Miranda is her current source of writerly inspiration.
We got both kinds, country and western
In a few weeks, I’m going to be doing some guest blogging on NewMusicBox. I’m very excited, but also a bit nervous, because I’m an outspoken anti-fan of avant-garde modernism. I don’t want to antagonize NMB’s readership, so I’m trying to figure out how to write about this stuff without being a jerk. I’m using …
Subverting music education
Kratus, J. (2015). The Role of Subversion in Changing Music Education. In C. Randles (Ed.), Music Education: Navigating the Future (pp. 340–346). New York & London: Routledge. Here’s a horrifying story from John Kratus: In 2009 I gave a presentation on collegiate curricular change in music for the Society for Music Teacher Education in Greensboro, …
What’s missing from music theory class?
In a recent comment, a reader posed a good question: I’m classically trained (I do recognize a blues progression when i hear it though) so i would like to hear more of your insights into the forms, styles and methods of pop music — your observation that “most of the creativity in pop lies in …
Pop musicians in the academy
Together with Adam Bell, I’m planning some in-depth writing about the phenomenon of pop musicians (like me) teaching in formal, classically-oriented institutional settings. This post is a loosely organized collection of relevant thoughts. What even is “pop music?” As far as the music academy is concerned, all music except classical or folk is “popular.” People …
All student work should go on the web
Well, it’s official. All of my students are now henceforth required to post all music assignments on SoundCloud. It solves so many problems! No fumbling with thumb drives, no sharing of huge files, no annoyances with incompatible DAWs. No need to mess with audio-hostile Learning Management Systems. Everyone gets to listen to everyone else’s music. …
Who cares if you listen?
I pride myself on having big ears, on listening to everything I can and trying to find the beauty in it. I’ve learned to enjoy some aspect of just about every kind of music. Every kind except one: high modernist twentieth century classical music. I just can not deal with it, at all. But I’m …
In praise of copying
We conventionally place a high value on originality in music. But it’s been my experience that the desire for originality gets in the way of making music that’s actually good. The closer you are to your influences, the more definite and truthful your work is. The key to quality music is to blend together an …