CAMPAIGNS

Music – Count Us In:

Journeying together towards the big day: Thursday 2 September 2010

This is the big national event that links schools and communities together in all parts of the country, to create a nation-wide celebration of the value of music education for ALL students.

Registrations for participating schools are now open.

After a nationwide call for aspiring songwriters in years 9 and above to join the co-writing teams to come up with this year's theme song, the following students will be taking part in the mentored workshop on 4th May.

• Anthony Barnhill, Yarra Valley Grammar, VIC
• Henry Beale, The Essington School, NT
• Madeleine Brenner, Scotch College, Adelaide, SA
• Clinton Cave, Cairns State High, QLD
• Shekinah Moye, Toormina High, NSW
• Olivia O'Brien, Santa Maria College, VIC
• Taylor Pomery, Albany Senior High, WA
• Lauren 'Lolly' Tarver, Wanneroo Senior High, WA
• Alissa Williams, Fairvale High, NSW

Find out more at: http://www.musiccountusin.org.au/

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AWARDS & PRIZES

ACMF National Song-writing Competition 2010

The Australian Children’s Music Foundation conducts a National Song-writing Competition for every Primary, Secondary and Specific Purpose School right across Australia.  This includes schools from both the public and non-government sectors. This is the eighth consecutive year the competition has been held.

Entry to the competition is free. A letter is sent to schools from the Federal Education Minister with the entry forms, encouraging teachers to engage children in this activity. Entries can also be sent via the ACMF website.

All prizes awarded are in the form of musical equipment/tuition for both the winning student and their school and the competition is divided into age categories to provide opportunities for children of all ages, from kindergarten through to Year 12.

Further details about the competition: http://www.acmf.com.au/nsc-details.html

Find out more about the ACMF and its activities: http://www.acmf.com.au/index.html

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RESEARCH

Hand-Clapping Songs Improve Motor and Cognitive Skills, Research Shows

Science Daily, 28 April 2010

A researcher at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) conducted the first study of hand-clapping songs, revealing a direct link between those activities and the development of important skills in children and young adults, including university students.

"We found that children in the first, second and third grades who sing these songs demonstrate skills absent in children who don't take part in similar activities," explains Dr. Idit Sulkin a member of BGU's Music Science Lab in the Department of the Arts. "We also found that children who spontaneously perform hand-clapping songs in the yard during recess have neater handwriting, write better and make fewer spelling errors."

Dr. Warren Brodsky, the music psychologist who supervised her doctoral dissertation, said Sulkin's findings lead to the presumption that "children who don't participate in such games may be more at risk for developmental learning problems like dyslexia and dyscalculia. There's no doubt such activities train the brain and influence development in other areas. The children's teachers also believe that social integration is better for these children than those who don't take part in these songs."

Read entire article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100428090954.htm

Music Therapy Fails Dyslexics: No Link between Dyslexia and a Lack of Musical Ability, Study Finds

Science Daily, 10 April 2010

There is no link between a lack of musical ability and dyslexia. Moreover, attempts to treat dyslexia with music therapy are unwarranted, according to scientists in Belgium writing in the current issue of the International Journal of Arts and Technology.

Cognitive neuroscientist José Morais of the Free University of Brussels and colleagues point out that research into dyslexia has pointed to a problem with how the brain processes sounds and how dyslexic readers manipulate the sounds from which words are composed, the phonemes, consciously and intentionally.

It was a relatively short step between the notion that dyslexia is an issue of phonological processing and how this might also be associated with poor musical skills - amusia - that has led to approaches to treating the condition using therapy to improve a dyslexic reader's musical skills.

Morais and colleagues demonstrate that theoretically this is an invalid argument and also present experimental evidence to show that there is no justification either for the link or for using music therapy to treat dyslexia.

Language and music are apparently uniquely human traits and many researchers have tried to find direct links between the two.

Read entire article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100408111313.htm

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AUSTRALIAN PROFILE

Elena Kats-Chernin: in the key of flat-out major

Deborah Jones, the Australian, 24 April 2010  

It's from here in suburban Sydney that Kats-Chernin, 52, produces - no, pours out - the music that has made her one of the country's leading and most versatile composers. If you watched the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympics you heard her music in the ravishing Deep Sea Dreaming sequence; if you're a fan of Phillip Adams's Late Night Live program you hear her theme introduce it; if you listen to ABC Classic FM her compositions fit into just about every timeslot.

Her latest work, a new 90-minute chamber opera titled The Rage of Life, opens at De Vlaamse Opera in Antwerp today, with performances in Ghent and Rotterdam in May and Stuttgart in November. It has been a huge undertaking, although by no means her first work of this kind. Kats-Chernin has written three other substantial music-theatre works: odd, then, that she describes herself as "probably a miniaturist".

It's perhaps best to describe Kats-Chernin as an astonishingly swift and prolific composer who works in just about every form for a wide audience. "She's ideal from an artistic point of view, very responsive to performers and their needs," says Davis. "From a publisher's perspective she's a dream, with an output that can be exploited. Not many people can produce at that level and that quality."

She hasn't written a symphony, but that's about it. Solo pieces, quartets, chamber works, oratorio, ballet, large-scale orchestral works -- four in the past year alone while, remember, she was writing The Rage of Life -- miniatures lasting only a couple of minutes and commissions from festivals, orchestras and private individuals are all in the mix. Then there are the little things, such as a song she wrote recently for a young singer, just eight or nine. "It took me a day; that's what you do in between."

Read entire article: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/composer-elena-kats-chernin-in-the-key-of-flat-out-major/story-e6frg8n6-1225855953871

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NEWS FROM HERE & THERE

USA: Computer program helps students sing on key

Dave Aeikens, St Cloud Times, 7 April 2010

Ryan Gilmore puts on a headset and the words to "America" run across the computer screen.  As he sings, a blue line lets him know if he is singing on key. The line goes up if his pitch is too high and down if he is too low. The computer tracks what percentage of the notes he hits.

When he finishes, he has hit almost 80 percent of his notes and his classmates cheer.

Gilmore says after he finishes that he likes "the advanced technology and where you get to see where your singing is."

Teaching children to sing on key is one of the most important things in improving children's singing ability, Clearview Elementary School music teacher Karen Ingeman said.

Six of the eight St. Cloud elementary schools are using the software this year to measure students' ability to sing on key. The software, which the schools have on loan this year but will have to either buy or return next school year, has made it easier for students to recognize when they sing off-key, Ingeman said.

Less sophisticated methods of getting children to sing higher or lower include tossing balls in the air, Ingeman said. The ball going high in the air is a reminder to sing higher.

"I think the challenge of beating their own score; that is motivating," Ingeman said. "Ideally, they would do it at home."

Read entire article: http://www.sctimes.com/article/20100407/NEWS01/104070004/Computer-program-helps-students-sing-on-key

Venezuela: Conducting a movement: Charismatic Venezuelan leads classical revolution

Jeremy Eichler, Boston Globe, 16 April 2010

The Venezuelan-born Dudamel is the most buzzed-about young conductor in the world. Having embarked as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic last fall at 28, he arrives today in Cambridge to accept an award at MIT. The musical movement he represents also has spun off a program based at New England Conservatory.

Meanwhile in his home country, Dudamel is the equivalent of a rock star.

Something remarkable has happened with classical music in Venezuela. The art form has been turned on its head, shorn of its elite associations, and harnessed as a vehicle for social change that reaches some of the poorest members of this society.

In a country whose homicide rates make it among the most dangerous in the world, this national music education movement — referred to simply as El Sistema — draws children off of the streets and into neighborhood centers for intensive musical engagement and orchestral training. The program, founded more than three decades ago, currently reaches 400,000 students. According to its organizers, 70 percent of the participating families live below the poverty line.

Dudamel is a product of this movement and is its most famous graduate.

Read entire article: http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2010/04/16/conducting_a_movement/

USA: PMEA Annual In Service Conference

Pennsylvania Music Educators Association, Pittsburgh, 21-24 April

Dr. James Frankel of SoundTree, an industry leader in music, audio and video technology solutions for educators, and a music teacher for 11 years before that, gave two particularly interesting presentations that are now available as online podcasts.

Technology Integration in Music Education: http://fams.podomatic.com/entry/2010-04-27T11_18_55-07_00

YouTube in Music Education: http://fams.podomatic.com/entry/2010-04-27T11_14_12-07_00

Dr Frankel has made available session materials - including links to music technology resources, software downloads and presentation files - available at http://www.soundtree.com/pmea10.

Read more about PMEA and its conference at: https://netforum.avectra.com/eWeb/StartPage.aspx?Site=PMEA&WebCode=HomePage

Read more about Soundtree  at: http://www.soundtree.com/