Commentary Archives

Advice for First-Year Teachers: Beyond the Podium—Non-Musical Keys to Career Success
Mike Lawson | July 15, 2020
Collegiate training of music educators is almost exclusively devoted to the comprehensive study of music and its instruction, but veteran ensemble directors know that a large percentage of their success is dependent upon extra-musical skills and dispositions. As a newly appointed band or orchestra director, you may be a gifted musician and an effective teacher from bell to bell, but you will have a difficult time being successful if you struggle with the off-podium aspects of your job.
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COVID-19: The Day the Music Died….Again
Mike Lawson | July 15, 2020
In March of 2020, not only did the entire world stop, but so did the way we educate students, from pre-school through university level. Nothing will be the same, and again, music is pointed out for possible cuts in education.
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The Creative Repertoire Initiative: Creating Adaptable Music for Unprecedented Times
Mike Lawson | July 15, 2020
This past March, and seemingly overnight, the COVID-19 pandemic swept through our world, leaving us isolated at home and plagued with fear and uncertainty about the future. Jobs lost, businesses shuttered, classrooms moved to online formats — our entire way of life changed in ways that shocked us to our core. And for music lovers, an unthinkable thing happened — live music stopped.
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Your New Daily Music Routine
Mike Lawson | March 27, 2020
A suggested teaching and exercise schedule for navigating at-home lessons If there’s a word that’s been floating around every teaching Facebook group while educators band together to navigate the current COVID-19 crisis, it’s order.
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Impact of Coronavirus on Music Programs and Events: Cancellations Cause Confusion and Disappointment
Mike Lawson | March 27, 2020
The role of the music director and staff at times is a combination of parent, mentor, counselor, priest, and best friend. Many of your tools didn’t come with your college degree(s). It is a combination of active listening, leadership, and compassion. This current health situation is a “pop quiz” on your capabilities.
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Teacher/Student Tips for Work from Home
Mike Lawson | March 27, 2020
So, your school is closed and now you have to do all your work from home without your familiar routine or friends around. Now what?! This is your opportunity to create the educational environment to help you learn the best! Here are some strategies to be effective academically, socially, and emotionally:
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Keeping Instruments Sanitized in the Classroom
Mike Lawson | March 27, 2020
As the coronavirus continues to spread and dominate the news, students, parents, and teachers are seeking information on keeping musical instruments sanitized. Since the sharing of instruments is an easy way to transmit germs, it’s important for students’ health that we keep those instruments clean and sanitized.
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How My Passion for Music Was Stoked
Mike Lawson | March 3, 2020
I took up the clarinet in junior high school and fell in love with the instrument immediately. Its look, its feel, its tone and the facile way the fingers can run over its holes appealed to me right away.
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Should You Write That Letter of Recommendation?
Mike Lawson | January 10, 2020
Teachers at the high school and college levels are often asked by students to write them a letter of recommendation for college or grad school, scholarships or jobs.
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65 Music Careers for Student Musicians to Look Into
Mike Lawson | October 3, 2019
Music is ubiquitous, so it is no surprise that entrepreneurially speaking it is a diverse field with myriad careers.
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A Driven, Meaningful Change to the Band
Mike Lawson | October 3, 2019
Change doesn’t come easy to a band director. If we are any good, we have an established routine, a formidable structure, and a reliable way of doing things. You depend on it, the students depend on it, the school kind of rolls with it; you’re the band director.
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Discipline
Mike Lawson | October 3, 2019
I have been blessed with a long career as a band director, working with the best and brightest young people in each of the four teaching positions I have been fortunate to hold over the years.
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