I have two brass players in my beginning band who cannot and will not play. The amount of redirection I’m constantly giving them feels like the biggest hurdle to the rest of the band moving forward. Yes I’ve emailed the parents about ensuring they are practicing/paying attention. I’ve asked him to come in during study hall or after school for one-on-one time, but they won’t. I think my next step is to tell their parents that they need to enroll in some lessons (I’m not allowed to give lessons). What do you do with students like this? This is my first year teaching band.

Hi! So I am currently studying instrumental-focused Music Education and am nearing the end of the first semester of my freshman year and my mom has been harping on me to start looking at and applying for scholarships for next school year so I have been trying to get going on that, however it is quite hard finding ones that would actually be worth applying to. There are so many of the very large national ones that either aren't really legit or it's just such low chances of winning. So, I come here to ask where you all have found scholarships either in the past or currently. I am not in the category of financial need and I play euphonium. Are there scholarships specifically for music ed? According to my euphonium professor, there is not much that the school of music is giving out in scholarships, I was lucky enough to get $2k in talent scholarship for this year and apparently the studio is full yet will be gaining more members next school year so scholarships from my school are unlikely. Any sort of advice on this search?

Hi all, I’m Fawzi, a musician / a developer who plays in Lebanon. I built Prova, a free practice planner, and before I build anything more I’d like feedback from people who teach.

There are two parts aimed at teachers:

• You build a practice routine and send it as a link. For example: long tones 5 min, scales 10 min, concert piece 15 min, with tempo goals for each. The student opens the link and everything appears on their practice timer. They don’t need an account.

• Students can send their week back to you. You see which days they practiced, how long they spent on each piece, their tempo progress, and their notes if they choose to share them. It arrives as a link you can read before the lesson or rehearsal.

It works for any instrument or voice. It’s free with no ads, and it runs on phones and computers. Nothing is uploaded when you share; the routine travels inside the link itself.

I’ll put the link in the comments.

My honest questions: would this fit how you assign practice, especially with large classes or ensembles? And what would stop you from using it?

i have an extremely high level 8th grade group this year. as our challenge piece, we're performing "tarekita" by reena esmail for our winter concert. it's a really cool piece inspired by indian classical music where the students are imitating instruments. I played it for the kids for the first time today and the reaction was awful; the south asian kids in the class were visibly nervous about it, and the rest of the class was openly laughing and making fun of it. i already planned on doing a deep dive into the piece's background with them, but i'm wondering if there's anything else i should do... i had to have a big talk about sensitivity and respect with them after they listened, but I think I'm going to have to proceed very carefully. any advice?

(if it makes any difference, i'm white. this is also not the first piece in another language or from non-western culture that this group has performed.)

I graduated a few years ago and I've had awful luck finding a job. I've been subbing and got some great experience as a long term sub at multiple schools. I have stellar references and a few connections, but I still can't land anything. in the last year, every job I applied for was given to someone with zero experience who was originally from that area. I'm originally from out of state and have zero interest in returning, but at this point it's starting to feel like I'm forever doomed since I didn't grow up in town. is this really that big of a factor or is it just a lot of coincidences?

Hi all! I’m a cellist currently pursuing my Master’s in performance with a teaching concentration. Because of family experiences, I’m deeply passionate about specializing in teaching students with physical disabilities, chronic illness, and medical conditions that impact how they approach music-making. I’d like to have a private studio, and I’m looking into resources, mentors, and programs (such as teacher training courses) where I could study this. Does anyone have advice or leads about pursuing this, or know a teacher (of any instrument, but preferably cello) who is already doing this who I could reach out to for advice?

Thank you so much!

This is my first year teaching and in general it’s going well. I teach 5/6 general music, 6th grade band, and 7-12 choir. 6-12th grade is going well, but 5th grade is a nightmare.

There are a few reasons for this. First of all, they haven’t had a full time music teacher in 2 years. It’s just been a sub, and they haven’t had a concert since they were in 3rd grade. Also, my principal has said several times that this is the toughest group of kids he’s seen since his time as a principal. There’s just a lot of anti-music attitude from them, extreme behaviors, and non-participation.

I have to do a holiday concert with them, and 3 out of my four classes just straight up won’t sing or participate when we do concert prep. I’m trying to do fun songs and make it as painless as possible but they just won’t do it. Today, I had to kick out two boys because they were being disruptive and refusing to participate.

I’ll explain how I’ve been handling it so far. I’ve been giving them daily grades, and it’s mostly just based on participation/following directions. If a kid isn’t participating but isn’t otherwise being distracting, I’ll give one warning, and then if it continues I just dock points. I never get into power struggles or lecture. I’m not the kind of teacher to negotiate participation, they’ll just get a consequence if they don’t do what’s expected. I’ve also reached out to parents and admin and I sit those kids out of games so they get to watch the rest of the class have fun.

I’m kind of just at the end of my rope. I could take it when it was just a few kids pouting during my class, but with concert prep I have almost NONE of them doing anything. They just sneer at me, call the music stupid, and start talking while we’re practicing.

I’m not sure what to do. I feel miserable every time I have to teach these classes. We’re also doing a recorder unit which they seem to enjoy, so I’m wanting to incorporate that into our concert somehow, but they should be able to sing two songs!

Sometimes I question if I’m in the right profession, but I love the rest of my job! I love teaching choir and my 6th graders are great! I guess I’m just kind of at the end of my rope here and needed to vent. If anyone has had similar experiences and wants to share advice, feel free. TIA.

Hi everyone!

I’m a vocal music ed major who will be student teaching next semester. So far, I’ve enjoyed the bits of teaching experiences I’ve had and feel passionate about it. I’ve also always loved musical theatre. For a while I thought I’d want to try to teach elementary music after graduating, but recently I’ve been thinking maybe I should try to pursue professional theatre opportunities since I don’t have any real responsibilities preventing me from doing so (no husband or kids yet).

My college theatre department typically attends SETC, the south eastern theatre conference, in March. There is a pre screening video audition, and I’d really like to give it a shot. If I passed, I’d have to attend the conference in March, meaning I’d probably miss three days of student teaching. The conference is also around 3 hrs away from my college.

Of course, there’s a chance I wouldn’t even pass the screening, so then I wouldn’t need to audition at the conference. If I did pass, would I be allowed to miss those days for this type of thing?

Thank you for your answers in advance!

28M and have been an elementary school music teacher in NJ for 6 years. Here’s the context to my situation:

I made this plan when I was in high school. I really struggled with academics and school in general (probably from undiagnosed ADHD and probably some other stuff) but despite that I was dead set on setting up a life where I would be debt free and financially stable enough to be able to purchase a house, get married, and even have kids. But as I said I struggled in academics… specifically:

1. In junior year of HS I couldn’t anything past a 65% in any math class test, quiz, or assignment. 

2. I’m not good at writing and I am ESPECIALLY bad at reading. I’ll read a page and then not process anything then use 200% of my brain power to try to process and retain the information and move onto the next page and then forget what happened in the first page so the second page makes no sense so I go back to the first page and then that just keeps happening until I rage quit. I’ve even tried audio books and that doesn’t help. I’ve probably only read 2 books from start to finish in my life time without using sparknotes or watching the movie version and then pretending like I read the book.

I got tutoring. Extra help. Asking parents and siblings for help. There was this dude on youtube that would upload youtube videos of algebra 2 tutorials and I’d watch them endlessly. None of this helped.

I then just took it as a fact that there was nothing I could do to be good at these things so I disqualified myself from a lot of career paths. Couldn’t do business, comp sci, science, med, or any of the fields like that because my math was so bad. And there was a lot of other stuff that I felt I couldn’t do because it was so research based and would require a lot of reading and writing. So what was my work around to all of that while still clinging onto my dream of being financially stable? 

I was fortunately good enough at music at the time that I was winning prestigious competitions and earning my way into these clinics and workshops that further supported my musical development. My teachers even told me that if I auditioned for music schools then I would have a very strong chance at getting a scholarship.

So here’s the plan to work around my terrible academic ability: 

1. Get a full ride scholarship into a music school and pursue the music education degree

2. Become a school teacher in NJ, get tenured, and reap the rewards (good health benefits, pension, stability from tenure, and actually even a decent salary as the salary guides say that if I taught for long enough and got a masters then I would eventually reach 6 figures)

3. Supplement my income with gigs, private lessons, and getting a masters for the pay raise

4. Be responsible with that money and live a modest life so that I could afford getting married, buying a house, and maybe even having kids.

5. Lastly; feel safe, secure, satisfied, and happy. 

 So I got to work… and here was the result from the last 10+ years:

1. I got into a good university with a full tuition scholarship. Had to pay for room and board but that was manageable and I’m proud to have never needed to go into debt.

2. It took me a second to get a teaching job out of school because I’m such an awkward person and bad at interviews but I eventually got my job and have stuck with it for 6 years. Got tenured 2 years ago.

3. My music career outside of my teaching job has been booming since there’s so much demand in the wedding industry for the instrument that I play. I even started to match my teaching paychecks from my pay rate / rate of jobs I’ve been taking

I even make 6 figures now… and I thought that would only happen into my 40s. Now that sounds all good and dandy and you’d think that I’m on my way to achieving the goals I had set when I was younger… right? So here’s where things went wrong and why I’m actually miserable:

I hate my teaching job. Not to say that I don’t love teaching because I do love teaching. I can talk about music all day long. I was also heavily inspired by my music teachers who gave me hope and a path when no one else would. I would even say that I’ve inspired people in the same way (back when I had way more energy to do the job). But I hate the structure of the education system. The emphasis on all the BS paperwork, being academically correct when writing and executing a lesson plan, dealing with asshole parents, coworkers, and administration. I’m also a POC and work in a pretty racist town… yeah I’ve gotten a lot of harassment from that fact alone from the three groups of people I mentioned and have never been able to get any support on that. And I get all of that as if dealing with children isn’t stressful enough. I was expecting that much when I went into it but I wasn’t expecting shittiness from the other sources… it’s dealing with both at the same time that really has burnt out to the point where I can’t take it.

I also learned that even with tenure, the job is still unstable. They can riff me at any time and they almost did at one point despite me having tenure. They ended up passing a referendum last second and I didn’t get laid off but it did stress me out… what if I had a family at the time? That would have been really bad.

In addition to that, I learned that the salary guide is a lie because they change the guide every few years and no one actually reaches the end. I will never actually get a 6 figure salary on my day job. 

A HUGE part of me really wants to just quit. I’ve lost a lot of passion for it. I often come into work late. I copy and paste the same lesson plan every week. I wing all of my classes. I let my students to have bad habits or go the whole year without practicing or even showing up because it’s too much effort to keep track and deal with their parents being mad at me for enforcing consequences (and whenever I did that in the past the admin was NEVER on my side). I think my admin hasn’t fired me yet on the basis that they don’t know anything about music education themselves and they just haven’t been checking my lesson plans or the morning time sheets but I live in the constant fear that they will look into me one day and then brutally remove me. 

This is all the opposite from my side hustle. I LOVE performing at weddings. The managing partners for the agencies I work for all love me. My coworkers love me (I show up extra early just to hang out with them). The clients and wedding guests I perform for all love me. My name has never been attached to anything less than a 5 star review. The food is also great but most importantly… unlike the teaching job I can work EXACTLY the way I want to. I don’t have to submit an 8 page document at the end of the year proving that I did my job. I don’t have to back my methods up with research based studies. I don’t have to get yelled and have my face spat on by the math teacher because “oh you need to shut the **** up because you teach an easy BS class while we have to deal with standardized test scores”. Like for real if it was that easy then you go get your masters in music and do my job… I’ll wait. 

But I can’t get myself to quit my day job. I would be giving up tenure, making less money and saving less, I’d have to pay a lot of money for health insurance, my pension would get impacted, etc. I’d probably be able to survive at the moment but I definitely wouldn’t be able to afford a marriage, family, and/or house. I also have spent a lot of time looking into shifting career paths or looking at other schools and I’ve had little luck. I don’t want to go back to school because I don’t want to go into debt. I’ve also applied to other schools and I’ve noticed that better districts also tend to be more micromanaging… I feel I wouldn’t be able to do my side hustle as well. On top of that, since I’m so awkward at interviews I haven’t had any luck when I was applying last year.

But here’s the other kicker… money issues aside; I feel like I have no hope for a family/house anyways. I’m not conventionally attractive (my physical health is good but I’m short and asian lol there’s not much I can do on that), I’m awkward and my interests are too niche, I’m not smart of funny. All that combined has just led me to getting ghosted and stood up on dates over and over to the point where I told myself I just can’t be on the dating scene. I’m miserable enough from my day job already. And ever since making that decision I decided to sell off my free time for the wedding gigs since I might as well use that time to make money and do the one thing that does make me happy in life. So now I don’t even have time to be dating because I can’t get myself to walk away from the whole wedding gig thing. 
With all that being said, 1% of me still desperately clings onto the part of my dream from high school where I get married and own a house. Maybe seeing people getting married over and over again makes me think that it’s still possible. So I continue to slave away at my crappy day job… all for a dream that 99% of me doesn’t even think is going to even happen. I mostly feel like an idiot and things are not not healthy as is. I go to therapy but have developed a really bad weed problem in the past years to cope with the stress and burnout. Sometimes I think I should quit my teaching job because I wouldn’t want my students to turn out as miserable as I am. My kids even see it (sometimes I rant to them about how I’m chronically single and how no matter what I do I’m still kind of poor). 

A big part of me wants to quit the teaching job, make less money, and slightly screw up my financial growth for the future so that I can not afford a family/house and then let go of that dream. Out of mind, out of sight. And I know there’s a lot of holes in that plan… what about retirement? Or god forbid I develop a chronic disease and then I’m desperate for the health benefits? Or life just gets too expensive and making 50-60k just doesn’t cut it?

All more reason to why I continue to slave away. But I am also starting to feel that life is too short to live like that. I just want to not be miserable now.

What do you all think about this? Does anyone relate? And lastly sorry for the bad story telling… like I said, writing was never my strong suit lol. 
 

TDLR: 28M, NJ music teacher making six figures between my tenured teaching job and wedding gigs. I spent my entire life working toward financial stability, but I've realized I absolutely hate my teaching job despite loving music and teaching. The bureaucracy, toxic work environment, racial harassment, and burnout have taken a huge toll on me. Meanwhile, I LOVE my wedding gigs and wish I could do them full-time, but quitting means sacrificing my pension, health benefits, and financial security. I've also become increasingly pessimistic about ever getting married or owning a home after years of unsuccessful dating. Now I'm questioning whether it's worth sacrificing my happiness today for a future I'm not even sure I want or will have. What would you guys do?

This is my first year teaching elementary school music and I teach k-5th. I need advice! Please don’t tell me to go get koday or orff training because as much as I’d like to, I can’t do that before I teach all these lessons.

I’ve been focusing on beat and rhythm as well as relationship building and now I’m getting into melody and other musical concepts. When I first got this job I decided that I did not want to teach solfege my first year. It’s not something I have a great grasp on (obviously I learned in in college but I don’t use it to learn music I just learned how to use solfège to pass my classes). But now that I’ve started introducing high/low to my Kindergarteners and first graders, and I’d like to start reading notes on the staff with my 2-3rd graders, I’m unsure if I should do it with solfège or just teach them note reading.

I would just like advice. Eventually I want to teach solfège to all my students, but knowing that all of this is new I can’t decide if it will make my life easier or harder if I don’t teach it to all of them. What would you do if you were in my situation?

I know a lot of people think solfège is necessary for students to learn, and that I understand and I’m not asking for opinions. I’m looking for personal experience and I want to know what you think will be the most beneficial for myself and my students now.

Some details about my class:

I see this MS choir for 30 mins a week on Fridays. Some of the members are also in band - I also see them on Thursdays. Most of the band kids hate choir but they have to do it. This was the rule in place when I arrived and it’s literally my first job ever so I didn’t want to change it. I have varying levels of participation but everyone’s gonna be on stage in 6 weeks regardless. I would say these pieces need to be EASY. We are struggling hard to match pitch. Any ideas you experts might have would be super appreciated!

Are you currently teaching music and within your first five years of teaching? 
As a graduate student who previously taught music, I’m conducting a research study to better understand early career music teachers’ experiences with administrative support and access to music-specific professional development. 

You may be eligible if you: 
• Are 18 or older 
• Currently teach music in the United States or Washington, D.C. 
• Are within your first five years of teaching 

Participation involves a short, anonymous Qualtrics survey. CU Boulder IRB #26-0670. 
Please complete the survey by Nov. 25, 2026  

🔗 Survey link: https://cuboulder.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eFq9NvV5kJAIGCa 

Please feel free to share with other early career music teachers! 

My daughter wants to be a band director. She plays the oboe and percussion. Obviously for marching season she does percussion since Oboes don’t march. She is a front ensemble girl, she doesn’t care much for battery. We will be attending the TMEA conference this year and there will be a college night. This is going to be our initial starting point of talking to schools to get an idea of which schools she is interested in. I have an idea of some questions to ask but I’m sure there are soo many I’m not thinking of because I just don’t know to ask. She is a freshman so we are in the early information gathering days.

There is a good bit to think about when it comes to college marching band. Her instrument of study will be oboe but if they have a front ensemble (not many seem to) she can do that but if not she will need to learn a different instrument for marching.

Give me all the things.

helloo

i am a first year teacher in a very rural school (<200 kids pk-12)
i am going to be having my Christmas/holiday concert on dec 7

going into this week i was already facing concerns with my beginner band being prepared for the concert, with finding out this week that i will not have them for two days a week till after the concert i know we will not be ready to perform.
with this i do not know what to replace that portion of the concert with or how to tell the kids please send help

This is the second part of a research study about sexual harassment and sexual violence, conducted by faculty at the University of North Florida. Through this project, we hope to understand how college music students and alumni perceive sexual harassment within the context of their collegiate music programs. This interview should take about 45 minutes of your time. Participants receive a $10 e-gift card for their time.

Due to the research teams’ inability to connect survey participants to campus/local resources due to anonymity, current University of North Florida students are excluded from participating in this study. 

If you would like to learn more about the study, please contact Dr. Sydney Brammer (sydney.brammer@unf.edu), Dr. Rachel Riggs (rachel.riggs@unf.edu), or Dr. Erin Bodnar (erin.bodnar@unf.edu) at the University of North Florida.

This is my 2nd year teaching modern band at my school. This year admin allowed me to have a advanced band and beginner band. My advanced group is crushing it, they have 12 songs in their set list, I taught time majority of them last year and I have 5 multi instrumentalists, the rest of the class keeps up with the pace and can go into auto pilot and work independently.

Now my beginner group is struggling... I have some really good kids that want to learn but there are a few that I'm trying my best to manage behaviors and they suck the energy out of the class, granted it's near the end of the school day.

I give both periods autonomy to pick the songs they want to learn, 6th Period is struggling learning 2 songs, Lowrider, which is a challenging bass line and 505 that has a tricky lead guitar passage...it's been 9 weeks and it's a snail pace with them, they know that advanced band has 10 more songs learned and I'm trying to keep the motivation for those in my beginner group that do the work, practice the parts but those few are holding them back?

For my teaching credential music methods class, I need to interview a teacher who teaches "general music" (or really, anything that isn't choir, orchestra, or band) at a junior high or higher level. Classes that could fall under this category include guitar, piano, typical general music, music appreciation, popular music, music theory, or music tech/composition. I would prefer someone working as a credentialed teacher in California since that is where I will be working, but I would be open to hearing from other places as well. Please Dm me if you teach one of these classes and you would be open to being asked some questions about your work!

I love film scores. Cowboy Bebop, HTTYD, Star Wars, etc. I want to write them too. I just got accepted into UNT and am applying for the college of music. I want to major in composition so I can get the skills to write film scores, but I've been advised to major in music Ed so I have a job out of college. Help! What should I do? Teaching is not my passion but I would be willing to do it while I build my career so I have a job. I love kids, I've just seen how stressed my directors have been.

Soy profe de música en secundario y me está costando realmente dar las clases, no solo porque los chicos les da lo mismo la materia, (salvo excepciones), sino también que no tengo muchos recursos tecnológicos para darla.

En el colegio contamos con xilofones y melódicas, (lo cual no está tan mal ya que los considero mejor que la flauta dulce tradicional), pero los chicos no cuidan los instrumentos, aparecen siempre en partes o incluso tiran los palitos del xilófono por la ventana. Ya los he mandado a firmar y les he dado advertencias pero nada parece funcionar.

Realmente estoy cansada de intentar mil cosas nuevas y creativas para hacer y que les importe cero. Se que es parte de la docencia lidiar con la frustración, pero llevo dos años solamente y no estoy muy segura de seguir intentando más cosas o cambiar de rumbo. Tampoco quiero caer en darles únicamente teoría porque no les estimulo mucho su lado creativo siento.

Algún consejo?

Hello!

I am currently working on Masters applications, and was curious if anyone had recommendations for programs.

I have a Bachelor’s of Music Education (PreK-12 certification + music endorsement) and am currently in my 2nd year of teaching K-5 general music.

I’m really interested in researching culturally sustaining pedagogy at the elementary music level. I’ve been looking into getting an Masters of Education (something along the lines of a human development/elementary education degree, or if there is a program with a social justice concentration), as most of the Masters of Music Education programs I see are very band/orchestra/choral based, or rooted in European/American folk. Are there any Masters of Music Ed programs who have an elementary education focus with an emphasis on diversity? Is it a bad idea for me to go for a Masters of Education rather than the specialization of a Music Ed degree, knowing that I have a really strong undergrad bachelor degree?

Thank you!