Boonshaft’s Blog

#122. Imagination!

#122. Imagination!

For many of us, this week marks the start of distance-learning, remote-teaching, virtual-classrooms, or any number of other euphemisms for a form of education few of us and our...

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#121. Change Is Good

#121. Change Is Good

Before tomorrow’s band rehearsal, change your setup so it is reversed 180 degrees. That’s right, if your students were facing east, have them face to the west. You’ll have to...

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#120.  And Suddenly…

#120. And Suddenly…

At the end of a session I was giving at a music education conference, a new teacher asked me a wonderful – though daunting – question. He said, “I just started my first job...

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#117. Potential

#117. Potential

Here’s a quote I think should be on the wall of every music classroom. More importantly, I think it should be in the thoughts of every music student. John C. Maxwell so perfectly...

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#116. Hamburger!

#116. Hamburger!

The next time you teach your beginning (or need to remind your not-so-beginning!) trumpet players how to hold the trumpet with correct hand position, try using the analogy of...

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#114. Seeds

#114. Seeds

I have often thought that part of being a great teacher is keeping what we do in perspective. I will freely admit I haven’t always been very good at it, but the older I get the...

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Dr. Boonshaft, Director of Education for KHS America, is the author of the critically acclaimed best-selling books Teaching Music with Passion, Teaching Music with Purpose, and Teaching Music with Promise. He was honored by the National Association for Music Education and Music For All as the first recipient of the “George M. Parks Award for Leadership in Music Education.” Dr. Boonshaft was selected for the Center for Scholarly Research and Academic Excellence at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY, where he is Professor Emeritus of Music.