In-Person Master of Music in Music Education

Teaching is much more than a profession; it is a calling. Many music educators enter the field hoping to instill a love of music in others. Some wish to give students the opportunities they wish they had themselves growing up, to ensure that all students have access to a quality music education, regardless of where students come from. Still others want to feel content in their professional lives, hoping to do more with the gifts they have been given.

Regardless of your “why,” consider Longy as a path to get you there. The 10-month, research-based, on-campus Master of Music in Music Education program is designed with teaching artists and musicians in mind. With a focus on social justice, access, equity and inclusion in preK-12 music education, the program prepares students to successfully enter the field of music education as practicing educators ready to make their mark in public and private schools, as well as community organizations around the world.

With an eye towards the future of schooling, our progressive faculty prepare students to successfully meet the needs of both national education mandates and preK-12 students, including over 400 hours in the classroom during the program. Upon graduation, students are poised to become preK-12 certified experts and leaders in the field of music education, where they serve as models of culturally responsive and relevant teaching in today’s schools. There is no time better than the present to turn your “why” into “why not?” Let us give you the tools to help you get there! We look forward to welcoming you into our community! 

• Bachelor’s degree, post-secondary conservatory diploma, or demonstrated equivalent credential required
• Academic and performance record demonstrating the capacity to excel in full-time studies
• Applicants must present a 10-minute video showcasing their teaching and musicianship

Showcase Video

Video recordings required for applicants to the MMME in-person program.

Please prepare 10 minutes of video that demonstrates your music teaching and/or your artistic interest, focus, and profile. The MMME program welcomes musicians of all backgrounds (classical, jazz, folk, world, etc.) and there are no repertoire limitations. Your audition portfolio should be focused on your primary instrument or concentration, and we encourage you to include video examples of your teaching background to supplement your application (optional). Video recordings can be uploaded individually or as a single file.

Adaptive Music Methods
Introduces students to the laws surrounding special education, the terms applicable to the public education classroom, and the latest methods in adapting lessons for students with disabilities. Focuses on the impact various disabilities have on hearing, reading, and making music. Explores resources from both veteran educators and self-advocates, usage of adapted notation, and music technology applications. Upon completion of the course, participants will be able to 1) assess materials and lessons for accessibility and 2) develop adapted materials and lessons with specific student needs in mind.

Brass Methods
This course focuses on learning to play and teach all brass instruments within the elementary, middle and high school settings. Course content includes fundamentals of performance, essential pedagogy, maintenance of instruments, materials and repertoire selection, assessment, and recruitment for school ensembles.

Choral Methods
The following course provides masters of music education students fundamental skills to teach K-12 choir. Musical and non-musical aspects of teaching will be addressed, including the process of creating holistic vocal warm-ups, rehearsal pacing and planning that fosters creativity and student centered learning, inclusive vocal pedagogy for gender expansive singers, the changing adolescent voice, age appropriate and diverse choral literature, intentional programming and the continuum of impact in the arts, effective recruitment strategies, etc.

Community Music
How can artists contribute as citizens of a democracy? In what ways can people committed to the arts serve the wider world through their work? In this course, we will explore what it means to be engaged in the arts within the community through in-class activities, guest speakers, and field experiences. This course will feature a rotation of prominent guest artists and educators engaged in community music. In addition, during the fall and winter terms, all students will engage in observation/teaching within Longy’s El Sistema-inspired Side-by-Side community outreach program.

Conducting I 
This course focuses on beginning conducting skills in both the instrumental and vocal ensemble settings. Score study, repertoire selection, listening to your ensemble to detect errors, rehearsal planning, and conducting patterns and gestures are all studied in the realm of beginning-level conducting.

Conducting II
This course focuses on intermediate and advanced conducting skills in both the instrumental and vocal ensemble settings. Score study, repertoire selection, listening to your ensemble to detect errors, rehearsal planning, and conducting patterns and gestures are all studied.

Creating Music 
Creating Music will focus on the cultivation of creativity and problem solving in grades PK-12. The capacities and capabilities of children vary between grades and so too should our methods for approaching compositional activities. Conceptual awareness of composition will be grounded in hands-on experiences and observations. Candidates will learn how to structure compositional assignments appropriate for specific students, develop student capacity in composition, and assess student development.

Creative Approaches to Music Education
This course explores various approaches to teaching fundamental musical elements such as rhythm, melody, harmony, form, timbre, texture, and expression through creating, improvising, reading, performing, and responding to music. We will survey some established methodologies such as Kodály, Orff, Dalcroze, Suzuki, and Music Learning Theory (Gordon) as well as develop basic skills in classroom guitar, percussion, recorder, and barred instruments. In addition, we will reflect on how we can adapt these methodologies to our own teaching philosophy and the specific learning environments and grade levels that we might find ourselves teaching in. By the end of the semester, we will have a conceptual understanding of various approaches to music education as well as a practical toolbox of strategies, specific lessons, and repertoire for use in our teaching.

Culturally Responsive Teaching
Grounded in educational equity, the following course is designed to provide participants with an understanding of the sociocultural realities and histories of their students. The course takes an introspective approach towards understanding one’s own background and experiences, as well as one’s worldview and the ways it may be shaped by particular biases or one’s own assumptions about race, class, and culture. General principles and approaches to culturally responsive teaching will also be covered and participants will learn ways to: carry such principles over to their curriculum and school practices, negotiate the culture of the classroom with the identities of their students to foster a community of learning that is culturally inviting for all, uncover biases, design a diverse and accessible curriculum, uncover equitable systems in the classroom that support high expectations for students from all backgrounds, affirm students’ cultural connections, stressing collectivity as well as individuality, and manage the classroom with caring control. A recurrent and central question of the course is: How do teachers develop culturally responsive instructional practices in their music classroom to maximize students’ learning opportunities?

Ensemble Arranging
Primarily classroom based, Ensemble Arranging addresses graduate level arranging and orchestration techniques in a systematic approach. From arranging for beginning instrumentalists, such as those in grades 3-5, to intermediates, grades 6-9, through arranging for advanced senior high students in grades 9-12, the licensure candidate will learn to accommodate ensemble requirements, whatever the balance or imbalance of the ensemble may be. All arrangements will be workshopped in the class by Longy peers.

Historical and Social Foundations of Music Education
The organizing concept of this course is that music education, and indeed all education, is inherently a political act. As such, teaching music is not divorced from the wider context of society. With this in mind, we will look at the history of music education through the lenses of institutions, pedagogy, public policy, and philosophy. Emphasis will be placed on sociocultural issues of power and how dominant groups have acted as gatekeepers, determining whether music is an “academic” subject, what kind of music is deemed acceptable, who is allowed to learn music, and why and how that music should be taught. By the end of the course students will have gained important contextualized understandings of the history of music education that will inform their future work as transformative educators.

Identity and Culture in the Classroom
Explores the many ways in which identity impacts educators and students in the classroom, with a focus on race, language, socio-economic status, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, and physical and learning abilities. Analyzes common music education materials as they relate to cultural competency, with emphasis on critiquing and revising traditional music education.

Initial Licensure in Music Education
Introduction to Massachusetts requirements for Initial Licensure, MUSIC PK-12, as defined by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), and exploration of tools, guides, and forms necessary to navigate the licensure process. The study of state and national standards and how they influence curriculum design, and the crafting and refinement of teaching identities and philosophies of music education.

Learning by Design
In this course, students will engage in a research-based process for designing and mapping curriculum that motivates students and promotes academic success within the music class and ensemble setting. Beginning with the end in mind, students identify clear learning goals and big ideas, create authentic assessments, and develop essential questions to guide effective instructional planning and ongoing assessments using their district or state standards and/or benchmarks. They also apply the curriculum design process to all musical subjects that can be taught, keeping in mind the influence of learning environment, family involvement, and social development on the design process.

Licensure and Pre-Practicum Seminar
This course begins the process of the licensure candidate’s immersion into settings where PreK-12 children are experiencing vocal, instrumental and general music. During this semester of initial field experience the candidate shall receive consistent support from both the Longy School of Music, its faculty, and the teachers at the Pre-Practicum sites. Candidates will be responsible for observing and participating in entry-level teaching activities and administrative duties throughout the semester, consistently logging the hours, dates, classes and ensembles, and specific venues of the field activity. Longy Instructors, Program Supervisors, Supervising Practitioners, public school, charter school, and community music teachers and administrators shall act as mentors as the licensure candidate begins to demonstrate ability to apply coursework to classroom strategies. (Candidate Assessment of Performance Goal Setting and Plan Development) (SMKs) (Ma. Arts Curriculum Frameworks). Assisting with arranging, organizing, conducting, teaching vocal and instrumental lessons, teaching general music and ensembles (both in-person and remotely) is an outgrowth of the candidate’s coursework at Longy. Well-structured lesson plans and effective practice shall continue to be monitored as the candidate strives to achieve independence and effectiveness in the classroom.

Percussion Methods
This course is designed as a “lab” where the post-baccalaureate Initial Licensure candidates are consistently engaged in learning all 4 major categories of percussion instruments (snare drum, mallet percussion, timpani, and auxiliary percussion) playing and teaching techniques for the beginner and advanced instrumentalist in public school and community ensemble settings. Topics include designing student performances, repertoire selection and scoring, percussion set-up mapping and teaching phrasing through rhythm patterns as a multiple level approach to diverse learners. The participants will become comfortable with basic ensemble repertoire for elementary, middle school and high school performance groups.

Practicum
This course completes the process of the licensure candidate’s immersion into settings where preK-12 children are experiencing vocal, instrumental and general music. During this semester of student teaching field experience the candidate shall receive consistent support from both the Longy School of Music, its faculty, and the teachers at the Practicum sites. Candidates will be responsible for taking on the full-time responsibilities of the supervising teachers, which best replicates the realities of teaching in schools. Possible activities during student teaching include: observing and participating in entry-level teaching activities and administrative duties throughout the semester, curriculum design and implementation for various grade levels and classes, instructing students in whole class and small group settings and weekly meetings with your supervising teacher and Longy’s music teacher education supervisor. Well-structured lesson plans and effective practice shall continue to be monitored as the candidate strives to achieve independence and effectiveness in the classroom. Longy Instructors, Program Supervisors, Supervising Practitioners, public school, charter school, and community music teachers and administrators shall act as mentors as the licensure candidate demonstrates ability to apply coursework to classroom and ensemble strategies. The state-mandated assessment tool is the Candidate Assessment of Performance Goal Setting and Plan Development.

Secondary Piano
NO DESCRIPTION

String Methods I
Students will learn about methods and materials of string pedagogy specific to the public school elementary and early middle school ensembles. Activities will include class lessons on violin and viola with special attention given to basic technique, fingering, positions, bowings, tuning, articulation, materials, teaching methods and string literature. Upon completion of the course, learners will be able to review, practice, and apply measurable strategies in the beginning to intermediate orchestral ensemble class, including instruction based on varying experience levels as well as how to establish an equitable culture where all students can thrive.

String Methods II
During this course, students will learn to play the cello and the double bass. Emphasis will be on the development of performance skills, repertoire, and instrument specific teaching methods.

Studio Lessons
NO DESCRIPTION

Technology in Music Education
Technology in Music Education looks at the tools we can use to increase accessibility, foster equity, improve understanding, and reach all learners as we teach our content. Technology is conceived broadly to include not just electronics. We will focus on topics of interactivity, project-based learning, and differentiation with an emphasis on gaining the confidence and proficiency to move beyond being just consumers of the latest “app” to creators of our own
resources.

Woodwind Methods 
This course focuses on learning to play and teach all woodwind instruments within the elementary, middle and high school settings. Course content includes fundamentals of performance, essential pedagogy, maintenance of instruments, materials and repertoire selection, assessment, and recruitment for school ensembles.