September 2011 MTNA e-Journal

Playing With Music: How The Combination Of Traditional Pedagogy And Technology Creates A Generation Of Motivated Learners
By Andrea McAlister, NCTM
Technology is opening doors to play in ways never before imagined. Discovering and teaching to our students’ play personalities will encourage them to become more active in their own learning and creation of music. While traditional pedagogy must never be ignored, the combination of traditional study and technology has the potential to create a generation of motivated and passionate music students. But exploring new ways of playing through music can create motivated and passionate music teachers as well. Teachers can experience their own six-step process of play by anticipating how technology can transform their students, being surprised by new educational methods, and developing an understanding of how to incorporate technology into the curriculum. [Read More]

Engaging, Accessible And Fresh: Ferruccio Busoni’s Two-Piano Transcriptions Of Works By Mozart
By Christine Kefferstan, NCTM, and Sheila Barnhart
In an article for the New York Times, Paradox, Ambiguity and Ferruccio Busoni, Will Crutchfield wrote, “it is the destiny of Ferruccio Busoni’s music to be perpetually revived and re-examined, never established in the repertory yet not forgotten, either.” His music, however, is well worth examining. With Busoni’s two-piano transcriptions of Mozart works as the basis, this article discusses the history of transcriptions in the performing repertoire, Busoni’s life along with his musical style and approach to the piano, Busoni’s affinity with Mozart and, finally, his transcriptions in detail and their pedagogical and musical attributes. [Read More]