Author: Sammy Miller

At the peak of the pandemic and virtual school, many educators lost their drive. One educator stayed as inspired and inspiring as ever. Our friend and mentor, artist and educator Tony White. When it comes to his approach he says,

When I get the chance to meet my favorite musicians in person for the first time, I ask them: what and who do you listen to? I want to know who they try to emulate. I want to discover the

Throughout my journey as a musician and educator, I’ve had many sources of inspiration. I’ve been lucky enough to meet many of them. However, there have always been moments where I wished I could find out more; find out what

As a music educator, my guiding principle is: if you believe in students, they will believe in themselves. You must arm them with the self-confidence and inner drive to reach their full potential on their own volition. This isn’t always

NAFME BREAKDOWN : PERFORMING We’ve had educators ask us to add a post highlighting the NAFME standard of PERFORMING. For this one we have decided to focus on repertoire within PLAYBOOK. Here goes our 4th and final installment of NAfME Standards:

I was 16 years old when I first heard Grace Kelly play the saxophone. I was attending a concert for The Grammy High School Band at The Vic in Los Angeles. I was there to see my friend, classmate, and

NAFME BREAKDOWN : CONNECTING  The four pillars of the 2014 NAFME standards are CREATING, PERFORMING, RESPONDING, and CONNECTING. With limited classroom time, teachers spend the majority of their classes focussed on getting bands ready to perform. In this series, we’ll explore

NAFME BREAKDOWN : RESPONDING Essential Question: How does understanding the structure and context of the music influence a response?  The four pillars of the 2014 NAFME standards are CREATING, PERFORMING, RESPONDING, and CONNECTING. Due to busy school year schedules, teachers spend the

The four pillars of the 2014 NAfME standards are CREATING, PERFORMING, RESPONDING, and CONNECTING. Due to busy school year schedules, teachers often spend the majority of classroom time focused on getting ready to perform. In this 3-part series, we’ll explore

I grew up playing drums in a band with my siblings. We started when I was five year old and I didn’t read music at the time. The same was true of my 7 year old sister Molly on guitar