Matlock Music Works:  Do I need “one more thing”?

…but the excitement that this endeavor might be a fresh link with my choir members, especially my students, parents, and community is making me take the leap.  I am learning how to build a web site and do a podcast!! The learning curve is steep.  Each year, whether my students notice or not, I incorporate something new. Sometimes my eyes and heart are bigger than my schedule and it becomes unsustainable, sometimes it simply doesn’t work, and sometimes I put it on the “back burner” and polish later but what I have learned is that “risk taking” keeps me fresh and reaching to be a master teacher.  The quest for mastery drives me — “to get better” keeps me going realizing that mastery is never attained. I digress…Matlock Music Works is exciting for me because I am learning something new and the possibility of making a greater impact on my students makes it worth the risk — so I am putting myself out there. Here it goes.

Matlock Music Works has been in beta for a little over a year

I realized that I was not using media to its fullest potential as a teaching and communication component.  I knew from the beginning that both social media and a web site were critical to growing my piano tuning business but had not considered the possibilities that I might be able to extend my classroom teaching.  Then I began to think about extending my reach.  What if students could read about practice tips, gain understanding of performance anxiety, hear of other students music journey stories, dialog about the music we are rehearsing (seldom enough time just to stop in rehearsal and visit), and the list grew.

Matlock Music Works Blog

Blogs have been a valuable resource for me professionally and personally. For years I have selected my favorite blogs, subscribed using an app called Feedly and perused, read, saved for later use, deleted posts that I had no interest in, and noted books of interest for my own reading. Blogs that are more musing-meanderings, rants, or more of personal journal are of no interest to me and do not make it into my favorite list. I look for something that will add value to what I do in the classroom.  It is my desire to make the Matlock Music Works Blog a place with valuable content for my students and community. The launching point for posts will be to supplement my choral rehearsal conversations (there is never enough time) and provide a platform for additional discussion, resources, and applicable knowledge. 

Matlock Music Works Podcast

The podcast is where I will endeavor to enrich and expand the voice of music in our larger community of Hays and beyond.  Over the 26 years of my teaching, I have heard from so many inspirational voices, most of which were right in my classroom. The insights from my students, observations and depth of thought inspired by the music-making experience, information about the composers, and gleanings from clinicians need to be shared.  The testimony of my students to what music means to them, the way music has shaped their lives, influenced their academic success, and prepared them for life is music education. Though stories like them have been told, I feel their is an urgent need to tell “our” students stories. Matlock Music Works Podcast is devoted to music advocacy, performance, and leadership. I hope you will join us each week as we let the students tell their stories, hear from area musicians and composers, and include you in our rehearsal journey.