Feierabend Fundamentals Andrew Himelick Towne Meadow Elementary School, Carmel, IN
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here is an exciting and inspiring new resource available for music educators wanting to learn more about the programs and philosophy of John Feierabend. But first, a little history. For over 3 decades, John Feierabend has been creating and publishing resources to help teachers grow their students into what he has termed “tuneful, beatful, and artful” musicians. A tuneful, beatful, artful person can think and sing tunes, easily feel the beat and beat divisions in music, and connect to the expressive part of the music they hear and perform. Feierabend created “First Steps in Music” and “Conversational Solfege,” programs that are used in schools throughout the U.S. and around the world to assist a music educator in teaching students to become beatful, tuneful, and artful. It became obvious to Feierabend that teachers wanted in-depth training on how to use these two resources effectively in their classrooms. So, summer certification workshops were made available around the U.S. and lat-
er, internationally. As the popularity of his work grew, it also became clear to Feierabend that he could no longer spread the word on his own. Therefore, the Feierabend Association for Music Education (FAME) was established in 2012 to help spread and foster his work. In addition to this, Feierabend began training other master educators (called Endorsed Teacher Trainers) who could also teach certification courses. Missy Strong, elementary specialist in the Mt. Laurel Township, NJ schools, is one of those master educators and is also the current President-Elect of FAME. In 2012 she saw the potential of social media to bring music teachers from around the world together, and created the “Feierabend Fundamentals” Facebook page with Feierabend’s blessing. Her vision was that teachers already using Feierabend resources and programs as well as those just learning about his work could have a place to ask questions and share ideas. Quickly, the Facebook page became popular and today has over 8,000 followers. From the amount of posts and discussion on the page, Strong could see there was a need for a single resource where many of the most common questions and items discussed could be addressed and fleshed out. It would be a “one-stop-shop” of all things Feierabend. A handful of other master teachers in the Feierabend camp (most of them Endorsed Teacher Trainers) were selected to write specific chapters about how Feierabend’s work could and should be understood, taught, and used. The practitioners chosen are experts from early childhood to college and beyond. This resource, “Feierabend Fundamentals: History, Philosophy and Practice” is available from GIA Publications. Feierabend and Strong are both editors and, along with ten other contributing authors, share their expertise across multiple music teaching areas in the book. The chapters are as follows:
TEMPO 54
JANUARY 2019
