Music Ed Insights

Alan and Steve talk with veteran South Dakota music educator Ryan Stahle about moving beyond using artificial intelligence as a glorified search engine and actually learning to talk with it. Ryan shares practical examples from his own teaching, including creating targeted warm-ups, speeding up student feedback, organizing individual lessons, and even building tools to solve problems he hadn’t expected AI could solve.

But the conversation also gets into the harder questions. What should stay human? When should teachers disclose that AI helped create something? What student information should never go into an AI tool? And if we’re comfortable using AI to design a website but uncomfortable when it writes music, are we being entirely consistent? Ryan, Alan, and Steve explore how music teachers can make use of these tools without surrendering the judgment, creativity, and relationships that make teaching human.

Alan and Steve introduce a simple way to understand DiSC using two practical questions: Are you faster-paced or more moderate-paced? And do you tend to start with skepticism or warmth? They explain how D, i, S, and C styles can help music educators better understand students, colleagues, parents, and themselves—without putting anyone in a box. Instead of labeling people; it’s learning how to adapt so communication becomes clearer and relationships get stronger.

Alan and Steve talk with interdisciplinary artist, educator, and Bezerk Productions founder Linda Sibio about the unusual path she has taken from her own experience with schizophrenia into decades of work using art, voice, movement, and writing with people experiencing mental-health challenges. Linda leads them through exercises from Cracked Eggs and The Insanity Principle—saying ordinary words through contrasting emotions, connecting rhythm and voice to the body, and even learning to see the empty spaces around an object.

For music educators, the conversation keeps returning to a simple idea: some students may need help “getting ready to get ready.” Linda challenges us to think beyond one definition of readiness and consider how movement, emotion, sound, perception, and nonlinear thinking can become entry points into creative work.

Steve and Alan talk through practical ways to make audition recordings that help your players give the best possible impression. From choosing the right opening excerpt to avoiding music that is too risky, they explain why first impressions matter and why “defense” — tone, pitch, blend, and rhythm — often matters more than flash. This episode is especially useful for directors preparing honor ensemble, festival, conference, or showcase submissions.

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What makes teaching music in a small rural school uniquely challenging—and uniquely rewarding? In this conversation, Michael Genslinger, host of Rural Music Matters, joins Steve and Alan to explore the realities of K–12 generalist teaching, limited local resources, and the revolving door of rural positions. Along the way, they highlight how community, creativity, and a willingness to “do it all” can turn small‑school music programs into powerful, long‑lasting forces in students’ lives.

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Slow, lyrical music can be beautiful, but it also exposes everything: tone, pitch, attacks, releases, balance, breath, bow control, and focus. Alan and Steve discuss when lyrical programming helps students grow, when it creates too much risk, and how to build in moments of sustain and phrasing without going too far. Whether through a full lyrical work or a shorter expressive section inside a faster piece, the goal is to follow our basic rule: Make it Sound Good.

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In part two of this two-part conversation, Dr. Scott Jones returns with Steve Shanley and Alan Feirer to apply the idea of teaching for independence to the most practical – and often most emotional – parts of the job: grading, evaluation, and repertoire selection.

Building on Part 1’s skill buckets and culture work, this episode explores:

• What grades should represent in a performance-based class
• Rethinking points for attendance, bringing an instrument, and “showing up”
• Aligning evaluation with the individual skills that lead to independence
• How a focus on independence can shape repertoire choice and long-term planning

Scott also shares how he has wrestled with these questions over his career and how his current grading approach reflects what he most wants students to learn and become as musicians.

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Alan and Steve share ways to make student leadership check-ins more useful, focused, and efficient. Instead of asking vague questions like “What’s going well?” they suggest more specific prompts that help students give feedback teachers can actually use. They also discuss how small groups, clear time limits, and well-placed questions can keep these discussions from turning into gripe sessions.

In part one of this two-part conversation, Dr. Scott Jones joins Alan and Steve to explore what it means to teach for musical independence—not just prepare students for the next concert. Scott shares a practical framework for helping students read, listen, adjust, and make musical decisions on their own, with special attention to rhythmic independence, notation, intonation, style, and embodied musicianship. They also discuss short individual playing, classroom culture, and why celebrating effort is essential if we want students to grow into confident, independent musicians.

Part 2 continues the conversation with grading, evaluation, and repertoire choices through the same lens of independence.

Tariffs affecting equipment? Why on earth is PD so generic? Your cohosts have some thoughts - and dare we say - insights that are current and relevant.