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Field Notes on Music Teaching & Learning

Field Notes on Music Teaching & Learning

By: Ashley Danyew
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This podcast is a collection of creative ideas, practical strategies, and thoughtful observations from the field of music teaching and learning. Music educator Ashley Danyew will dive into topics like how we learn, developing musicianship, time management, teaching sequences, planning tools and strategies, the art of teaching, practicing, and the creative process, and share personal stories from her own experiences and observations. You’ll find creative and pedagogically-sound teaching tips; fresh, new approaches you can use in your teaching; and insight into a few tried-and-true systems and creative processes designed to help you do your best work.

Copyright 2020-2025, Ashley Danyew. All rights reserved. Art Entertainment & Performing Arts Music
Episodes
  • 083 - Bernstein & Bill Evans: Inside My Recent Intermediate Studio Class

    083 - Bernstein & Bill Evans: Inside My Recent Intermediate Studio Class
    May 14 2025

    It starts simply. Two blocked jazz chords with I-V in the bass. And then the vocalist comes in:

    “Twenty-four hours can go so fast. You look around, the day has passed…”

    This is Leonard Bernstein’s song “Some Other Time” with lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, written for the 1944 musical, On the Town. It’s about three sailors on 24-hour leave in New York City who meet three women before leaving for war. Four characters perform this song (in the stage version), hoping to catch up some other time, but knowing they may never see each other again.

    I first heard this song a few weeks ago on Bill McGlaughlin’s weeknight radio show, Exploring Music. We’ve been listening to this show for over 16 years—we have it on while we cook and eat dinner.

    A few weeks ago, he did a series called “Dona Nobis Pacem (Grant Us Peace).” Nestled in the middle of the Wednesday night program, he paired Bernstein’s “Some Other Time” with jazz pianist Bill Evans’ improvised solo piano recording, “Peace Piece.”

    I was captivated.

    I got up from the dinner table and went to the piano to find the two chords by ear, playing along gently with the recording.

    Today, I’m taking you behind the scenes of these two pieces of music—exploring how they’re made, what they have in common, and how hearing them played back to back inspired a listening and improvisation project in my intermediate-level studio class last month.

    For show notes + a full transcript, click here.

    Resources Mentioned

    “Some Other Time” (Bernstein)

    Exploring Music with Bill McGlaughlin

    “Peace Piece” (Bill Evans)

    The Profound Impact of Peace Piece – Bill Evans Time Remembered Documentary Film

    “Flamenco Sketches” (Miles Davis)

    “It’s Been a Long, Long Time” (Harry James)

    “Put on Your Sunday Clothes” (Wall-E)

    “It Only Takes a Moment” (Wall-E)

    Ep. 042 - What Does It Mean to Be a Teacher-Facilitator?

    Get a free 15-minute consult with me

    If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>

    Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew

    Whenever you’re ready, here are three ways we can work together:

    1️⃣ Need fresh teaching ideas? Schedule a quick 25-min. call and we’ll brainstorm on a topic of your choice. Build an idea bank that you can pull from in the months to come.

    2️⃣ Have questions about teaching or managing your music career? Book a 60-min call and get personalized advice, creative ideas & step-by-step strategies on up to 3-4 teaching/business topics.

    3️⃣ Develop the skills and strategies you need to plan the year, refine your teaching methods, and manage your time more effectively with a suite of online courses and professional development trainings
    Show More Show Less
    18 mins
  • 082 - What Art Is Teaching Me About Music

    082 - What Art Is Teaching Me About Music
    Apr 16 2025
    Some of you may not know this about me, but I’m a musician and an artist.I always loved art as a kid—from finger painting in my blue smock at my Little Tikes easel to coloring and tracing to the pastel class I took one summer. For a while, my answer to the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” was “An artist or illustrator.”Music was always there, too—singing and playing the piano, learning letter names as I learned the alphabet, and later, accompanying, teaching, performing, and arranging.At some point, I set art aside to focus on music. I still did craft projects from time to time, but I didn’t consider myself an artist.Then, during the pandemic, I found myself drawn to it again. In between online lessons, baking Jim Lahey’s No-Knead Bread, and reading through Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words, I watched online painting tutorials. I practiced mixing colors in an art app on my iPad. I ordered supplies and started painting tiny acrylic landscapes.Now, five years later, I have a dedicated art table in my home office. I have a somewhat regular artistic practice alongside my music work. I’ve found that painting is a different facet of my creativity, a new form of artistic expression. And I have to say, it makes me come alive—to embrace my creativity as a whole, to invest in multiple aspects of my creative self at once.And I’m not the only one. From Felix Mendelssohn to Arnold Schoenberg, Joni Mitchell to Miles Davis, many musicians have found painting to be another form of artistic expression that complements and informs their musical side.In this episode, I’m exploring what art is teaching me about music. Whether you consider yourself an artist or not, I hope this inspires you to think about all the different facets of your creative self—and how to embrace them in your work.For show notes + a full transcript, click here.Resources Mentioned*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through some of these links.Songs Without Words (Mendelssohn)On the Spiritual in Art (1910) (Kandinsky)Pictures At an Exhibition (Mussorgsky)Clair de Lune (Debussy)“October,” Lyric Preludes (Gillock)Piano Mastery (1915) (Brower)“Waltz for Miles,” Portraits in Jazz (Capers)“Rainbow Colors,” Piano Safari Repertoire 2 (Hague)Prelude in C, Op. 11, No. 1 (Scriabin)My artistic processDaily Rituals: How Artists Work (Mason Currey)Join the Musician & Co. Book Club (it’s free!)On Developing a Daily Ritual: Insights From Mason Currey’s BookIf you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyewWhenever you’re ready, here are three ways we can work together:1️⃣ Need fresh teaching ideas? Schedule a quick 25-min. call and we’ll brainstorm on a topic of your choice. Build an idea bank that you can pull from in the months to come.2️⃣ Have questions about teaching or managing your music career? Book a 60-min call and get personalized advice, creative ideas & step-by-step strategies on up to 3-4 teaching/business topics.3️⃣ Develop the skills and strategies you need to plan the year, refine your teaching methods, and manage your time more effectively with a suite of online courses and professional development trainings
    Show More Show Less
    19 mins
  • 081 - Celebrating Women in Music Month: An Inside Look at Our Studio Informances

    081 - Celebrating Women in Music Month: An Inside Look at Our Studio Informances
    Mar 12 2025

    March is Women’s History Month and by extension, Women in Music Month—an opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate women’s contributions to our field.

    As a teacher, I love finding ways to honor and celebrate things like this with my students. A few years ago, we did a studio-wide blues composition project (see Ep. 045) during the month of February, Black History Month.

    Then, there was the year I created a 4-week study unit for one of my high school students focused on women composers. In Ep. 057, I talked about the composers and scores we were planning to study and shared a resource list of elementary and intermediate piano music written by women composers that you can reference in your teaching.

    This year, we’re celebrating Women in Music Month with a series of musical informances. In this episode, you’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at how we’re preparing including how I’m structuring the events, how we’re highlighting women’s contributions to the field, expectations I have for my students, and ways we can include the audience in the process.

    For show notes + a full transcript, click here.

    Resources Mentioned

    *Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through some of these links.

    Ep. 045 - The Blues Composition Project

    Ep. 057 - Women in Music Month in the Studio

    The Oxford Handbook of Public Music Theory (2022), ed. J. Daniel Jenkins

    Ep. 071 - 3 Things I Learned from Hosting a Musical Informance

    Democracy and Education (1916/1997), John Dewey

    Musical Informance Planning Guide

    If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>

    Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew

    Whenever you’re ready, here are three ways we can work together:

    1️⃣ Need fresh teaching ideas? Schedule a quick 25-min. call and we’ll brainstorm on a topic of your choice. Build an idea bank that you can pull from in the months to come.

    2️⃣ Have questions about teaching or managing your music career? Book a 60-min call and get personalized advice, creative ideas & step-by-step strategies on up to 3-4 teaching/business topics.

    3️⃣ Develop the skills and strategies you need to plan the year, refine your teaching methods, and manage your time more effectively with a suite of online courses and professional development trainings
    Show More Show Less
    16 mins

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