Dear Tri-M Members,

In this month’s issue of E-News, you’ll find announcements, upcoming service opportunities, and events including our Tri-M Petition and Change Drive Competition. This month’s featured article shares 6 tips on how to prepare your students who are interested in becoming a music major.

As always, if you have comments, questions, or would like to share your chapter’s activities with us for publication in a future issue, e-mail Shauna Leavitt. Please share an update with us on how your chapter is doing!

Sincerely,

Shauna Leavitt, Student Programs Manager

6 Tips for Future Music Majors

The following is a list of recommendations to aid the transition from high school to a college music degree program. Share this list with your prospective music majors to help prepare them for college.

1. Private Lessons

Experience in a band or choir alone will not be sufficient to prepare them for a college entrance audition. Encourage students to take private lessons to help perfect their reading, theory, and performance skills.

2. Aural Skills

Some students are blessed with a natural gift, but most students need extra practice to develop aural skills. Help your students learn to recognize the following by ear:

• Triad Quality (major, minor, augmented, diminished)
• Intervals
• Primary Chords (I, IV, and V)
• Simple rhythm and melody notation

Search “ear training” on the Internet to find programs to assist students in developing these skills.

3. Music Fundamentals

Learning the fundamentals of music notation in freshman college theory can be a daunting task; either knowledge is assumed or covered very quickly. Advise students to be prepared to know

• Meter (compound and simple)
• Rhythmic values of all notes and rests
• Identify written intervals and triads
• Treble and bass clefs
• Major and minor scales
• Key signatures (major and minor)

4. Vocal Ability

All college music majors, no matter what their principal performance medium, must be able to sing. Most entrance auditions will require prospective students to use their voices, and yet many are still surprised and embarrassed when they are asked to do so, since they have had no preparation for this kind of activity in high school. Advise your students to be able to

• Sing back pitches
• Sing back notes in a major or minor triad
• Sing the major scale with numbers, letters/solfeggio
• Sing the three minor scale forms
• Sing half or whole steps above or below any given pitch
• Sing back tonal melodic fragments of two to seven notes
• Sing simple familiar folk tunes (letters, numbers/solfeggio)
• Sight sing simple folk tunes

5. Keyboard Skills

All college music majors must be able to play and read intermediate keyboard literature. Encourage your students to begin piano lessons now. Even six months of private study during high school can make a difference; a year will be a truly significant advantage. They should work for

• Ease and fluency with intermediate level keyboard literature
• Sight-read one level of difficulty below performance level
• A beginning knowledge of I, IV, V harmonization of simple songs

6. The Right Attitude

Studying music can be exciting, enriching, rewarding and FUN. But students are rarely done a service when they are advised to become a college music major because they have no other serious interests except they had “fun in band, chorus, or musical.” Music is not an easy major by any means; as this list begins to suggest, it requires its students to be both artists and scholars. It is vital for teachers and counselors to carefully assess not only the background and preparation but also the attitude of the prospective music major, to avert what can otherwise be a frustrating and discouraging freshman experience. If they are passionate about and dedicated to music, and aware of its rigors as well, then they belong in a college music program.

This material has been adapted from a PMEA brochure (1997) entitled, “So You Want to Be a Music Major.”

Contests and Scholarships

Tri-M Petition and Change Drive Contest

Change music education … for the better by participating in the Tri-M Petition and Change Drive Contest. The chapter that submits the most signatures to MENC by April 30 will receive a Tri-M Banner and Tri-M T-shirts for all members of the chapter. The second place chapter receives a Tri-M Banner for the chapter. Download the Tri-M Petition and Change Drive Contest Entry Form and submit it with your signatures and donations to MENC. Download the Petition for Equal Access to Music Education here.

Change Drive to Change Education—In addition to signing the Petition for Equal Access to Music Education, ask anyone willing to sign the petition to donate his or her pocket change to the cause. Each $1 collected will equal one signature toward the contest.

Rally for Music Education—MENC’s goal is to deliver one million signatures to the Department of Education on June 18, 2009.

Tell us about the progress your chapter is making towards collecting signatures. We would love to hear! E-mail Shauna Leavitt.

Chapter of the Year

The Tri-M National Chapter of the Year program is designed to motivate and reward chapters that develop active service projects, encourage chapter officers to perform their duties properly, and bring about more awareness and interest in what other Tri-M chapters are doing. All active chapters are eligible to participate, but only those chapters that submit a National Chapter of the Year Point Evaluation form to the national office by April 30th are eligible to win. Chapter advisors must submit the application and must be an active MENC member for the chapter to be eligible. For more information, read the chapter manual, page 26. Read about last year’s winners here.

Two ways to earn more points this year:

1. Collect signatures for the Petition for Equal Access to Music Education.
2. Conduct a change drive. Each $1 collected will equal one signature.
    

100 signatures = 10 pts
200 signatures = 15 pts
300 signatures = 20 pts
500 signatures = 25 pts

Must be 13 or older to sign the petition

Student Contest

NSBA Electronic Composition Contest — Sponsored by MENC and the National School Boards Association (NSBA), the Electronic Music Composition Contest recognizes outstanding student compositions. Winning students will receive prizes from Sibelius, MagicScore Music Software, and MENC and will be honored at NSBA's 2009 T+L Conference in Denver. Entries will be judged based on their aesthetic quality, effective use of electronic media, and the power of the composition and its presentation in communicating to school board members, administrators, and others, the excitement and effectiveness of electronic music composition in the school curriculum. The entry deadline is April 14, 2009. For an application form and additional information, visit the Web site.
 

Chapter Spotlight

Tri-M Traveling Mentors

Tri-M Chapter 5557 at West Mifflin Area High School in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania. 

West Mifflin Area School District is in a suburb of Pittsburgh, PA and the high school is next door to Kennywood Amusement Park. Advisor, Mr. Devon Smeal says, “This is our first full year in existence and the students have really taken to the service aspect of the organization as it allows them to showcase their talent while at the same time helping others. It is a win – win.”

The student officers have made additions to the By-Laws for our chapter that include a minimum amount of community service hours having to do with music. The students have been playing at senior care facilities, helping beginners with summer lessons, and fundraising.

For Music In Our Schools Month (March), our chapter at West Mifflin Area H.S. (5557) has divided into five committees that are coordinating with our four district elementary schools and the middle school music teachers to provide assistance to their music classes or students as they see a need. The district is allowing these students to travel to those buildings and assist in small groups by presenting demonstrations, playing music or helping with sectional rehearsals. A small group also assisted in nearby Duquesne School District and at a local preschool.

Chapter President, Ashley Taylor, and the other student officers of this chapter organize all activities. Ashley states, “I am very proud of what our chapter has accomplished in its first year. Getting started is the hardest part, but the things we tried this year were successful and I hope that we have laid a good foundation for the future of the chapter. I look forward to seeing what else is achieved in the future.”

Tri-M Fundraiser, “You Request the Music”

Pennsylvania Chapter #3405 recently kicked off a Music Dedication fundraiser.  Students can dedicate or request a song to play over the PA system before morning announcement and during lunch for $2.00 (checking for language and subject “school appropriateness”). So far, students have raised over $300 to go toward their first-ever Relay For Life Team. They'll be enjoying some great music and helping raise money and awareness for cancer.

News and Events

March Member Special

The March MENC Member Monthly Special features the colorful neon MIOSM pencils. You will want to have plenty of these eye-catching pencils to share with your students, other teachers, parents, and administrators. In March only, MENC members can purchase MIOSM pencils (12 per box) for only $3.00—half off the regular price! 2009 MIOSM Pencils. #6088R. $3.00. Call 1-800-828-0229 or visit Member Special to order. No additional purchase required. Special not available at state conference resource shops.

Global Youth Service Day

Coming soon in April! Get involved in an important service opportunity:
Global Youth Service Day is the largest service event in the world. GYSD is an annual global event that highlights and celebrates the contributions of youth to their communities through volunteer service. GYSD is celebrated in more than 100 countries in every region of the world.

Each April, millions of young people participate in and lead service projects, working with their families, schools, community organizations, faith-based communities, and businesses, to improve their communities by addressing critical issues such as global climate change, education and illiteracy, poverty, health, hunger, and homelessness. In 2009, the event will be April 24-26. Visit GYSD.org to follow the latest updates and event postings!

Facebook

• Stay connected with other MENC Tri-M members around the world by joining MENC’s Tri-M Facebook group. To join, simply visit www.facebook.com and search “MENC Tri-M Headquarters.”
• Join the “Change Music Education … for the Better” Facebook group and link with other supporters as we present our petition to the Department of Education in Washington, DC. Visit www.facebook.com and search “Change Music Education … for the Better.”

Reminder

For those planning regional events for members of Tri-M chapters, please be sure to send a copy of the Tri-M Event Responsibility form to Shauna Leavitt by faxing it to (703) 860-9404 or mailing it to her attention at MENC, 1806 Robert Fulton Drive, Reston, VA 20191. A copy of this form is available on page 57 of the Tri-M Manual (2005 issue).

Do you have a Tri-M event coming up?

Perhaps you have a booth, Tri-M reception, gathering, or conference? Please let me know if you need materials such as the Tri-M PowerPoint presentation, Tri-M brochures, current and back issues of the Tri-M News, and other materials. Please know that you are welcome to contact Shauna Leavitt at any time to request Tri-M materials for any promotional event you are involved in.

Tri-M® Music Honor Society is the international music honor society for middle/junior high and high school students. Tri-M is a program of MENC: The National Association for Music Education, the largest nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of music education. Through its many programs, activities, publications, and conferences, MENC addresses all aspects of music education and works to ensure that every student can be a part of a balanced, comprehensive, and high-quality program of music instruction. For more information about Tri-M Music Honor Society, visit our Website.

--Shauna Leavitt, March 24, 2009 © MENC: The National Association for Music Education.