Thomas J. West Music

If you are a high school band director in the U.S., you most likely have had to take an active role in recruiting and retaining students for your band. There are many obstacles and roadblocks that discourage students from joining or remaining in your program. It goes without saying that having a strong feeder program at the elementary and middle school leve...

Throughout my experience as a musician, I have grown through many different kinds of experiences. I began as a child enjoying music performance. In order to remain involved with the kinds of performing groups I enjoyed as a student, I became a music teacher. Gradually over the course of my teaching career, I found myself increasingly interested in teaching m...

Because of the flexibility of the Music Professional Learning Network website, there are even more ways to filter and handle the content. Yesterday, I created a video and blog entry to take you through the basics. There are even more ways of makin...

Students with special needs are being included more and more in the public schools. Teachers often hear statements to the effect that music is a universal language, and music is great for everyone. As a result, students with disabilities are being included in music classes and lessons more often than other areas. Music is seen as an equalizer.Unfortunately music teachers aren’t ...

The Music Professional Learning Network is just over a week old, and the response has been nothing short of explosive. Over 300 users have registered, over 700 status updates have been generated, and over 100 forum topics have been created!

One of the common questions that new members have had as they grow accustomed to the site is "What's the best way to keep up with all of the great ...

It's hard to believe that it has been less than a week since the official launch of the Music Professional Learning Network website. In the first five days, membership has grown to nearly 300. That's a hundred more than the projected goal of 200 by October! More importantly, the conversations within the groups' forums are dynamic, detailed...

You probably thought your parents’ insistence that you plunk away on the piano keys day after day was...

Over the three years that my website has been publishing articles, I have written many special topics on music learning and how modern neurology is providing powerful information on the way we master a musical instrument. I have also done more than one article on

It's finally here - the website that is the collaborative creation of some of the most innovative and forward-thinking people in the Music Education profession. This is the final two weeks of beta testing for the Music Professional Learning Network - a social network for music teachers, music education undergra...

Today, on U.S. Independence Day, I find myself pondering "independence" and "freedom" and thought I'd share a few thoughts on that. The fact of the matter is, we are born free and we remain free. Freedom is a universal truth, but we create experiences for ourselves that limit our freedom in many ways for many reasons. Consider the following: