Intelligent Music Teaching: Essays on the Core Principles of Effective Instruction

I am going to recommend this book to both my grown kids. Everyone at some point in their lives is a teacher of sorts. For me, the "meat" in the 2nd half of the book was most fascinating. The discussions explain how teaching the transfer of knowledge for the student to apply in many contexts is more important than the teaching of knowledge itself. In addition, you must not just teach, but observe the student using the knowledge themselves to assure that when they are working alone, they will be working correctly. This will help set them up for success. Reasons are given for how and why to set up lessons for the students' success. Repeating what they can do correctly is key for reinforcement of knowledge. A good teacher can control a student’s success experience. It is of utmost importance to know when to impart new information. It may or may not be somewhat intuitive for teachers. Bob Duke says that "positive" or "constructive" feedback is given by well-meaning people, but honest, mostly positive feedback is most important to plan. A teacher can and should control the lessons such that most of the feedback will be positive for a positive learning experience. The essay on Feedback was so interesting that telling my art class about it in a zoom meeting inspired an hour-long discussion. Becky Chaffee

This isn't just an excellent text on music teaching, this is an excellent text on teaching from a holistic perspective - music just happens to be Duke's medium. When reading any non-fiction work, particularly those of an informative nature, I tend to go through and highlight salient points that jump out at me, bits of wisdom, etc, that I would like to be able to quickly find in the future for my own personal reference. With Mr. Duke's book, I do have a great deal of trouble... I struggle greatly not to highlight too much! Entire paragraphs are clear, concise, on point, and effectively distill large amounts of effective pedagogy down into short clips of texts. I can think of few educational authors so clear and quotable on such a consistent basis. Truly, every single page has a gem! While some may see this as a criticism, to Mr. Duke's credit he keeps his text in broad stroke and mostly on the philosophy of teaching and approaches, not on the minutia - if you want minutia, there are other texts out there on the subject. Mr. Duke is concerned with the learning process, how we as educators engage with the learning process, and we can utilize this to the effect the greatest success with our students. To this end the book is broadly generic enough that it can be applied to any and all teaching and as such I would truly recommend any educator with even a cursory knowledge of music pick this book up and delve into it with an open mind... your life will be richer for it and, if you're willing to truly examine your own practices against his standards and recommendations, you'll be a better educator as a result. As a music educator, I truly can't say enough good things about this book. Absolutely fantastic.

I had to get this book for a graduate class I was in, but I enjoyed it so much that I've been recommending it others who are not in the class. It really gets you thinking about your approach to the classroom and how you want to present yourself as an educator. It's a very easy read and I would suggest even non music educators read it because there are so many great life lessons throughout the entire book.

Brilliant and insightful teaching techniques and approaches. Exams plainly and broadly some of the basic, but important, psychology behind effective teaching. As you read through it, you'll realize how simple and straightforward the concepts are and wonder why you weren't already doing it yourself. Particularly enlightening are the sections emphasizing the use of proper feedback (positive and negative) to students and the structuring of a logical sequence to a lesson plan. Highly, highly recommended. This literally changed my life as a teacher and the way I approached classroom lectures and rehearsal situations, from middle school to the college level.

I didn't agree with everything but it was an interesting, thought provoking book.

All the book says makes so sense that I just wonder how I couldn't get to his ideas by myself. And it's probably because, in fact, they are not that evident and they are the result of lot of studying and observation. The book is very easy to read (even for me that I am not from an English spoken region) and it focus the subject of music education in a very fresh and pragmatic way. I am really happy to have acquired it.

I have been teaching music for over forty years. Every effective strategy I have used by instinct is in the book in a clear and analytical way. I am currently using this as the main text in a music methods class I am teaching at the local university and would use it again.

This book exceeded all expectations. As a graduate student in musicology who does not have a music education background, this book will have a tremendous impact on my future teaching. It would be just as, if not more so, vital to applied studio teachers. It includes detailed ideas for the classroom as well as big picture thinking to guide planning and teaching. Wonderful book, highly recommended.

Every teacher should read this whether you’re a music teacher or otherwise. Teaching with these ideas in mind will change the world one student/class at a time.