Westminster Wednesdays

Upcoming Events

Strategies for Teaching Music Theory Remotely

Wednesday, December 16 at 6 p.m.
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This workshop provides step-by-step practical guidance for teachers who teach written and aural aspects of music theory and includes tips for notation, sight-singing, keyboard, and improvisation. The instructor will provide recommendations for software and hardware solutions, techniques for managing a remote-teaching studio, and share a number of templates participants may adapt for their own use. Presented by Joel Phillips.

Tips for Online Voice Instruction

Wednesday, January 6 at 6 p.m.
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Remote voice lessons are — challenging. Degraded audio signals, latency, and poor internet connection make hearing a student and providing feedback difficult. In the absence of teacher-based feedback, it becomes important to provide students with skills and strategies to self-assess and monitor their own singing. 

This presentation explores contemporary ideas from the field of motor learning and how incorporating these ideas can help students become independent musicians. In particular, this presentation will discuss methods to teach support and resonance in a virtual environment. Presented by Sean McCarther.

Improvisation Techniques for Virtual Choirs

Wednesday, January 20 at 6 p.m.
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Choral improvisation is challenging even under normal circumstances. Teaching online creates further barriers for improvisation in the choral rehearsal. This workshop will introduce you to strategies for improving musicianship through improvisation in the virtual or in-person choral setting. 

You’ll learn how to build tonal and rhythmic vocabularies, enhance harmonic audiation skills, and utilize free collaborative recording software to foster creativity and musical literacy with your choir. Peer, self and teacher-centered assessment strategies for online or in-person learning will also be introduced. 

This session is recommended for choral directors of choirs of all ages in the school, church, or community setting. Presented by Jason Vodicka.

Use and Care of the Professional Voice

Wednesday, February 3 at 6 p.m.
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This webinar addresses what singers and speakers need to know to habituate excellent voice use — improving voice quality, resonance and stamina. Who are professional voice users? They include singers of all styles, actors, teachers, coaches, ministers, television and radio journalists/personalities, lawyers, public health workers, telemarketers, and anyone who finds themselves using their voice athletically on a daily or near-daily basis.

In this webinar, participants will learn how the voice functions, how to provide the best environment for voice use, how to use vocal exercises to improve and maintain voice resonance and agility, and how to build stamina for increased confidence in how your voice serves you daily. Presented by Kathy Price and Chris Arneson.

Working with Transgender Voices

Wednesday, February 10 at 6 p.m.
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Voice training is a deeply personal journey. For transgender and non-binary people, discovering their authentic voices is empowering and life-changing. In this webinar, Dr. Chris Arneson and Dr. Kathy Price will train you to use your knowledge of singing to help trans and non-binary students discover healthy, effective vocal habits that transform and reveal their best voices. Presented by Kathy Price and Chris Arneson.

Wednesday, February 17 at 6 p.m.
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Voice training is a deeply personal journey. For transgender and non-binary people, discovering their authentic voices is empowering and life-changing. In this webinar, Dr. Chris Arneson and Dr. Kathy Price will train you to use your knowledge of singing to help trans and non-binary students discover healthy, effective vocal habits that transform and reveal their best voices. Presented by Kathy Price and Chris Arneson.

Scratch Music: Connecting to STEM through Coding and Creativity

Wednesday, March 3 at 6 p.m.
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Get creative and explore music and sound in a whole different way! In this session, you’ll learn the basics of coding with Scratch, a user-friendly, block-based visual programming language for kids as young as eight. 

You’ll learn how to help students make their own virtual instruments while they learn to think creatively, reason systematically and work collaboratively— essential skills for artists of the 21st century. Presented by Janet Cape.

Riding a Musical Time Machine: Connecting to History and Culture

Wednesday, March 17 at 6 p.m.
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Music is not only organized human sounds, but also human behaviors interacting with societies and cultures. This session will share an approach to teach musical pieces with their relationships with societies and cultures. 

Riding a musical time machine will empower students to appreciate, analyze, and criticize music from a variety of viewpoints of the past, present, and future. Through the time machine lesson, your students will experience hands-on music-making as well as discussions to elicit critical awareness of diverse cultures, social dynamics and power relationships. Presented by Sangmi Kang.