MISTEC and ISME 2026

ISME Day 1

07/28/2026

A great day! Not only because I got my presentation out of the way and had a swing on the swing in the quiet zone (every teaching and learning space needs a set of swings for adults!) afterwards, but also because I met heaps of cool people and learned a bunch of stuff. I also learned that I already knew stuff and could offer useful contributions to other people's work. And that people in general are all cooperative, generous, and curious. The KEYNOTE was on 'How Music Sculpts the Brain'. By Isabelle Peretz. Some key takeaways: We are all born wired for music (pre-wired to organise musical sounds) Though not equally musical Music education does sculpt the brain (neuroplasticity) Musical brains are different - though not necessarily smarter Formal training is not always enough (note 'Bad Singer' book by Tim Falconer) Music prodigies have no difference in brain (IQ) Musical intelligence doesn't necessarily transfer to other intelligences We learn better from other humans Shared musical activities lead to better cooperation In-sync bouncing leads to cooperation; out-of-sync doesn't (with toddlers) When playing in sync, you want to help and the brain rewards you for helping Shared music decreases anxiety, pain, stress and uplifts Music is social - even alone It can deepen social isolation and can be exploited by Ai Music makes you move - we are designed to conserve energy Music makes movement feel less like an effort Multiple Memory Systems and Music Learning Musicians attend to '17' things at once We can only do one novel thing at once Automatic learning diminishes novelty (a good thing) Contextual learning - individual class prioritises notes over rhythm Band prioritises rhythm over notes Music learning - sequential and attentional behaviours Watch out for the auto(in)correct Pedagogical Strategies for Collective Free Improvisation Conversation Embracing difference Responding to each other Co-constructing music collectively Try improvising around a story: everyone is an alien, and each instrument is a different language. Have alien conversations. Choose from echo, argument and/or wait Free Improv (CFMI) is a culture before it is a skill Remember about wait time Teachers create doorways into improvisational settings Using imagination makes for inclusion and no fear of error Freedom is structured and scaffolded The organisational principles: relational and contextual Songs in the Key of Me (John Jakobson) See MusicPlay website for materials Let's Play Rhythm games include... Rhythm Relay Hand out sheet with lines of rhythm. Have one member of each team write in the counts of a line, then pass to the next member First team to finish (correctly) wins Poison rhythm (with quarantine team starting a new game) Rhythm Origami Fold paper enough times to create 16 boxes Choose rhythmic values and have students fill in the boxes Perform page. Count to 4 to find someone to swap pages with. Perform. Count again and swap. Etc. Epic Rap Battle Display lines of rhythm. Split class in two (or more) With a groovy beat going (can have chords) Set teams rap the rhythm in competition with each other The more hyped, the better (expressive!) Instrumental Rhythm games can include... Articulation echo patterns (and more) Melodic Literacy games can include... Name that tune (looking at notation) Name that interval Mad Minute (page of notes to identify in 1 minute) Musical Spelling Bee (give two students a word to spell in notation - they have to run to the board and draw it correctly first) Among Us - Have a set of 5 same chords in inversion. Identify the impostor. This can also be done in scale practice. As the class to close their eyes, and one student will be tapped on the shoulder. The impostor has to play the scale louder than anyone else. The class then tries to identify who the impostor is. Band can do chord drills, drone tuning and human chord building. What makes these games good is that they create predictable rehearsal routines, play lowers performance anxiety, choice increases agency, collaboration builds a sense of belonging and low-stakes risk-taking builds confidence.

MISTEC Day 5

07/24/2026

A wolf busking at the Berri-UQAM station.Of course. Warm-up podorhythmie songs can be found online: Podorhythmie Quebec Meredith (Indianapolis): Accessibility and culture... 'Moving from the things we teach, to the children we teach'. Sometimes children just want to fit in and do not want to be signled out for their cultural differences Know your communities Know the dynamic between parent/child Valerie : Psychological Health in Academia The Oxford Handbook of Feminism and Music Education (Chapter 12) Wellbeing begins with us 'The slow professor' (a great book) 'We;;-stressed: manage stress...' (another good book) Academic culture celebrates overwork We need to model a good practice How can we recognise what promotes or compromises psychological health and commitment to a university or music education career? Move beyond coping strategies to systemic strategies As you become a more experienced practitioner with more power, you need to call out what's right and wrong. Use your power for good. Relationships are central to wellbeing and teaching—find like-minded people We are always in the process of becoming... always changing. People are there to help you. Set limits to yourself proactively and stick to them. Surround yourself with people and thinkings that make you flourish. Negative effects to teaching and mental health: work overload, fragmentation and lack of support, research nonsense, teaching nonsense, collegial nonsense, and administrative nonsense. We should not be reproducing these stress-inducing behaviours. Riffing Around Each instrument has a rhythm (make it align with words instead of notation) Djembe ostinato Play all of the instrument-assigned rhythms in a row while saying the words Stick or twist (only move ahead or change when you feel comfortable) 1. Improvising phase 2. Compositional phase 3. Decisions and Performance Students, through routines, put away instruments

MISTEC Day 4

07/24/2026

Warm-up with the UQAM percussion team on the Baschet Brothers instruments (instrumentarium). Very very cool! You can hit these things anywhere and everywhere—you can even put them on your head for different reverberation: https://youtu.be/B4YesiVwo8Y?si=pBnRD5zsHOinchKL Yasumasa Yamaguchi: Reconsidering cultural inclusivity in Ai Think about Ai in East Asian as digital colonisation. Ai as data training—who can use it, and what kind of music can it support? The data Ais are trained on are western-centric musics. The Western model of music permeates university entrance exams worldwide: piano and voice in traditional Western-based styles. When music becomes data: notes and rhythm are easy to translate from living sounds to digital Historical and embodied practice is much harder to digify Need to ask ourselves what is kept and found in computer data, and what is left behind Musical training data: 94.3% Western, 5.7% Non-Western Ai learns from this Ai has trouble preserving oral, flexible pitch, local tuning, traditional instruments, and cultural meaning Ai tends to simplify the cultural musics that it tries to replicate Teachers need to use Ai more carefully to ensure musical diversity, critical literacy, and community collaboration Posters Susie (Victoria University): What is the purpose of music education in Australia? Autoethnographic study Why do we have to learn notation? Whose music matters? What music knowledges are we asking our students to leave at the door? Katie (LaTrobe): What makes a class ready for musicking? What can be done to prepare students for the class they are about to participate in? This is not wasted time! Lisa: Feldenkreis practice Instrumental learning is based on rote repetition, which develops and exacerbates injury. It is based on a computer-based learning model. Ana (Lisbon): Soundscapes to Sonotopia Developing sensitive and creative listening: https://escutaproject.com/ Sarah (Brussels) Primary school teachers forced to teach music who say they won't/can't Methodology of self-confrontation Rachel, Brad and James: Interrogating 'quality' in music education programs What does quality mean? Does it only represent cultural capital? Robert Walker: Beethoven or Britney: https://search.informit.org/doi/abs/10.3316/INFORMIT.443186202990307 Aesthetic-Hierarchical Model (quality as disciplined musical literacy and cultural cultivation: Western art music) Structural-Continuity Model (music practice embedded in a history of power) Critical-Pluralist Model (Music is the birthright of every child. Quality as culturally responsive, context-driven musical learning) Other words to use instead of quality: significant musical education, or comprehensive musical education 'Quality' means something different to government bodies, policy makers, teachers, principals, parents, and students. See 'Music Counts' (Canadian site) for language use. Quebec music resources Presentation slides: https://canva.link/gy2ao92rt3gryx9 Site resources: https://smcq.qc.ca/ Select: Youth, Educational platform, create an account, subscribe Stacks of amazing free resources here! Including a BandLab activities including listening, interpreting, and creating Listen, imagine, and describe Concert Band arrangements with reflection sheets for students Lots of interactive stuff Notes: Several people from different countries said that their pre-service teachers are sent off in pairs for their assignments. That this works very well because they can talk immediately with each other for comfort and feedback.

MISTEC Day 3

07/22/2026

Shameless plug for our very own Jazz Festival! Sophie Jalbert Reporting the practice behind the evidence: An entrepreneurial approach to intervention in music education research not about business or money! more about competencies, mindsets, and value creation. empowering and developing agency enterprise pedagogies (teaching) experiential learning cooperative learning reflexive learning 12 entrepreneurial ways of acting entrepreneurial projects (guided, designed or open) Ana G Ortuzar The Fictional Matrix: Storytelling as a Framework for Inclusive Music Education think—pedagogical frameworks for teaching music (multiple) music pre-exists all of the teaching and understanding frameworks fiction-based approaches (story): setting, characters, events non-fiction: informed by fiction (research) speculative fiction (synthesis—blank canvas)

MISTEC Day 2

07/22/2026

On the way down to Old Montreal... this used to be a car park in my youth! Smaragda Chrysostomou: Co-creating understanding (the power of Bohm's Dialogue). relational practice not planning towards decisions participatory thought It's about where understanding is located—in one mind, or shared between several? Sitting in a circle avoiding hierarchy... listening respecting suspending (holding back assumptions and biases) voicing (aiming for collective meaning) Musical understanding emerges through relational dynamics (listed above). How we research is how we teach. Valerie Peters: Music education, well-being and human potential laboratory. Lab—EMBEH. Akosua Obuo Addo: COIL in music education—COIL Connect. Borger's core framework (2022) Cuthbertson— culturally responsive More from Tuesday: mobilising knowledge different abilities focused on the people, not the music Consultation circle for decolonisation of music education Living Lab Camelia (advanced Alzheimer's) by Elodie https://www.camelia.ulaval.ca/en/team/elodie-chenel Music Mondays https://coalitioncanada.ca/en/events/musicmonday/faq/ Coalition for Music Education https://coalitioncanada.ca/en/ Youtube channel (advocacy): LINK Livia: Music Education in Liquid Modernity constant change—change is the only certainty Freire—autonomous because of our dependency and our symbiotic relationships with and in the world. Liquid music educators see knowledge as fluid Brian from Butler University, Indiana Band and disruptive pedagogies Intentionally disruptive Sustained experiences Disruptive coursework Creativity as a model rather than a performance It's about responsiveness, community, access (gate keeping/gate opening), and normalisation Decentering without delegitimising Publications Teaching for a FAIL (First Attempt in Learning) in the ensemble classroom: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/00274321211060332 Points of Disruption in the Music Education Curriculum, Volume 2 CCP Trialogue for Music Literacy and Creativity CCP=context, content, and process content=the learning environment context=articulate learning outcomes process= engage participants in deriving concepts and generating learning activities to meet objectives based on the available resources. create the environment allow students to develop in it literacy—ability/skill to employ (create+decipher)symbols to enhance acquisition of meaning (understanding), communication, and personal development towards problem solving and positive relationships. What is musical education? It's so that people don't draw a blank when experiencing a musical moment.

MISTEC Day 1

07/03/2026

The MISTEC conference is not quite taking place up in the skyline (though this is an activity being held at the Vieux Port). Here are a few take aways from the first day... Wendy Brooks: Access, equity and place-based thinking. Avoid deficit thinking about regional schools. Adam Switala: Re-becoming musical—family musiking and self-esteem of immigrant parents. Music is a species-typical human capacity. Music and conversation in a circle promote equality. Repetition removes risk. And making space for the mother tongue. The sense of safety was the most important theme. Joy came second. On REPERTOIRE selection (by white male teachers): Not all countries have government-set exams. So, specific repertoire is not always mandated. It often comes back to the teacher—who is often white and male, often schooled in Western classical music traditions, and often not given enough paid time to train in what inclusivity looks and feels like. Julie Ballantyne on ISME: ITPDC International Teacher Professional Development Centre—teaching strategies, intercultural learning, global community of practice... Can propose an idea to ISME for their book series. See student chapter...