Category: Articles

ISME invite to doctoral students for feedback opportunity & invite to join ISME History of Music Education network

Dear MENZA members, The ISME History Standing Committee will be holding a 90 minute mentoring session for History of Music Education doctoral candidates at the upcoming global conference in Montreal in July. For the session, the plan is to have five research presentations with feedback given from HSC scholars. Interested doctoral students who are planning…
Letter to the Editor – Tune Me In Volume 21, Number 2, November 2025

Access the full publication here: Tune Me In Volume 21, Number 2, November 2025
Editorial – Tune Me In Volume 21, Number 2, November 2025

Access the full publication here: Tune Me In Volume 21, Number 2, November 2025
Conference Recap – Oct ’25
Music therapy helping Auckland girl navigate neurodivergent life

Kiara did not like going to school. She had trouble sleeping and didn’t like initiating a conversation or speaking with strangers. So it’s hard to believe that she’s the same girl who jumps up to brightly greet me, inquisitively asks about my outfit and quizzes us about the muffler on the microphone she has got…
A Celebration of Ukes in Schools!

The New Zealand Ukulele Trust | Te Rūnanga Ukurere o Aotearoa is passionate about empowering young people to reach their music potential via the ukulele. Our driving force is to make real the dream of Bill Sevesi that “every child in NZ would get the chance to learn to play the ukulele”. Want to explore…
ISME’s First Social Media Campaign!

Dear ISME Leadership, We are excited to announce ISME’s inaugural social media campaign, and we need your help to get it started! This campaign has two key objectives: The second goal is especially crucial as we work to expand ISME’s reach, influence, and impact globally. The Plan: In alignment with GivingTuesday—a major global day of charitable…
Beat Back Burnout

Sir, does it matter if I get a Not Achieved on the practice exam?” “No. Nothing matters.” “….ok thanks, Sir. See you tomorrow!” It’s hard to trace the exact point where my Year 11 Music class began morphing into the existential -nihilstic grumblings of a sad old man, but there was a very clear moment…
Integrating music

It is my belief that a musically enriched classroom deepens and forms connections of one’s internal and external world. Music grows the developing brain. Can we teach a mainstream class with music seamlessly integrated into our learning journey? I believe so. Let’s integrate and find joy in music everyday! Here are some simple ideas integrating…
Creativity & Inclusivity: Lessons from “To The Front”

Term 1, Week 1. A fresh batch of students enters your music department with wildly different experiences, musical backgrounds, abilities and tastes. Imagine you had just one week to organise them into bands, teach them an instrument, write a song, and then they would perform that song in a concert in front of friends and…
Empowering Students Through Product Design at Pāpāmoa College

At Pāpāmoa College, Product Design Technology isn’t just about crafting projects for the sake of it; it’s about empowering students to become real-world inventors and designers who can solve tangible problems. Technology teacher, Mike Wright, is the driving force behind the Technology programme at Pāpāmoa College. As a dedicated educator with a passion for innovation…
Unearthing Talent and Tradition: Far North Got Talent 5-day Wananga

Hapaitia te ara tika, pumau ai te rangatiratanga, mo nga uri whakatipu Foster the pathway of knowledge to strength, independence and growth for future generations. In the rugged, picturesque landscapes of New Zealand’s Far North, talent blooms like the vibrant flora that dots its terrain. Amidst the rolling hills and crystalline waters, a remarkable event…
Band & Orchestral Programmes In Schools

As brass and wind specialists, we have had the pleasure of working with Band and Orchestral Programmes in Auckland schools over the last 6 years. We have both taught classroom & instrumental music and have worked with a range of school ensembles since becoming registered teachers. In this article, we would like to share with…
Students’ Independent Song Release

As a teacher at Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu, a trend I had noticed is the increase in music ākonga submitting release – quality songs for assessment purposes. It seemed apparent to me that, in the modern music environment, there was no reason why they couldn’t go to the next step and release their…
Producing “Stairway to Heaven”

The Prizegiving finale for St Andrew’s College in 2023 was a musical performance of “Stairway to Heaven”. While we often video and record our Prizegivings, this is the first time we recorded the audio properly. We are glad we did as the video has since had over 1.3 million views across our school’s social media…
Tips For The Sound Industry – Future Pathways

Embarking on my career as an audio engineer, little did I know that the journey would be a myriad of challenges and growth…
Musical play: The Art Of Following The Child

Musical Play is a universal, sensory, relationship-based language of the emotions. It is the first language of children. It is an intuitive part of our humanity based on physical and acoustic laws. This is why we need to give children many opportunities to listen, watch, explore, interact, and be inspired to create their own music…
Māori Principles Into our Teaching Practice

Article written by Benjamin Lau As a kaiako tauiwi, (non-Māori teacher), I am manuhiri (a visitor) to Te ao Māori. At our recent MENZA conference, I presented on the topic ‘How to Incorporate Māori Principles into Your Teaching Practice’. Some of the principles I discussed were having a deeper understanding of Whakapapa, Whanaungatanga and Manaakitanga.…
He Waiata Whakataukī
Using NZ Music to Support Teaching

Article written by: Brenda Oakley MENZA MAG NOV v8 SinglePg 16.11 Music teachers are already doing an amazing job of using New Zealand music to support their teaching and link with the curriculum, with the most common way to engage students being to prepare performances of New Zealand artists’ work. This type of learning is…
Nurturing Musical & Expressive Musicians

Article written by Edith Poon
A Taste of Orff – Hayley Hunter

MUSIC & MOVEMENT LESSON: “Wonderful Weather” Here are some simple ideas integrating music, dance /movement, literacy and science concepts using the Orff Approach. Students will use speech, singing, instrumental music and movement to explore and understand different types of weather and changes in weather conditions. To finish reading the article. Log into the Website.
Catch a Song – Maria Winder

A summary of how we can support beat keeping experiences from 0 to 3 and why it is important, particularly in regard to language. Zoltan Kodály stressed the importance of beginning music education early and of using songs of the children’s native language as the earliest learning materials. Parents and early childhood carers play a…
Sound Investigation in an Infant & Toddler ECE Setting – Greta Bull

A great body of New Zealand and international early years musical learning literature is focused on singing or instrumental play, within early years musical learning with less discussing the importance of sound play. In this article, I will highlight the importance of sound play through sharing a six-month sound investigation within an infant and toddler…
Advocacy for Music Education in Aotearoa

Article by Jeremy Winter, Linda Webb, Helen Willberg & Catherine Gibbs We must advocate for music education because it matters. This article is an abridgement of a more comprehensive paper which gives, in greater detail, the backstory, referenced evidence and the bureaucratic roadblocks to overcome. Hopefully it provides motivation to join forces with other national…
The Remedy Project: Exploring First Nations Music

Article by: Glenn Barry Presenters Naomi Sunderland (Griffith University), Kristy Apps (Griffith University), and Glen Barry (Griffith University) are sharing about The Remedy Project: Exploring First Nations music as a cultural determinant of health. It is an Australian Research Council funded research project (2021-2024). The Remedy Project, First Nations Music as a Determinant of Health…
Arts Funding in Aotearoa – Annie Hill

As those working in the arts sector know, it’s difficult to raise money for creative projects and the small pool of funding means that sometimes very worthwhile initiatives lose out. However, ensuring you make the very best job of writing your funding application will increase your chances of success in a competitive market. I have…
Connecting Within & Across – Anita Collins

I like and hate conference themes. I think they are great anchors for me to build their thoughts around, and they can also be so broad that I struggle to find a hook into an engaging and stimulating conversation. The theme of the MENZA 2023 conference is “Connecting within and across” and initially, I was…
MENZA CONFERENCE 2023 – Overview

From 1-4 October 2023 around 130 teachers from Early Childhood up to Tertiary spent time together at the MENZA conference 2023.
The Tool of a Musical Mind

Often you hear about students having different tools in their kit or skills to cope with different situations, but I first heard this phrase at the Kodály Course in Christchurch this summer. I was excited to hear how we can develop a student’s musical mind to help them learn an instrument well and understand that…
Ear Training for the ‘Tech’ kids

I have to start with an apology for this ‘click-baity’ title. As much as possible I don’t try to differentiate my students between those that are ‘techy’ and those that are not. Or even worse… the tech vs classical kids. I truly believe that incorporating a variety of tools such as recording software, MIDI sequencing,…
Intergenerational Musical Play

BILL OF RIGHTS FOR PLAY All players are equal or can be made so. Novelty is more fun than repetition. Rules are negotiable from moment to moment. Risk in pursuit of play is worth it. The best play is beautiful and elegant. The purpose of playing is to play, nothing more. – Joseph W. Meeker.…
Music that heals: Trauma-informed practice

Watching the devastation after Cyclone Gabrielle and the impact on people and place, reminds me of life after the Christchurch earthquakes. In the early days, we were unaware of the ongoing impact that trauma would have upon our children. Musical play became vital in helping children to grow resilience and heal. Healing qualities have been…
Tai Orooro Tai Auaha

E Tipu e rea mo nga ra o tou ao“Grow up in the days destined to you” – Sir Apirana T. Ngata In 2023, in the Far North, taonga puoro noho marae wānanga have continued to evolve and expand. The Taipa Area School initiative, led by music educator Christian McDonald (Ngāti Kanu), has gone from…
Help, I can’t buy music for that combination of instruments!

Turning an unlikely combination of instruments into a performance group. Have you ever been in a situation where you have an unlikely combination of instrumentalists at school? Perhaps a beginner violin, an advanced recorder, a bassoon and a bagpipe? What do you do? This is an important question and we’ll look at some effective solutions,…
NCEA & External Moderation update
Celebrating New Zealand authors
Review: KIWICORDER

Resource: Kiwicorder Resource: Kiwicorder
Tips for Directing a Musical

In the 13 years I’ve been at St Andrew’s College, I have been involved with 23 musicals and have musically directed 21 of those (with another two we’re working on this year). As any high school teacher knows, to direct a school musical is a massive undertaking, and some would consider doing two a year…
Article: THE POWER OF SINGING

When I opened Facebook this morning, I was greeted with the following post: Singing. The power of singing. From the youngest child to the wisest soul, singing is simply amazing. Whether alone, in a small group, or in a sea of people, singing is simply amazing. Whether in the shower, car, or a concert hall,…
Article: BAD HAIR DAY
Article: Tongan Phrases you can use in your Classroom

Talofa lava, Mālō e lelei and Warm Pasifika greetings to you all. The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is the Crown’s principal advisor on policies and interventions aimed at improving outcomes for Pacific peoples in Aotearoa. Language Week celebrations had their origins in Samoa in 2007. In 2009, the Humans Rights Commission came on board and…
A Chat with Doug Kelly

A chat with 100 year old Doug Kelly – an influential music educator, musician and arranger with a passion for instrumental and jazz music by Judith Bell April 2022 Doug Kelly and I sat down for a chat soon after his 100th birthday. Here are some of his memories and remarkable achievements from his years as…
Article: New Home for Christchurch School of Music, Te Kura Puoro

After years of a nomadic existence, the Christchurch School of Music , Te Kura Puoro, (CSM) has been given the opportunity to build a $15 million facility in the city’s performing arts precinct. As Music Director since 2012, this is an exciting and also terrifying prospect (think $15 million!). We will build a custom building…
Article: Te Hiku Music Academy – Change Doesn’t Come Easily

What a tough time for musicians and music in general! As society emerges from Covid restrictions and the world regains a sense of normality, we musicians are now getting those bookings again and able to share our music. As much as our work as music educators has endured the restrictions, it has been stressful. Planning events…
Article: Whakaaro Tahi Community Trust – Serving the Far North for 17 Years

“Music speaks what cannot be expressed, soothes the mind and gives it rest; heals the heart and makes it whole, flows from heaven to the soul.” The genesis of the Whakaaro Tahi Community Trust’s music programme emerged from my day-to-day experience working as a secondary school teacher at Whangaroa College in Kaeo, a low-decile secondary school in…
Article: Accelerated Learning Through Toi Māori Wānanga Pūoro

Ko te piko te māhuri, Koia te tipu o te rākau. He rito tangata, he mauri reo, he mauri oro, he mauri ora. KA TŪ TAHI TĀTOU KI TE KOHIKOHI I TE MĀTAURANGA HEI ORANGA TINANA, HEI ORANGA WAIRUA KIA TŪ TANGATA AI TĀTOU A flounder will never return to the spot in which it…
Article: NCEA Accord Day – Canterbury

With the NCEA change imminently upon us there has been a growing realisation among secondary teachers that at some stage soon, we won’t be able to delay the inevitable any longer… Soon we will have to ‘face the music’ and implement the new Level 1 program (pun intended). Although still a work in progress, the…
NCEA & External Moderation Update

Kia ora koutou. Haere mai to the NCEA and External Moderation Update. Amongst the terrible weather events and surging Covid-19 cases over winter, it is gratifying that we have been able to celebrate the return of in-person secondary school music events and competitions. How exciting to see the Big Sing Finale featuring in recent TV news…
Major NZ Music Artists & Industry Professionals Join Forces with ‘Passion to Profession’

In my first article for the ‘Tune Me In’ magazine series, I felt it was only right to not only share the story and kaupapa of my platform ‘Beat Whānau,’ but also the ever -growing testimony of Rep FM’s ‘Passion To Profession’ – an educational initiative that I am now very proud to be a part of.…
What Do We Teach Our Future Songwriters?

Recently I listened to mega-popstar Beyoncé’s latest studio album Renaissance, a collection of well-crafted pop bangers featuring a vast litany of musical offerings from some of the hottest songwriters and producers on the planet. Indeed, a quick look through the album credits on allmusic.com reveals more than 100 people are credited as either composer or producer…
Lessons From Lockdown

I’m writing this in August and I’m sitting at a desk at school – not the most exciting introduction, however, this would have been extraordinary last year. This time last year, I was at home and starting my second week of lockdown, a lockdown that would eventually last 100 days. Even when it finished, the flow-on-effect was…
Burnside’s Specialist Music Programme

The Specialist Music Programme was established in 1996. It was the brainchild of Hugh Stevenson, Burnside HOD Music at the time, supported by colleagues from Westburn Primary School and the University of Canterbury School of Music; some years later, the UC Teachers’ College joined the partnership. The programme is approved by the Ministry of Education…
NZQA Scholarship Music

Rangi Ruru Girls’ School in Christchurch has a vibrant, well-resourced music department with a wide range of learners, from those starting out on their musical journey through discovery and exploration to those who arrive at Rangi Ruru with high levels of prior learning, motivation, and a full commitment to their music learning. In my role…
Don’t Forget the Part About Play

Many of us have memories of sitting at a piano or other instrument in tears, feeling frustrated and inept and wishing away the lesson or practise. Or hours spent learning a tricky line from a piece of music we had to master before an exam or performance. Or the stopwatch marking down the minutes for practise…
But We’re Not Ready to Perform Yet!

A new year, a new band, new players and the experienced players have all moved on! It’s only March, and you’ve been asked if the jazz band will play for the opening of an event. The problem is that some of my new players only know a couple of notes as they only just started…
The Nature of Transformative Experience in Early Childhood Contexts

By Helen Pritchard Dr. Helen Pritchard is an early childhood practitioner, lecturer with Manukau Institute of Technology/Te Pūkenga and academic researcher with Workforce Development. My doctoral research identifies and theorises the nature of transformative experience through a variety of Expressive Arts in early childhood settings. The research draws predominantly on John Dewey’s writings, with Art as Experience (1934/2005)…
Creating Beat-making Learning Experiences in ECE Settings

By Greta Bull-Crossan Within children’s everyday experiences, listening, dancing, and singing to waiata, children grow familiar with musical elements such as the beat and rhythm. Beat-making is of great benefit to children’s development from infancy to preschool ages and is a wonderfully fun and collaborative form of musical play in the Early Childhood Education setting. Te…
Songwriting: Diatonic Distancing in Composition – a method to move beyond diatonic harmony

By Dr Mark Baynes Drawing inspiration from current trends in popular music, it is probably fair to say that songwriters, including students at MAINZ, often gravitate towards diatonic-based composition. Who would blame them? Diatonic-based composition is an intuitive solution that allows for a direct path to lyrics and melody, the heart and emotion of any…
Nurturing songwriting talent through ‘Play it Strange’

If we could SEE songs, they would be luminous trails in the breath of space. And from there, they drift down to us, and we absorb them. We respond emotionally to every one we hear. That might be in the subconscious, that might be in our present mindfulness. The ones we can sense are like…
Creating a Creative Career in the Music Industry

It goes without saying that to forge a successful career in the music industry you need to be technically and creatively competent. It’s difficult to develop a career as a guitarist, for example, if you can’t play the guitar! Similarly, if you are looking for a career as a live sound engineer, you need to…
Integrating Radio into a Secondary School Music Course

It was 2006, and I had recently moved to Hutt International Boys’ School from a school that had gone through the rigorous process of becoming accredited to teach a National Certificate in Production Sound (Recording). I had heard through the grapevine that the Production Sound qualification was due to expire, so getting HIBS accredited was…
Wellbeing: Music is the Space Between Notes

The Britannica Dictionary includes within the definition of the word space, the concept that space is to separate (things) by particular periods of time. While the space between notes is a separation, it is also deeply connected to what went before and what comes after. It is more than the absence of sound. Debussy understood that…
How to Teach Piano to Preschoolers: Our Experience & Top Tips for Teachers & Parents

When to start lessons, and what to focus on when beginning piano at a very young age are questions we receive all the time from parents who have children interested in learning piano or keyboard. From teaching music to young children for many decades and taking on the role of that piano teacher to our own…
10 Ways to use the Winning Hook, Line and Sing-Along Song

Each April/May the winning Hook, Line and Sing-along Song is released after a national competition that students can enter in March (however as of 2023 this competition has been discontinued – last one was in 2022). Young composers write to a set of guidelines including length, using a NZ topic, suitable pitch range, suitable tempo…
Music Acquisition starts before birth: Sing to your unborn baby

My daughter Sarah sang a loving little song to her unborn baby Toby every day as she patted the steady beat of the song on her stomach. Inside the womb, surrounded by amniotic fluid, her baby heard her voice and the muffled external sounds around her. His auditory system was fully functional about 20-22 weeks after conception.…
BIG FAN: The story behind a big-hearted gift to Aotearoa

Joel and Gemma Little to open not-for-profit music facility in Morningside. Nine years on since the album Pure Heroine was made by Joel Little with Lorde, the Grammy-Award winning songwriter and producer is putting New Zealand on the world music stage again with BIG FAN. BIG FAN is a music space in Tāmaki Makaurau with…
A Chat with Doug Kelly 2022

A chat with 100 year old Doug Kelly – an influential music educator, musician and arranger with a passion for instrumental and jazz music Judith Bell April 2022 Doug Kelly and I sat down for a chat soon after his 100th birthday. Here are some of his memories from his years as…
MENZA response to inappropriate and harmful behaviour

Click here for the Safer Spaces in Music Education website. The recent stories of the inappropriate and harmful behaviour in schools and universities in Music Education spaces are simply unacceptable. We applaud the bravery of those who have come forward. All music education spaces, no matter how un-traditional, should be safe places without discrimination and…
Congratulations Celia Stewart for Queen’s Birthday Honours MNZM

Congratulations to Celia Stewart on being made a Member of New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for her outstanding services to Music Education over many years. For services to music education Mrs Celia Stewart has contributed to music education in the Canterbury region and nationally for more than 40 years. Mrs Stewart assumed a…
Tribute to Ian Dando

life-story-ian-dando-one-of-nzs-top-music-critics Obituary: Ian Dando 1934-2019 worked for the Ministry of Education as the Otago music advisor in Dunedin. In Christchurch he worked as a senior music lecturer at the College of Education. He was also known as a music reviewer and gifted school music teacher.
Stop Defending Music Education

Today I ran across one more xeroxed handout touting the test-taking benefits of music education, defending music as a great tool for raising test scores and making students smarter. It was just one more example among many of the “keep music because it helps with other things“ pieces out there.
Musical Literacy: a skill of some note

In 2015 a story ran in the UK press which revealed that it was Heather Mills who taught her daughter music, not her ex-husband, Sir Paul McCartney, because he cannot read music notation. McCartney and John Lennon left the job of notating their music for the Beatles to producer George Martin. The news was…