CMP Publications

Shaping Sound Musicians includes chapters that describe each point of the CMP model. It is designed to serve as a workbook for teachers to construct teaching plans. It will also contain some of the best examples of materials, innovative teaching ideas and developed and field tested by the CMP Project. The CMP Project committee is excited about a text written by music teachers, for music teachers.

Copies of the book may be purchased from the WMEA/WSMA office. GIA Publishing gives a discount on books ordered through the WMEA/WSMA office. We are able to sell them for $45. Proceeds will go to support future CMP projects.

To order your discounted copy of Shaping Sound Musicians, please contact learning@wsmamusic.org.

Just Good Teaching: Comprehensive Musicianship through Performance (CMP) in Theory and Practice
https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781610483391
Laura K Sindberg

Student learning in school music ensembles is often focused on technical skill development. Give your students broader experience involving multiple music learnings, technical proficiency, cognition, and personal meaning. The Comprehensive Musicianship through Performance (CMP) model will help you plan instruction for school ensembles that promotes a holistic form of music learning and will allow you to use your creativity, passion, and vision. With model teaching plans and questions for discussion, this book can give you richer, more meaningful challenges and help you provide your students with deeper musical experiences. Sindberg combines the theoretical foundations of CMP with practical applications in a book that’s useful for practicing teacher-conductors, scholars, and teacher educators alike.

Laura Sindberg has been an important voice in instrumental music education for over three decades, a gifted musician, conductor, and teacher now devoting her life’s work to teaching others how to teach. Just Good Teaching: Comprehensive Musicianship Through Performance in Theory and Practice is an insightful and compelling overview of a philosophy of teaching that enhances student learning in the rehearsal hall, and engages and inspires the creativity and the musicianship of conductors of all types of ensembles. This is a must-read for every music undergraduate music education major and for every veteran music educator. Enjoy the journey! 
(Craig Kirchhoff, Professor of Music,Director of University Bands, School of Music, University of Minnesota )

Just Good Teaching: Comprehensive Musicianship through Performance (CMP) in Theory and Practice is a uniquely valuable contribution to music teacher education. Laura Sindberg situates CMP realistically in lived experiences to facilitate music teachers in applying comprehensive musicianship methodology. A major distinction of this work is that it provides not only models of CMP but also multiple perspectives of CMP from music teachers in various phases of their teaching life. This is a text that challenges teachers at all levels of experience to learn as well as teach in ways that will transform ensemble rehearsals and performances with enhanced musical understandings.
(Molly A. Weaver, Professor of Music and Coordinator of Music Education, West Virginia University )

“I wrote this book because I believe in the importance of providing students in ensembles with a musical experience that is broad and deep. For many, many years ensembles have been immersed in the quest for the perfect performance, and perhaps there is more. The planning framework called CMP, and its discrete components, help teachers plan instruction that takes students beyond technicalities of skill development to deepen their understanding of music through performance, using repertoire selected by the teachers of those students. I think of it as general music for the ensemble–bringing those broad experiences of general music into the ensemble setting. The creativity of the teacher-conductor is in full bloom during the planning and instruction process, and students are more fully engaged and less able to be passive in the rehearsal. This does not represent an either-or choice [to perform well OR to know about the music–to have an appetizer OR entree]; the inclusion of musical understanding through performance is an appetizer, entree, salad, and dessert.

Just Good Teaching incorporates vignettes from various classrooms that bring this kind of musical experience to life. It also includes several examples of model teaching plans, including an exemplary plan that applies three outcomes or learning goals to “Shenandoah,” arranged for concert band (Frank Ticheli, Manhattan Beach Music), and mixed choir (James Erb). I wrote this book because since 1977 this model has energized band, choir, and orchestra classrooms, and I would like to help disseminate this information to a wider audience, and for teachers at any stage of their career to be able to look upon this as an opportunity to grow in their work, using ideas that contribute to “just good teaching.”

“The fact is, you will teach.”
– from the Foreword by Stephen Clapp, Dean Emeritus, The Julliard School.

Whether serving on the faculty at a university, maintaining a class of private students, or fulfilling an invitation as guest artist in a master class series, virtually all musicians will teach during their careers. From the Stage to the Studio speaks directly to the performing musician, highlighting the significant advantages of becoming distinguished both as a performerand a pedagogue. Drawing on over sixty years of combined experience, authors Cornelia Watkins and Laurie Scott provide the guidance and information necessary for any musician to translate his or her individual approach into productive and rewarding teacher-student interactions. Premised on the synergistic relationship between teaching and performing, this book provides a structure for clarifying the essential elements of musical artistry, and connects them to such tangible situations as setting up a studio, teaching a master class, interviewing for a job, judging competitions, and recruiting students. From the Stage to the Studio serves as an essential resource for university studio faculty, music pedagogy teachers, college music majors, and professionals looking to add effective teaching to their artistic repertoire.

CORNELIA WATKINS received her Bachelor of Music degree from Hartt School of Music, where she studied with David Wells, and a Master of Music degree as a fellowship recipient at the University of Houston under the tutelage of Hans Jørgen Jensen. Ms Watkins is an active freelance cellist, performing with the Houston Ballet, Houston Grand Opera, Theatre Under The Stars, the Bach Society, and the Alley Theater, among others. Ms Watkins has also maintained a class of cello students since her earliest college days in Connecticut—first as a teaching assistant to David Wells, and continuing professionally at several preparatory and music schools in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont. Since moving to Houston in 1982, her students have regularly played in Texas All-Region and All-State Orchestras, and many have attended top-rated music conservatories and become professional musicians themselves. Ms. Watkins has taught at several summer workshops including the Texas Music Festival, Music in the Mountains (Durango, CO) and the American Festival for the Arts in Houston. She has also enjoyed adjudicating at many festivals and competitions, most recently at the 2009 Schmidbauer International Young Artist Competition at Stephen F. Austin University.

Music pedagogy has become a significant part of Ms Watkins’ work. She co-teaches a graduate pedagogy course at the Shepherd School of Music, and is a regular guest lecturer in the Music and Human Learning department at the University of Texas. She frequently gives clinics and master classes across the country, including at local, state and nationally-sponsored conferences of American String Teachers Association, Music Educators National Conference, Music Teachers National Association and Suzuki Association of the Americas. In 2004 Ms Watkins taught a teacher training workshop in Chicago with Mimi Zweig, sponsored by William Harris Lee Violins, and in 2005 was a featured lecturer in the “Excellence in String Teaching” series at the University of Texas’ School of Music in Austin. From 2006-08 she served as national chairperson of American String Teacher Association’s Committee on Studio Instruction, and served for six years as the Private Teacher Representative on the board of TexASTA. In 2004 she was invited to join the committee of Comprehensive Musicianship through Performance, an organization promoting excellence in music teaching based in Wisconsin, where she now spends a week every summer participating in their annual training workshop.

In 2000 Ms Watkins began writing “Rosindust,” a series of articles on the joys and challenges of teaching and playing a stringed instrument. For over six years it reached teachers from Alaska to Botswana, Africa. Now a highly acclaimed book, Rosindust: Teaching, Learning and Life from a Cellist’s Perspective was published in January of 2008. She also writes reviews and articles for American String Teacher and Wisconsin School Musician.

Drawing on thirty years of teaching experience, Cornelia Watkins presents a healthy physical and psychological approach to learning the cello. Based on the premise that the study of a stringed instrument can have a powerful, positive effect on developing the whole person, Watkins offers teaching ideas that promote self-awareness, problem-solving skills and creative thinking. Rosindust presents teaching ideas ranging from cello-specific techniques to comprehensive, easily transferable concepts, applicable to many learning situations.

CORNELIA WATKINS received her Bachelor of Music degree from Hartt School of Music, where she studied with David Wells, and a Master of Music degree as a fellowship recipient at the University of Houston under the tutelage of Hans Jørgen Jensen. Ms Watkins is an active freelance cellist, performing with the Houston Ballet, Houston Grand Opera, Theatre Under The Stars, the Bach Society, and the Alley Theater, among others. Ms Watkins has also maintained a class of cello students since her earliest college days in Connecticut—first as a teaching assistant to David Wells, and continuing professionally at several preparatory and music schools in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont. Since moving to Houston in 1982, her students have regularly played in Texas All-Region and All-State Orchestras, and many have attended top-rated music conservatories and become professional musicians themselves. Ms. Watkins has taught at several summer workshops including the Texas Music Festival, Music in the Mountains (Durango, CO) and the American Festival for the Arts in Houston. She has also enjoyed adjudicating at many festivals and competitions, most recently at the 2009 Schmidbauer International Young Artist Competition at Stephen F. Austin University.

Music pedagogy has become a significant part of Ms Watkins’ work. She co-teaches a graduate pedagogy course at the Shepherd School of Music, and is a regular guest lecturer in the Music and Human Learning department at the University of Texas. She frequently gives clinics and master classes across the country, including at local, state and nationally-sponsored conferences of American String Teachers Association, Music Educators National Conference, Music Teachers National Association and Suzuki Association of the Americas. In 2004 Ms Watkins taught a teacher training workshop in Chicago with Mimi Zweig, sponsored by William Harris Lee Violins, and in 2005 was a featured lecturer in the “Excellence in String Teaching” series at the University of Texas’ School of Music in Austin. From 2006-08 she served as national chairperson of American String Teacher Association’s Committee on Studio Instruction, and served for six years as the Private Teacher Representative on the board of TexASTA. In 2004 she was invited to join the committee of Comprehensive Musicianship through Performance, an organization promoting excellence in music teaching based in Wisconsin, where she now spends a week every summer participating in their annual training workshop.

In 2000 Ms Watkins began writing “Rosindust,” a series of articles on the joys and challenges of teaching and playing a stringed instrument. For over six years it reached teachers from Alaska to Botswana, Africa. Now a highly acclaimed book, Rosindust: Teaching, Learning and Life from a Cellist’s Perspective was published in January of 2008. She also writes reviews and articles for American String Teacher and Wisconsin School Musician.