Welcome!!

Greetings,

My name is Ron Malanga and I teach music in Kansas City (after 23 years teaching in Dubai & 4 in Florida). I'm interested in dialogue on ways we initiate, develop, and evaluate musicianship in ourselves and our students.

My perspectives have been derived from my experiences and understandings of the work of Gordon, Patel, Suzuki, Limb, Kodaly, Laban, Dalcroze, Feierabend, Orff, and others. But certainly Edwin E. Gordon's work is paramount in my thinking when it comes to developing musicians.

Open, honest collaboration benefits everyone. So what do you want to talk about?  My list includes what talent is & isn't (Talent: Deconstructed) plus:
Please do comment or question or simply say hello in the box below. By doing so you will help get this blog rolling towards many happy collaborations.

So what's on your mind?  Stylistic sensitivity?  Sightreading?  Writing? Transcribing?  I want to learn from you! And if there is a subject you'd like me to try to tackle, just ask. I try my best to be useful.

Finally, if you know any interested teachers and learners, please direct them towards this site as well.

Cheers,
:-)
Ron



Personal Note: Edwin E. Gordon’s Music Learning Theory provides the basis for just about everything in this blog. I urge all parents & teachers to discover the efficacy of MLT.  www.giml.org is a great place to start.

24 comments:

  1. Great Blog....am hooked! :o)

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    1. Miss seeing your regular blogs and messages:-)

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  2. Hi this is Tabitha from DAA. Do you remember me?
    You know, the gawky little asian girl. You called me a cheeseball.
    I'm a freshman and I have a grade 8 in piano now :D still working on violin -_-

    So when you left DAA, no one told me what happened to you! And then you were replaced by Ms. Lavelle who forced me to sing songs I didn't like all the time :(

    Can you tell me why you left school? Or is it insensitive to ask? According to google you're still in Dubai...

    Tabitha

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  3. Hi Tabitha!! Of course I remember you! But not as gawky, and not as cheeseball, but rather as ball of cheese!!! Just kidding. I don't mind the question; it was just time to move on to a school that was willing to support this way of teaching fully. DAA wasn't that school, unfortunately. I wish you all the best, and please keep in touch.

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  4. Hi! My two girls are pretty much your fans. Big Z (they are known as Z-Sisters in my blog) is very keen to pursue Music and we try to support her as much as we can. It will be good to read your thoughts here. Regards:)

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    1. Thanks for the kind words, and happy reading! Your blog is lovely! I've been in Dubai for 15 years and still feel a bit touristy, so I'll have lots to glean from you too, Ishita!!!

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  5. HI Ron,

    Karamah Aweidah suggested you as a good person to contact as she knew you a few years back in Dubai. I am working in Jordan and I've just started teaching IB Music and supervising the Extended Essay for IB. As far as I know I'm the only one in the country running this subject. I could really do with asking a couple of questions to help me with it. Would you mind me asking you a couple of questions? Karamah said you had experience in teaching IB Music. My email is rgardner@abs.edu.jo and I'm teaching at Amman Baccalaureate School. If you're happy to help could you drop me an email? Many thanks :-)

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  6. hi mr malanga it fay from horizon in yr 6 last year. i was wondering how you sing high notes without straining my voice because i really want to sing this song which has a high note and it hurts my voice. could u help me?

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  7. Life is good in my new school but our new music teacher doesnt really train us in music and she makes us learn about music like authors and all that. Really miss u and your teaching mr malanga. pls keep in touch!

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    1. Hi Fay,

      Miss you too, kiddo!! What's the song, because some songs, like Ariana Grande's "One Less Problem Without You" take a HUGE chest register.

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  8. Hi Mr Malanga, the song is chandelier by sia. i cant seem to hit the note in the chorus. Yeah i really like one less problem without you. the songs awesome!

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  9. AnonymousJuly 15, 2014

    Hope to see lots of Blogging over the Summer months...
    :o)

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  10. Hi Mr Malanga. It's Fay. And I recently wrote lyrics to a song. I want to you to help me use the piano to make a melody along with it. I really need assistance and I'm new to this song writing. If you could help me that would be great. I want to write this song before December this year. I am coming back one week before school starts. If it's okay with your permission could i pop in and you have a look at this song? This is my dream. It would be an HONOUR for you to help. Thanks

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  11. Hi Mr.Malanga!
    I'd like to know more about Early Childhood Classes @Horizon!
    If you could plz mention the days and time these classes are run and whether they are free / if not ,the cost! Regards

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  12. Hi Ron. We just talked on Facebook Messager :) Great blog! One thing I haven't been able to find while researching MLT is much video on the process. Any chance you could post a video and commentary of your kids learning a new wordless song? From introducing it to having them move with flow to doing macro/micro beats to having them sing it. That's all in one lesson usually, right? I've searched Youtube and there are hardly any classroom videos from MLT teachers. If you have the time to post this, I'd greatly appreciate it. I'm sure others would, too...

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  13. AnonymousMay 27, 2017

    Hi Mr. Malanga,
    I just wanted to know if you are the same Mr. Malanga who used to teach passionately about music to a bunch of delinquents in Sharjah American International School back in the late 90's. (if you were that same teacher then I was one of those delinquents who pretended to hate music just to fit in with the cool local kids and oh boy was I wrong. If you are that Mr. Malanga then you might not remember me cause it was a really long time ago, around 20 years ago)
    Your ex-student (or not depending on how you answer this post) Mohammed Alserkal
    ps.
    If you decide to google me to find out how I look like I'll save you the trouble and link you my facebook page https://www.facebook.com/mohammed.serkal

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    1. Yes, Mohammed; it's me. So nice to get reacquainted with you. SAIS students weren't delinquent, merely...boisterous! :-) Please keep in touch!

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  14. Hello Mr. Malanga! I hope you still remember me from KHDA's What Works! I attended your workshop and was fascinated by your talk. We are organizing this series of talks which will take place in our office in DIFC, and as a passionate amateur musician I would really like for you to join as a speaker. Let me know if you are interested, and I can provide more info! My email is alrox71@gmail.com. Looking forward to hearing back!

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  15. Annie,
    Yes, I remember you. Thank you for the kind words about my presentation. I am always interested to share. Feel free to email me or call me with more details.

    Kind regards,

    Ron Malanga
    0506965767

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  16. Hi mr malanga,
    I don’t know if you remember me (it’s been a long time now) ;) but you taught me in horizon. As you probably knew I wasn’t very happy and I moved schools because of this. You were one of the best teachers I’ve ever had and I still remember to this day when you helped me in progressing in the choir you put together at lunch. As you may of seen I’ve been very busy musically and I’ve learnt guitar. This would not have been made possible without your massive help and absolutely brilliant guidance and I just want to thank you for everything you did for me while I was in horizon. You always made coming to school, music class and even giving up my lunch for choir fun and I always was soooo excited for my next music class! You helped me through some really tough times and the day I left the school the only reason I was crying was because I’d miss you. Through all the ups and downs you always seemed to find away to make me smile and make me laugh and have fun. And for that I really do thank you,
    Kai

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    1. Woohoo!! Did I just get a shout-out FROM Kai-TheMusicGuy!?! I am, like your biggest fan!! :-)

      In all seriousness, thank you for the kind words. I couldn't be more pleased for whatever small role I played in your wonderful success. I played your video (MUN opening) to my students. Needless to say, you have a fan base growing back at Horizon!!

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  17. This is amazing. How did I never hear of MLT before?

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