Taggart, Cynthia
Cynthia Crump Taggart is Professor Emeritus of Music Education at Michigan State University, where she directed and taught in the Early Childhood Music Program of the Community Music School of Michigan State University’s College of Music, served as Chair of Music Education, served as Associate Director for Graduate Studies, and taught university courses focusing on music in early childhood, elementary general music, measurement, research, and the psychology of music. She received her B.M. and M.M. from the University of Michigan and PhD from Temple University, where she studied with Edwin E. Gordon. As an MSU faculty member, she received the Beal Outstanding Faculty Award, the Withrow Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Curricular Service Learning and Civic Engagement Award, and the Teacher-Scholar Award. Prior to teaching at MSU, she taught at Case Western Reserve University, where she won the Undergraduate Teaching Excellence Award for the Humanities and Social Sciences. She has extensive elementary and early childhood teaching experience in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. In 2015, she was named the Outstanding Music Educator of the Year by the Michigan Music Education Association. In 2020, she was inducted into the Hall of Honor by the Early Childhood Music and Movement Association.
Taggart’s publications include co-authorship of Music Play (with Valerio, Reynolds, Bolton, and Gordon), Music Play 2 (with Reynolds and Valerio), Jump Right In: The Music Curriculum (with Bolton, Reynolds, Valerio, Gordon, Lange, and Bailey), and Best Music for Young Band (with Dvorak), as well as co-editorship of Learning from Young Children (with Burton), The Development and Practical Applications of Music Learning Theory (with Runfola), and Readings in Music Learning Theory (with Walters). She also has been published in the Journal of Research in Music Education, Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, Update, Journal of Music Teacher Education, Perspectives: The Official Journal of the Early Childhood Music and Movement Association, and several state music education journals. In addition, she has contributed chapters to many scholarly music education books.
Taggart currently serves as the Immediate Past President of the Gordon Institute for Music Learning (GIML) and served as the President of the College Music Society. She is a member of the GIML Early Childhood and Elementary General Music faculties, teaching professional development levels courses in Music Learning Theory. She also is an active clinician and presenter.
Workshops
Learning to Improvise: Readiness and Harmonic Audiation - Music Education
In this workshop, we will explore a roadmap for general music and choral teachers who are striving to help their students learn to audiate harmonically and express their own ideas through improvisation. Participants will engage in carefully sourced lesson plans rooted in the sequential model (resting tone audiation, chord roots by rote and audiation, harmonic audiation, and improvising over harmonies, then chord roots), its application to major and minor tonality with tonic and dominant functions, the addition of subdominant functions, and supplemental materials, including harmonic tapestries and folk/popular music.
Learning to Improvise with Popular Music - Music Education
This workshop is dedicated to the importance of popular music in the lives of students and how it can be used in the learning of improvisation to bridge the gaps between classroom music and the music that students encounter in their daily lives. Participants will engage in lesson plans rooted in the sequential model using pop songs ranging from the 1950s to the 2020s.
Learning to Improvise using Harmonic Tapestries - Music Education
In this workshop, we will explore the beauty of ostinati in learning to improvise vocally. Participants will engage with harmonic tapestries, how they serve as backgrounds for improvisation, and how individuals can improvise vocally over the tapestries, “embroidering” their improvisations into the soundscapes. Designed for choral music teachers, general music teachers, and anyone seeking to develop their own improvisation skills, participants will improvise in a "safe" setting and gain practical ideas for how to engage their students in successful vocal improvisation.
Choosing Repertoire for Use in Your Music Classroom - Music Education
In this workshop, we will explore the process of and criteria for selecting repertoire for use in your music classroom. Participants will learn how to explore the origins of songs, such as who wrote the piece, who transmitted the piece across time and space, and how people have used the piece in society. They also will grapple with the ideas of cultural appropriation, representation, and gendered language. This session is a powerful reminder that, as we engage in music teaching and learning, the content of what we teach can have a powerful impact on the experiences of our students.