Greetings, I’m Kim Lundgren – a Regional Representative for Practicing Musician’s Professional Development Roundtable and a National Board Certified Teacher in Music.
As a kid, making music is why I wanted to go to school every day. I loved the sound of beautiful melodies, interesting harmonies, complex rhythm, and the feel of music around me as I played in my school band and orchestra. It’s why I decided to be music educator. Music education supports student success in all content areas. Comprehensive music education programs help students develop creativity, collaboration skills, self control, positive self expression, organization, and it’s FUN. It’s still fun to make music, and technology supporting music educators has changed a lot.
That’s why I’m proud to be part of Practicing Musician’s PD Roundtable, working alongside experts who help shape the free resources available to every music educator, including:
- Dr. Frederick Burrack – Director of Assessment at Kansas State University, Chair of the NAfME Assessment Special Research Interest Group, and Co-Chair in development of the Model Cornerstone Assessments
- Dr. Bret Smith – Professor of Music Education at Central Washington University, who led research, development, and piloting of the Ensemble Model Cornerstone Assessments
- Katie Wardrobe – Founder and Director of Midnight Music, which provides workshops, conference presentations, and online training courses and ebooks
Free Resources Built for Music Educators
Whether you’re looking to sharpen your own teaching, get personalized guidance, or give your students more ways to practice, Practicing Musician offers a full range of free resources designed specifically for music educators — no registration fees, no event dates to catch, just real tools you can use whenever you need them.
Free PD Classes
Professional development shouldn’t mean sitting through a single one-time seminar and hoping the ideas stick. Our self-paced PD library lets you learn on your own schedule — during a planning period, over the summer, or whenever inspiration strikes — and revisit lessons anytime.
The library covers real, practical topics music educators ask for most: maximizing student engagement, recruitment and retention, advocating for your program, diverse composers and repertoire, instrument repair basics, assessment techniques aligned to national standards, rehearsal strategies for band and orchestra, sight-reading development, tone quality, and more. Every course is taught by working music educators and specialists — people who’ve faced the same classroom challenges you have — through full video lessons you can pause, rewatch, and apply directly to your program.
One-on-One Mentorship
Sometimes a video course isn’t enough — you need someone who can look at your program specifically and help you solve the problems you’re actually facing. That’s where personalized mentorship comes in.
Work directly, one-on-one, with master educators like Stephen Nelson — whose K-12 orchestras won 1st place over 50 times, competed internationally in Austria, and earned a Grammy award across his 50 years of teaching — or Dr. Frederick Burrack, who brings 40+ years of combined K-12 and university experience and helped shape the national Model Cornerstone Assessments. Whether you need help building a stronger curriculum, improving student engagement, developing advanced ensemble technique, or navigating a specific classroom challenge, mentorship is tailored to your program and available for a small fee.
Free Music Lessons with Progress Monitoring
Your students want to practice and improve — give them the tools to do it, even outside of class time. Practicing Musician offers free music lessons students can work through independently, covering fundamentals across instruments and skill levels.
As their teacher, you’re not left in the dark: you can monitor each student’s progress right alongside them, seeing what they’ve completed and where they might need extra support. It’s a simple way to extend learning beyond the classroom without adding to your workload.
Free PD Newsletter
Music education moves fast — new research, funding opportunities, advocacy tools, and teaching strategies come out constantly, and it’s hard to keep up on top of everything else on your plate. Our free newsletter delivers the highlights straight to your inbox: current strategies, resources, and news relevant to music educators, curated so you don’t have to go looking for it yourself.
Leave A Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.