My Favorite Things update

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens by Dr. Ethan Hein Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens Read on Substack Last week I was at the International Society for Music Education conference, which is by a wide margin the biggest academic conference I have ever been to. I presented about teaching pop music theory and aural skills. While I was mentally gearing up for it, I came back to a song that I first encountered when we sang it in elementary school, “My Favorite Things” from The Sound of Music. Music teachers love this tune! As I was writing this, I was listening to the Texas Tech steel drum band performing, and they started playing it, in a hip 4/4 Latin arrangement. It’s everywhere! I remember generally liking the song as a kid, but not feeling very strongly about it. I didn’t yet have the conceptual frameworks to appreciate its beautiful melody, the pairing of that melody with its syllable-heavy lyrics, or the nifty way it alternates minor and major. I definitely…