REFERENCE LIST American String Teacher Association. (2010).

The future of strings: a green paper prepared for americans for the arts. Retrieved October 3, 2013, from the American String Teacher Association web page: http://www.astaweb.com/App_Themes/Public/Uploads/PDF/AmericanStringTeac hersAssociation_GreenPaper.pdf Advocacy of music begins with the educators and spreads to the children who chose to learn instruments, specifically strings, and it spreads again to the family members of the children who encourage the childs growth. ASTA is the American Sting Teacher Association that is a national organization whose main goal is to encourage, foster, and connect individuals with the same connection, the love of string instruments. A future area of research could be how many schools that have orchestras use and benefit from this organization. Benham, J. (n.d.). Defending music programs with economic analysis. Retrieved October 3, 2013, from: http://www.cmebc.org/resources/defending Budget cuts in the Music programs affect other aspects of education which are often unseen. When a music class or teacher, that had a large number of students, is cut where do these students get placed? They often end up in other classes and that then raises the demands of those classes and teachers and adds stress to more people. So although you removed a part of the budget, now you have to compete to find room for those students and this is reverse economics. Further research should be done on this topic in schools to see if when Music is cut do new teachers get hired to teach the students or do class sizes rise. Benham, J. (2011). Music advocacy : Moving from survival to vision. Lanham, Md. : Rowman & Littlefield Education. Advocating for music is the only way to prevent budget cuts. Although many believe that the idea of keeping music will save it, it often does not and it is cut before people realize. A further area of research is how many schools have formed advocacy groups. Brown, R. (2008). The value of music education in public schools. [Youtube video]. Retrieved October 1, 2013, from website: http://www.make-music-better.com/musiceducation-resources.html#I Playing an instrument opens kids to the idea of learning and it makes it easier to teach them new ideas and topics. Incorporating music into education creates a more holistic approach that makes learning more than a sum of its parts. Rather than learning history to learn history you can apply it to music and learn about a composing period and why music developed that way because of the events that were occurring. A future area or research could be do students who learn in a

more holistic environment score better on standardized tests and remember the information longer than students who do not? Feldstein, S. (2006). How can music educators save their music programs from budget cuts? Retrieved October 1, 2013, from website: http://www.artistshousemusic.org/videos/how+can+music+educators+save+their+ music+programs+from+budget+cuts Building a strong program that involves the children at every step is essential to keeping budget cuts at bay. When you involve the children the parents must be involved as well and this creates a base to keep music alive. By seeking help in outside sources like MENC or the Music Educators National Conference programs develop a greater base to preserve the music. A further area of research could be how to involve children more in music. Goehring, T. (2013). How is an orchestra a figured world: an observation [Word document]. Retrieved from: https://moodle2.uncc.edu/course/view.php?id=17621 Many students in college continue their love of music by playing in an orchestra. By this point, the unifying factor in this environment is the love of music and not the need to take an elective. A further area of research could be how many students continue their music between the High School and College transition and then how long do they continue their music into college. Hartley, L., & Porter, A. (2009). The influence of beginning instructional grade on string student enrollment, retention, and music performance. Journal of Research in Music Education, 56(4), 370-384. Retrieved September 28, 2013, from JSTOR database: http://www.jstor.org.librarylink.uncc.edu/stable/40204940 The age that students pick up an instrument plays an important role on how the music program grows and develops. The retention of students in music after their first year is important of creating a growing music department. The performance ability of students beginning at a variety of ages shows that kids who start strings in the fourth grade out preform students who start in the sixth grade. A further area of research could be what specific instrument has the highest retention rate and if that occurs because of the primary instrument of the teacher. Slaton, E. (2012). Collegiate connections: music education budget crisis. Music Educators Journal, 99(1), 33-35. Retrieved October 3, 2013, from SAGE database: http://mej.sagepub.com/content/99/1/33.full.pdf+html What is the best method to keep music in the education system. Should we fundraise or make students pay to participate in these programs? An area of further research could be how many function programs are using fundraising or making students pay to keep their music programs alive.

Richerme, L. (2011). Apparently, we disappeared. Music Educators Journal, 98(1), 35-40. Retrieved September 29, 2013, from SAGE database: http://mej.sagepub.com/content/98/1/35.full.pdf+html The media talks about the disappearance of music from schools rather than the successes or the existence of programs across the country. The way music is being advocated for has caused a misconception by allowing the public to believe that music education is dwindling because of using only terms such as budget cuts rather than allowing more positive terms to surface. Dialogic exchanges between administrators, the pubic and educators will help to see what makes music important and make it easier to preserve. A further area of research could be how many educators have active exchanges between parents and administrators and if they do, has it improved their worry about budget issues? Russel, J. (2008). A discriminant analysis of the factors associated with the career plans of string music educators. Journal of Research in Music Education, 56(3), 204-219. Retrieved September 29, 2013, from JSTOR database: http://www.jstor.org.librarylink.uncc.edu/stable/40204927 The quality of the string educators would improve string programs and encourage growth and development. The number of qualified string teacher needed is rising while the number of teachers produced is declining. A further area of research could be how the college level education system is affecting the number of string professionals entering and then changing majors. Wood, M. (2012). Music to our ears. USA Today Magazine, 141(2808), 2, 34-35. Wood believes that in order to sustain the music programs across the country it is necessary to further engage the students and encourage the growth of professional skills. These professional skills are skills that can translate into careers such as confidence building and a sense of self. These are unlike the life skills like math or reading that are important so that people can do them whenever they need them. This article is significant because it shows that music teaches skills that can be used outside of the academic classroom and this can be an area of further research.