Feierabend First Steps in Music Certification
June 29 - July 3, 2025
8:30 am - 4 pm
**Please note that this is a hybrid class, Sunday & Monday are online, Tuesday is off, Wednesday & Thursday are in-person**
Swope Music Building Recital Hall (Room TBD)
Slippery Rock University
Slippery Rock, PA
Created by Dr. John Feierabend, the First Steps in Music™ curriculum is designed so that all educators can build community through music by evoking enthusiastic participation of all students’ musical voices, minds, and abilities.
All people are born with the potential to become musical. With inappropriate or limited musical experiences in the early years, children consistently lose their intuitions for thinking tunes, feeling rhythms, and responding to expressiveness in music. The First Steps in Music curriculum will provide a bridge from research to practice and is designed to prepare children to become musical by being Tuneful, Beatful, and Artful.
Folk songs and rhymes from our rich cultural heritage as well as classical music are the primary source materials that are used.
This research-based pedagogy contains all you need to lead a music class for preschool and early elementary students, including: Echo Songs, Call-and-Response Songs, Simple Songs, SongTales, Action Songs, Circle Games, Beat Motion Activities, Expressive Movement and more.
Participants who successfully complete this course will receive an Official Certificate of Completion from the Feierabend Association for Music Education - Feierabendmusic.org
First Steps in Music for Preschool and Beyond: The Curriculum - Revised Edition
The Book of Movement Exploration
Both texts are available at giamusic.com
COST: $400 for SRU Students
$450 for Non-SRU Students
There will be a 3% processing fee added to the total of your registration.
A non-refundable deposit of $50 is included in the registration fee.
Please review the following rules that apply to the 2025 SRU Music Certification Workshop
1.The use or possession of alcoholic beverages, tobacco products, and/or illegal substances anywhere on University grounds or in its facilities, including the residence halls, is strictly prohibited.
2. Harassment of other participants or faculty is strictly prohibited, and includes, but is not limited to age, race, religion, gender, appearance, disability, or sexual orientation.
3. Weapons of any kind are not permitted anywhere on Slippery Rock University grounds or in its facilities.
4. Cell phones, while permitted, may not be used during classroom instruction, unless in case of emergency.
5. All faculty and participants must be treated with respect.
Leslie Weaver has been a public-school music educator in the state of Pennsylvania since 2005. She began her career as a Class Instrumental Music Teacher in the School District of Philadelphia before accepting a position in the Hamburg Area School District in 2009. In this position, Leslie has taught K-5 General Music, 7th Grade General Music, 3rd Grade Recorder, 4th and 5th Grade Chorus, Elementary Autistic Support Adaptive Music, Elementary Life Skills Support Adaptive Music, and High School Life Skills Support Adaptive Music. She has implemented material and techniques from First Steps in Music and Conversational Solfege in all of these courses.
Leslie has been an Endorsed Teacher Trainer in the First Steps in Music curriculum since 2017 and teaches certification courses throughout
the Mid-Atlantic region of the US. She is a member of the Music Educators of Berks County, Pennsylvania Music Educators Association, NAfME, and FAME. She enjoys reading, visiting the U.S. National Parks, rooting for the Philadelphia Phillies and Philadelphia Eagles, and spending time with her husband and dogs.
“The Feierabend approach to music education brings the heart of music-making to life in an organic and sensible way. Implementing the First Steps curriculum has returned the joy to my music classroom. I no longer bore my students with monotonous lectures in order to fill their heads with terms and facts. Now our lessons are filled with student-teacher engagement and consistent student participation. From the first day of Kindergarten music class, my students are singing, moving, and learning to keep a steady beat.”