As string musicians, before we practice or perform music, we tune our instruments. However, teaching students how to tune by ear can be difficult and time-consuming. The purpose of this session is to provide a sequential pedagogy derived from research and best practices that will help teachers teach their students how to tune by ear. This includes teaching beginning students how to perceive and adjust unison pitches to teaching advanced students how to tune perfect intervals with double stops.
John Rine Zabanal
- Biographical Information
John Rine Zabanal is an educator, conductor, clinician, and researcher in music education. He is currently an instructional systems specialist in K–12 music at the Department of Defense Education Activity, where he supports music programs at schools on U.S. military bases worldwide. He is also a violinist with the Fredericksburg Symphony Orchestra and a conductor for the Florida State University Summer Music Camps. His previous positions include assistant professor and director of string music education at VanderCook College of Music, and orchestra teacher at Spotsylvania County Public Schools. He has been invited to clinic and adjudicate festivals, most notably the American String Teacher Association National Orchestra Festival, and conduct honor orchestras in Japan and across the United States.
As an active pedagogue and researcher, Dr. Zabanal has presented at national conferences for ASTA, the National Association for Music Education, the International Research Symposium for Talent Education with the Suzuki Association of the Americas, and several state music education conferences. He published articles in American String Teacher, String Research Journal, and Update: Applications for Music Research, and has served on the editorial board for those journals. He was a recipient of the 2024 ASTA Early Career String Researcher Award for his contributions to research and teaching in string education.
Dr. Zabanal holds music education degrees from The Ohio State University (BME) and Florida State University (MME, Ph.D.).
Christopher Lape is in his 14th year of teaching and 10th year as an orchestra director at Upper Arlington Schools. Prior to teaching in Upper Arlington, Mr. Lape was the Orchestra Director at Dublin Sells Middle School and the Director of Orchestras for the Newark City School District. His commitment to excellence in education has earned him significant honors, including being named a Yamaha “40 Under 40” Music Educator (2024), the Ohio String Teacher of the Year (2020), and a recipient of the UA Civic Association’s Golden Apple Award (2022). Ensembles under his direction have been invited to perform at the OMEA Professional Development Conference, the ASTA National Orchestra Festival, and across the United States and Europe. Mr. Lape is an active adjudicator, clinician, and guest artist. He has presented at the professional conferences of the American String Teachers Association and the Ohio Music Education Association. Mr. Lape is a clinician and administrator for the Ohio State String Teacher Workshop. He currently serves on the board of the Ohio String Teachers Association, past chair of the OMEA South Central Region, and vice chair of the American String Teachers Association National Conference. Mr. Lape performs regularly around Central Ohio with his string quartet and is principal violist of the Newark-Granville Symphony. He holds dual undergraduate degrees in Violin Performance and Music Education from The Ohio State University and a master’s degree in Viola Performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.