You would think that after forty years of professional gigging, I wouldn't have seen this one coming. I was recently hired to play the electric bass in the pit orchestra for the musical, "Singing in the rain". They seated me with my back against the stage facing the director who was facing the stage to cue the actors. Afternoon rehearsals were great and I was actually enjoying the experience as the writing for this is very entertaining. Kudos to the talented cast and directing. So far so good, right? As soon as the curtain... Read more
Music Teachers 911 
Larry Marra
Just because an instrument has MADE IN CHINA stamped on it no longer automatically means that it is of poor quality. It turns out that the thing that matters, usually, is the age of the company and the attention they give to improving their products over time. New manufacturers and manufacturers with low budgets for research and development of their products in order to meet the lowest possible price points will almost certainly have problems. Recently though, some low cost manufacturers actually have figured out how to avoid that problem... Read more
Tales From The Podium 
Chad Criswell
For more than a decade now band directors have lamented the influx of ultra low-cost musical instrument brands being made overseas in China and in other countries. The complaints have, for the most part, centered around intonation problems, lack of durability, and difficulty in getting repairs done quickly. To have heard the complaints back in the late 1990’s one would have thought that absolutely nothing good in the way of musical instruments ever came out of China in those early years. Read more
Tales From The Podium Chad Criswell
If you are a public school band director you have to face the facts. No matter what you say, no matter how you say it, you will still wind up with inferior quality instruments being brought into your band rehearsals. We have complained and argued about the percieved poor quality of these instruments, coming from dozens of different manufacturers and being sold in stores along side the Barbie dolls and NERF guns. For nearly twenty years we have complained about instruments that break at the slightest bit of excess pressure... Read more
Tales From The Podium Chad Criswell
Like many of our more well known traditional American folk songs, She'll Be Coming Round The Mountain has it's roots in an African American spiritual. The original song, known as "When The Chariot Comes," is almost unknown in modern song books but the tune has remained the same across the many generations. In the early 1900's the song was adapted with new lyrics as a children's song and those lyrics are the same ones that are most often used today. Read more
Summer Camp Songs and Sheet Music Chad Criswell
Okay, I know the physics says that you can make a brass instrument out of pretty much any resonating tube, but the idea of playing on a piece of PVC pipe just bugs me.... Today I stopped into my local music retailer to pay off a bill and sitting behind the counter was a brilliantly colored yellow trombone. Walking around the side to get a better look I realized it wasn't just a fancy paint job, it really was made of PLASTIC! Images of little plastic toy trumpets still wrapped... Read more
Tales From The Podium Chad Criswell
For those of you in the market for putting together a new digital audio workstation (DAW) setup in your home or in a school music lab Avid has changed its lineup of the popular Mbox audio interfaces to include two models that now ship with a free copy of ProTools Express. The Mbox interface provides four channel recording, two XLR inputs with phantom power, two 1/4" inputs, and two balanced 1/4 inch outputs. It connects to your computer using a standard USB interface cable. Read more
Tales From The Podium Chad Criswell
The growth and popularity of SmartMusic as a music education tool shows that the program definitely has it's benefits. Until now though most people would assume that it was primarily…
I love seeing instrumental pieces like this go viral on YouTube. Take a look at the video below to see violinist Lindsey Sterling playing a dubstep piece called Crystallize she…
A few weeks ago I did a post on some Brits at Noise Solutions that are doing some interesting work using the Microsoft Kinect bar together with PC software to…
Directors, Here's a fun activity that gives everyone in your performance ensembles a new perspective. Whenever I use a university student teacher or observer, I have them conduct my various…
On Friday, February 17th during a live webcast the annual Georgia Tech Guthman Musical Instrument Competition will be available for all to watch. Each year this eclectic mix of new…
I want to thank the guys over at the Noise Solution blog for showing me some really cool new DIY tech that makes an excellent substitute for the Soundbeam musical…
Blue Microphones makes some of the most popular USB based podcasting and general recording microphones available on the market. They do a great job of marrying high end components with…
Thanks to a Twitter post from @SmartMusic I have found a neat little online rhythm generator that can easily be used to provide background accompaniments when having students practice scales…
One of the great things about being a writer for Teaching Music is that I get a chance to talk to some great teachers that normally I would never…
It’s been well over a year since I last did a real round up of the current crop of digital audio recorders and there have been a lot of changes.…
Use the scorio Music Notator to write melodies, lead sheet with chord symbols, songs with lyrics, polyphonic pieces and arrangements with an absolutely professional print layout. An integrated MIDI-Player gives you acoustic feedback.
One of a growing number of guitar apps that provide the user with a way to play a synthesized guitar without going to the trouble of learning HOW to really…
There are dozens of tuner apps on the iPad but few that are as configurable and versatile as Cleartune.
Scorio is an iPad app that works together with the Scorio online music notation site allowing you to create and edit sheet music using the iPad's touch screen interface.Creating sheet…
Musicopolous is an iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad app that is intended to help the user practice music theory skills, mostly related to building scales, intervals, and chords as well…
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A selection of chocolates, yesterday. (Courtesy Chocolate Reviews on Flickr)In this guest post, Bruce Munson, explains some of the advanced selection techniques you can employ in Sibelius. Bruce is a composer, arranger, copyist and Sibelius trainer, based in the San Francisco[…] 
The London Eye: it wouldn't stand up without support. (Courtesy Destinys Agent on Flickr)Mark H. Nichols recently had cause to contact Avid’s Sibelius support staff to help get his wife’s copy of Sibelius back up and running after a[…] 
I follow a number of tech blogs, and one of the most useful blogs in the recent past has been 9to5mac.com. This blog listed the Kanex ATV Pro (Apple TV to VGA adapter) before any other outlet, and this morning,[…] 
Over the past two years, I have endeavored to add more opportunities for students to create their own music, both in improvisation and in written composition. It is definitely a slow process, taking a long time to build into my[…] 
As any of you that know me know… I love the usefulness and efficiency of my iPhone…. I even develop ... 
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