If You Buy Cheap Reeds You May Get What You Pay For
Students playing clarinet for the first time go through a lot of reeds. As a result many parents want to know where to buy cheap clarinet reeds. Unfortunately there are many places that people can buy clarinet reeds more cheaply than in the local store and often these cheap reeds wind up being just that... Cheap!
Using a joystick, this student is able to play a euphonium without the use of his fingers. Photo credit:Edutopia.org
Finding ways to help students with disabilities find a meaningful, proud place in a school band has always been one of the most rewarding challenges that a band director might face. Find out how technology allows a student with almost no arm or hand control play euphonium in his high school band program.
MENC has released some new documents and resources to help music educators be better advocates for their programs. The first is a well written PDF titledMusic For All Students: Planning Music Education Advocacy . The second is a fact sheet with many links and additional information to use to defend or support your music programs.
Could Games Like Guitar Hero Be The End of Music Education As We Know It?
When I saw this Guitar Hero headline in one of my many music and tech related RSS feeds I thought it required a closer inspection. It turns out the article is a brief, tounge in cheek, assessment of the very popular Guitar Hero video game for the Xbox and PS2. But even so, maybe we need to think a little bit about where music education is headed. In many physical education classes all across the country (and even in my own school district) students are getting their exercise by working out to Dance Dance Revolution. The monetary investment was fairly great (paid for through grants) but apparently the response has been very good. Could this be where we are going as music educators? I don't see a day where acoustic instruments disappear from our lives, but I do see a day where MIDI based instruments take over in our general music classrooms. All it will take is for someone to come up with a real game that blends real music composition and performance with the fun of Guitar Hero and the same trend that has started in physical education could take root in music education as well.
Winner of the Unofficial MusicEdMagic Cool Music Gadget of the Day Award:
What do you get when you find a guy with way too much time on his hands, an innate propensity for hitting things (A.K.A. a typical drummer), and a little techno-knowledge? You get a gadget that is strange yet cool, and if it ever went to market I could see it being pretty popular.
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.jpg "Classroom with Teacher")
MENC has released some new documents and resources to help music educators be better advocates for their programs. The first is a well written PDF titled
. The monetary investment was fairly great (paid for through grants) but apparently the response has been very good. Could this be where we are going as music educators? I don't see a day where acoustic instruments disappear from our lives, but I do see a day where MIDI based instruments take over in our general music classrooms. All it will take is for someone to come up with a real game that blends real music composition and performance with the fun of 
and the same trend that has started in physical education could take root in music education as well.
Winner of the Unofficial MusicEdMagic Cool Music Gadget of the Day Award: