Articles

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Techno Bling On The Marching Drum Corps Scene

Details: Category: Tales From The Podium; Written by Chad Criswell

Kudos to my wife for finding this video, apparently passed on to her by another music teacher friend, who found it from another friend, etc. etc. In any case the video is quite impressive. At first I was like, oh, thanks honey, an indoor marching band video (like I haven't seen a lot of those in my time..) plus the hats and knee length pants made me think it was just an old drum corps video from ten or fifteen years ago. Then I actually watched it and about halfway through it hooked me. Nothing like a little LED sound activated bling on Pearl marching snares to make me take a second look.

In case you are wondering it is a Scottish drum corps called Top Secret.

Easy Clarinet Sheet Music For Free

Details: Category: Tales From The Podium; Written by Chad Criswell

If you are looking for some easy to play, beginner level clarinet sheet music for free the list below might have just what you need. All of the over 80 free sheet music files on MusicEdMagic are written in keys that are easy for almost any clarinetist to play as long as they have had at least a few months of dedicated instruction on the instrument. The clarinet sheet music found on MusicEdMagic is listed in several categories from Christmas and sacred, to folk music, patriotic music, and more. Use the listing below to find what you need and if something is missing be sure to send us a message and we may be able to arrange it for use in the future.

Weezic Augmented Sheet Music App Review

Details: Category: Tales From The Podium; Written by Chad Criswell

SmartMusic has yet another competitor in the intelligent assessment space with the introduction of the Weezic Augmented Sheet Music app for iPad. The app listens to you as you play and marks the notes correct or incorrect, all while keeping a running total of your score at the bottom of the page. It's a free app, but this very early release has a very limited number of songs available, and not all the instruments in a traditional wind ensemble (the poor trombones never get any love). Is Weezic worth the bits it takes to download? Read on to find out.

Music Advocacy- First Tell No Lies

Details: Category: Tales From The Podium; Written by Chad Criswell

Music education programs across the country are coming under fire during tough economic times. In every corner of every state booster organizations and music education advocates are tuning up to try to save their local band, choir, orchestra, and general music programs. In order to provide a powerful, positive defence of why music should be in the schools we have to have powerful, valid arguments for why it is important. The problem is that some of the commonly held assumptions about music education are no longer valid.

When going before a school board and pleading a case for your local music program you have to have solid, verifiable facts, preferably with numbers showing your data is relevant the local issue. This article focuses on one of the more popular myths and assumptions about music education that may actually weaken an argument rather than strengthen it.

Free and Low Cost Streaming Audio Services

Details: Category: Tales From The Podium; Written by Chad Criswell

The cost of buying music either for personal or professional classroom use can really add up over time. Spending ninety-nine cents here and fourteen dollars there can force us to budget money away from other, more substantial classroom purchases. There is good news though, because we now live in a world where you may never need to spend another dime buying physical or digital music. The growing prominence of streaming audio services that are popping up all over the web means that you may never again need to purchase or burn a CD. Want to save more money to put back into your music education budget? Read on to find out how.

Noteflight For iPad Makes Its World Premiere

Details: Category: Tales From The Podium; Written by Chad Criswell

Today Noteflight released to the public their new updated version of their popular online music notation program. The big news? Those on tablets such as the iPad can finally use Noteflight and all of its capabilities without resorting to end-around methods like using special browser apps. So after all of the hype about Noteflight 3.0 on the iPad was it worth the wait?

ThinkMusic iPad Music Notation App Is A Game Changer

Details: Category: Tales From The Podium; Written by Chad Criswell

Music Score A few weeks ago a mysterious YouTube video surfaced showing a rather interesting iPad music notation app. The thing that made it so intriguing was the ways the video showed people entering music into the app. It showed instant transcription of hand drawn notes to rendered musical notation. It also showed real time MIDI transcription using an external MIDI keyboard. There was quite a buzz surrounding it but not many details. Read on to watch the video and to find out about this incredible development in iPad based music notation and how it could one day be in your hands.

Rhythm Lab For iPad Review

Details: Category: Tales From The Podium; Written by Chad Criswell

RhythmLab Info Screen A few weeks ago I did a review of a rhythm training app for iPad called MyRhythm. It was a decent drill and practice app that only had a few shortcomings, most notable the absence of real music notation. Now enter a newly released app by a different developer named Rhythm Lab that fixes the notation issue and provides a much more music education oriented experience. If you want a nice app based way to help drill your students on basic and advanced rhythms take a closer look and read on.

Release Date Given For Noteflight on the iPad

Details: Category: Tales From The Podium; Written by Chad Criswell

Noteflight for the iPad is finally here! Almost... The anxiously awaited release of Noteflight for iPad, Android, and other mobile devices is scheduled for January 24th. The Noteflight team has been steadily working on converting their online music notation program into HTML5 format so that it can be used on pretty much any device that can connect to the Internet and display web pages. Want to know more about the upcoming release? Read on to find out!

A New Kind of Music Video Search Tool

Details: Category: Tales From The Podium; Written by Chad Criswell

Movie Clapboard Here's another great listening (and watching) resource for music teachers. For those that are trying to find new ways to add critical listening experiences to our classrooms there are a number of great sites to go to to listen to free music. Spotify, Grooveshark, and many others are the biggies, but those that want a video option as well may want to check out a new site that marries easy searching for tracks with YouTube videos of the performances! Read on to find out more.

Noteflight Teams With Norton to Provide Music Theory Exercises

Details: Category: Tales From The Podium; Written by Chad Criswell

Noteflight is a popular online music notation application that provides both a free version as well as an enhanced subscription product. Their Crescendo version of Noteflight is popular with schools as it opens up a lot of additional capabilities including the feature of allowing the teacher to post and accept assignments from their students. Now it appears that Noteflight has begun to reach out to publishers, specifcally the publisher of the popular Musician's Guide To Theory and Analysis, and created an online compliment to the text intended to tutor students though the process of learning music theory.