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- Written by Chad Criswell
Despite the best intentions of many band directors the practice of sharing mouthpieces on school owned brass or woodwind instruments continues in many schools. As we move forward into yet another flu season it is wise to take a moment to consider the health based consequences of sharing mouthpieces between students and what we can all do to stop the spread of illness throughout our ensembles.
Various studies over the last fifty years have shown that an instrument’s mouthpiece can harbor germs on it for 48 hours or more while the instrument is in it’s case. This in turn can lead not only to cross contamination by passing germs on to the next user of the instrument but also potentially reinfecting the original student, sometimes days after the initial illness. This was the case with
Read more: Sanitizing Mouthpieces- Cleaning and Disinfecting Instruments
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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!
Read more: Buying Cheap Clarinet Reeds: Let The Buyer Beware
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Over the last few years the FCC has began to reshuffle the way it hands out licenses for the wireless radio spectrum. The most notable of these has been the transition to digital television from the old style analog TV, but now this transition may bite your music program in a way you had not expected. Certain wireless microphone systems will now be illegal to use under the new rules. Will the airwave police come battering down your office door the next time you use your school or church's wireless microphone system?
Read more: FCC Rule Makes Hundreds of Wireless Microphone Systems Illegal To Use
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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 meet or probably even hear of. This month in preparation for a piece coming out in the April issue I got to meet Steve Park, an Adjunct Horn Professor at Utah State University. The topic was on trumpet stuff (you'll just have to read the piece in the magazine if you are curious) but along the way he gave me some great tips for helping a few of my floundering trumpet and horn students. Sometimes it just takes a different point of view to help you see a new way to teach something and teaching it in that new way can make all the difference.
Read more: Teachers You Should Meet- Steve Park- French Horn
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- Written by Chad Criswell
I've never really got the hang of it, but for those of you who are open, raving fans of Minecraft (an indie multiplayer crafting game) have you ever stopped to simply listen to the musical soundtrack that accompanies the game? The music in Minecraft is far more modern than the game's trademark eight bit graphic style, and even non-players can appreciate and relax to it as the music is intended to accompany the game rather than overpower it. If you don't fancy having to search through countless dungeons to find the individual Minecraft music discs for each song, or if you simply enjoy slow paced ambient electronic music read on and find out what the buzz is all about.
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When I received my copy of Finale 2009 last week I was anxious to get started on doing an in depth review of it. Now that I have had few days to kick it around I am confident I can give you preliminary review of the newest music notation software product from MakeMusic. One that is not without its ups and downs.
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Everywhere we look young 5th and 6th graders all across the USA are begging and pleading with their parents to let them play a musical instrument in their school band. A band director wants their students to be successful, and one of the most important things that contributes to that success is the condition and quality of the musical instrument that they are buying. This article provides a kind of buyers guide for teachers to share with their students and for parents to use to help them find the best deal but without sacrificing their common sense in the process. Read though this listing of useful articles to help you make the best decision. Each section leads to a related article on that specific topic. Feel free to use these articles in your classroom.
Read more: Renting vs Buying Musical Instruments For Students
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- Written by Chad Criswell
As anyone who reads my blog knows I am an avid fan of the StaffWars note ID training software products made by TMI MEdia LLC. I’ve used their PC/Mac versions for years, and was happy when a few years ago they came out with an iOS version of Staff Wars. I was always hoping that they would also come out with a new version of StaffWars 2 which added the ability to have the student actually play the note on their instrument rather than just touching the answer on the screen. Now they have released StaffWars Live which brings this live performance oriented feature onto the iPad and iPhone. Mostly... Why do I say mostly? Read the rest of this review of StaffWars Live to find out.
StaffWars Live Game Features
In StaffWars Live a whole note floats across a staff from right to left, heading for the clef sign at the other end. If it hits the clef sign before the student plays the correct note on their instrument then the player loses a life. If they play the right note however the note explodes in a fireball and they are presented with another one. The speed of the movement of the note increases as the player gets farther and farther into the game to the point that eventually it becomes quite challenging, especially for beginners.
Before starting the game the user selects a key signature, an instrument, and a range of notes anywhere up to two ledger lines above or below the staff. The range is set by two sliders, and can be customized to work with almost any instrument. The scale can be set to include major scale notes, major blues, minor blues, or chromatic. This is a nice improvement from the old PC version, but the range still bugs me in that by stopping at two ledger lines for instruments like the tuba means that we can’t get down to the low A or the clarinet can’t get to the low E which are necessities for all new players to learn.
It includes the ability for people to select treble, alto, or bass clef, opening up practice opportunities for almost every common instrument plus several more. In the settings there are even selections for vibraphone, xylo, recorder, bassoon, english horn, and piccolo, as well as all of the primary beginning concert band and orchestra instruments that you would expect.
Game Play Review of StaffWars Live
I tested the app with all of the instruments in my band, having students compete against each other to see who could get the farthest. It works great for that, but my students who had also played the PC version were kind of let down (as I was) that they did not seem to import any sound effects of any kind into the app. Even the explosions are silent which is kind of a let down and no cool sound track like in the other StaffWars app. After speaking with the developer about this he said that they did plan to add the sounds back in in the future, but due to performance conflicts with the pitch detection part of the program they had to leave them out for now in favor of getting the app released.
In terms of note accuracy and utility though StaffWars Live does really well, 95% of the time. I say that because at the beginning of the year my clarinet players and a few brass players always have troubles getting notes to pop because they don’t have their embouchure developed enough to bring the pitch up to where it needs to be. On the PC version I can tweak that a bit by adjusting the tuning in the software, allowing even horribly flat clarinets to still feel like they are accomplishing something. In the iOS version though you can’t tweak it, and if they can’t get the note up to pitch they are going to lose regardless of whether they are playing the right fingering or not.
StaffWars Live also includes a high score board where you can see what your previous bests are. It's great for an individual to keep track of their personal performance but isn’t incredibly useful from a teacher perspective unless the same student is the only one that uses the device each time. It would be nice (and a nice upgrade for a future version, hint hint!) if they added in the ability to put in a student’s name and then export the list as a CSV via email.
As it is now, for 99 cents StaffWars is a great deal and very useful for any new student to help them learn their fingerings. It’s cheap enough that a music teacher can suggest to all of their students that they add it to their phone or iPad to use at home. At this time there is no Android version but since they have already ported the original StaffWars app to Android I have to assume they will eventually do the same for Live. If the makers continue to develop the app and add in planned improvements like the sound effects, intonation controls, and a better score keeping system then it will soon be my go-to app at the beginning of the school year with my new students.
StaffWars Live is now available in version 1.0 for 99 cents on the App Store. The next version (1.0.1) is planned to be released in the next few weeks and the developer hopes to be able to include some of the features that were mentioned above. In other words, there is no good reason not to give StaffWars Live a try right now.
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- Written by Chad Criswell
The length of the average concert band rehearsal can vary greatly from school to school. While some schools may be blessed with ninety minutes of rehearsal each day, many others must make due with as little as an hour a week (or less). When your ensemble is on the short end of that range it is very important that you make good use of each and every minute of your rehearsal. We spoke with Randall Coleman, Associate Director of Bands at the University of Alabama to get his advice on how to structure and manage rehearsal time to make it more productive for the entire ensemble.
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I have been on a quest for the past several years. The quest has been to find something that would make my life as a travelling band director easier and more efficient. Carrying three arm loads full of instruments, music, and supplies between three different buildings each week is a hassle, and I have been on the lookout for something that would help me simplify things a bit. Ordinary gig bags are good, but I am looking for something exceptional. I may have found it...
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- Written by Chad Criswell
I teach 5th grade band and at this level there is really no reason to invest in a set of Chimes or a Vibraphone. Still, on rare occasions I program music into the concerts that might require such instruments, and rather than leaving them out or having the kids play them on their bell set I have long wished for a good, low cost alternative. I may have found one in the PercussionSS iPad app.
Read more: iPad Alternatives to Expensive Percussion Instruments