The Importance of Using a Tuner: Finding Your Perfect Pitch
Music is a beautiful language, but like any language, it relies on clear communication. Just like people speaking the same language can do so with different accents to their voice so too can musicians play the same note but with slight changes in the way it sounds. The pitch may be a bit high or a bit low, and over the centuries musicians have come up with ways to analyze these differences so that multiple musicians can better "play in tune." Just as proper grammar and pronunciation are essential for understanding spoken words, playing in tune is paramount for creating harmonious music. This is where the tuner comes in. For the beginner (or even the more advanced musician) it can be a vital tool for developing accuracy of pitch.
Scroll down to view the comparison chart of over a dozen different portable digital audio recorders.
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There are many different ways today to publish music notation on the Internet. Using services like Noteflight or uploading Sibelius Scorch files are two of the options that thousands of people use on a regular basis. Now however, a new addition to the HTML standard (the language that allows web pages to be displayed on the screen) allows for actual music notation, and a few individuals have come up with ways to fairly easily incorporate any MusicXML file into a web page with just a few lines of code.
I subscribe to a lot of news feeds and newsletters trying to find new and interesting stuff to use and pass on to others in the music education community. Well, this time I have to give props out to a source outside the norm of our little genre. Today's Kim Komando Cool Site of the Day was a web site called Thetamusic that has some very interesting ear training games that I have to admit are pretty awesome as well..jpg)
Suppose there was a way to have your iTunes library look and work the same both on your home computer and your school computer at all times. When you made a change on one computer the change was automagically made on the other machine(s) as well. Now also suppose that you could also have the ability to sync your iPhone or iPod to both your school computer and your home computer without any problems. It turns out that you can, and depending on how big your music collection is it might actually be free!
So much fun this morning! I had a trumpet student that got a tube of slide grease stuck in their bell so hard that I could not get it out by any normal means. So I went down to the custodian and asked to use the slop sink and a hose to blow it out with water. It was then that I saw her air compressor with the air gun on it...
Here is an interesting document to share with any potential music majors that you may be teaching. Berklee has just released a really interesting PDF titled "
For those of us that are fans of the WiiMote Whiteboard (a DIY
For several years now I have been a big fan of Ricci Adam's web site, 
This month I was tasked with writing a column for MENC Teaching Music Magazine on the topic of how to incorporate electronic instruments into the marching band. Some ensembles like the Western Carolina University Marching Band have also been doing incredible things with electronics for the decade (go read the article in the Oct. 2010 issue to get all the cool details). But it seems like Drum Corps International really began to bring the idea to mainstream marching when it first began to allow amplification back in 2004. Today electronic instruments and amplification are the norm at DCI performances, and if you saw any of this years top twelve then you know that some of them had really been pulling out all the electronic stops. 
I’ve often said that when it comes to interactive whiteboards it is the software, not the board, that should drive your purchase. In this arena the Smartboard wins hands down with its Smart Notebook 10 software package. The program not only controls the board but also provides an awesome suite of presentation tools to create and edit lessons and activities for use in the classroom. Smart recently released a statement clarifying an important part of their licensing agreement for this software, one that may have serious implications for some school districts.
