It is a strange and trying time for all of us in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. We certainly understand times are tough for you, as it is for us. We have been proud to bring School Band & Orchestra for free for more than two decades and we will continue to provide you with free subscriptions during the pandemic. However, we would like your consideration in these difficult times to help support our efforts here at School Band & Orchestra to keep our information flowing and to provide you with a continuous stream of current and vital information when you need it the most.
It is with the utmost sincerity we ask you to consider supporting our efforts here with a small donation which will allow our staff the ability to keep these interesting stories about your chosen career coming to you in a consistent and timely basis. Your consideration is greatly appreciated. We at School Band & Orchestra wish nothing but the best for you, your school, your family and co-workers. We hope you continue to remain healthy during this most strenuous of times.
This month’s issue touches on several things that I hope will be helpful to our readers navigating the madness of reopening school music classes this year. First, I asked our associate editor Victoria Wasylak to interview an old friend of mine, Dr. Jim Frankel, who has been a pioneer in integrating technology into music instruction for well over two decades now.
Since 1996, my jobs have involved giving a voice to teachers, experts, and people who know far more about a subject than I do. Though I only wrote a couple, I published over 200 books and videos on music, audio production, music business, and technology. I seek out smart people and give them a vehicle.
Well, remember when they were saying the summer heat would just about wipe this COVID-19 thing out because viruses don’t like heat? I guess none of the viruses in Florida and Texas got the message - or any of the other seasonally oppressively hot states, which is most of them. It’s a scorcher in Tennessee as I type, and we too are experiencing a surge in cases.
Now that I have your attention — I am appalled. Indeed, a tad ticked, frankly. Over the past five years or so that I have been editor of SBO, I have seen amazing music programs that inspire, from the smallest to the largest level of service to students in districts rich and poor.
Out for summer
Out till fall
We might not come back at all
School’s out forever
School’s out for summer
School’s out with fever
School’s out completely
When Alice Cooper sang the words that every school kid in the 1970’s rejoiced in as their own personal triumphant end-of-spring anthem, they had no way of knowing just how the lyrics would apply some 48 years later. Yet, here we are. All across the world, and certainly all across the U.S.A., school is out with fever. Completely.
Read More...I can’t believe my luck, last month talking about the Type A Flu I got coming home from TMEA (in my Choral Director editorial) and segueing into the need to make your program infectious, um, so to speak. Who saw this coming this severely and happening here?
Read More...I have a quick couple of weeks in-between the TMEA show in San Antonio and the upcoming American Bandmasters Association meetings, which I had the misfortune of spending fending off Type A influenza, even though I had my vaccine.
The year 2020 marks a special anniversary for a couple of organizations near and dear to me – namely, Technology in Music Education (TI:ME), which was organized 25 years ago this summer, and the Texas Music Educators Association, which celebrates its centennial.
This issue marks the beginning of my sixth year as editor of SBO, the end of my fifth, and a small but significant milestone for me.
We are now officially entering the second decade of the twenty-first century. That is a little mind-blowing, but it is the decade, which toward its end, will find me turning 60.
I can basically recycle this November editorial every year now, with a few modifications. The message is the same. So, allow me a little self-plagiarizing, if you will.
For over two decades now, SBO has honored an instrumental music educator, one from every state. The tradition continues, but you can imagine the process is involved, and chasing down a nominated band director times 50 is daunting.