Percussion

Field Show Design

In the high profile work of the marching band, it’s nice to know there are time-saving options to relieve your stress and stretch your creative energy. First of all, you can purchase good “stock” marching band shows from Warner Bros., Arranger’s Publishing Corporation and MSConcepts, among other reliable companies that offer modifiable software with coordinate music routing. You could also hire a show designer to create an original show for your band with original arrangements which also have modifiable software at a premium fee. The third option is to write your own show from scratch and perhaps hire a show designer to add some sparkle.

There has never been a better time than now to create with show designing software. The speed of Pentium IV computers is necessary for writing sophisticated halftime shows with ease. Color printouts with graphic instrument IDs for individual students (instead of dots) are attractive and easy to read. Coordinate printouts provide text instructions for individual marching routing, saving more time and paper than before, especially when you start teaching the show to your students. You’ll no longer need to hire the show designer to also teach the show.

REPORT: WEB SITES FOR MUSIC EDUCATORS

UPCLOSE: RISING TO THE TOP

Orchestra Applications

The World of String Technology

Of all the areas of music education today, string education is perhaps the underachiever when it comes to new, exciting technology innovations. Most string teachers don’t go much beyond the electric tuner when they consider technology. Fortunately, the music scene today is less constricted and open to change and expansion. Contemporary popular music has helped enrich repertory and performance practices with improvisation, sound synthesis, MIDI performance techniques and much more. Home and school recording studios are springing up. Burning CDs and DVDs is now economical, and computers continue to be productive in promoting technology applications for string educators. And then there is the Internet.

In this article, we’ll explore the use of string technology in several instructional venues. Technology instructional materials have become more valuable as more band directors are also teaching strings as part of their assignment. String technology advances are influencing students and teachers alike with more authentic references to sound production, bowing techniques, maintenance, care and more.

INSTRUCTIONAL SOFTWARE

Another New Beginning for Barnstable

Percussion Technology, Part II

In the November issue of School Band and Orchestra, we reviewed tutorial software, MIDI percussion, notation software, instructional videos and technology resources for percussion. In Part Two of Percussion Technology, will cover drum machines, drum machine software, drum software tracks, sequencing software, and hardware.

DRUM MACHINES
The first drum machine was the Chamberlin Rhythmate (1949). Korg released the first all-electronic rhythm machine in 1966, called the MiniPopos. One of the founders and a partner started Acetone in the 1960s. Roland was founded in 1972 and developed its first drum machine, the TR-77. The first programmable drum machine was the Roland Acetone FR-15 in 1975.

Today, a good starter drum machine is the Boss DR-670 drum machine. This includes 255 sounds and 16 bass sounds for programming drum rhythms and bass patterns, responsive velocity- and after touch- sensitive pads, powerful capabilities for editing sounds, including decay and pitch shift, and slap bass and synth bass sounds to finish a piece. Other Roland drum machines, such as the DR-770, have a built-in effects processor with equalization (EQ) and ambience control ready to record finished and fully produced drum tracks.

Percussion Technology- Part One

Of all the music technology available to music educators, percussion technology is probably the least understood. And in some cases, the least available. In this article, you will find a variety of percussive technology materials and creative applications.

As in other areas of music technology, there has been an upsurge of development in the percussion arts. You will certainly benefit when you discover the variety of hardware/software/videos/books, etc., available for marching, concert and jazz applications, plus percussion instruction. Besides the new hardware and software, there are some excellent percussion books with audio CDs as well as instructional videos for motivating, developing and teaching percussionists.

In Percussion Technology: Part One, we will focus on tutorial software, MIDI percussion, notation software, instructional videos and technology resources for percussion. In December, Part Two of Percussion Technology will cover drum machines, drum machine software, drum software tracks, sequencing software, and hardware.