Blogs

The blogs listed on this page are those of many respected music educators that have chosen to post their ideas here at MusicEdMagic for the good of the community. To receive weekly updates of their new posts please sign up for our newsletter via the signup form on the home page of the site.

If you are a music education specialist that would like to be a part of this growing community of professional music education bloggers please contact the webmaster for more information.

eric Loy, guitoonist

While hosting the local GUITARFEST event in our area, I was chatting backstage with Eric Loy, one of the performers,. It turns out that he is also a talented cartoonist. (I prefer guitoonist). After successfully attaining his permission to post these, I hope that you enjoy some of his latest creations....

Tis Almost The Season For Free Christmas Sheet Music

Christmas Gift Box I thought I would point out to all of you band directors and music teachers out there that I have tons of free Christmas and holiday oriented sheet music (as well as hundreds of other free songs) available for download in the free sheet music area of MusicEdMagic. All of the music is arranged as melody only and is intended to be used as material for first or second year instrumentalists to practice with. There are no harmony parts but they make a great handout for kids who want to go home and play some Christmas Carols for their parents. Most of the files are also released with the Sibelius documents so that you can make your own arrangements if needed.

Take a closer look at the Free Sheet Music Directory here at MusicEdMagic and get started today!

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Tales From The Podium

Chad Criswell

New Web App Makes Practicing Your Instrument A Game

When I first heard about a new web app called CommunityBand my first thought was that someone had tried to clone SmartMusic in some way and put it on the web. I had seen other products try and fail to do what SM does (remember StarPlay?) What I discovered was not a SM clone at all, but an honestly fun game where you play your instrument or sing with your voice to play along with one of several different popular songs. The thing is, it isn’t like a practice system. CommunityBand is not trying to teach you how to play the instrument or tell you what you did right or wrong (although you do get visual feedback while you play). Instead it uses a very interesting scoring system together with onscreen glitter that explodes when you finish a long streak of correct notes ala Guitar Hero.

Marvel At These Marching Mace Masters

Marching Band Brass I thought it might be cool to find a video this week that focused on marching band technique and instruction, but in the process I happened across this video of Jason Paguio, a world champion drum major and bona fide expert at the use of the mace in marching bands. The way he throws and twirls the mace is very impressive and totally fluid. It doesn't even look like his is trying hard yet I know if I did anything similar I would spear myself with the thing. I also found another video of a former U of Iowa grad assistant doing a similar show together with some of the Iowa marching band members. I know the use of the mace seems to be a dying art in marching bands these days but it is still fun to watch these guys perform even if you think that the mace is outdated for modern marching band routines.

Read on to see the videos!

The Value of Music Education -Video

There is never a bad time to think about music advocacy, especially in today's financial and political climate here in the United States. Today's featured music education video comes from Australia and a presentation at TEDxSydney by Richard Gill:

Music educator Richard Gill argues the case for igniting the imagination through music and for making our own music. In this talk, he leads the TEDxSydney audience through some surprising illustrations of the relationship between music and our imagination.