Pretty much sums up the state of Education…..
Month: March 2011
Sheet Of The Week (Bonus) – What The Hell (Avril Lavigne)
Catchy little tune.
What The Hell - Bb Instruments (91.5 KiB, 127 hits)
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What The Hell - Eb Instruments (93.2 KiB, 132 hits)
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Sheet Of The Week – Don’t Stop Believing (Journey)
Great song. Classic.
Don't Stop Believing - Eb Instruments (105.4 KiB, 445 hits)
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Don't Stop Believing - Bb Instruments (110.5 KiB, 231 hits)
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The Problem With Band Teachers
I have to vent this out. There are a couple of band teachers in my area who I think need to be fired or at the very least severely reprimanded. These teachers have tenure in California, which makes it pretty much impossible to get rid of them. One of the teachers openly flaunts that they are tenured and pretty much has a carte blanche to do whatever he wants.
These teachers openly swear in class, and basically verbally assault kids. One of the teachers last week had a meltdown (again) in class and called the class “F***ing Idiots”. A friend of mine has a private school teaching job, and if he did ANYTHING like that he would be terminated immediately.
My concern is, besides the total lack of professionalism, what good does this do? In this age of instant gratification, where we think American Idol constitutes real singing, where we have iPad applications like Garageband which makes anyone pretty feel they are a musician, we should be ENCOURAGING students to play and enjoy music. Not having the students DROP music because of fear of Mr. X having a meltdown or because they intimidated them to play. This certainly was NOT the environment I was exposed to when I was in school, and if it was I seriously doubt I would have stopped playing in High School.
Comments? I think a lot of the problem is that these guys, and teachers in general, are tenured and they pretty much cannot be touched. Given the state of California’s budget and such, I kind of wish the district didn’t have funds to pay these guys.
Sheet(s) Of The Week – Hey Soul Sister/Drops Of Jupiter (Train)
It’s Train week. Somehow, these songs never get old.
Drops Of Jupiter - Eb Instruments (110.5 KiB, 175 hits)
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Drops Of Jupiter - Bb Instruments (110.3 KiB, 110 hits)
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Hey Soul Sister - Eb Instruments (97.9 KiB, 281 hits)
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Hey Soul Sister - Bb Instruments (102.5 KiB, 190 hits)
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Yamaha’s Pricing…..WTF?
So, the other day I got the latest woodwind and brasswind catalogue the other day. Other than the prices on everything going through the roof, Yamaha seems to have some strange pricing happening. A YAS-475 (intermediate alto) and a YAS-23 (student alto) are separated by about $110. The same holds true for the YTS-23 (student tenor) and a YTS-475 (intermediate tenor).
The question is why? What is the point in having them so close in price? I’ve played on these instruments too, and they both play the same……and it’s not anything to write home about.
Sheet Of The Week (Bonus) – Grenade (Bruno Mars)
Grenade by Bruno Mars. There will be more…..Lots more…..
Grenade - Bruno Mars - Bb (104.0 KiB, 309 hits)
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Grenade - Bruno Mars - Eb (99.1 KiB, 393 hits)
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Sheet Of The Week – Firework (Katy Perry)
I’m going to start a new thing here to maybe generate some more hits (and potentially money for sustaining the site). The “Sheet Of The Week”.
This will most likely be some sort of pop song “saxophonized”. It will be good. We will start off with something by Katy Perry…..Firework. To download the sheets, you simply need to be a registered user (free) and logged in. Enjoy!
Firework - Bb Instruments (78.2 KiB, 273 hits)
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Firework - Eb Instruments (72.0 KiB, 409 hits)
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Thing 1
Have a computer? Have something like Garageband or a Synth sound you really like? Have a microphone? Then you might want to check this out.
Thing-1TM – MIDI Performance System
Thing-1 is a software MIDI wind controller for woodwind players offering a new range of musical expression to anyone who can play the saxophone, flute, clarinet, or recorder.”
Basically, it is a real time Pitch (monophonic) to Midi program. Yes, there are other ones out there like Pyrolators Max for the Max/Msp sytem, or WIDI Audio to Midi AU, or even Blue Cat’s Digital Peak Meter Pro that do similar things as this program. There are probably other things as well. This is not an area that I know much of, but it is interesting stuff. I’ll have to look into stuff like this. Looks fun.