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I was alerted to a number of broken links on my site via a really cool WordPress plugin called broken link checker, and I saw that a number of my SoundTree links were coming up broken.  So I went to their site and low-and-behold, a new look and some internal site moving (complete with changed URLs)!   I didn’t have time to go through the site thoroughly but it looks great!  

In particular, I like the fading graphics on the front page and the very simple, but effective navigation structure that is currently implemented.  Their Music Education zone has changed and quite possibly expanded, either way it is way more easy to naviagate and full of useful information. 

Here are a couple of quick links to SoundTree resources that you may find very useful:

Music Education Lesson Plans:
http://www.soundtree.com/music-education/lesson-plans

Music Technology/Ed. Articles:
http://www.soundtree.com/music-education/articles

James Frankel has done a great job with SoundTree and has moved them forward in all the right directions since his taking over the reins there.  If you are looking for a complete MIDI/Music Education/Music Lab solution for your school, you should make SoundTree your first stop.

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Here ye, Here ye, and LADIES AND GENTLEMEN… You only have about a day left to submit your entry for the 5th Edition of the Music Education Blog Carnival being hosted by Travis J. Weller at http://tjweller.wordpress.com (Composing Like Mad).

You can find out the latest information about the Blog Carnival Here:
http://mustech.net/muscarn

Make sure you submit TODAY so that you can be sure to be included!

The Music Education Blog Carnival was created and is maintained by Dr. Joseph Pisano of MusTech.net and Joel of SoYouWantToTeach.com in order to promote the great works being done by Music Education Bloggers across the Internet.

The Music Education Blog Carnival is published on the 1st of every month and is a recognized member of the communities of blogs as indexed by BlogCarnival.com.  All writings submitted to the Music Education Blog Carnival are examined to ensure that they are valid, interesting, and related to our discussion topic(s).

This past week we had both the Grove City College Wolverine Marching Band (almost 200) and The Grove City College “Disney” Jazz Ensemble (Big Band of 19) perform at Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL.   One thing that can be learned by the professional staff at Disney is that “Things go smoothly when advanced preparation and constant communications are implemented”.  

Almost two months in advance we sent the Jazz Ensembles’s play list to Disney.  They looked it over, sent us a stage plot and we had numerous conversations in the weeks in between with regard to setup, traveling, and overall integration.  Many band directors (especially band marching band and jazz directors) don’t take the time to needed to detail out the non-musical needs of their concerts and consequently find themselves in a “tizzy” the day of OR a day or two before the concert which leads to anxiety and quite likely… a lesser level of performance. 

I try as much as possible, to have lighting, sound, and performance lists available to everyone who may need it a least a week prior to the concerts we perform…sometimes even months.  Our Jazz concerts are so complicated, technically, that we have multiple meetings prior to the show to make sure that everyone is “on the same page”.  In years, past I’ve had to be the Technical Director, Stage Manager, and Music Director of the G.C.C. Jazz Ensembles, fortunately that has changed in the past few years, but the experiences have impressed on me the basic fact that those involved in the technical areas (or fringe areas) of a show need to have proper communication and data in order for the show to go off “without a hitch” or at least with only a few hitches…

This year was the first year that I was able to plan Jazz Ensemble, Stage Band, and “Disney” Jazz ensembles programs before the start of the year in their entirety and, WOW, has it made a difference in my ability to spend more time on the “right” literature in the rehearsals.   I’m not saying that I didn’t plan the programs out in years gone past, but this year I had the time to completely decide on all the show aspects (including the music) before the first day of school.  I haven’t had that luxury in the past due to my hectic schedules at the college and abroad.  This year was different and surely for the better. 

I had sent my stage plot to Disney about 7 weeks prior to the show and they were able to provide us with almost everything we needed to perform, including amps, keyboard, direct boxes, microphones, and music stands.  We literally showed up for the “gig”, jacked in, and GROOVED out!.   We had a great time at the Galaxy Palace Theater and so did those in attendance (Hey, I actually did see some of you there!  Thanks for coming and talking with me at the shows).

(more…)

C-MuSE is a Custom Music Education Search Engine utilizing the Google search indexes and is another beta “lab” project by myself.  Currently I’m indexing every Music Education Blogger Site in this highly customized Google search engine in an attempt to cut through the “junk” when indexing sites that contain information that I want to report vs. information that I don’t want or find confusing.  This custom search is another way to return a better percentage of focused results about a particular subject when they are returned to the user after inputting the search query.

I can easily see this turning into a self-hosted site and it may in the future.  I plan to add about 150 useful music education related sites to this index in the near future.  As a related music technology project, I am going to have my college music undergraduates begin to compile a list of very useful, related, and current music education sites as candidates for inclusion with this list in the future.

I’ve also toyed with Rollyo a number of years ago and posted my thoughts about it on MusTech.net and you may find that articles in the archives if you’re interested…it’s another great custom search platform.

Give C-MuSE a try today:  http://mustech.net/cmuse or click the page link above.